As we enter these last three chapters, we read about the last five years of Ahab’s reign, and we read about war after war between Israel, Judah, and Syria. Whilst these three nations are fighting each other, in the background, there is another nation rising, a nation which is going to change the history of the northern kingdom of Israel forever, that nation is the Assyrians.
Ben-Hadad gathered an army and the thirty-two kings who were rulers of the cities states made an alliance with Ben-Hadad, 1 Kings 20:1.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘He is supposed to be the same whom Asa stirred up against the king of Israel, 1 Kings 15:18, or, as others, his son or grandson.’
Together, they went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it. 1 Kings 20:1. Ben-Hadad tells Ahab that his silver and gold are his and the best of his wives and children are his and Ahab agrees, 1 Kings 20:2-3.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It may be supposed that a considerable time had passed in the siege, that the city had been reduced to an extremity, and that ambassadors had been sent by Ahab to ask terms of peace short of absolute surrender, before Ben-Hadad would make such a demand. He would expect and intend his demand to be rejected, and this would have left him free to plunder the town, which was evidently what he desired and purposed.’
The messengers go to Ahab a second time and tell him that Ben-Hadad says, he demands the silver, gold, and Ahab’s wives and children, he is going to send officials to search Ahab’s palace and houses and they will take every away, 1 Kings 20:4. Ahab knew that Baal couldn’t do anything to save him but appeared to be content to buy his life on any terms whatever.
Rather than being a courageous king and defending his people, he was willing to give him gold, silver, wives, and children, 1 Kings 20:7. I guess he thought it was better to be a living poor king than to be a dead rich king.
The elders, 1 Kings 21:8-14, and the people advice Ahab not to listen to Ben-Hadad and so he sends messengers back to him informing him that they can’t meet his second demands, 1 Kings 20:8-9. This didn’t go down every well with Ben-Hadad and so, he sends word back threatening to totally flatten Samaria, 1 Kings 20:10.
Ahab tells him that, ‘one who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off,’ 1 Kings 20:11, which basically means that no one should boast as if the battle has already been won, hence you take your armour off when the battle is finished. And so the stage is set for a war between Ahab and Ben-Hadad, 1 Kings 20:12.
We don’t know who this prophet was but it appears now that Ahab is in trouble, a real prophet of God came to him to tell him the truth, 1 Kings 20:13. The prophet’s message from God was that God will give the vast army into Ahab’s hands, and then Ahab will know that God is the LORD, 1 Kings 20:13.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The boast of Ben-Hadad, 1 Kings 20:10, was not without a basis of truth; his force seems to have exceeded 130,000, 1 Kings 20:25 / 1 Kings 20:29-30. In his wars with the Assyrians we find him sometimes at the head of 100,000 men.’
Ahab asks who will do this? And the prophet tells him, the junior officers under the provincial commanders will do it, 1 Kings 20:13.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘These were probably some chosen persons out of the militia of different districts, raised by the princes of the provinces; the same as we would call lord-lieutenants of counties.’
The prophet gives him some instructions concerning what to do against Ben-Hadad. The prophet’s advice to Ahab was to take the offensive. Ahab asks the prophet the question, ‘who will start the battle?’ 1 Kings 20:14, and I’m sure that Ahab would have been shocked when he is told that he himself will start the battle, especially since he only had two-hundred and thirty-two young men, 1 Kings 20:15.
There would be no doubt in Ahab’s mind that his victory only came because of God, not because of anything he did. The total army of seven-thousand, 1 Kings 20:15, was only a pitifully-small handful compared to the estimated one-hundred and thirty-thousand troops of Ben-Hadad.
They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the thirty-two kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk, 1 Kings 20:15 / Daniel 5:1-4. The young men went out first, 1 Kings 20:16. Meanwhile Ben-Hadad dispatched scouts, who reported, that men are coming from Samaria and he tells them if they come in peace or if they come to fight, then take them alive, 1 Kings 20:17-18.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘He was confident of victory. Do not slay them; bring them to me, they may give us some useful information.’
The young men then marched out of the city with the army behind them and each one killed their opponent and so, the Arameans flee while being chased by the Israelites, 1 Kings 20:19-20. Ben-Hadad managed to escape on horseback with some of his horsemen, 1 Kings 20:20.
Ahab advances and overpowers the horses and chariots and inflicted heavy losses on the Arameans, 1 Kings 20:21. Sometime later the prophet came to Ahab and tells him, Ben-Hadad isn’t finished yet, he will return the following spring for another go, 1 Kings 20:22.
Ben-Hadad believed, what many people believe in these days, that each deity only lived in certain places. Here we see that he believed that Israel’s God only lived in the hills, 1 Kings 20:23. The reason they believed God lived in the hills is because this is where Israel offered their sacrifices, in the high places. And so, because of this belief, he decided that his army should fight Israel on the plains, 1 Kings 20:23, thinking that Israel’s God didn’t live there.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The local power and influence of deities was a fixed principle of the ancient polytheism. Each country was considered to have its own gods; and wars were regarded as being to a great extent struggles between the gods of the nations engaged in them. This is apparent throughout the Assyrian inscriptions, 2 Kings 18:33-35 / 2 Kings 19:12.’
The Syrians wanted to allow the kings to determine the battle plan but allow the captains of the soldiers to engage the enemy on the battlefield, 1 Kings 20:24. Compared to the Syrian army, 1 Kings 20:25-26, Israel’s army looked like two small flocks of goats, 1 Kings 20:27, but what the Syrians didn’t take into account was that God Himself was going to fight this battle for Israel.
Even though Israel was an idolatrous nation, He never gave up on them, He still fought their battles, Joshua 6:2 / Joshua 6:16 / Joshua 8:1 / Joshua 8:18 / Judges 7:2 / Judges 18:10 / 1 Samuel 23:4 / 1 Samuel 24:4. God wasn’t and can never be confined to one place, He is everywhere, 1 Kings 8:27 / Psalm 139:7-12.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the man of God.
‘Evidently not the prophet who had spoken to Ahab the year before, 1 Kings 20:13 / 1 Kings 20:22. He probably dwelt in the neighbourhood of Samaria. Now that Ahab and his army had marched out into the Trans-Jordanic territory, another prophet, a native probably of that region, announced God’s will to them.’
Once again, we’re reminded that God never does anything without a reason, God was going to fight with Israel and Israel will win so that they Israel and the Syrians, by default will know that He is the Lord, 1 Kings 20:28.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘God resents their blasphemy, and is determined to punish it. They shall now be discomfited in such a way as to show that God’s power is everywhere, and that the multitude of a host is nothing against him.’
For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle begun, 1 Kings 20:29. Notice how many of the Syrians died, one-hundred and twenty-seven thousand in total, 1 Kings 20:29-30. There’s can be no doubt that a supernatural God was behind this. If Israel and the Syrians didn’t believe that God was real and won this battle, then nothing would. Ben-Hadad flees to the city and hid in an inner room, 1 Kings 20:30.
Ben-Hadad’s officials realise that there is nothing they could do, and so they go to Ahab with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, 1 Kings 20:31-32. Oh how the roles have swapped, 1 Kings 20:9. The sackcloth was a sign of humility and the ropes were a sign of submission.
Ben Hadad begs for his life and notice that Ahab says that Ben Hadad was his brother, 1 Kings 20:32-33. This wasn’t literal but it was said because Ahab didn’t want to kill Ben-Hadad because the Assyrian Empire in the north was beginning to grow at this time.
The Assyrians were a real threat and because Syria stood between Israel and Assyria, Ahab wanted to keep an alliance with Syria, 1 Kings 20:34. This agreement explains why the Syrians and the Israelites fought together at the battle in Qarqar in 854/53 B.C.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘What an incredibly stupid and ridiculous thing was this that Ahab did, allowing Ben-Hadad to announce the terms upon which he received his life and his freedom. What about all that gold and silver that Ahab had paid prior to the first battle? Why did he not demand its re-payment? Ben-Hadad did not even promise to build streets for Ahab in Damascus but would allow Ahab to build them! And those cities Ben-Hadad promised to give Ahab, they already belonged to Israel! Poor Ahab here ‘brothered’ himself out of the spoils that should have belonged to the victor; and as a prophet soon would tell him, he had ‘brothered’ himself out of his own life as well!’
Here again, we find another unnamed prophet of God, who was one of a company of prophets, 1 Kings 20:35 / 1 Samuel 19:20. He tells his companion to strike him with his weapon but his companion refused, 1 Kings 20:35. The prophets tells him because he hasn’t obeyed the LORD, as soon as he leaves the prophet a lion will kill him, and as soon as he leaves he is killed by a lion, 1 Kings 20:36.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This seems a hard measure, but there was ample reason for it. This person was also one of the sons of the prophets, and he knew that God frequently delivered his counsels in this way, and should have immediately obeyed, for the smiting could have had no evil in it when God commanded it, and it could be no outrage or injury to his fellow when he himself required him to do it.’
The prophet finds another man and asks him to strike me, and so, the man does and wounds him, 1 Kings 20:37. The prophet goes out to wait for the king and disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes, 1 Kings 20:38. When Ahab walks by, the prophet calls out to him, and says, ‘your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver, 1 Kings 20:39.
He tells Ahab while your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared, and so Ahab tells him that is your sentence, you have pronounced it yourself, 1 Kings 20:40. The prophet then removes his disguise, 1 Kings 20:38, and Ahab recognises him and so, the prophet tells him, that judgment is coming upon Ahab because he allowed Ben-Hadad to go free, 1 Kings 20:41-42 / Leviticus 27:28.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This was fulfilled at the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, where he was slain by the Syrians, 1 Kings 22:34-35.’
It appears that despite God slaughtering the Syrian army Ahab didn’t recognise that God was behind the victory for Israel. It’s almost as if he happily makes an agreement with the Syrians but at the same time, he totally ignores that it was God who had protected them. Several years ago, King Saul failed to kill Agag, who was king of the Amalekites, and Saul was punished because of it, Ahab makes the same mistake by allowing Ben Hadad to live, 1 Samuel 15:17-33.
Notice that Ahab was ‘sullen and angry’, 1 Kings 20:43 / 1 Kings 21:27. He obviously believed the rebuke he had from the prophet. The joy he must have had after the victory quickly turned into deep disappointment because he now knows that God didn’t approve of him allowing Ben-Hadad to live and go free.