CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 20:22. At the return of the year—לִתְשׁוּבת השָׁנָה. with the beginning of the year—the spring—until which time the winter rains would prevent another campaign.
1 Kings 20:24. Put captains in their rooms—Not mere military ornaments, but experienced warriors. Benhadad now realises that he is engaged in no trifling conflict, to be airily undertaken and easily won.
1 Kings 20:26. Went up to Aphek—In the valley of Jezreel, not far from Endor (1 Samuel 29:1), “the largest plain of Palestine, where, from the times of Joshua to Napoleon, so many great battles have been fought” (Keil). There is also an Aphek near Bethshemesh, on the mountains of Judah (Joshua 15:53), where the Philistines lost the ark in battle (1 Samuel 4:1).
1 Kings 20:30. A wall fell upon 27,000—Interpreters say, by miracle or earthquake; but most probably the fugitives crowded on to the old walls and attempted to make a stand against their pursuers, whereupon the walls gave way under the weight and pressure burying the vast host in their ruins.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 20:22-30
THE SUPREME POWER OF JEHOVAH VINDICATED
I. Against the flippant calumny of the heathen (1 Kings 20:22-23). The Syrian chiefs placed the God of Israel on the same level as their own heathen deities, and attributed their failure to the power of the Israelitish gods, who were gods of the hills. The local power and influence of deities was a fixed principle of the ancient polytheism. Each country was considered to have its own gods; and wars were regarded as being to a great extent struggles between the gods of the nations engaged in them. But not thus could the God of Israel be localised. His omnipresence, as well as his omnipotence, must be vindicated; and the slanders and misconceptions of the heathen answered in a way they could understand. It is one of the most mournful results of sin that it distorts the true idea of God; and there are those to-day who have even less noble ideas of His being and attributes than many of the ancient heathen. Jehovah is continually declaring His power and godhead—in His works, by His ministers, in the events of His Providence, in the story of redemption.
II. By means apparently disproportionate (1 Kings 20:24-27). The Syrians were numerous—“filled the country”: the Israelites were comparatively few—“like two little flocks of kids.” The Syrians were well appointed: the Israelites but indifferently equipped. The Syrians chose their own battle-ground where their peculiar method of chariot warfare would have everything in its favour: the Israelites cautiously kept to the hills, and for six days harrassed the invaders as they marched along the plains, until on the seventh day the battle was joined, and it would seem to a spectator that the little band of Israelites would be instantly swallowed up by the Syrian hosts. But Jehovah is not confined to numbers, or to the best-considered human methods. He makes the weak things of the world confound the things that are mighty, to show that the excellency of the power is not of man, but of God.
III. By gaining a signal victory over the enemies of His people (1 Kings 20:29-30). Through the might of the Lord the Israelites were again victorious. They fell upon the Syrians, and slew great numbers of them. Seized with panic, the rest fled to Aphek, where a wall, probably cast down by an earthquake, crushed some thousands more in its fall. The vain boasting of the heathen was silenced; the Syrian host was scattered, and their king a fugitive and a suppliant. They had learnt that Jehovah was something more than the god of the hills. How terribly was their blasphemy rebuked! A day is approaching when all the detractors and enemies of God will be overthrown and punished, and the glory of His Name vindicated in the presence of an adoring universe.
IV. For the instruction of the nations (1 Kings 20:28). The Lord has no delight in war, nor does He take pleasure in the death of the wicked; but He is jealous for His own honour. The Israelites do not deserve deliverance; but the Syrians have blasphemed Him by denying His attributes of omnipotence and omnipresence, and this sin of theirs must be punished. By destroying the Syrians Jehovah shows in the eyes of all the nations round that He is not the god of the hills only, but also of the valleys. It was similarly a denial of Jehovah’s power which brought destruction on the host of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35). All the actions of God are full of significance, and are intended to reveal Himself more distinctly to the world. The more Jehovah vindicates His character, the higher the blessedness possible to man.
LESSONS:—
1. The presence of Jehovah is not confined to one locality.
2. Jehovah is specially jealous of His glory.
3. It is in great defeats that man discovers his own helplessness and the Almighty power of a righteous God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 20:22-30. The two victories over the Syrians were designed, according to the declaration of both the prophets who foretold them, to effect that thou (the king) and ye (the entire nation) may know that I am Jehovah—that is to say, that Jehovah is the only true God, the God of Israel. In this declaration we have specified the purpose of the entire narrative, and, at the same time, the standpoint from which it is comprehended. That day on Mount Carmel, if it did not put an end to idolatry at once, had at least broken its power, as was already evident from the mere fact that the prophets were no longer persecuted and put to death, but could again go about openly, and continue the work begun by Elijah. Still the conversion was by no means complete, but rather, being weak, it needed support and strength from above, if a complete relapse was to be prevented from setting in. This assistance came from a display of the power of Jehovah, a power which rescued in a time of great need and distress. The attack of the Syrian king who had grown so mighty threatened Ahab and his kingdom with destruction. At this crisis God, who never forsakes His people, repeatedly grants them the victory, which was so extraordinary and wonderful that it could not possibly be ascribed to human power and strength, but only to God, to His might, His grace and truth. We have thus, in this account, not merely an ordinary history of wars, but a part of the divine history of salvation before us. Although the first victory is a marked evidence of the saving might and grace of Jehovah, the second, by which the entire Syrian power was destroyed, was for Israel, as well as for the Syrians themselves, a still more remarkable proof of the fact that Jehovah was no mere mountain and local or national divinity, but that the whole earth was His, and He was God of all nations (Exodus 19:5; Psalms 24:1). He who reduces the God of Israel to a mere local or national deity, as is so often done even now-a-days, stands on the same footing with the servants of the king of Syria (1 Kings 20:23; 1 Kings 20:28).—Lange.
1 Kings 20:22-25. The invariable symptoms of warlike policy. I. Restless vigilance and expensive preparations (1 Kings 20:22). II. A facility in finding reasons for recent defeat (23, 24). III. A thirsting for revenge (1 Kings 20:25).
1 Kings 20:22. God purposeth the deliverance of Israel, yet may not they neglect their fortifications; the merciful intentions of God towards them may not make them careless; the industry and courage of the Israelites fall within the decree of their victory. Security is the bane of good success. It is no contemning of a foiled enemy; the shame of a former disgrace and miscarriage whets his valour and sharpens it to revenge. No power is so dreadful as that which is recollected from an overthrow.—Bp. Hall.
—The advice of the prophet, Go, strengthen thyself, &c., is applicable in another and higher sense to us all. Our enemies are not idle, they are constantly returning to the attack. Even if we have by the help of the Lord obtained a victory over sin, the world, and the devil, that is not all there is to be done; we must, even after the victory, be on our guard and arm ourselves, so that the enemy may not fall on us unawares (1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:10; 1 Peter 5:8).
1 Kings 20:23-25. The evil counsellors of Benhadad. I. They urge him on to war and battle instead of counselling peace, because their pride was wounded, and their hope of booty had been frustrated. Place no confidence in the man who incites you to begin a quarrel. II. They plead religious reasons, and make use of the superstition of their unwitting lord. It is possible for a bad unholy thing to become confirmed through superstition; the man who plants himself on truth, however, will not permit himself to be deceived on such a foundation. III. They shove the blame of the ignominious defeat on to the thirty-two kings, instead of seeking for it in themselves. A man always prefers to find the cause of his own misfortune and distress in another’s rather than in his own sin and guilt.—Lange.
1 Kings 20:23. What doltish conceits doth blind paganism frame to itself of a godhead! As they have many gods, so finite: every region, every hill, every dale, every stream hath their several gods; and each so knows his own bounds, that he dares not offer to encroach upon the other; or, if he do, buys it with loss. Who would think that so gross blockishness should find harbour in a reasonable soul? A man doth not alter with his station: he that wrestled strongly upon the hill, loseth not his force in the plain; all places find him alike active, alike valorous. Yet these barbarous Aramites shame not to imagine that of God which they would blush to affirm of their own champions. Superstition infatuates the heart out of measure; neither is there any fancy so absurd or monstrous, which incredulous infidelity is not ready to entertain with applause.—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 20:26. Benhadad followed their foolish and perverse advice, because it was entirely in accordance with his own wish. So strong and overpowering is sinful desire in the human heart, that even the bitterest dispensation and chastisement of God suppresses it only for a time, and, as soon as the external impression ceases, it breaks forth afresh.
1 Kings 20:27. The conditions of victory. I. Are not always decided by numbers. II. Are in the hands of God. III. It is vain for the most powerful armies to fight against the Divine purpose. IV. Valuable lessons are gained by defeat.
1 Kings 20:28. The declaration of the Divine Majesty. I. Is made by competent messengers. II. Seen in the overthrow of blasphemous detractors. III. Is intended to teach and reassure the people of God.
1 Kings 20:29. Nothing among mortal affairs is so inconstant as temporal prosperity. There is a time for everything. For that reason let no man place his dependence on his good fortune, and exalt himself on its account, for he does not know whether he shall possess in the evening what was his in the morning.—Wurt. Summ.
1 Kings 20:30. We may suppose a terrific earthquake during the siege of the place, while the Syrians were manning the defence in full force, which threw down the wall where they were most thickly crowded upon it, and buried them in its ruins. The great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755 is said to have destroyed 60,000 persons in a little more than five minutes.—Speaker’s Comm.
—“Benhadad fled into an inner chamber.” Glad to hide himself in any hole. So Manasseh, that faced the heavens in his prosperity, in trouble basely hides his head among the bushes (2 Chronicles 33:12). Gidlimer overcome by Bellisarius and besieged, sent to beg of him three things:
1. A piece of bread to ease his hunger;
2. A sponge to dry his eyes;
3. A harp to cheer up his heart, well-nigh broke with grief.—Trapp.