1 Kings 20.
ALTHOUGH Ahab was a wicked man, and had an even more wicked wife, God viewed His people in grace, and would not allow the Syrian attacks of which this chapter treats, to succeed against Israel. He sent a prophet to Ahab to tell him upon the first invasion (verse 13) that He would deliver the great army of the Syrians into his hands, and he, Ahab, should know that it was God’s doing. A victory entirely of God took place when seven thousand Israelites defeated a great host, the Syrian king barely escaping capture. This should have spoken powerfully to Ahab, but it seems to have not moved him at all.
The prophet had told Ahab that the Syrians would return, and they came back again with an army the equal of the former one, and again a man of God brought Ahab an encouraging word as to the conflict to take place. One hundred thousand Syrians died in the great battle, and twenty-seven thousand more were killed by the falling of the city wall at Aphek. Such was God’s regard for His chosen people. The Syrian king now was brought to Ahab, and promised to restore what his father had taken from Israel. Ahab then made an agreement with him, and let him go back to his country. This invited the judgment of God on Ahab, for the Syrian king was appointed by Him to utter destruction, and Ahab was responsible as the ruler of God’s people.
We must, every one of us, give account to God; how solemn the case of this king of Israel, reminded again and again of the faithful, but rejected God who visited His people in the various ways we have seen through Elijah’s ministry, and yet himself without concern for his own soul!
What of the reader? Life’s story will soon be told, and eternity be entered; there God awaits thee.
ML 09/04/1927