King Ahab answered, “Tell King Benhadad that a real soldier does his bragging after a battle, not before it.”
“Meanwhile, a prophet went to King Ahab and said, “The Lord says, ‘Don’t be afraid of that huge army! I will give you victory over it today, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”
An oft repeated phrase. May I come to know you more and more, Lord.
The attack began at noon, as Benhadad and his thirty-two allies were getting drunk in their tents. The young soldiers advanced first. Scouts sent out by Benhadad reported to him that a group of soldiers was coming out of Samaria. He ordered, “Take them alive, no matter whether they are coming to fight or to ask for peace.”
What arrogance. An oft repeated scene leading to defeat (1 Samuel 30:16-17).
…the prophet went to King Ahab and said, “Go back and build up your forces and make careful plans, because the king of Syria will attack again next spring.”
These battles were almost never a “one and done” deal (2 Samuel 10).
A prophet went to King Ahab and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Syrians say that I am a god of the hills and not of the plains, I will give you victory over their huge army, and you and your people will know that I am the Lord.’”
Nothing is too difficult for you, Lord (Jeremiah 32:27). May I discover new ways where you show yourself to be Lord in me and my circumstances.
…the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Syrians. The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on twenty-seven thousand of them.