Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Kings 20:13, 22, 28, 42

Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Kings 20:13, 22, 28, 42
"And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee.
And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
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."

I couldn't find anything inspiring in this chapter. I decided to write down each time a prophet had come to the king of Israel. I see that three times they deliver the message the Lord will deliver Syria into their hands. Each time the king of Israel does as he is told. Then he is deceived by the king of Syria who dressed in sackcloth on their loins and ropes upon their heads asking for mercy. They didn't have a repentant or humble bone in their body. It was meant to take advantage and deceive. What they wanted was to live. For this the king of Israel makes a covenant with them. So I wondered what was wrong with this. Why later is the Lord displeased and says he will take his life instead?

Obviously there were prophets around the king of Israel. What the king of Israel never did is send for them. They always came to him on an errand from the Lord. So he was being warned that Syria would be delivered into his hands, so "ye shall know that I am the Lord". I guess the king of Israel never learned that lesson was for him to know the Lord too. When he was deceived and ready to covenant with Syria what he needed to do was first inquire of the Lord. Even to send for the prophets to know the Lord's council. He did none of that. That was probably an even greater offense to the Lord. The king of Israel never knew him.


Day 886