1 Kings 20:28 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

(28)A man of God — apparently not the same as before. We see from 1 Kings 20:35 that the prophetic order was now numerous. The vindication of the majesty of God before the Syrians, as well as before Israel — like the more celebrated case of the rebuke of the blasphemy of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:16-34) — is in accordance with the prayer of Solomon, or the similar utterances in the Psalms (Psalms 67:2; Psalms 102:15; Psalms 138:4), “That all the people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee;” and also with such prophetic declarations as those of Ezekiel 20:9, “I wrought for my Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen.” It is a foreshadowing of that view of all nations, as in some degree having knowledge of God and probation before Him, which is afterwards worked out fully in the prophetic writings. The intense and powerful Monotheism of the religion of Israel, in spite of all its backslidings, could hardly have been without influence over the neighbouring nations (see 2 Kings 5:15), especially at a time when the remembrance of Solomon’s vast empire, and still wider influence, would yet linger through the tenacious traditions of the East.