1 Kings 20.41-43:
| 20.41וימהר | He hurries. |
|---|---|
| ויסר את האפר | He unwinds the turban |
| מעל [מעלי] עיניו | from his eyes. |
| ויכר אתו מלך ישראל | The king of Isra’el looks closely at him, |
| כי מהנבאים הוא׃ | for he’s from the prophets. |
| 20.42ויאמר אליו | He says to him, |
| כה אמר יהוה | “Yahweh says this: |
| יען שלחת את איש חרמי מיד | Why do you cancel My Ban on the man in your hand?α |
| והיתה נפשך תחת נפשו | Your life is beneath his life. |
| ועמך תחת עמו׃ | Your people are beneath his people.” |
| 20.43וילך מלך ישראל | The king of Isra‘el walks |
| על ביתו | to his house. |
| סר וזעף | He is rebelliousβ and furious.γ |
| ויבא שמרונה׃ | He goes to Shomron.δ |
Having presented his analogy to Ahab, the prophet removes his turban. Since prophets back then shaved their heads to indicate their status, Ahab would have instantly recognized he was a prophet. He might not have recognized that specific prophet, although since the turban was over the prophet’s eyes, Ahab might have known him already. But now that the disguise is off, known or not, he definitely has Ahab’s attention. Ahab “looks closely at him,” because he knows a message is coming.
The message is not one Ahab likes. “Why do you cancel My Ban?” God says. It seems God had instructed Ahab previously—though this is actually the first we’re reading of it—that Hadadezer of Syria was under a divine Ban; a concept I discussed previously. Pardons are a Christian invention, and ancient Hebrew kings weren’t free to issue them. Ahab had no business setting Hadadezer free when God had wanted him dead. Ahab had forgotten who was the Lord and who was the vassal.
Actions have consequences, and God holds Ahab to his: “Your life is beneath his life. Your people are beneath his people.” In other words, because you didn’t conquer him today, you don’t get to conquer him in future. And eventually we’ll see how the next time Ahab takes Syria on—at the Battle of the Golan Heights—he gets killed.
Some people interpret this statement to mean that God is assigning some sort of ironic punishment to Ahab—that because Hadadezer was meant to be killed, and wasn’t, Ahab would be killed; or because Syria was meant to be conquered and enslaved, and wasn’t, Israel would be enslaved. Ahab eventually is killed, of course, but not as a consequence of this; it’s a consequence of killing Naboth. Both Israel and Syria are eventually enslaved by the neo-Assyrian Empire a century later in 738BC.
Anyway, this message totally bums Ahab out, and he returns home pissed at God—turning away from Him, and raging inside. Possibly even plotting against God. But this largely has to do with Ahab’s lack of humility—and something else which this scripture doesn’t come right out and say, but has to do with the way God corrects us.
You see, when God corrects us, He follows the guidelines that Jesus actually lays out in Mt 18.15-18—they are, after all, a pattern following His mindset. He comes to us individually and tries to get us to repent. When Ahab decided to pardon Hadadezer, God told him no. When Ahab actually went through with it, publicly, God told him no. The reason the prophet made a public show of all this? Because telling Ahab no privately hadn’t worked, and now it was time to inform Ahab—and the rest of Israel—publicly that God was displeased with His king. God never sets out to embarrass us; He’s not unkind like that. We embarrass ourselves when we refuse to accept His private correction and force Him to escalate the scenario.
So just as Ahab is probably thinking that God will just shrug and accept his kingly magnanimity towards Hadadezer, God has one of His prophets put on a show and publicly dress down the king. Ahab really didn’t do humility. But this is what happens when you try to strong-arm God. He opposes the proud; He shows grace to humble people, and Ahab wasn’t being humble. It’s an attitude that gets him in a lot of trouble later.
Application. Here we see Ahab’s really bad reaction to God’s criticism. It’s sort of an obvious example of what will happen when we ignore God and do our own thing, and drive God to remove His favor. But we should never have to get to the point where God has to publicly denounce us through His prophets. We should listen to His correction early—we should avoid sinning against Him in the first place—long before circumstances ever reach this point. The reason public scandals happen in the Church is because the subjects of the scandals stopped listening to God a long time ago. Let us never come close to that.
α. Lit. “you send away the man of My Ban.”
β. Lit. “turning away,” but in the opposite of a repentant sense.
γ. Lit. “boiling up.”
δ. Samaria.
