Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com. Like I said, we'll be in 1 Kings chapter 20. We're in this section dealing with Ahab and specifically Ben-Hadad, his relationship, the king of Syria with Ahab, king of Israel. looking at this portion looking at these prophets as they interact with Ahab and his choices that he is making and how the prophet gives advice, what he gives from the Lord. Last time we saw King Ahab as he faces that initial conflict with Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad comes to Samaria, and with 32 kings, he besieges it, and then goes and tells Ahab, give me your best wives and your children, and those demands Ben-Hadad comes back with further demands and then finally Ahab finally goes and seeks counsel and advice and it begins this war between Ben-Hadad and Ahab. There's a battle that then takes place. Ahab, Ben-Hadad seeks to be able to boast, and remember that famous line that Ahab turned around and said that, don't boast until you take your armor off. Boasting, when you have your armor on, putting your armor on is easy, but taking it off is the difficult thing. And then finally the first prophet comes up and tells Ahab to go fight. The Lord is going to hand the battle over to him that through this victory Ahab would know that the Lord is God. But Ben-Hadad had the numbers but yet Israel won victorious. And then The prophet then warns Ahab that the Syrians will come back in the spring. Springtime was battle time, that you'd go out and fight your battles. And so Ben-Hadad comes again. There's three things that he says that they're going to do different. We're not going to fight them in the hills. We're going to fight them in the valleys. We're going to, instead of having governors, we're going to have commanders. And so they take these, think that maybe if they fight a different way, then they're going to win this battle. But yet they are not necessarily fighting Israel, they are fighting Israel and their God as the conflict was between Baal and Yahweh before within Israel in 1 Kings chapter 18. So now we see this that is happening here. So we saw last time that we should not underestimate God and His power. He is more powerful and stronger. And now we see the outcome of this. We need to be able to see. Now prior to getting to this we need to just make a brief note. Last time we were together we looked at this verse here that of the comment there to be able to take them alive. He says, if they come out for peace, take them alive. I didn't necessarily have a good answer to a question that followed up our last discussion, and so I did a little bit more research. There are many different views of what has happened. One of the strongest ones for it to mean that, you know, don't take them, don't kill them, but to keep them alive, was that you were to that this was one of the things that confused the troops and hence why they didn't win the victory. They ran out thinking they had their clear commands and then they were like, well what do we do now? We are meant to keep them alive but we couldn't do that. But the key point throughout all of that wasn't necessarily that decisive line there in verse 18. The key point was here Israel won against Ahab. didn't matter if they changed their plans, it didn't matter if they were confused, it was all come down to God's glorious victory. It wasn't due to Ahab's righteousness, but God was upholding His promise that He would make, that He was going to keep a remnant within Israel. And that he was still serving them as their God. He shows grace to Ahab. Again the prophet warns him that this happens so that you may know that I am the God, the God Yahweh. So even though Ahab is wicked, unworthy, God's faithfulness still shines through. And God delivered his people even though they were unfaithful. And even his sovereign power to be able to use such a small number to be able to defeat such a great number as well. continues as we go through theirs. But before we get started with the story we need again to be reminded of a couple of things. The first is 1 Kings chapter 19 this should be in the back of your minds as we are going through all of this section all up until 2 Kings chapter 8 and 9. You know this is kind of the what's happening, what's going to happen, spoiler alert type notice that we get throughout the Bible. But in verses 15 to 17 God tells Elijah what's going to happen. that he tells Elijah to go back to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive you shall anoint Hazael the king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi, and you shall anoint him to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Ebal Meholah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. and the one who escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death." So here we are told that there is going to be a new king in Syria, Hazael. There is going to be a new king in Israel, Jehu, and then Elijah is there. Elisha will then replace Elijah. So, this is the judgment that is coming. So, Syria is going to get punished for their wickedness. comes through the hand of Hazael not Ahab. And I think that is important as we think about how this story plays out that God knew exactly what was going to happen through His providence. But we also need to be able to understand that here Ben-Hadad is deserving judgment and destruction. We will see this clearly next week as the prophet rebukes Ahab. But here It's important for us to be able to see destruction is coming. How does that yield? The second thing we need to be able to remember is this prophet coming in and speaking right at the right time. Now we've had two prophets so far. Ahab does something and then a prophet enters in to be able to tell and instruct them. what is going to happen next, or what should have happened. And so, we are in the first part of the third prophet. We are not going to get to the prophet's response that begins in verse 35. But we need to remember that this back and forth is always happening in this section. There are six, seven prophets that enter in that kind of talk to Ahab. And so, it is important for us to be able to remember there is always this, we should always be asking, when is Hazael going to come to the throne? But then also, when's the prophet going to walk in? That's kind of what we're assuming there. And the third and final thing is we need to be able to remember what happened at the end of last week. And that's after this second battle, and Ahab is victorious with the Lord's help, defeating the Syrian army. They went and they encamped opposite one another seven days and on the seventh day the battle was joined and the people of Israel struck down the Syrians, 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. And the rest fled to the city of Ephek and the wall fell upon 27,000 men who were left. Ben-Hadad also fled and entered into the inner chamber in the city. So here, Syrian, the Syrian army has been defeated, 127,000 people destroyed through this war, this battle. And now we have against these two flocks of goats that were said, they were so small, they were like a couple of small flocks of goats. But here, Ben-Hadad flees, and now he's in the middle of the city. So Ben-Hadad begins chapter 20 by besieging Samaria. Ben-Hadad's outside, and Ahab's inside. He can do nothing, and now the opposite has returned. So he's hiding himself in the city of Ephek. The walls fell down around it, so the city's quite weak, vulnerable. But here in the middle, you have Ben-Hadad with his advisors in the bunker. And they just witnessed this great defeat. They'd seen 127,000 people. And it seems like the second battle lost as many as the first battle. So there's quite a lot, 256,000 people who were destroyed throughout all this time. 254,000, sorry. And remember that oath that Ben-Hadad had made at the beginning of the chapter. Ben-Hadad sends to Ahab and says, the gods do so to me and more also if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me. So here he was saying I'm going to bring Samaria down to the dust and yet now the irony of this is quite quite shocking. So what does his servant say? He's in this bunker in the middle of the city and what does he say? They turn to him in verse 31, and the servant said to Ben-Hadad, Behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put sackcloth around our waist and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life. So as they're sitting in here, they don't have many options. They turn back to what they've heard of these kings, these kings of Israel. And they said, they're merciful kings. Now, This is a good thing to hear, right? That they are gracious and merciful. Why they hear this? Is it something true around the water coolers that the kings conference as they go in and they talk and they talk about the top of the charts of merciful kings is Israel. Now what it can mean is just quite simply that, that they are merciful. That they are gracious and merciful as God is gracious and merciful to them, then they are gracious and merciful to other people. They show compassion on those who are around them. One commentator puts it this way, of a aroma of grace of Yahweh clearly hangs in the air around Israel. For Ben-Hadad's advisors say that they have heard the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. There is little in the narrative of kings to provide evidence of this fact but it seems that somehow this impression has been made. So they're not sure how this came about but So it can be just merely merciful. The second interpretation is that it's more speaking of loyalty. This is the word that is used, that they're merciful, that they're chesed kings. Chesed is a word that has a wide range of meaning. Often it's used of God's faithfulness towards his people. His steadfast love is how often it's translated. And so it doesn't, it could also mean that it is that they're loyal. They're loyal to their friends and allies. And so this might be a comment that says, you know, they might help you. I think in the context that it really takes on that first meaning though of that mercy is all Bible translations translate has said that way merciful. And I think that's what you see in how they interact and what they say, that perhaps he will spare your life. That is really the definition of mercy. What does he deserve? He deserves death, but what does he seek? He seeks mercy. We see this clearly. Now, in the past, there has been relationship between the Israel and Syrians. Ben-Hadad Senior, in 1 Kings chapter 15, has an alliance, a covenant with Israel. it's when King Asa goes and says, well break your covenant with Israel so you can defeat Israel for me. And so this call also could be in mind that there was some form of covenant. Is there some covenant at the moment? It doesn't appear so in chapter 20 it seems that Ben-Hadad is trying to claim Israel for his own. So, We're not sure exactly what happened to this covenant, if there's one existing, but here they're known to be merciful kings. But what we then see is that they seek mercy, but the way that they go about that mercy is quite an important thing for us to pay attention to. That they go and they say, they're merciful kings, so let us put on sackcloth and ashes, a rope around our head, and let's go, and perhaps he will spare our life. Ben-Hadad's a good politician. He knows how to play to the cameras. He knows how to be able to work his way around that. So that's exactly what they do. They put on the sackcloth. Now this is important for us to be able to pay attention to here because I think it comes up again several times in Kings, one with Ahab and another with Hezekiah. This is the external sign of repentance. One commentator says that here the advisors have one last roll of the dice. They have no other options. This is their last chance. But we need to be able to put this in our filing cabinet, in our memory filing cabinet, because this is something that we need to pay attention to. What does Ben Haddad do? He puts on sackcloth and goes to find and seek mercy. And so we see this with Hezekiah. Hezekiah tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went to the house of the Lord. And so here he is, priests are covered with sackcloth. Hezekiah is one that we see true repentance come from, a king that truly repents, who shows his heart, for God. And so we see a king put on sackcloth, but we also need to pay attention because this is exactly what Ahab does in chapter 21. After he hears this word of another prophecy that we'll get to eventually, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. So we need to be able to put this back in our minds that just because we're putting on sackcloth, just because we're doing the external things, does not then mean that it's true repentance of the heart. Just something for us to be aware of that here's an occasion that will come up again. So what did they do? They followed their advice, the advisor's advice. They put on sackcloth, they tied sackcloth around their waist, verse 32, and put ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel and said, your servant, Ben-Hadad, says, please let me live. And so here we see that, what are they playing to here? They're playing to that he would be a merciful king, not necessarily a loyal king, but a merciful king. And so he says, Ahab said, does he still live? He is my brother. Now the men were watching for a sign and they quickly took him up from him and said, yes, your brother, Ben-Hadad, Then he said, go and bring him. And Ben-Hadad came to him, and he caused him to come up into the chariot. And so Ahab's presented with this opportunity now. And so they come and say, you know, Ben-Hadad, your servant. Again, the start of chapter 21, what was he? He was a master coming in to be able to take the plunder of a defeated kingdom, as Ben-Hadad sought. But now he's your servant. Ben-Hadad, please let me live. It's a very weak opportunity for a king to be able to beg for his life and that's what Ben-Hadad is doing here. And so Ahab turns around and he says, does he still live? So again, this destruction of the city is quite widespread. There's 127,000 men died just because of this wall crushing. So it seems a surprise to Ahab that here he lives, but his next response is, he's my brother. Prior to this, he was your enemy. He was coming in to be able to take your wives, your children. He was trying to fight you in battle, destroy your city, your capital city of Samaria. He was seeking to be able to mock you, ridicule you. And now he said, well, he's my brother. He's the same blood as me. And so the advisors say, this is the sign we're looking for. Here's the mercy that we were seeking. And so they, yes, yes, your brother, Ben-Hadad. And then so they bring him and Ben-Hadad came to Ahab. And what does Ahab do instead of destroying him, putting him to destruction, he invites him up into his chariot. Now we saw this with Elijah running beside the chariot of Ahab after the rain came. And this was a sign of support, external support, an endorsement. And so now, Ben-Hadad is invited into the chariot of Ahab. And so Ben-Hadad realizes that he has been shown mercy. Ben-Hadad says, the cities that my father took from your father, I will restore. And you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria. And Ahab said, I will let you go on these terms. So he made a covenant with him and let him go. And so Ben-Hadad brings up that story of what happened between Bashar and Asa, the kings in 1 Kings chapter 815, most likely during this sign when Ben-Hadad Senior went and made an allegiance, a covenant with Asa, King Asa, then one of the cities that they took from Bashar was Damascus. And so they, gets the city back of Damascus. The second thing is that he gets to be able to set up these market stalls in Damascus, in effect, in the cities, to be able to set up these, just as Ben-Hadad had done in Samaria. There's a trade agreement between these two countries here that is very helpful. And Ahab agrees. He makes a covenant with him and lets him go. And it seems that that's the end of the story. That's how we would assume a gracious, merciful king was someone shows the sign of repentance, and so he shows mercy and grace to them. And so we think that that's the end of the story, that it begins with this conflict with Ben-Hadad, and now that it ends with them being friends. But that's not the end of the story. We need to be reminded of what happened with Saul and Nahash. Nahash was that evil king that came and threatened the tribes and Benjamin and what was he told? He was to be put to destruction by Samuel. And so here, the opportunity presented itself to Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 15, but he doesn't. He takes their plunder, he takes their things, he lets the king live, because he wants that alliance, that covenant there. And so he's rebuked by the prophet Samuel, and Samuel ends up destroying the wicked king Nahash. But we need to understand that here we've seen God's grace and mercy shown to Ahab, The wicked king, and yet he's shown favor. He will be punished for his wickedness, but not yet. But during this time, God constantly shows him grace by sending prophets to be able to warn him. Now we also, I think, need to be able to understand something that we would often think this as something that showing mercy is a good thing. We think about the parable of the wicked servant who's forgiven his debts and then he goes and tries to be able to claim the debts of another. But I think that's really hard for us to be able to see in this passage, particularly because we've got a scenario that we'll look at next week, a story next week that we see that Here the prophet comes and rebukes Ahab for his actions. He tells him in verse 42, because you go out of the hand of man, I devoted to instruction, therefore your life shall be for his life and your people for his people. Here he's rebuked for not striking down this wicked king, Ben-Hadad. That's a strange thing for us to be able to think about. It is a strange thing, but I think it's important for us to be able to understand what's happening during the story. Two other prophets have come before, and both other times the prophet has come, they'd ended with this line in verse 13. Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab, king of Israel, and says, thus says the Lord, have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Verse 28, And the man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, Thus says the Lord, because the Syrians have said, The Lord is the God of the hills, but not the God of the valleys. Therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Why do these things happen? Both these victories over this battle happen so that Ahab would know that he is the Lord. And again, as we look at this section about listening to the prophet, seeking the prophet's advice, now we need to understand that there's hypotheticals that can be unhelpful. What should Ahab have done in this situation? Well, most of us probably would have done exactly what Ahab did. It was a great political move. He's shown, has been strong, victorious, yet merciful. And now he has Syrian King, Ben-Harad, owing him quite a few favors. A great trade agreement, great for the economy, bring back Damascus, and what a good thing that is for the realm of Israel. And we would have chosen that bargain as well. Now we already know that Ben-Hadad can be sold out as he was with King Asa. As Ben-Hadad Senior annulled his covenant, that his promise really means nothing. But at the very least Ahab should have sought the advice and counsel of the prophet. Twice before prophets have come and given him advice of how he should proceed particularly with the battle. And now the battle is over, he at very least should have sought the prophet's advice. Now actually what we'll see next time is he should have destroyed Ben-Hadad. That's what he should have done. He's rebuked for not doing that, specifically because God has devoted him to destruction. But what I think is glaringly absent from all of this is Ahab's response towards God, not merely just to Ben-Hadad. He goes and He makes a covenant with Ben-Hadad when he should have gone and renewed his covenant with Yahweh. He doesn't show any worship, doesn't show any gratitude, nothing is given to the Lord. One commentator puts it this way, whatever advantages he may imagine his mercy will gain, he soon learns the price he will pay. But really, he somehow thinks that maybe he won this battle on his own. He completely forgets about God and what God did. Why did the prophets come and he warned him, so you will know that I am the Lord. But yeah, he's not turned to that. He used God, you might say, for personal gain. So he might be a better king in the eyes of the world. But what can we learn from this? If we ever have a battle with a wicked king, and God has destroyed the enemy, and we come out in front of us with sackcloth before us, how should we act? Well, if we're gonna interpret the Bible that way, we're very limited to be able to understand, because that scenario, I doubt, will present itself before us. But maybe when the enemy comes to be able to seek to destroy us, maybe when problems arise, when you face your Ben Hadad's, people might be able to apply that. But what's the core issue here? God has shown Ahab grace and mercy. Grace and mercy by sending prophets to be able to tell him, for him to be able to listen, but also grace and mercy for him to be able to show God's power and sovereignty over all things. that our response shouldn't be that then we just turn to the ways of the world to be able to try and find some agreement or some more comfort on our part. Our response is as God delivers us and shows us grace and mercy, we are driven to worship Him. Psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 116, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people." The response after we receive those benefits is praise and worship and adoration. What happened to the large number of people as they waited for the destruction to come upon the Pharaoh's army? And they thought they were outnumbered, they were done. God had sent them out there to be able to bring them to destruction in the wilderness. Why couldn't we just die in Egypt? But yet their response after that salvation come, after God had delivered them and saved them, they had the song of Moses. It begins this way, that the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord. that their response was praise and worship and glory to God. I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. Their response was to worship God. Now could this song not be sang at the walls of effect? The Lord has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider he has crushed underneath the wall. The Lord is my strength and my song. But how often are we much like Ahab as we are shown grace and mercy and what do we do? We go about our daily business. We don't show him glory and honor. We see time and time again God's faithfulness in comparison to our unfaithfulness. And we go down that path. There's a story that Luke tells about Jesus. In Luke 17, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered her village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance. and lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed." Here they're shown mercy and grace. What's the response? Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered, were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return to give praise to God except this foreigner? He said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. So often I think that we have the same response as the other nine. who when shown God's grace and mercy, we merely just, we don't understand that it's grace and mercy. But here this Samaritan man is healed, and his response is the correct one to be able to praise God, to worship God, and yet Ahab doesn't do this. We'll have to tune in next week to be able to see how the prophet be able to respond to Ahab's foolish choice. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com Seven Springs Presbyterian Church began in 1874 and is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America located in Glade Spring, Virginia. Please join us for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. for His Glory and His Gospel.