Shownotes Transcript
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. We spent today in the northern kingdom of Israel. We opened with a man named Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, invading the northern kingdom. Syria is their immediate neighbor to the northeast. Ben-Hadad gathers an alliance including 32 other kings or chiefs and sends his demands to Ahab. He wants all his wealth and the best of his women and offspring.
King Ahab, ever the gentleman, says, you can have him. Okay. In the face of the military threat of Ben-Hadad's massive coalition, King Ahab agrees to give them everything they demand. But the Syrian coalition takes things a step too far when they say they're going to come to a raid on Ahab's palace. The elders of Israel put their foots down. Feet down, whatever. But then Ben-Hadad is like, you gotta be kidding me. You seriously have no idea how big my army is, do you? You're about to find out.
And then Ahab responds, "Oh really? We'll see about that. You might put your armor on tomorrow, but you won't be taking it off." This is ancient Israeli trash talk that basically amounts to a death threat. This incites Ben-Hadad, who is already three sheets to the wind. That's unadvisable when you're trying to win a war. And while Ben-Hadad is seeing double, King Ahab is seeing a prophet who tells him he'll win the war despite the size of the enemy army.
Following the prophet's instructions, Israel attacks the coalition and wins. The prophet warns Ahab that the Syrians are going to come back to mount another attack in the spring and suggests that Ahab get ready. The Syrians prefer to fight in the plains because they have chariots. And they think the reason Israel won the last battle is because they had the advantage of fighting in the hills where chariots are useless. So Syria goes to attack them on the plains.
Meanwhile, the prophet shows up again and tells Ahab, don't sweat this. God reigns everywhere and God wins everywhere, in the hills and in the valleys. Israel wins, and the 27,000 Syrians who don't die in the battle flee to a local city, where the city wall collapses and kills them. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire.
Ben-Hadad was in hiding, and he and his servants survive. They hatch a plan to beg Ahab for mercy, in exchange for giving him back some land they took. Ahab agrees, which all sounds well and good, except it defies what God commanded them to do in this situation. He was supposed to kill Ben-Hadad, not negotiate. God sends a prophet to call out Ahab's sin, and this prophet has a weird strategy for accomplishing that.
It reminds me of how Nathan the prophet would always put together a little bit of theater anytime he needed to get David's attention. These prophets would probably make great screenwriters. This particular prophet, who might be a guy named Micaiah that we'll officially meet later, forces another prophet to beat him up. Then he bandages himself and sits by the road where he knows Ahab will pass. He points out that by leaving Ben-Hadad alive, Ahab has invited the death penalty on himself and on his people.
Ahab was not repentant. He returns home angry and grumpy. In fact, these words also carry the connotation of being stubborn, so he was actually resistant to the prophecy. When he gets home, he decides what would make him happy again is more land.
His neighbor Naboth has a nice plot of land that he really wants, so he makes him an offer. Actually, it's less of an offer and more of a demand. When Naboth turns him down because it seems God would disapprove of it, then Ahab is angry and grumpy again. Two of the very worst dwarves. Ahab's covetousness is intense.
Then we encounter his wife Jezebel, daughter of a pagan king. She's a murderer and a deceiver who sidles up to people of power and gives them everything they want in order to make herself feel important and ultimately get what she wants.
Yesterday we saw that she's a murderer. She killed lots of prophets in 1 Kings 18, and she threatened the life of Elijah after he defeated her own prophets in 1 Kings 19. And today we see the deceptive side of her personality, plus more murder. She forges a letter, signs it with Ahab's seal, and uses his name to put together a gathering, presumably to honor God.
She invites their neighbor Naboth, who shows up to honor God alongside everyone else, not knowing she had hired two men to sit beside him and falsely accuse him of cursing God and Ahab, which is punishable by death. So they stone him right then and there. He never saw it coming. Jezebel goes home and tells Ahab the quote-unquote good news that he can have the land he wants so badly, so he takes it.
But God doesn't let this go unpunished. God holds Ahab responsible for the sin of his wife, just like God held Adam responsible for the sins of his wife. This may not seem fair to us, but the position of leadership carries weight to it. There's an added weight on anyone who is the head of anything.
And they have the emotional and spiritual responsibility of being mindful of the lives and souls of the people in their care. Ask any pastor if they feel this weight. Actually, just pray for them because I can almost guarantee you they do. God sends Elijah to condemn Ahab. Not only will he die, but Jezebel and all their family will die too. This devastates Ahab. And he actually demonstrates signs of true repentance.
God shows mercy and says he'll delay the complete punishment until the next generation. And that's where my God shot came in today. We've talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Anytime God makes a promise, he keeps it. The only time he hedges on it is on the side of mercy and grace. We see that here with Ahab.
Scripture repeatedly tells us he was God's least favorite king in Israel. We saw that yesterday in our reading, and we saw it again today in 21, 25-26. It says, And then in the very next paragraph, God relaxes his punishment on Ahab. God loves to show mercy to people.
Even the most wicked among us. Even those who act like the very worst dwarves. His heart is so eager to forgive. How can you not love a God like that? He's where the joy is. I love DGroup and I want to tell you about one of our core values that makes us who we are. DGroup core value number four is lead with your junk. Because DGroup is so structured, we tend to attract list makers, box checkers, and perfectionists who are used to putting their best selves on display.
We're here to uproot perfectionism and be a safe place for you to not have it all together. All that to say, if you've looked into DGroup but it intimidates you, you're actually the perfect candidate for it. Check out the show notes to watch our promo video or visit mydgroup.org for more info.