Ever since Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, had lent a firm hand to Asa, king of Judah, against Baasha, king of Israel, he had remained the enemy of the latter, had taken cities from him, and had even acquired by conquest certain rights over Samaria, the capital of the kingdom (1 Kings 20:3434And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. (1 Kings 20:34)). His son, also named Ben-Hadad, goes up against Ahab and besieges Samaria. Laying claim to his father’s rights, he sends an insolent summons to the king: “Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, the goodliest, are mine” (1 Kings 20:33Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. (1 Kings 20:3)).
What does Ahab do? He, before whose eyes the scenes of 1 Kings 18 had been unfolded, who had heard his whole people cry in his ears, “Jehovah, He is God!” has not even a thought for the God who had just restored His worship by His power, that worship for which Ahab had substituted the worship of Baal (1 Kings 16:31, 3231And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. 32And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. (1 Kings 16:31‑32))! Ahab does not consult the Lord nor commit his cause to Him. For that matter, had he ever humbled himself before Him? Had he tried to stop the arm of Jezebel as she sought to put Elijah to death? No, this weak, wicked-hearted man “did sell himself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife urging him on” (1 Kings 21:2525But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. (1 Kings 21:25)).
Demonstrating that God was a stranger to him, acting as though He did not even exist, he accepts the humiliation inflicted upon him by the heathen monarch: “My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have” (1 Kings 20:44And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. (1 Kings 20:4)). What, indeed, could he do against Ben-Hadad at the head of all his forces and accompanied by thirty-two kings? So those who do not know God reason things out. But what is accomplished by his humiliation before Israel’s enemy? This latter uses the occasion to add outrage to his harshness: “Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; but tomorrow about this time I will send my servants to thee, and they shall search thy house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thy sight, they shall put in their hand and take away” (1 Kings 20:5-65And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; 6Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away. (1 Kings 20:5‑6)). There again, Ahab does not return to God; to him it is more important to call together and consult with the elders of the land. They favor resistance; he, accepting the first conditions and rejecting the second. At this answer Ben Hadad’s anger knows no more limits. Ahab replies spiritedly: “Let not him that girdeth on boast himself as he that putteth off” (1 Kings 20:1111And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. (1 Kings 20:11)), but God is still not taken into consideration.
A great multitude is arrayed against the city. God intervenes by a prophet whose name is not revealed to us: “Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thy hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah” (1 Kings 20:1313And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. (1 Kings 20:13)). What was the Lord’s ground in speaking thus? The condition of Ahab’s heart? We have just seen its callousness. But Israel in presence of Elijah’s miracle had acknowledged the true God. Would He not show His grace at the least sign of His people’s returning to Himself? As for Ahab, God tells him: “Thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.” If he had not learned this before under the weight of the judgments of God, this miraculous deliverance might perhaps touch his heart so that he would be restored. What touching patience on part of God, even toward the most profane, the most indifferent, the most hardened. The God whom man rejects, instead of tiring, reappears to him as the God of grace and of deliverance!
At this critical moment Ahab seems inclined to let God work; in any case, he has no other resource. The prophet answers his questions categorically. The “servants of the princes of the provinces” by whom the enemy army would be delivered into the hands of Ahab are only a handful against this multitude. Instead of awaiting the assault of the enemy, it is Ahab who is to begin the battle, and his army only numbers seven thousand men! Ahab follows the prophet’s word, and that day the Syrians suffer a great defeat.
No spirit of thankfulness is produced in the king’s heart. God warns him by the prophet that at the return of the year Ben-Hadad will attack him again. This time it is a matter of proving to the Syrians that Israel had not gotten the victory by their “gods of the mountains.” In vain does Ben-Hadad change the organization of his army and the place of battle: the Israelites, in number like two little flocks of goats, in one day smite one hundred thousand of the enemy’s men; the wall of Aphek falls upon those who were left. Thus the Syrians had to learn who the Lord was and thus Israel could know Him.
Ben-Hadad flees into the city and escapes from chamber to chamber. His servants offer to beg clemency of the victor, for they have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are gentle and merciful kings. Humiliated and conquered, they come supplicating on behalf of their king: “I pray thee, let me live.” Ahab replies: “He is my brother,” when God had given him into his hands for destruction. The idolator who had likened Jehovah to “the gods of the mountains” is brother to the king of Israel! What an outrage to the glory and the holiness of God there is in this word, “He is my brother”! Ahab has Ben-Hadad come up into his chariot, makes a covenant with him, and sends him away. The king of Syria restores to him the cities that his father had taken away. The world loves and owns this kind of clemency and affability. How often those who ought to be God’s witnesses before the world call the latter, “My brother, my brethren”! How sad is this word which deceives the world and denies Christian character. No, Christians are of another family than the world; they are children of God; the world has the prince of this world for its father.
But, you say, are not all men brothers since they are all sinners? No indeed, for Christians can and ought to say: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). Thus they are that no longer and cannot call those who are still sinners their brothers. It is true that there is “one God and Father of all” in the sense of God’s relationship with His creatures, but even in this respect, only those of His creatures who belong to Him by faith are able to add: “Who is... in us all,” which absolutely excludes the world from any intimacy with Him in this relationship (Eph. 4:66One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:6)).
To call Ben-Hadad his brother! Poor Ahab lays bare the state of his heart, still a follower of Baal, one whom even this twofold deliverance wrought for him had not led to repentance.
A second prophet comes (1 Kings 20:35-4335And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the Lord, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. 36Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. 37Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. 38So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face. 39And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. 40And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. 41And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets. 42And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. 43And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria. (1 Kings 20:35‑43)). The one of 1 Kings 20:1313And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. (1 Kings 20:13) announced the deliverance, this one the judgment of Ahab. What patience on part of God! Even in the next chapter He still delays with pronouncing the final word of judgment! But first we are to learn to know God’s chastening towards His own. “And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the word of Jehovah, Smite me, I pray thee. But the man refused to smite him.” If this man was not a prophet himself, he was at any rate the prophet’s companion. God’s chastening of his own is so much the more severe, as they are in a more privileged position. Here we have a different case from that of the prophet from Judah in 1 Kings 13. The latter, having a positive word from the Lord to act upon, gives it up to follow another word that is asserted to be the word of God, and he finds a lion on his path. Here a companion of a prophet refuses to do according to the word of Jehovah. He does not want to smite and wound his companion when God orders him to do so. His intentions were good, you say; he loved his companion too much to hurt him. Doubtless, but there was an imperative word! God had given the command. You still object that the man did not understand the benefit of what was being ordered; but when it comes to the word of the Lord, it is not a question of understanding, but of obeying. And indeed, it was impossible for him to understand; he could not and need not give account for what God wanted to do. The thing was that there was an express command, and that “by the word of Jehovah.” Could this man ignore it? No, he was the prophet’s companion and ought to know the word of God. The man of God from Judah ought to have known that the word of the old prophet could not have been the word of God; this man ought to have known that the word of his companion was the word of Jehovah. The more our position places us in direct relationship with God, the less excuse we have when we treat the word of God as though it were not so.
Positive disobedience to the Word is an infinitely serious thing. How many lives of Christians are made up of similar acts of disobedience! Christians are often asking why they meet a lion in the way without being able to answer this question. Should they not first of all ask themselves whether or not they have been willing to submit to the word of God when it has shown them His will in a positive way? Usually one looks everywhere else to find the reason for God’s chastening of His children or His servants. Judgment overtakes this man “because [he had] not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah” (1 Kings 20:3636Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. (1 Kings 20:36)).
“Another man,” who does not seem to have been in as intimate a relationship with the prophet as the first man, hears and obeys. He smites him hard and wounds him. He does not try to understand, but does what God tells him to do.
Now the prophet can appear before Ahab with the sure proofs of what would happen to him. God had said: Smite! He had refused to do so. Now another would smite Ahab and wound him. His fate was determined.
Ahab, like David when Nathan came to him, is compelled to pronounce his own judgment (1 Kings 20:4040And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. (1 Kings 20:40)). He was blind; the bandage he saw over the prophet’s eyes was the bandage he had over his own eyes, and he did not even know it! Suddenly the word of God, like a violent wind of judgment, echoes in his ears: “Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the man that I had devoted to destruction, thy life shall be for his life, and thy people for his people” (1 Kings 20:4242And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. (1 Kings 20:42)).
Will repentance and contrition of spirit finally penetrate into this hardened heart? “And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and came to Samaria” (1 Kings 20:4343And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria. (1 Kings 20:43)).
“Sullen and vexed” — these two words describe him. “Sullen”: oh, how this characterized the world! It does its own will and is sullen, sad. Joy is never found in the pathway of disobedience and of rebellion against God. Only the Christian can really know joy, “full joy.” The Word and the Lord Himself show us where it is to be found: In obedience to His commandments, obedience which itself is His love realized (John. 15:9-14); in dependence, fruit of the new nature which we have from Him (John. 16:24); in assurance which the knowledge of our union with Him gives us (John. 17:11-13); and finally, in communion with the Father and with the Son (1 John. 1:3, 4).
How this poor man who had thought he could follow his own thoughts in spite of the word of God was wanting in all these things. However ungodly Ahab might be, God was judging him according to the favored position in which he had been placed. In Christendom people are accustomed to reasoning about the fate reserved by divine justice for the poor heathen. It is certain that they will be judged according to the witness they have received and by which they could have known God (Acts 14:15-1715And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 16Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:15‑17)); but we do not hear the Christian world reasoning about the fate awaiting it. Ahab’s lot is more dreadful than that of Ben-Hadad.
The Word also says that Ahab was “vexed.” The king’s grief was not the kind that leads to repentance, but to vexation. Against whom? Against God. Would the king then meet with God on his pathway all the time? Come, says the world, tell us of the love of God when He takes away our health, our loved ones, or our wealth! Really! Wouldn’t it be better to do evil like everyone else instead of trying to behave ourselves well, since God treats us so unjustly? This is one of the thousand varieties of this vexation that fills men’s hearts against God. But when there is a certain knowledge of the Word, as in Ahab’s case, one can no longer be diverted by doing evil. This had been easy in times past before the sudden appearance of Elijah who came to “trouble Israel.” Now the Word is there; one cannot shake it off; it gnaws at the heart, allowing one no rest. This word of the prophet has unveiled the future. Nothing, perhaps, will come of it... but who can know? One thing is certain in the life of this monarch: this Word is constantly being fulfilled, and so often in undeserved blessings to which he has not paid attention. Will the threats be fulfilled too? The prophet had said, “Thy life shall be for his life.” He did not say when. What if it were today? Or tomorrow? Couldn’t he just leave me alone? There is well reason for being “sullen and vexed.” The gnawing worm is there; it has begun its work, that worm that never, never dies.