Word Weld

Ahab

5. Ahab’s War With Syria

1 And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. 2 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad, 3 Thy silver and thy gold is mine, and thy waves also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. 4 And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. 5 And the messengers came again, and said, Thus saith Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; 6 Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants, and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.

I Kings 20:1-6

In chapter 20, we see that Syria invades Israel, being Israel’s northeastern neighbor. Benhadad was apparently a title name passed down among the Syrian kings, similar to “Caesar” in the Roman Empire. The name just means, “son of Hadad.” Hadad, however, was the proper name of the god Baal, whom the Syrians also worshipped. Baal was more like a title, while Hadad was the god’s given name, similar to how “Lord” is a title, while “Jesus” is a proper name. Thus, the Syrians, just like the Zidonians, and Ahab and Jezebel, were also worshipping Baal. In addition, the Syrian kings had taken to calling themselves “Benhadad,” or the “son of Hadad,” or the “son of Baal,” in an attempt to deify themselves, similar to how the Pharaohs of Egypt had done for a long time. He was basically claiming to be Baal, to have the authority and power of the storm god. So he takes his army southwest past the Sea of Galilee and to Samaria, to confront Ahab who also worships Baal. The passage says that he also brought with him 32 “kings,” along with horses and chariots. These “kings” were likely lesser governors or rulers of city-states within Syria, possibly generals or noblemen, who formed a coalition force with Benhadad at this time, meaning that rather than just a skirmish, this was an all-out invasion of Northern Israel.

Benhadad, having surrounded the city, then sends messengers to Ahab, telling him essentially to surrender whatever gold and silver he had in store, along with his wives and children. This is interpreted by Ahab as a typical thing. Benhadad, who has a vast army and clearly could besiege the city until it fell, has issued a form of truce. He offers Ahab a price, the understanding being that he would leave the city alone if Ahab complies. It might be tempting to lump Ahab’s compliance here in with the rest of his selfish and disappointing behavior, but that would be a mistake. Remember, this is a formal negotiation, the outcome of which is supposed to be Benhadad not destroying the city. So Ahab’s compliance is actually to avoid what he considers to be a losing war. Israel has already suffered three years of famine and things are still not good, and he knows that he cannot win against Benhadad’s massive host. So he agrees to whatever demands are made. He refers to Benhadad as “My lord,” which is the Hebrew word adon, a word that means “master” or “owner,” and is translated both ways in the Hebrew text. It is also a more general form of the word that is one of God’s titles, Adonai. This word is used because it conveys humility and submission, and is often used by servants to those above them, or as a sign of respect, such as when Sarah refers to Abraham using the same word. In short, Benhadad is demanding Ahab’s loyalty, not only as an invading king with a superior force, but as a representative of the deity that Ahab worships, requiring his loyalty.
But, to Ahab’s surprise, this is not enough. The customary negotiation does not satisfy Benhadad. After Ahab humbly complies, Benhadad sends more messengers, telling him that he is to show them everything that he likes in his whole kingdom, and they will forcibly take it away from him. This is anything but ordinary, and Ahab knows it.

7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not. 8 And the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent. 9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought him word again.

I Kings 20:7-9

So Ahab responds by rejecting this additional proposal. He correctly interprets that Benhadad is not interested in Ahab as one of his subjects, to become the 33rd king in his coalition. Rather, he is seeking to destroy Ahab and Samaria and everyone in it. The elders and princes and rulers of Israel, when they hear what Benhadad has said, and even the people at large, perceive this as well, and tell Ahab that there is no point in complying at this point: Benhadad is set on war. So, Ahab sends word back, saying that he will submit to Benhadad and pay him tribute and become his vassal, essentially, but that he will go no further. He will not go down in utter humility, surrendering his people to destruction. The word “may” there actually refers not to permission, but to ability. The word can even have a moral connotation, implying that Ahab actually has a bit of a spine here. That will fall flat once we talk about Naboth in the next chapter, but for now he stands strong, insisting that while he will pay tribute and serve Benhadad, he can’t just roll over in humiliation and let the Syrians destroy the city without a fight. Predictably, Benhadad issues an ultimatum:

10 And Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me. 11 And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. 12 And it came to pass, when Benhadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city.

I Kings 20:10-12

“The gods so unto me, and more also.” This is a phrase used often in ancient times that was a statement of (usually hostile) determination. Jezebel uses it in chapter 19:2, when she sends a messenger to Elijah, who has just killed all of her prophets, to tell him, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” It was a kind of mild oath, invoking their gods to punish them if they did not make good on their threat. Ruth even uses the phrase to Naomi, and uses God’s name, when she says, “The LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part me and thee.”

He also uses another idiom of the time for the second half of his threat. He says that the gods should do so and more, if the dust of Samaria should suffice for handfuls. “Dust” in this expression refers to the ruin of the city, its rubble, ashes after being burned, basically whatever is left when the battle is over, and handfuls just means the hollow of the hand. So he is basically Ahab that he is going to destroy Samaria so utterly that afterwards, if his men start taking the ashes of the city in the hollow of their hands, there won’t be enough for everyone. This is basically a fancy way of saying Samaria is about to be completely and utterly destroyed, and everyone in it slain, just as Ahab and the people of Samaria suspected he wanted all along. But then Ahab, who is objectively one of the worst people in the Old Testament, does something that seems pretty impressive. He sends word back, and says, “Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Now, the word harness in this passage is italicized in the passage, which means that it was not in the original Hebrew. It was added by the English translators to help with the context since within the Hebrew language it was implied but not written. This isn’t really a problem, because this happens a lot in English translations, even the KJV. Without it, this passage would just say, “Let not him that girds with a show as someone who ungirds.” Hebrew speakers of the time would immediately know what this meant, but the English translators, to make it clearer, use the word “harness,” which comes from a French word meaning military equipment (sword belt, breastplate, etc.). Ahab says, “Benhadad, don’t boast of winning before the battle’s even been fought.” Or, if you will, “Don’t count your chickens before their hatched.”
Of course, Benhadad takes great offense at this, and uses it as an excuse to begin the attack. Remember, there are 32 kings with him, and as we will see later his army numbers well over a hundred thousand men, along with cavalry and chariots, the latter of which were basically like tanks in the ancient world. By contrast, as we will see in a moment, Ahab had 232 noblemen to lead the battle, and only 7,000 foot soldiers. Clearly, there was some bravery in our wicked king, as he certainly knew that from a human perspective, he would not win this battle. You don’t beat an army of over a hundred thousand with 7,000 men and a few hundred noblemen. Ahab didn’t even have any chariots, and probably not many horses. Samaria has just come out of a massive famine, and only just has started to plant and harvest crops again to feed its people. They are at an all-time low right now.

But God is patient with Ahab. You could say that the iniquity of northern Israel was not yet full. God was not willing yet for Israel to be cast out of the land, despite the fact that they deserved it. God had used Moses a long time ago to tell them that if they left Him, if they forsook His law and His Word, and followed other Gods, that He would allow them to be consumed by their enemies, and that time is coming. But not yet. God, the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament, is longsuffering, giving Ahab and Israel more time to repent, and that means doing something about Benhadad, who has decided on his own that it’s time for Israel’s story to end. So God sends a prophet, but not Elijah. Elijah has fled from Jezebel and is in mountains having a personal session with God, as sometimes His servants do need from time to God. But we’re going to stay focused on Ahab as much as possible as we go through this. So God sends another prophet to Ahab, one of at least three, that we know of, which speaks even more to God’s incredible mercy with this extremely wicked man.

13 And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the LORD, hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 14 And Ahab said, by whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou. 15 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty and two: and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.

I Kings 20:13-15

Ahab may be a wretched man and Baal-worshipping idolator, but he is also “in a foxhole” at this point. He knows Israel stands no chance against this massive Syrian army with their chariots, their horses, and their vast numbers. And what does he have? Seven thousand half-starved men with the strength and weapons to fight, and a few hundred noble princes. He can’t depend on his army to defeat this foe, and he can’t rely upon his chosen deity, since even if wanted to keep believing Baal was real, the religion has been completely decimated. At this point he would be hard-pressed to find a living priest of Baal. So when a prophet comes from God, boldly now, for even his own soldiers obeyed Elijah at Carmel, and tells him that God, the real God, the one who sends the fire, will cause him to triumph.

There are some people, even in the Bible, who might scoff at this. Gideon himself, though on God’s side, feared to take on the Midianites with only 300 men, but to his credit, this godless idolator does not question what God will do, he just gets right to the details. “Ok, prophet,” he might have said, “I’ve seen God send the fire, so how is this going to go? Who will I send to fight?” He’s ready to go, eager to see God’s salvation, even when he is told that it will involve personal sacrifice. He is told that the leadership of Israel, their princes will go out to fight, but when he asks who will lead the charge, and the prophet lets him know that he will be the man at the forefront. And again to Ahab’s credit, he does not hesitate. He numbers his people, readies them for battle, and goes out with them.

16 And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him. 17 And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Behadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out of Samaria. 18 And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. 19 So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the army which followed them. 20 And they slew every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and Israel pursued them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with the horsemen. 21 And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and the chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter.

I Kings 20:16-21

Ahab, though a pagan by all rites, is desperate enough to put his life in God’s hands. He has seen God do what He says. He’s seen the fire, he’s seen the rains go and come at God’s Word, and now when God tells him how to survive this hopeless situation, he goes out with his nobles, followed by the seven thousand soldiers he still had left, and go out to fight against a host likely at least ten times larger than their own. Benhadad’s force is so much stronger than Ahab’s that he commands his people to take Ahab and his men alive, even if they have come out with the intent to fight. And I believe part of the reason for Israel’s victory is Benhadad’s own pride and vileness. He is so sure of victory that he isn’t planning a strategy or hyping his men up for a hard battle, he is drunk in his tent, and gives the order to take these men alive, as they could not possibly be a threat. And God, by His patience with Ahab and a the need to humble Benhadad, allows Israel to prevail. The 232 princes and Ahab go out and slay “every one his man.” This is an interesting Hebrew phrase that means that each of these 232 men, and Ahab, defeated and killed each man that came to him. It was like watching a Jason Borne movie if there were 232 Jason Bornes. God had somehow made these men unstoppable. The idea that 233 men go into battle, and the first 233 men who come to them all die. And this event puts such fear into the surrounding men, who had expected an easy battle, based on how their king had behaved, and instead ended up fighting supermen, flee. Ahab pursues them in a chaotic rout, destroying the Syrian chariot, horses, and men in a tremendous victory.

But it’s not over, and here we see one of the big reasons for God allowing Ahab to win this battle. It wasn’t just that Ahab needed to know that the Lord is the Lord, that the Lord He is the God. Benhadad and the Syrians needed to know it to.

22 And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 23 And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. 24 And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms: 25 And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. 26 And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 27 And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. 28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said the LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

I Kings 20:22-28

The prophet returns to Ahab after the battle and warns him that Benhadad will return in exactly a year. Ahab has an entire year to prepare, yet even in a year, when he is done strengthening his army, the Bible says that his army still looks like two tiny flocks of baby goats compared with their enemies. He lets Ahab gather his strength as much as he can, and realize that still he is nowhere near able to face the battles before him.
And no matter how much we think we are prepared for the tests that will come our way, they will always be greater than we can handle. You can stuff your savings account for years, only for an illness to clean you out. You can get a new car, thinking that will put all of your vehicle expenses to rest, but it could be a total lemon. You can order your home, your job, your kids, your whole life, only for a single trial to bring it all crashing down. Ahab probably thought after a year that he would be able to raise a big enough army to stand toe-to-toe with Benhadad, especially after his first victory and Benhadad’s numerous losses. But after a year, Ahab wasn’t really any better off militarily than he had been the first time. Maybe he had more than 7000 men, but Benhadad had returned having replaced every man, horse, and chariot in his host, something that would have been difficult and costly. Reminds me of some other passages in Scripture:

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psalm 20:7

And:

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.

Psalm 118:9

And:

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Isaiah 31:1

God told Ahab to strengthen himself in the year. He wanted Ahab to see that not only could He hide Elijah from Jezebel, and send fire to destroy the Altar at Carmel, and win a decisive victory with very few soldiers, but that no amount of Ahab’s strength would make any difference in the end. God wanted Ahab to see that whether at his best, or at his worst, he couldn’t beat Benhadad. And neither can we. Whatever Benhadad you face in your life, be it homeschooling, or raising children for the first time, or a new job, or facing those health problems you never thought you’d have, no amount of your own resources, preparation, or effort will get you through. And that probably rubs you the wrong way, if you’re like me. “Am I doing all this for nothing?” No, you’re not, because God told you to do your best, just as He told Ahab to get ready. But not so your efforts can win the day, so that you will learn to obey God enough to do the work He has for you, and trust God for the outcome no matter how bleak it might seem. This is true as a father or as a mother, as a young person in college and a retired person, live doesn’t somehow magically get easier over time. New evils replace the ones before. Different challenges rise to meet us as we go through our lives, but one thing must be constant: our dependence upon God. We must all learn to balance our faith and our work, not letting one exist without the other for there is a problem either way. And hopefully someday we’ll study that out at length in a study in James.Benhadad returns, with a host equally intimidating, and fills the countryside, dwarfing Ahab’s very best. But Benhadad makes a huge mistake. He does the same thing that Ahab and the Israelites had done at Carmel: he puts God on the level of one of their fictional supermen, their “gods.” He has gone to his wise men, counsellors, priests of Baal (remember, he portrayed himself as a son of Baal or as an incarnation of Baal), and obtained their advice. They have told him that the reason for his catastrophic defeat last year is what I would term “religious geography.” Of course, the problem you had, Benhadad, son of Baal, was that the Hebrews worship a god of the mountains! Maybe they had heard about what happened on Carmel, and that was how they explained away that event, and continued to believe in Baal. Maybe that was how Ahab had thought about it. Maybe that was how Jezebel justified continuing to push Baal on Israel when she heard the story. We don’t know, but that’s at least the story the Syrians were peddling. This Jehovah is a God of mountains, but you get Ahab in the plains and Jehovah will be powerless. But God never claimed to be a God of the mountains, nor did He only do miracles on mountains. They likely heard about Carmel and said, “Well, He’s a God of the mountains!” While ignoring all of the stories about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, getting bread from nowhere, and their shoes never wearing out, and having the earth swallow up the unbelieving, or stopping the sun so they could finish their battles. But any lie is better than believing in God to some people, no matter how absurd it is. Even as we go through the Old Testament we see the same things taught in the New Testament: God must be believed on faith. There will never in this life be so much evidence that you will have to believe in God. There will always be a way to explain it another way, and we see it. Ahab and Jezebel have seen God’s miracles, and still choose to follow their own way. But let us not pick on Ahab too much. After all, even Elijah, in chapter 19, which we skipped, has doubts, though he has literally performed the miracles himself! Think about that for a minute.

I don’t know about you, but to me it calls to mind the passage in Matthew 11, and the parallel passage in Luke 7, where John the Baptist sends word to Jesus. If John and Elijah, some of the most powerful prophets of the Bible, men who were used of God yet were men of like passions with us, could doubt, could falter, cannot we? And why should we think it so strange and horrible when we do? We need to remember what God has done, and not let ourselves think that He can change. We need not to think that the God who brought me and my wife together when it seemed so unlikely will not also keep us together through every argument or fight; that the God who gave us seven children when we never thought we would have one would give us the wisdom and guidance to raise them; that the God who has never once failed to provide our finances would meet that next need just as faithfully; that the God who preserved this church and added to it will fail to keep and preserve it through the difficult times ahead; that you can trust Him now because you chose to trust Him before, and He never failed.

God tells Ahab, “I let you beat Benhadad last time to prove to you once again that I am God, but this time it’s not just that. It’s because Benhadad has tried to lower me to the level of his idols, to say I am just one of the gods in the pantheon, in the many pantheons, and I will show him I am the God, no matter where he chooses to fight you. You both will know that I am God, again.”

29 And they pitched on over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. 30 But the rest fled to Aphek into the city: and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.

I Kings 20:29-30

Once again God empowers Ahab’s little army. We are not told how big it was, but even if it was double what it was last time, that’s still only roughly 15,000 men against at least 127,000, over ten times more than Ahab can boast. And once again Ahab’s puny army utterly devastates Benhadad and the Syrians, killing 100,000 men in the battle. The remaining Syrians flee, and then God intervenes again, killing another 27,000 in their own city by making a wall collapse upon them. Not only does this kill a huge number of them, it also allows Ahab to take the city without a seige. When God is on your side, there is nothing that can stand in your wave, and God had a plan to save Israel in spite of Ahab.

After Carmel, Ahab hadn’t really changed, we see that. And we’ll see it again in a moment, but I think it highly likely that the people of Northern Israel in general had returned to God at least somewhat. They may still have been worshipping at Jeroboam’s calves, but they had definitely returned to Jehovah, as He had said that that was the desired outcome of the confrontation at Carmel and the return of the rains. In his prayer on Carmel, Elijah had said that “thou hast turned their heart back again,” and following that event, all the people had said, “The LORD he is the God,” and supported Elijah killing the prophets of Baal, even to the very soldiers Ahab depended on. So in spite of Ahab, God was using him to bring deliverance. And this is a familiar story if you read the book of Judges, isn’t it? Judges like Samson and Jephthah were hardly good examples for the Israelites, or us looking back at their examples, yet God chose to use even these “vessels of dishonor,” if you will. Perhaps one of the greatest examples in Scripture is the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. All of these people are in the Bible to let us know that God can use anyone, even those who consider themselves enemies of God. Got has even used Satan himself, as we see in the Book of Job, to accomplish His perfect plan. And that is an incredibly encouraging thought. For one, if God can use Godless people for His purpose, can He not use us who try to serve Him, no matter our own personal failings and shortcomings? And secondly, it is important to realize that even when evil men seem to have all the power, it is completely an illusion. Benhadad could have had a million men in his army, and missiles and fighter jets, and Ahab would still have ridden to victory, not because of his own greatness, but because God had said, “I will deliver them into your hand.”

But unfortunately, we can’t conclude chapter 20 on a high note. Like so many of us, Ahab doesn’t seem to learn anything. And I suppose that is also an example for us. Following his tremendous victory, which is really God’s victory (since God proved that He was able to humble Benhadad’s army with a rebellious Israelite king, or just a wall), Ahab finds Benhadad hiding out in Aphek, where the remainder of his army has fled, just east of the Sea of Galilee and on the road back to Damascus. There, in an inner chamber, Benhadad’s counselors, most likely the same ones who assured him that Jehovah could not defeat him in the plain, come up with a plan to save the king’s life.

31 And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life. 32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, is he yet alive? he is my brother. 33 Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it: and they said, Thy brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. 34 And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.

I Kings 20:31-34

Couple of notes about this interaction. First, the idea of rope on the head was a symbolic gesture similar to the sackcloth. It sent the message that they were already ready to be bound or hanged and probably destined for that end, but were humbling themselves before Ahab. This worked on Ahab, who having been debased by Benhadad earlier could not help but be puffed up in himself by this display by Benhadad and his servants. Rather than giving God the glory for this victory, he fell into the trap of believing himself to be a great conqueror. Ahab receives Benhadad’s servants, and seems surprised to learn that Benhadad he is still alive. He might have been genuinely surprised, after all it was a great slaughter and sometimes it took days to find the leaders’ bodies in such warfare. But he might also have just been boasting, as if he didn’t even notice or care about Benhadad at all. Either way, he follows this by saying, “He is my brother.” Why Ahab does this is not clear from the text. It could be that he was simply thinking militarily that if he killed Benhadad he would just have to keep fighting the Syrians forever, or that he did not have the manpower to conquer all of Syria and maintain it. It is also highly likely that since he never wanted to have war with Syria to begin with, he was happy to make peace with Benhadad, having gained not only security for Israel but honor in having defeated this self-proclaimed son of a god, and in doing so elevating himself to like status. I think this last one is the most likely. The use of the term “brother” was not uncommon and was used by kings broadly to one another to denote their equality. Since Ahab had defeated Benhadad, he wanted to elevate himself in the minds of the Syrians and Israel that he was just as great as this great king, sparing him to also make himself look good. Verse 33 proves that the servants of Benhadad were looking exactly for that, a sign that Ahab was disposed to show mercy, and when he use the term “brother,” they immediately respond with “Thy brother Benhadad,” to reinforce this as an official truce between them. Ahab then makes an alliance with Benhadad and lets him free. This proved to be his undoing.

35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. 36 Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. 37 Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting him, he wounded him. 38 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face. 39 And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. 40 And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself has decided it. 41 And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets. 42 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou has let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. 43 And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

I Kings 20:35-43

Yet again, God had shown mercy to Ahab, and given him a great victory in his life, but he fails to give God the glory, takes it for himself, and disobeys God. God had given him complete victory, this time not permitting Benhadad to escape, and Ahab instead lets him go. The prophet comes to Ahab and feigns to be a wounded soldier, and tells him a very Nathan-and-David-esque story, about how someone asked him to keep a man, or else he would take the man’s place. And just like David before him, Ahab doesn’t make the connection. He tells the man, “Then you get what you deserve,” in a similar statement to David’s anger against Nathan’s fictional rich man. And just like David, he is shocked when he reveals himself as a prophet and tells him, “You are the man.” Naturally, Ahab is greatly displeased. The same God that enabled his victory (something he knew despite how he was behaving) had become his enemy because his ego had gotten in the way. He had followed that way that seems right to a man, and found that it is the way of death.
The message here is a bit nuanced. How do we as adults lead our homes? Do our kids see us obeying God? Do those who are not saved, like Benhadad’s men, hear us saying “he is my brother” about worldly people and acts? I skipped over the little story in verse 35, but I’m swinging back to it, because in a way, it’s kind of a summary of what’s going on with Ahab. A member of the prophets is told to go to Ahab and tell him what the consequences of Ahab’s actions with Benhadad will be. In order for the Ahab to appreciate the word that the prophet brings to him, he must (just as David) be allowed to condemn himself. So by the word of God, the prophet tells another prophet to hit him, so that Ahab will believe at first that he is not one of the prophets. The text says that the prophet tells the other prophet “in the word of the LORD.” That means he did not just say, “Hey man, hit me.” It means he said something to the effect of, “Thus saith the LORD, strike me.” And the man said, “no.” Likely, he thought that he knew what was right and thought God would not ask him to do such a thing. But the prophet was saying it in the word of the LORD, and the other prophet thought his own moral sensibilities were more important. He thought it was best to stay “true to himself,” instead of placing all of himself at God’s control. And ultimately that is what Ahab did as well. Though not a prophet, Ahab was being used by God to exact His judgment on Syria, and Benhadad, who considered himself divine.
We can easily fall into this trap. We apply our own wisdom to anything, including writing Sunday school lessons and sermons. We see God in our lives, because we’re close to Him, but don’t realize that we can fall so quickly. So quickly we can decide to abandon God’s Word. Not entirely, but perhaps in one area, or even just in one decision. And our fellowship with Him is interrupted. For the other prophet, it was the end of his ministry. For Ahab, it meant the end of his rule. It was the same for Saul, and Jeroboam, and so many others. It was the same for the priest Eli, who despite following God Himself decided that he would not judge his own sons because of his love for them. Peter also came dangerously close to this, accepting and depending upon every word that Jesus spoke, yet rejecting until the end the reality of Jesus’ death, something that brought him tremendous shame, and prevented him from standing with Jesus at the cross. We sometimes do not follow God with our whole heart. But there is hope. Samuel did what Eli could not, not excusing his own wayward children. David did what Saul could not, repenting and humbling himself before God. And John did what Peter could not, and stood with Jesus at Calvary. Do we find ourselves disagreeing with God, even in one point? Do we ever, for any reason, ever tell God “no?” I pray that God will find me willing to do anything that He requires.

For Ahab, it would mean the end of his rule, in time. But not today. He went home worried and upset, because he knew that what he had done was wrong, and that God was running out of patience with his wickedness. We are getting close to finished with Ahab, but there’s still more lessons to be learned before we move on.