1 Kings 20:42

31-43 This encouragement sinners have to repent and humble themselves before God; Have we not heard, that the God of Israel is a merciful God? Have we not found him so? That is gospel repentance, which flows from an apprehension of the mercy of God, in Christ; there is forgiveness with him. What a change is here! The most haughty in prosperity often are most abject in adversity; an evil spirit will thus affect a man in both these conditions. There are those on whom, like Ahab, success is ill bestowed; they know not how to serve either God or their generation, or even their own true interests with their prosperity: Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. The prophet designed to reprove Ahab by a parable. If a good prophet were punished for sparing his friend and God's when God said, Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, w...

Verse 1 Kings 20:42. _THY LIFE SHALL GO FOR HIS LIFE_] This was fulfilled at the battle of Ramoth-gilead, where he was slain by the Syrians; see 1 Kings 22:34-11....

A MAN WHOM I APPOINTED TO UTTER DESTRUCTION - or to חרם _chērem_, i. e., a man on whom My curse had been laid (Leviticus 27:28 note)....

EXPOSITION THE INVASIONS OF ISRAEL BY THE SYRIANS AND THEIR RESULTS.—The insertion of this chapter, which contains an account of two invasions of Israel by the hosts of Syria, and of the utter defeat of the latter, and which therefore constitutes a break in the history of Elijah, which has occupied the historian up to the end of 1 Kings 19:1; and which is resumed with 1 Kings 21:1.—the insertion of this twentieth chapter in this place is apparently due to the compiler of these records, who seems to have adopted this arrangement as the more chronological. It is not absolutely certain, however, that we owe this disposition

AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, THUS SAITH THE LORD,.... He spake not his own sense, and in his own words, but in the name of the Lord, for which he had authority, that it might have the greater weight with Ahab: BECAUSE THOU HAST LET GO OUT OF THY HAND A MAN WHOM I APPOINTED TO UTTER DESTRUCTION; meaning Benhadad; or "the man of my anathema or curse" w; cursed of God for his blasphemy of him, and devoted by him to ruin on that account; or "of my net" x, being by his providence brought into a net or noose at Aphek, out of which he could not have escaped, had not Ahab let him go: THEREFORE THY LIFE SHALL GO FOR HIS LIFE; as it shortly did, and that by the hand of a Syrian soldier, 1 Kings 22:34, AND THY PEOPLE FOR HIS PEOPLE; which was fulfilled by Hazael king of Syria, the sins of Israel rendering them deserving of the calamities they endur

4. KING AHAB: HIS WICKED REIGN AND END CHAPTER 20 Ahab's War with the Syrians and His Victory _ 1. The siege and relief of Samaria (1 Kings 20:1)_ 2. The victory at Aphek (1 Kings 20:22) 3. A prophet's symbolical action and his message (1 Kings 20:35) Two expeditions of Ben-hadad (son of the Sun) against Israel are recorded in this chapter. When Ben-hadad forced the war and insulted the King of Israel, Ahab prepared for the battle. Then a prophet came to Ahab, most likely one of those who had been hidden by Obadiah. He brought a message from the Lord. “Thus saith Jehovah, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou sha

AHAB'S DEATH FORETOLD FOR SPARING BENHADAD. This section reminds us of 1 Samuel 15, Saul's sparing of Agag. It does not appear to be part of the foregoing narrative, but may be of great antiquity. The sin of Ahab, like that of Saul, seems commendable in our eyes, but to the Hebrews it was the most deadly of all the violation of the _herem_ or ban (pp. 99, 114), the sparing of a person devoted to Yahweh (1 Kings 20:42). The sons of the prophets are mentioned here for the first time in the Bible (1 Kings 20:35)....

_a man_ R.V. THE MAN. For the whole multitude, and of course the king above all, had been delivered into Ahab's hand (see 1 Kings 20:28), and the victory was to be an evidence that Jehovah had fought for Israel. _appointed to utter destruction_ R.V. DEVOTED TO DESTRUCTION. This was the purpose for which Ben-hadad had been brought into Ahab's hand. The literal rendering is -the man of my banning", whom I have laid under a ban. It is used Isaiah 34:5 -the people of my curse"....

DISCOURSE: 351 AHAB’S SIN IN SPARING BENHADAD 1 Kings 20:42._ And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast 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._ IN every page of the Holy Scriptures we are reminded, that the Lord disposeth of all events according to his sovereign will, whilst at the same time he suits his dispensations to the conduct of mankind. Between the parties spoken of in our text there was little difference with respect to their desert before God: Ahab was an idolatrous Israelite; and Benhadad was a proud atheistical heathen. God appointed them, as his instruments, to punish each other: his primary purpose indeed was to destroy the heathen prince, and to rescue from his tyranny the king of Israel. For this end, God left Benhadad to follow the di

THUS SAITH THE LORD, BECAUSE THOU HAST LET GO, &C.— The offence which God threatens to punish thus severely in Ahab, consisted in his suffering such a blasphemer as Ben-hadad to go unpunished, which was contrary to an express law, Leviticus 24:16. If it should be urged, that this was nothing to Ben-hadad, since the law concerned the Israelites only, the reply is, that this law extended not to those only who were born in the land, but, as it is there expressed, to strangers likewise, who were among them and in their power, as Ben-hadad certainly was. God had delivered him into Ahab's hand for his blasphemy, as he had promised, 1 Kings 20:28 and therefore this act of providence, compared with the law, did plainly intimate that he was appointed by God for destruction. But so far is Ahab from punishi