A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

AHAB AND SYRIA
(1 Kings 20)
Elijah was not the only problem Ahab had to face as ruler of Israel. During the reign of
Ahab, Ben-Hadad of Damascus invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel on more than one
occasion. On his first invasion of Israel, Ben-Hadad led an alliance of thirty-two kings against
Ahab. The massive army laid siege to the city of Samaria and awaited the inevitable surrender of
Ahab. In his arrogance, Ben-Hadad sent a message to the king of Israel, laying claim to all of the
assets of the nation. “Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are
mine” (1 Kings 20:3). Recognizing the hopelessness of his situation, Ahab readily agreed to the
terms of surrender.
But the victory had come too easily for Ben-Hadad. He sent the messenger back to Ahab
with further instructions. Not only would Ben-Hadad accept what he had earlier demanded, but
his servants would run an inspection of the homes in the city and take whatever appealed to
them. When the king learned this condition of the terms of surrender, he called together the
elders of the city for consultation. Together they decided they must resist the invading army.
The kings of Syria were already well into their victory celebration when they received the
news the city would resist. The drunk Ben-Hadad ordered his men to prepare for battle as he
continued drinking with his fellow kings. But in the city of Samaria, Ahab received some
unexpected encouragement. A prophet of the Lord informed Ahab the young princes of the
province would aid the king in defeating the Syrian army. Encouraged with this promise of God,
Ahab gathered the 232 princes and an army of 7,000 Israelites and went out to do battle with the
Syrians. “And each one killed his man; so the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them; and Ben-
Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the cavalry” (v. 20).
Though Israel had a great victory over the Syrians, it was not to be the last time that
nation would invade the land during Ahab’s reign. The prophet warned the king they would
return the next year, and the king needed to begin now to prepare for the inevitable battle. The
Syrians themselves evaluated what had happened in the battle and came to their own
conclusions. To their way of thinking, the gods of a nation had different realms of influence and
the best gods could only win where they were strongest. They judged Israel’s god to be a god of
the mountains and their own to be the god of the plains. This meant the reason they had lost was
because the battle had been staged in the mountains. They concluded they could defeat Israel if
they could lure them into a battle on the plains. A year after their defeat, a massive Syrian army
marched into Israel to fight in the plains.
Again, God sent a prophet to His people to encourage them. The prophet explained the
Syrian battle strategy was based on a defective view of the God of Israel and assured them of the
Lord’s intention to give Israel a second decisive victory over the Syrians. A week later the two
armies engaged in conflict with disastrous results for the Syrians. A hundred thousand Syrians
were killed in a single day of conflict. Ben-Hadad and the rest of his army escaped into the
security of the city of Aphek. But even there the invading army was not safe. A portion of the
city wall caved in, killing 27,000 men.
Trapped inside the city, Ben-Hadad could only rely on the mercy of Ahab to escape with
his life. He offered to return the cities his father had taken from Omri and allow Ahab free access
to Damascus. Rather than kill the invading king as was customary, Ahab chose rather to agree
and make a covenant with Ben-Hadad. The king of Damascus escaped with his life, but Ahab
again found himself having offended the God of Israel. The Lord sent a prophet with a message