1 Kings, Chapter 20 - The Valleys & The Hills | Prophets of Israel Daily

Shalom, friends, welcome back to the program "Prophets of Israel Today". This is the twentieth chapter of the First Book of Kings. My name is Jeremy Gimple and I am here with my dear friend and fellow Haruta Ari Abramovich. This series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network via the website landofisrael.com. Well, friends, after the scene of the fire on Mount Carmel and the drama of the Prophet Elijah, chapter 20 moves to the battlefield and gives us a clear and powerful lesson that I want us to hold onto from the beginning. Hashim gives victory to his people, not so that they may feel powerful, but so that they may know him. And that when we receive a task from " Hashem", carrying it out with half the effort can be just as dangerous as not carrying it out at all. Let 's see how things unfold. The chapter begins with this existential threat. The first verse: Ben-Hadad, king of Aram (Syria), assembles a huge coalition. 32 allied kings, with horses and chariots, besieged Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. He sends a request to Ahab. "Your silver and your gold, your wives and your children, all of them are mine." And Ahab, who is besieged, somewhat agrees. But Benhaddad is going even further. He demands the right to send his men into every house to take whatever they like. This is indeed too much , even for the weak Ahab. He refuses. It seems that everyone has a red line. Ben-Hadeed gets angry and threatens to turn Samaria into dust. "There won't be enough left to fill handfuls of our men." Jeremy, I want to interrupt here for a moment because the state of despair that appears at the beginning is just a prelude to what "Hashem" is going to do here . Look at the situation. Ahab was an evil king. Baal is worshipped. He married Isabel ( Iseville). He led Israel into idolatry. By all accounts , this is a king who does not deserve Hashim's help. He faces an overwhelming alliance , 32 kings, a vast army, and a siege of his capital. Militarily speaking, it's over. Ahab was so defeated that he actually agreed to hand over his wealth and his family. There is no reason, on any level , moral or military, to expect anything other than disaster. This is exactly the time when the Prophet appears. Because in this hopeless situation , Hashim sends a message to Ahab. I will deliver this entire massive army into your hands. He says, "Why ?" This is the key to the entire chapter. And you will know that I am the Lord . Not because Ahab deserved it, nor because Israel was righteous, but so that they might know the hand of the living God of Israel . My friends, I think there is something powerful about that for me. I don't know how you feel about this, Jeremy, but I feel that God is extending a hand of salvation to help an undeserving evil king, not as a reward, but as a declaration. This is just something I've tried myself. Just look, he's turning a hopeless military crisis into a classroom . Isn't that so? A place where his people, who had forgotten him, could finally recognize his hand. God does this constantly, using impossible situations in our lives, things from which our limited understanding cannot grasp a way out. He uses the moments when we are trapped and overwhelmed as a stage on which he reveals himself to us in our lives. Victory has never truly been about the battle. Rather, it was about the nation of Israel coming to know, beyond any doubt, the God of Israel. Exactly, Ari. And it happens exactly as the Prophet foretold. Verses 19 to 21 reveal a small Israelite force emerging , and the alliance of the thirty-two kings collapses . Ben Haddad escapes on a horse; it is truly an amazing and seemingly impossible victory. But the Arameans do not give up. They reorganize their ranks, and their advisors present Ben Haddad with a theory about why they lost . This is a fascinating window into the ancient pagan mindset, verse 23. My God, Harim Elohim. Their god is the god of the hills. That's why they were stronger than us, but let's fight them on the plains, and we will certainly be stronger than them. Yes, Jeremy, this is one of the most theologically revealing verses in the whole chapter, because it exposes, as you said, exactly how the pagan world understood God and what makes the God of Israel so different. The Arameans had lost, and their justification for their defeat was that the god of the Israelites must be the god of the hills, a local, regional, powerful god in the mountains where Israel lived. So, let's just fight them, that's what they thought, that's what they decided. Let us fight them only in the valley, on the flat plain where the mountain god of Israel has no power. This tells you everything about paganism. Their gods were limited. A god for this river or that mountain, a god for the storm or the harvest, small and limited local forces that you can overcome by changing your terrain. Move to another valley and you will be outside the power of that god. Hashim's response to this naive paganism reveals something profound in my opinion about Hashim's own nature. Sometimes "Hashem" chooses the very arena of our false assumptions to shatter it. It shatters our pride in our own idols. You know, he sends a prophet who says, “ Because the Arameans have said that the Lord is the god of the mountains and not the god of the valleys, I will deliver this whole huge army into your hand, and you will know that I am the Lord.” In other words, do you think I'm limited to the mountains? I will defeat them in a valley to prove with absolute certainty that there is no place where I am not. There is no place outside my authority. It's ridiculous, it even sounds ridiculous just to say . This is truly a great declaration for the whole of the Torah, and for all of history, that the God of Israel is not just one power among many, nor a local god of a particular terrain. He is the God of mountains and valleys, the God of every place and everything. There is no corner of creation beyond its reach, and no valley deep enough to escape from it. This is not just ancient theology, but the highest degree of practical consolation possible. Because that means wherever you are, and however deep the valley you are currently passing through, God is fully there. He is not only the god of your mountain peaks when things are going well, but he is also the god of your lowest valleys. Wow, that's really beautiful. As you know, he is the god of the mountain peaks and the god of the valleys, and "Hashem" proves it. Verses 28-30 describe Israel going out again, this small army against the huge army of the Arameans in the open plain, and God grants them a second, even more crushing victory. Thus, Hashem has now proven twice and with complete accuracy who he is. He is the master. But here, at the height of this victory granted by God, Ahab makes the mistake that ruins everything, because Ben-Hadad, the defeated enemy king, surrenders and begs for his life. Instead of carrying out the sentence, Ahab pardons him, calls him "my brother," makes a treaty with him, and releases him. A prophet comes to confront him, with a prophecy that contains the strongest rebukes in the entire Book of Kings. He disguises himself in another form, and tells Ahab, for example, about a soldier who was entrusted with guarding a prisoner but let him escape. When Ahab pronounces the condemnation upon the soldier in the story, the prophet takes off his disguise and says, "You are that man." Verse 42: “Because you have let go of a man whom I have devoted to destruction, your life will be in place of his.” Releasing murderers who wanted to break into our homes, loot, steal, rape, destroy, and do whatever else they wanted. How does this not seem similar to Israel releasing Hamas terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit or during this last war? The worst terrorists were released in exchange for Israeli hostages. Not only is it tragic, but negotiating with terrorists and releasing them is an evil act. Yes, Jeremy, I wish these chapters were from our distant past and that we had learned all these lessons, but unfortunately, they are as relevant as I just said. You know, that's really the essence of the chapter, and it's a harsh lesson. Ahab may have thought he was being merciful, even generous, but in the end this very decision became the reason for his condemnation. Okay, here's what happened. God gave Ahab a specific task and assignment in this war. Ben- Hadad, in the language of the Tanakh, was "Esh Hirim," that is, a man whom God consecrated to destruction. Unfortunately, like some leaders before and after him, Ahab decided in the moment of victory that he knew best. He pardoned Benhaddad, perhaps out of a kind heart, not because it made things better, or perhaps for political reasons, wanting a useful ally in a trade treaty . Whatever his calculations, realism, pragmatism, or whatever the reason, it does n't matter. In both cases, he took a task from God and carried it out in his own way, and on his own terms . He had accomplished 90% of it, then at the crucial moment, he replaced God’s command with his own personal judgment. The Prophet's judgment was harsh: "Because you have set free the one you appointed to perish, your life will be in lieu of his." And I think there's a powerful lesson here, Jeremy. It's hard not to connect this to our lives. It is easy to judge and to throw stones because of the extreme nature of the matter, but we carry traces of this within us. You know, and perhaps the lesson is that it is not enough to be assigned a task by God. We must implement it completely according to his terms, not ours. And that's the crux of the matter. It's a harsh lesson. Perhaps Ahab thought he was being merciful. He thought he was being generous, but in the end, that same decision became the reason for his conviction. It is clear to me that this is directly related to what we have learned about Ahab's ancestor. In a way, he thought of his ancestor, not his direct grandfather, but his ancestor in the kingship, going back to King Saul who pardoned an enemy king, didn't he ? Agag. He pardoned Agag. God had decreed the destruction of Agag. But Saul pardoned him, and he lost his entire kingdom because of it. The pattern is the same. God does not ask us to obey only the parts of His will that we agree with . Partial obedience, that is, obedience on our own terms, is a kind of rebellion. It's a kind of insult. When God gives us a goal, the honest response is to complete it fully, not to do most of it and then rely on our intelligence for the rest. Ahab was merciful to Ben-Hadad, but he was very harsh with the prophets of Israel, whom Obadiah was forced to hide. I mean, this story reveals just how lost his soul is. This is exactly what happened to Ahab at the end of the chapter. Verse 43: He returned to Samaria looking gloomy and upset . He won the war, but he lost the meaning . God gave him two impossible victories to teach him one thing, which is that God is the King, but Ahab left without learning anything. Angry at the prophet who told him the truth. My friends, this is the one powerful lesson from Chapter 20 that I feel we can draw as individuals and as a nation. I mean, in our private lives, God grants us victories. The Six-Day War, and there are many victories against Iran in 12 days, and opportunities and moments of salvation like this . Not to feel strong, but to know that there is someone who cares for us , and to know Him and serve Him completely. The great danger, the danger of Ahab, is to accept God’s help and then do things our own way at the crucial moment. To obey the 90 % that suits us and then ignore the 10% that does not suit us. Therefore, when God’s command is clear, our job is to carry it out completely. We should trust that His command is wiser than any settlement we might consider. As for Israel today, it is a nation that has been granted victory after victory, the impossible. Trapped, besieged, surrounded on all sides, yet we survive time and time again in ways that can only be described as a "shattering " hand. Chapter 20 poses the question that resonates with every victory we have experienced. Will we ever understand why we were given this victory? Not to feel powerful, but to know Him. Once we know him, we follow him. Not half-heartedly, and not on our own terms. “ Hashem” is the god of the hills and valleys who saves Israel, and he is the same god who is saving us now in Gaza, in Iran, and in Lebanon. He is everywhere, saving and protecting us. Therefore, let us be a people who not only accept their victories, but also learn the lesson inherent in them. Finally, let us fully implement his objectives. Okay, my friends. Hzak Fumats (Be strong and brave ). And of course, I would like to invite you. We study the Tanakh together every day here in the " Daily Prophets of Israel" program. People listen to us via podcasts, Spotify, Apple, Google , and SoundCloud. But, I want you to know that we are about to finish the First Book of Kings. And I want to invite you to take our learning together to the next level. We invite you to experience the "Land of Israel" fellowship. It is a global community with members from more than 35 countries. We meet in person every Sunday. Let's learn together. We grow together. Now, you can try all of that completely free. Give it a try . If you try it , you will know, but you will not realize it until you have experienced it . Something is happening in the "Land of Israel" fellowship. Something new is being born in the world, and you can try it now completely free. So, click on the link below to try this free trial, or go directly to landofisrael.com to learn more. And with God’s help, we will see you tomorrow in chapter twenty-one.