When you think the battle is over, you may face your greatest danger and experience your greatest defeat. Ahab, King of Israel, was but a poor creature, and, like most weak characters, he turned out a wicked one, because he found that there were more temptations to do wrong than inducements to do right. Ahab is a sad witness to the truth of Proverbs 29:1, "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.". ‘And he said, “Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, take them alive.” ’. He has no right to gratify his benevolent instincts at the expense of the community. Where Elijah was at this time, or why he was not employed, we have no means of determining. Probably he had the fate of the other before his eyes. Even with this check to his boasting, Ben-hadad learned nothing. But Benhadad was not satisfied with that. For the fulfilment o! To submit to the superior power and force that demands gold and silver is no disgrace; but to surrender wife and child is contrary to honour, duty, and conscience. II. We have never so much cause to fear as when we fear nothing" (cf. There is nothing that the bulk of people are more unwilling to do than steadily to think about what life is as a whole, and in its deepest aspects is. thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest. (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. In vain did the Syrians change their ground and remodel their army. The Lord fights for him. The Initial War With Benhadad (1 Kings 20:1-21). You intend to make the best of life. and Vulgate, however, have understood it otherwise, taking חָלַט as the equivalent of חָלָץ rapuit. But the Hebrew text is to be preferred. Why remove the kings? To those who are most advanced in the divine life—, [To you, no less than to others, is this counsel of great value. Possibly, the unusual stir in the city, the mustering of the troops, etc; had led to his sending out scouts before the young men issued from the gates. These numbered ‘seven thousand’ (seven military units). (3) Survey the battlefield after the strife. This chapter proclaims that neither any people nor its rulers can forget God with impunity; that disregard of His laws is sure to bring down His judgments; that the purgatory of nations is in this life present; that, while the individual awaits a judgment to come, the community is judged now, by sword, and famine, and pestilence; by invasion and defeat; by loss of fame and territory; by bad harvests and crippled trade. But it also speaks to nations and kings. It is very far from certain that had Ben-hadad sent to demand the wives and children which Ahab here seems willing to yield to him they would have been sent. The goodness of God leads us to repentance only as we pass in before the Lord through the gates of praise. You have no desire to find yourself crushed and defeated. In his view Ahab at that stage was simply suffering the consequences of his disobedience and his trust in Baal, and as far as the author was concerned that had been brought out more effectively in the passage about the great drought. 2. II. "Mortals have many tongues, immortals have but one." It is much more difficult to take men alive than dead, and his officers would know what the consequences would be for them if too many of their opponents died after they had received that command. Ben-hadad, therefore, was doomed of God], therefore thy life shall go for [Heb. Adonijah Sets Himself Up as King. 1 Kings 18:21 — King James Version (KJV 1900) 21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? But Ewald, al. All us old people, whose deficiencies and limitations you see so clearly, had the same dreams, impossible as it may appear to you, fifty years ago. Did you ever find a Christian stayed up with pillows in his bed boasting of what he had done? So it might be with some who seem strongest in Christian faith. We ought to be able to say concerning our schemes, plans, or endeavours: “This thing is the fruit of my thought, and I can justify it. “What act is all its thought had been?” Hand and brain are never paired.