The Lord had given Ahab, the king of Israel, a wonderful victory over his enemies, and he had slain a hundred thousand footmen in one day. Then a wall had fallen on twenty-seven thousand more, so that Ben-hadad, the leader of the host of the Syrians, realized that he was defeated. He decided therefore, at the advice of his servants, to come out and seek mercy from Ahab the king, When Ahab knew this he said, “He is my brother,” and he took him up into his chariot and spoke kindly to him. Ben-hadad then promised that he would restore to king Ahab all the cities which his father had taken away, and so they made a covenant together and Ahab let Ben-hadad go free.
This looked very good on the surface, but man’s thoughts are not God’s thoughts. The world would say, “Be tolerant, and don’t condemn the views of others,” but we must make the Word of God our guide and not the thoughts of men. Of course in Christianity “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” but we ought to always stand firmly for the truth, and never tolerate evil. If a man is an enemy of God and of Christ, and denies the foundations of the faith, we should not receive him into our “chariots,” or make covenants with him. We must take a faithful stand for the truth of God, and not compromise. Such a man may have a lovely character, and be nice to talk to, but we are to measure things according to the Word of God and not by our own thoughts.
The prophet therefore came to meet Ahab and showed him, by a little act, just what he had done. He had let a man go free who was appointed of the Lord to “utter destruction,” 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), and now he was returning to his house quite unconcerned. The prophet told him that he was like one who was so “busy here and there” that he had lost a God-given opportunity, and that he would never have that opportunity again, as well as having to suffer for his negligence.
Undoubtedly we are put in the same position as the king of Israel many times in our lives. We have a golden opportunity of doing something for the Lord, but we are so busy here and there that we let the opportunity pass by, and it never returns. One is persuaded that the enemy of our souls will do all in his power to keep us busy with other things while these opportunities are within our reach. He persuades us that there is plenty of time and that there will be other opportunities later on, but alas, like king Ahab, we let the man go and it is too late. Ahab’s excuse looked like a very good one; he wanted to be kind, and he thought he would get the desired territory the easy way. And so with ourselves, we don’t like to make bad friends, and we are busy, etc., etc. Moreover we draw back from Christian warfare, preferring an easy path instead; but alas, like poor Ahab, we do not even get the easy path we hope for. The prophet told Ahab that his life was going to go for the life he had spared. Some years passed by, during which Ahab got farther and farther away from the Lord; and then, just as the prophet had said, he was slain al Ramoth-gilead by the hands of the Syrians whose king he had spared.
How often this takes place in our day. We think we are taking the easy way, but let us remember that the path of self-seeking and disobedience is never the easy way in the end, for we always reap what we sow. If the Lord is giving you or me an opportunity to act for His glory today, let us not be so “busy here and there” that we miss it.
ML 01/28/1951