1 Kings 20 Hope When We are Under Siege

1 Kings 20

Hope When We Are Under Siege

Intro: This Week is the start of Advent, where we begin the celebration of waiting for the Arrival of the Lord’s Incarnation. The four themes are Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. This week, since we are still in the story of Elijah and Ahab, this is not a traditional Advent reading, but it is a good example of Hope, and Grace when you do not deserve it or you are not expecting it.

Elijah was faithful to God and we saw last week how God restored him when he was ready to die.

Read Verses:

Main Point: God Gives Grace to His people and you can take hope as you wait on God

Have Hope in God’s Protection (1-12)

Ben-hadad, the King of Syria or Aram, brings 32 of his other friends to take over Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel. He makes the claim that all your money and your families are mine. And King Ahab agrees to Ben-hadad’s claim and says You can have it. We find out in verse 5 that it must have agreed upon that Ahab would deliver all of his money and families to Ben hadad. It’s like Ben-Hadad placed an order and wanted Ahab to doordash all of the riches over to His camp.

Money and Family are the two items that make you wealthy. But Ahab decides to go along with it if it means that the Syrians would go away.it is the equivalent to giving the mugger your wallet if he will leave you and your wife and kids alone. Israel is being bullied by a superior army.

But then Ben hadad changes the terms of the surrender. He says, Ya know what, I will come and get your money, which is now my money and your wives and children.” I am coming into your house to take your stuff.

Ahab is concerned and goes to the elders and they say, no, you can’t let them come in and take our stuff. So the Israelites stand up to Ben-Hadad and prepare for war.

Now Ahab was not praying at this time, at least that we are told. He seems to be solving this problem from a strictly human standpoint. What are the ramifications for losing all of his money and wives and children or at least his best ones? From the money standpoint, the country would be broke and possibly force higher takes on people. A few weeks ago, I pointed out that Ahab and his father were building and expanding the city with a lot of construction so that would stop. This means some or all of those workers would be out of jobs. The country would not have money to buy supplies for an army, could not pay an army and they would probably enter into a vassal state where they would have to pay a yearly tribute to Syria for Protection from them. It is basically a mob shakedown where you have to pay Vinny and Guido to keep them from burning down your store.

But as we are going to see in the next section, God is working behind the scenes, as usual, to protect His people.

Application:

God is protecting us from all kinds of things. And he is doing it when we don’t even know it and many times it is before you even know or knew Him.

We are protected from His wrath and also from things turning out as bad as they could be. Does this mean you won’t experience problems like COVID, loss of loved ones, loneliness, losing jobs, not having money etc? Not at all. We get to experience these things and sometimes in more abundance than non Christians. But we know That God is there with us, moving things out of the way for us. Each teaching us about Go’s goodness.

Why would he do this? Does he want to be paid back? It is the Covenant. God had and still has a Covenant with Israel. God made a new Covenant with blood Through Jesus this time. And you are included. We are grafted in.

Look At Romans 5:1-9

Even the situation with Ben hadad, could have turned out differently. He stopped and made demands instead of just going straight into the cities to take over. There is no reason given, but in the Bible God is always the main actor. He is always the one making the action happen.

And when we don’t know what God is going to do, we can rely on His word to. Give us clues.

Have Hope In God’s Word (13-22)

We see Ahab’s leadership and Israel’s confidence shift in their behavior from people who are waiting to be conquered by a supposedly superior force to going out and attacking the army. Because of God’s Word the people sprung to Action.

In Verse 13 The prophet told Ahab and repeated God’s words, “Have you seen this great Multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day and you shall know that I am the Lord.

All of a sudden they straighten up and then The next news that is reported to Ben hadad is that the Israelites are going out to meet the Syrians. And they attack them and Win.

Application:

God’s word gives us insight into God’s character

Since God cannot act contrary to his word, then we now what to expect. He holds true to his word, which includes prophecy, we know how delivers on what she states. So when He uses the prophet to tell Ahab that the Israelites will win the battle, they believe him.

It is not clear how much Ahab changed his beliefs from the Day on Mt Carmel when he witnessed God’s Power against the Prophets of Baal.

We have the entire Bible that witnesses reveal God’s plan and actions to fulfill His plan. Christmas, the incarnation was integral because God the son came down from heaven.Hebrews 2:14-18 gives us an answer why

14 Since the children (we are the children of God) have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Have Hope in God’s Omnipresence (23-30)

Ben hadad Returned at the turn of the year with a newer probably bigger army. They also chose to fight in the valley, because the LORD is a god of the mountains and not the valleys. So he has limited power off of His Mountain that he worked the miracle on Mt Carmel and Mt Sinai. This is how the other civilizations gods worked and work. He is a tree god or a water god, but that is it. He loses power over the water or in the forest when he is too far from his natural base element.

29 And they encamped opposite one another seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined. And the people of Israel struck down of the Syrians 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. 30 And the rest fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell upon 27,000 men who were left.

But The Israelite routed the Syrian army and the rest ran away. The Syrians found out that God is the God of Everywhere.

Application:

Don’t Limit God by putting him in a box, a shelf or some other place. He is everywhere.

God is everywhere at all times. How does he do this? I have no idea. He is God and he does not have a body where he is tied to a physical location. There are not multiple gods running around helping. Instead, God is on His throne seeing everything, but yet here with us.

Jesus’s name is Immanuel, God with us. God came to earth for you. To die to cover your sins. You must repent of those sins and accept the grace that has been demonstrated in the act of His becoming man and also his resurrection. And in His Grace We can have great hope.

How does it work with God stepping out of heaven and yet he is still in heaven? This is the mystery of the Trinity. God the father, son and Holy Spirit are all distinct persons. He is not limited to our sense of one body and single place and time.

Have Hope In God’s Grace (31-43)

Ben hadad servants beg him to parley a truce with Ahab because they have heard that he is merciful. That he wouldn’t continue to destroy them to the last man like other kings. Ahab seems happy to let Ben hadad live and also taker back a lot of land that His father lost or had taken, really.

Perhaps the cities taken in 1 Kgs 15:18–22 will revert to Israel, but that is a high price to pay for guaranteeing a dedicated foe will survive. Apparently Ahab hopes to buy peace and friendship. He may have his eye on the Assyrians, hoping that a treaty with Syria will strengthen him against this threatening eastern power. He will in fact go to battle with Syria against Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in 853 B.C. Whatever advantages he may imagine his mercy will gain, he soon learns the price he will pay.

With Ahab looking forward perhaps at bigger fish, he decides to let Ben Hadad live and orders a servant to keep him alive and don’t let him escape. But he does and Ahab is livid. But the Man is one of the Prophets and in verse 42 And the prophet said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Since you have let go from your hand the man I had designated for destruction, your life shall be forfeited in place of his life, and your people in place of his people.’”

Application

You don’t control God’s Grace.

This does not mean you can lose it. it means you can’t earn it.

Ephesians 2:8 For By Grace You have been saved through faith

Titus 2:11 CSB

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

In Ahab’s case, we are all destined to die. But in chapter 21, Ahab repents and he experiences God’s grace again. 27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. 28 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”

Conclusion:

Advent is all about Hope. We are waiting for the Lord to Come. To be with us. And so we know that part has been fulfilled. And know we have hope and confidence that he will come again because God’s word says it will happen. It may not happen anything like we think, but that is not as important as it actually happening. In all of the waiting, there is a lot of time, and we can have hope in God.

Through His Son, God the father has protected his people from His wrath. Ahab was at one point more afraid of another man, kind of like Elijah was afraid of Jezebel instead of fearing the Lord. But God sent word to both of them to comfort them and know that They were protected.

God kept Ahab alive to give him the chance to Repent. If you are saved, perhaps you have a similar story that you can say, yes God has kept me alive to get me to that point and then to do Kingdom work. OR perhaps you don't know and you are feeling hopeless and lost or know someone who is. Then you can repent of your sins and accept God’s gift of Grace for your life. and take your rightful place as an heir of God.