The Importance of Obedience. 1 Kings
20:1-ff
1 Kings chapter twenty
doesn’t even mention Elijah but he is very much in the background. We focus in
this chapter though on what God is doing in working out His discipline on the
northern kingdom of Israel and specifically on the house of Ahab. This fits
perfectly within the flow of what is taking place between chapters 18 which
focused on the event on Mount Carmel where God showed that he is God, the Lord
and creator of the universe and is in control, the theme which continues
throughout these next two or three chapters. God is making this clear in
several interesting ways and the focus on chapter twenty fits within this
theme; He is showing to Ahab that He is God. This is an expression of God’s
grace. God continues to reach out to Ahab to challenge him with the truth of
His existence, and this is a tremendous reminder to us of God’s continuing
grace in our lives and that even when we are disobedient and rebellious and
even ignore Him, nevertheless He continues to reach out to us in grace. There
is always the opportunity for us to recover and to be restored to fellowship.
But there is a warning, an implicit warning, that if we push things too far we
can come under the sin unto death.
What we see in this chapter
is an emphasis on two different doctrines: on the one hand the grace of God and
on the other hand the judgment and discipline of God for those who are
disobedient. If we were to take one word that sort of focuses our attention on
the key doctrines in this chapter it has to do with obedience. There are those
within the grace camp that emphasize the grace of God who have somehow got the
idea that obedience equals legalism. That is just not true. Legalism is the
idea that by doing certain things, going through certain motions, that just
those actions and acts themselves somehow impress God and he blesses us because
we do those things. That is the essence of legalism—if we go to church, if we
read our Bible every day, if we pray, if we memorize Scripture, if we give a
certain amount of money, God blesses us because we do those things. So in
legalism the emphasis is on the actions themselves rather than what is really
going on in the believer’s own individual life and walk with God. A grace
orientation to the spiritual life doesn’t mean that we don’t have to read the
Bible, don’t have to pray, don’t have to witness and don’t have to give; in
other words, we don’t have to be obedient. A grace orientation focuses on the
fact that obedience is a response to God’s grace and goodness because we want
to align ourselves with His Word in obedience to what He says and in gratitude
for what He has given us, not in order to gain favor. We recognize that the
grace that we receive from God is not based on what we do, it is based on what
Christ did; it is based on His righteousness and His character which was given
to us at salvation, and because we have His righteousness we are saved. It is
His righteousness that is the basis for God’s grace blessings to us, not on
what we do.
The reason we are to be
obedient is because that is aligning ourselves with the way God created things;
it is aligning ourselves to the reality of God’s Word. When He has these
various mandates/commands in Scripture and prohibitions that that is designed
for our wellbeing and our spiritual health, physical health in some cases, and
moral health, because that is how He had designed reality. So obedience isn’t a
bad thing.
When
we look at various things in Scripture that talk about obeying His commandments
we always have to pay attention to where we read those on the Scripture. Are we
reading in Exodus, Leviticus, John, Galatians or Ephesians? The focus of
obedience changes in terms of the context of these books historically and the
dispensation in which they were given. In the Old Testament obedience is
directed to the Mosaic Law to Israel because that was the controlling covenant for the Old
Testament period for Israel. But in the New Testament the focus is on that which
is revealed in the New Testament, the mandates and prohibitions that are there
for believers. We obey these because it is expected of us. We are responsible
for how we live sour lives as members now of God’s royal family. There is a code
of conduct for those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
disobey Him we are out of fellowship and in a position where God will bring
discipline on us, but He always precedes that discipline with grace. We see
that principle of grace preceding judgment all the way through Scripture and
even when we see despicable characters like Ahab we just wonder why God
continues to reach out to him in grace. Even though Ahab’s sins are much more
obvious than most of ours sin is not something that is qualified in such a way
that there are better sins and there are worse sins, all sin, any sin, no
matter how light it is, is just as obnoxious to God and just as much a
violation of His character as a sin such as mass murder or child abuse or any
of the other horrible things we can think of. God deals with us in grace just
as he deals with Ahab.
Chapter
20 is rather simple to cover. It involves a couple of different battle scenes,
battles which take place between Ahab and Ben-hadad II who is the king of Aram, no referred to as Syria. At the beginning we have this act of Ben-hadad who
is just a drunken bully coming down with 32 allies to try to intimidate Ahab
into giving up all of his wealth and just to let the Aramaeans come in and
plunder the northern kingdom. But God sends a prophet to Ahab and says He is
going to give Ahab victory. What a gracious thing! We have seen how horrible
Ahab is and this victory that God gives him is pure grace. Ahab doesn’t deserve
it. As we see this invading army coming in from the north perhaps the first
thing that would occur to us is that we are going to see another stage of
divine discipline in the northern kingdom as they are defeated militarily. But
as we read further that God sends a prophet to tell Ahab that He is going to give
him victory over Ben-hadad we might ask just what is going on here. Why is God
being so good to Ahab? And it doesn’t have anything to do with Ahab. What a
great picture of salvation! God saved us and it doesn’t have anything to do
with us. It has to do with something prior to all of that, it has to do with
the character of God, His plan and His purposes for the northern kingdom. It
goes back to the Abrahamic covenant and to aspects of the Mosaic covenant; and
so God is continuing to deal with Israel on the basis of these covenants, on the basis of His
character and not on the basis of who they are and what they do. So there is
gong to be this great victory in the first part of the chapter, and then there
is a second battle at Aphek. Following this there is another little episode
where another prophet comes to Ahab and acts out a drama in front of the king,
in the process of which there is going to be a judgment announced on Ahab
because he has continued to resist the grace of God.
1
Kings 20:1 NASB “Now Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army, and there {were} thirty-two
kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it.” The 32 kings would probably
be smaller kings of city states in the area of Aram. [2] “Then he sent messengers to the city to Ahab
king of Israel and said to him, ‘Thus says Ben-hadad, [3] Your
silver and your gold are mine; your most beautiful wives and children are also
mine.’” Ahab uses a certain amount of diplomatic skill here and he is wanting
to draw Ben-hadad out in terms of his real motivations for what he is going to
do. So he decides to give them to Benhadad. [4] “The king of Israel replied, ‘It is according to your word, my lord, O
king; I am yours, and all that I have.’” He is sort of calling Ben-hadad’s
bluff a little bit. The messengers go back to Ben-hadad who decides to ask for
even more. He is acting like a typical bully coming in and wants to knock Ahab
around a little bit and run off with all his valuables. So he sends other
messengers.
1
Kings 20:5 NASB “Then the messengers returned and said, ‘Thus says
Ben-hadad, ‘Surely, I sent to you saying, “You shall give me your silver and
your gold and your wives and your children,” [6] but about this time tomorrow I
will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of
your servants; and whatever is desirable in your eyes, they will take in their
hand and carry away.’” So at this time Ahab calls his council together and
explains what is going on. [7] “Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, ‘Please
observe and see how this man is looking for trouble; for he sent to me for my
wives and my children and my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him.’ [8]
All the elders and all the people said to him, ‘Do not listen or consent.’” In
other words, if Ben-hadad wants a battle we’ll give it to him.
1
Kings 20:9 NASB “So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my
lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do,
but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him word
again.” Notice how respectful Ahab is in the diplomatic interchange. The way he
expresses this in the Hebrew is not “I cannot do,” it is “I may not do.” He is being
very tactful in the way that he is handling to situation. So the messengers go
back with the word to Ben-Hadad and Ben-hadad swears an oath, much like the
oath that Jezebel swore against Elijah in the previous chapter. [10] “Ben-hadad
sent to him and said, ‘May the gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria will suffice for handfuls for all the people who
follow me.’” In other words, he is saying may I end my life if I haven’t
reduced Samaria to just a couple of handfuls of dust by this time
tomorrow. This isn’t just a flippant saying. Oaths like this were considered
very serious in the ancient world; he is putting his own life on the line, as
it were.
1
Kings 20:11 NASB “Then the king of Israel replied, “Tell {him,} ‘Let not him who girds on {his
armor} boast like him who takes {it} off.’” In other words, don’t act as if you
have already won the battle yet; we haven’t even fought so don’t take your
victory for granted. When Ben-hadad heard that he gathered his kings together
and they decided to prepare for battle by getting drunk. That’s always a great
idea, we know right away that their orientation to reality is a little off,
that they are overwhelmed and blinded by their own arrogance, and so they
decide to prepare for battle by having a great party. By noon they are already drunk and their ability to think
clearly has been destroyed. And it is at this time that a prophet comes to
Ahab.
1
Kings 20:13 NASB “Now behold, a prophet approached Ahab king of
Israel and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Have you
seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver them into your hand
today, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” We might wonder why in the world we need to pay
attention to this, it just seems like the history of a battle in Israel so what is the spiritual impact here. Pay attention
to what God is doing through the prophet. This happens about three times in the
chapter and that gives us the orientation as to how it has application for us.
Remember
that Elijah said in the last chapter, O Lord there is no one left but me. So in
this chapter through these unnamed prophets God is showing that are other
prophets there in the northern kingdom that are just as obedient as Elijah and
they haven’t bowed the knee to Baal either. This is one of the 7000 who hadn’t
bowed the knee to Baal.
We
don’t know how large this army was that Ben-hadad had with him but they
probably outnumbered the Israelites 10 or 15 to one. It was a huge number when
they had this kind of a coalition force gathered together just against a small Israel and the city of Samaria. God promises that it doesn’t matter how big the
opposition is the battle is His, not theirs—“and you shall know that I am Yahweh.” Ahab, didn’t you get that figured
out a few months ago when we were on Mount Carmel? Didn’t
that make an impression on you? It didn’t. The important point to remember here
is that no matter how great the miracle or how powerful the theophany of God is
the real issue in life doesn’t have to do with people’s reason or experience,
it has to do with their volition. When their volition is set against God it
doesn’t matter how much evidence is put in front of them. They may have a
superficial, emotional change for a short time but if they have set their heart
against God it is not long before they go back to their old ways. Peter called
that a dog returning to his vomit. So once again Ahab has to have a little
extra sensory demonstration of God’s power and reality.
1
Kings 20:14 NASB “Ahab said, ‘By whom?’ So he said,
‘Thus says the LORD, ‘By the young men of the rulers of the provinces.’
Then he said, ‘Who shall begin the battle?’ And he answered, ‘You.’” God has
not only said that He would give them victory but He was also going to give the
means to victory: the right thing has to be done in a right way. The “rulers of
the provinces” were the key leaders who came out of different regions and
formed up an elite group of warriors within the Israelite army.
1 Kings 20:15, 16 NASB “Then he mustered the young men
of the rulers of the provinces, and there were 232; and after them he mustered
all the people, {even} all the sons of Israel, 7,000. They went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the
temporary shelters with the thirty-two kings who helped him.” Notice the number
7000. There is a correlation with the previous reference to 7000 “who have not
bowed the knee to Baal.” This can’t be coincidence, it has to be reminding us
of what God had told Elijah. It was those positive believers who were
responding to the call for troops. It shows again that it is believers who are
oriented to the Word of God and rightly oriented to an understanding of God’s
plan and purposes in history, who understand the importance of the nation and
the defense of the nation, and these are the ones who respond to the call. They
go out at noon and Ben-hadad and those helping him were getting
drunk at the command post and are well prepared now for defeat.
1 Kings 20:17 NASB
“The young men of the rulers of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad
sent out and they told him, saying, ‘Men have come out from Samaria.’” When Ben-hadad sees the 232 coming out he is told
that it was too small of a group to be an armed attack. He is not sure if he is
being attacked or whether they are coming out to negotiate, so what is he going
to do? [18] “Then he said, ‘If they have come out for peace, take them alive;
or if they have come out for war, take them alive.’” It is such a small group,
just surround them and take them all alive. As they did that, because of the
tactics of these young warriors, when they Aramaean army surrounded them they
attacked. They attacked in every direction. 1 Kings 20:20 NASB “They
killed each his man; and the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them, and Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen.”
1 Kings 20:21 NASB
“The king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and
killed the Arameans with a great slaughter. [22] Then the prophet came near to
the king of Israel and said to him, ‘Go, strengthen yourself and observe
and see what you have to do; for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you.’” Ahab needed to go and
prepare because this was not the end of this, they are going to come back. The
second attack comes up in the next verse. This is going to take place at Aphek.
There are several villages and town in Israel named Aphek and most believe that
this refers to the Aphek that is near the present day Eingev—“ein” relates to a
spring and so this relates to a spring on the east side of the Sea of Galilee.
This area is that is now known as the Golan Heights. It
has always been in dispute between Syria and Israel.
1 Kings 20:23 NASB
“Now the servants of the king of Aram said to him, ‘Their gods are gods of the
mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight
against them in the plain, {and} surely we will be stronger than they.’” This
is what happens in human viewpoint when nations and leaders are operating apart
from a biblical framework of truth, because they have to reinterpret reality in
terms of their rejection of God. And so they make fundamentally flawed
decisions. This is the same kind of thing that we see going on in the world
today as leaders in the west seek to continue to act as if Islam is not the
militant, radical religion that the Koran presents it to be.
1 Kings 20:25 NASB
“and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and
chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely
we will be stronger than they.’ And he listened to their voice and did so. [26]
At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek
to fight against Israel. [27] The sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet
them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats,
but the Arameans filled the country.” There was quite a difference is size. Israel is just overwhelmed. Then God speaks.
1 Kings 20:28 NASB
“Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, ‘Thus
says the LORD, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The LORD is a god of
{the} mountains, but He is not a god of {the} valleys,” therefore I will give
all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” Notice,
God takes this personally. Before he was trying to demonstrate to Ahab that He
was God; now He is going to demonstrate to the Syrians that he is not a small
little hill god, and so His honor, His character, His person is at stake and he
is now going to once again deliver Ahab. It doesn’t have anything to do with
Ahab or what he has done or hasn’t done; it has everything to do with God and
His character once again. When the day of the battle comes, [29] “So they
camped one over against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle
was joined, and the sons of Israel killed {of} the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one
day.” In the ancient world if you lost 100 troops in one day that was a serious
defeat. So we can multiply that by 1000 and we have an extremely serious
defeat. [30] “But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on
27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an
inner chamber.”
Then we get to the last
point which is the real focal point of this chapter. 1 Kings 20:31 NASB
“His servants said to him, ‘Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the
house of Israel are merciful [chesed,
the word for being loyal to a covenant] kings, please let us put sackcloth on
our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he
will save your life.’” This presupposes a covenant between the Aramaens and the
northern kingdom preceding this, and so they are saying that they would plead
with Israel and they will be faithful to that covenant and will
not kill us. So they are going to dress up to them is sackcloth, etc. This is
how they would dramatize their repentance, their sorrow, and their obedience
and submission to the king of Israel, and maybe he will spare their lives. Ahab is going
to release Ben-hadad and let him live.
1 Kings 20:33 NASB
“Now the men took this as an omen, and quickly catching his word said, ‘Your
brother Ben-hadad.’ Then he said, ‘Go, bring him.’ Then Ben-hadad came out to
him, and he took him up into the chariot.” They described Ben-hadad as
“brother,” he is other royalty; Royalty doesn’t like to execute other royalty,
once regicide begins you never know when it is going to stop and so they don’t
like to kill other kings.
1 Kings 20:34 NASB
“{Ben-hadad} said to him, ‘The cities which my father took from your father I
will restore, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.’ {Ahab said,} ‘And I will let you go with this
covenant.’ So he made a covenant with him and let him go.” This goes back to
Ben-hadad I who had taken the area of Naphtali which is most of the sea on the
west side of the Sea of
Galilee all the way up to
Dan. That is described in 1 Kings 15:13-20.
Now we get to the real
spiritual point of the chapter. 1 Kings 20:35 NASB “Now
a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the word of the LORD, ‘Please
strike me.’ But the man refused to strike him.” The idea was that he wanted someone
to knock him hard around the head so that he would have a head wound, would be
all bloodied, and look as if he had come out of the battle. He is doing this
under the authority of God. The person he goes to would have understood that
but he just can’t do it. But this was a command from God, a command from the
prophet is a command from God, and so the act of disobedience brings immediate
consequences. [36] “Then he said to him, ‘Because you have not listened to the
voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion
will kill you.’ And as soon as he had departed from him a lion found him and
killed him.” Instant divine discipline: sentence of death for disobeying a
direct command from God under these circumstances.
1 Kings 20:37 NASB
“Then he found another man and said, ‘Please strike me.’ And the man struck
him, wounding him.” He had heard about the first man. So the prophet is
bloodied because he has to be prepared for the little street drama that he is
going to put on before the king. [38] “So the prophet departed and waited for
the king by the way, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. [39]
As the king passed by, he cried to the king and said, ‘Your servant went out
into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man
to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he is missing, then your
life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’” In
other words, this wounded prophet who is playing a role here says, I was in the
battle and was given a prisoner to guard, and I was told that if the prisoner
escaped then I would pay for it with my life or with a talent of silver. A
talent of silver would be about 75-pounds of silver, and that is worth about
$15,000 on today’s market. This was a tremendous amount of money for this
individual would have paid in order to redeem his life from the death penalty.
[40] “While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” And the king of
Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself
have decided {it.}” Ahab just says, well that’s your punishment.
At
that point the prophet pulls off the bandage to reveal who he is and the king
recognized him as one of the prophets. 1 Kings 20:42 NASB “He said
to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of {your} hand the man
whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life,
and your people for his people.’” This is the same kind of drama Nathan played
before David. [43] “So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and came to Samaria.” That means he is angry and depressed because God
had just given him the death penalty for his disobedience. God had extended
grace to him and grace to him and grace to him: more and more evidence of His
reality and His existence and Ahab continued to disobey or to partially obey.
God brought judgment.
Obedience
is a critical issue in a believer’s life. The elements that are important in a
believer’s life are faith—because we trust in God, we believe His Word and we
trust in His promises. Because we believe His Word is true that leads to the
implementation and application of His Word, and that is obedience. When we get
into the New Testament in John 14 where Jesus makes it very clear what the
issues are in terms of obedience. John 14:15 NASB
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Jesus is giving the disciples
their marching orders for the church age. This is not being legalistic, it is a
demonstration of our response to Him, to His grace. John 14:23 NASB “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If
anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will
come to him and make Our abode with him.’” This is a promise related to
fellowship.
The
same thing was true in Israel. In Deuteronomy they were told that those who loved
the Lord were to keep His commandments. This is a principle that goes
throughout the Scripture. So in order to show our love for Him, to keep His
commandments, we have to know what His commandments are; we do this through a
study of His Word. We have to know what pertains to Israel in the Old Testament and what pertains to the church
age in the New Testament. But it is by keeping His commandments, by learning to
walk by the Holy Spirit, to abide in Christ, and not stay out of fellowship for
long, that the believer is in a position where God the Holy Spirit matures us
and brings spiritual growth into our lives.
Illustrations