Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: The Lord delivers Syria into the hands of Israel, King Ahab makes a treaty with their king and is judged, Jezebel murders a man to get a vineyard for Ahab, and the Lord vows to bring calamity on his house.
The king of Syria gathers his forces with 32 other kings and his horses and chariots, and he seizes Samaria. He sends messengers to King Ahab, saying his silver gold, wives, and children belong to him, and Ahab agrees with him. The messengers come back and say that the next day, he will send his servants to also take whatever is pleasant in the king's eyes. Ahab calls the elders, and they tell him not to consent, so he tells the messengers that he will give them what he said the first time but not the second. However, the king declares war. Ahab responds to him, "Let not the one boast who puts on his armor, but the one who takes it off." So the king of Syria prepares for war, and a prophet approaches Ahab, saying that the Lord will deliver the great multitude into his hands that day, and then he will know He is the Lord. Ahab asks by whom, and the prophet says by the young leaders. He tells Ahab to set the people in order, 7,000 men, all of Israel. Meanwhile the king of Syria and the other kings are all getting drunk at the command post. They are told men are coming, and the king commands to take them alive. However, Israel pursues the Syrian,s and they flee, and there is a great slaughter that day. The prophet tells Ahab to strengthen himself and see what to do, since the king will return in the spring. The servants of the king of Syria say that their gods must have come from the hills and been stronger, but if they fight in the plain, they will win, so they devise a plan to fight Israel in the plain in the spring. Israel fights and encamps "like two flocks of goats," while the Syrians "fill the countryside." A prophet tells Ahab that because the people said the Lord was the God of the hills and not the valleys, too, He will deliver them into his hand, and he will know He is the Lord. They encamp across each other seven days, and then they fight, and Israel kills 100,000 soldiers in one day, and the rest flee. Then, a wall falls on 27,000 of the men who are left. The king of Syria flees into an inner chamber in a city. His servants implore him to put on sackcloth and ask the king to spare his life, because they have heard the kings of Israel are merciful. When they do this (the servants), Ahab says the king is his brother and asks if he is alive, and he asks him to be brought to him. He comes to the chariot, and the king of Syria endeavors to make peace, and they make a treaty. Then, a son of the prophets says to his neighbor, by the word of the Lord, to strike him, but the man refuses. He tells him that because he refused and did not obey the voice of the Lord, a lion will kill him on the road, and it happens. He finds another man and tells him to strike him, so he strikes him and gets a wound. He disguises himself with a bandage on his eyes and waits for the king by the road. He cries out to the king and says that he was told to guard a man from the battle, but he let him slip away. The king declares he will be judged. Then, the prophet removes the bandages, and the king recognizes him, and he says that the Lord says because Ahab let the king of Syria slip away- who was appointed to utter destruction- the Lord will take his life for the king's and Israel's for his people. Then, Ahab returns to Samaria, very displeased.
A man named Naboth has a vineyard, and Ahab asks him if he can have it for a vegetable garden since it is next to his house- in exchange for money or another vineyard- but the man refuses because it belonged to his father. Ahab pouts on his bed and refuses to eat, and Jezebel asks him why. He tells her, and she tells him to get up and be happy, that she will get it for him. She writes letters in his name and with his seals to the elders of the city. She tells them to proclaim a fast, seating Naboth in a place with honor, but with scoundrels next to him, so that they may bear false witness against him and say he has blasphemed God and the king- so that he may be stoned and die. When Jezebel hears he is dead, she tells Ahab to take the vineyard because Naboth is dead. When Ahab hears it, he goes to take the vineyard. Then, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah, telling him to meet Ahab in the vineyard, telling him what he has done and that for this, the dogs will lick his blood in the place where they licked the blood of Naboth. When Ahab sees him, he says, "Have you found me, oh my enemy?" Elijah tells him he sold himself to do evil in God's sight and that the Lord will bring calamity on him and cut off all the males in Israel and make his house like Jeroboam and Baasha, since he provoked God and made Israel sin. Also, the dogs will eat Jezebel. The dogs will eat those left in the city, and the birds, those in the field. And it says there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in God's sight because Jezebel stirred him up. When Ahab hears it, he tears his clothes and puts sackcloth on and goes about mourning. The word comes to Elihah and says that because Ahab humbled himself, the Lord will not bring calamity in his days, but in the days of his son.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
He is God of the hills AND valleys! There is such a spiritual implication to that statement!
God is very merciful when we humble ourselves.
The spirit of Jezebel is domination, manipulation, and control. Let's have no part in that.