Tuesday, March 23, 2010

1 Kings 20

4 comments:

Jude said...

A good read but ancient politics are a bit confusing to me and Ahab really baffles me calling King Ben-Hadad brother.

Where exactly Ahab disobeys God is vague to me. I gather that he was supposed to consult the Lord on the king's punishment or had received an order from God previously. Looking forward to the next saga in Ahab's life....

Unknown said...

I chewed on this one off and on all day yesterday, trying to process and apply it.

Verse 41 says; "You freed the man I said should die, so your life will be taken instead of his. The lives of your people will also be taken instead of the lives of his people."

Forgive me if I take this way too far, but in all of my mental ramblings it brought me to this possible point...

God commands us to erradicate sin from our lives. To have no mercy, to turn away from it completely. When we don't, we put ourselves in jeapardy. We slowly become immune to the steady small dose of worldliness that dulls our senses. Basically, it's erradicate the influence of the enemy in our life or sin will erradicate us.

King Ahab didn't just let Ben Hadad LIVE... he entered into a PEACE AGREEMENT with the enemy. v34. We cannot serve both God and mammon.

I may be totally off base here, but that's the root I finally managed to dig down to in my ruminating yesterday.

Chris said...

erk. My comment was cut off by a glitch. *frustration*

I'm muddling through this one too. Quite baffling why God chose to use the prophet in this way (v.35-43)

Your conclusions seem logical, pchick.... and Jude, I was also baffled by the "brother" thing.

Jude said...

Seems resonable.

The other thing that really threw me was in the section that you noted Chris where the prophet punicshes the man who does not strike him! Not sure I would have followed through on that one without a whopping big sign from God to prove I was really supposed to do it. It goes against everything my mother taught me!
:0