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Syria threatened an attack and Ahab agreed to give up his wealth, wives, and children to save his kingdom! Syria's king decided to try for more and demanded the right to search and seize anything else they wanted from the officers' homes. Ahab refused that request as being too unreasonable. God in His grace offered Ahab the victory because He wanted to honor His own name. God allowed a small group of junior officers and 7,000 soldiers to defeat the Syrians!
The Syrian commanders then tried a face-saving move, convincing their king that the reason for the loss was Jehovah being a "god of the hills" while their god was a "god of the plains" and all they had to do was take advantage of geography. That didn't work out well for them either. God caused a wall to collapse in a city, killing 27,000 Syrian soldiers!
Their king, Ben-Hadad, hid inside that city. His advisers dressed in rags, "pretending to show humble submission to Ahab" and his pride led him to not give glory to God for the victory. "To hear that Ben-Hadad was his servant made his heart glad, and he was more than willing to spare the man's life," even though God had commanded that Ben-Hadad be killed. Taking the easy route, Ahab set up a three-year trade agreement with Ben-Hadad instead of killing him!
"The Lord couldn't allow Ahab to disobey and get away with it," my commentary continued. So He sent a young prophet disguised as a wounded soldier who, like Nathan did with David, told a story which led to Ahab declaring his own sentence. Ahab fell for it and made the same mistake. "The man that Ahab judged now became Ahab's judge and announced that one day the Syrians would slay Ahab." Instead of repenting, Ahab went home and pouted like a child.
Father, You continue to show me the importance of obedience to Your commands and how our pride causes us to disobey and sin against You. Thank You for the warning and help me to agree with You and to do nothing out of pride.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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