1019
THE KING’S BUSINESS
question in one brief sentence, “I will deliver it into thine hand this day.” Our enemies are more than a match for us, but they are no match at all for Jehovah. God had a great purpose in delivering Ben- hadad and all his host into the hand of Ahab, That purpose was that Ahab might know that He was Jehovah, i.e., the self- existent One, the God of redemption, the covenant God of Israel. It is by going to the deliverance of His people that Jehovah proves that he is the self-existent One, the God of redemption, the God of Israel. In the great day that is coming He will prove this again to Israel. Ahab appears at his best in this lesson. He does not seem to have doubted for one moment Jehovah’s promise that he would deliver. He simply asked directions as to his own procedure (v. 14). He inquires “By whom?” i. e., what was the agency through whom Jehovah would work his great deliverance. To Ahab’s question, “By whom?” Jehovah gave an apparently strange answer, “By the young men of the princes of the prov inces.” Of these there were only two hun dred and thirty-two, to go out against the vast hosts of Ben-hadad, but two hundred and thirty-two with God. were sufficient against the countless hosts (cf. Judges 7 :7 ; 16-22; 1 Sam. 14:6; 2 Chron. 14:11-13; Rom. 8:31). God always delights to work through “the young men” (cf. 1 John 2:13, 14). Alas, that there are so few young men today to put themselves at God’s disposal for Him to work through. And God delights to give victory through few against many. Ahab now asks another question, “Who shall begin the battle?” He receives a stirring answer in just one word, “Thou.” The servant of God should not wait until he is attacked, he should begin the assault on the enemy. The man or the army that takes the offensive is far more likely to win than the man or the army that is simply on thé defensive. Too many of us today are simply on the defensive against Satan, we should carry the war into the enemies country. v. 16. “And they went out at noon. But Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in
much waste and inefficiency through beer •and other forms of alcoholic drink, and America would have no need to propose such stringency, if it were not for the enormous amounts of food stuffs that she has been wasting in the manufacture of alcohol and the enormous amounts that have been wasted in England, so that she is now clamouring for our food stuffs, and we are in extreme necessity through the consumption of possible food stuffs through the worse than useless waste in the man ufacture of alcoholic liquors. vs. 13-15. “And, behold, there came, (omit, there came) a prophet (add, came near) unto Ahdb king of Israel, saying (and said); 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 Ahab said, By whom? ‘And he said,, Thus saith the LORD, Even (omit, even) by the young men of the . princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order ( begin) this battle? And he answered, Thou. Then he numbered ( mustered) the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two: and after them he numbered ( mustered) all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. It looked dark indeed for Ahab and Israel until the prophet of God came upon the scene. Even then all that Ahab had to depend upon was the “Thus saith the LORD,” but that was enough to depend upon. One promise of God is sufficient to build upon in any emergency. “Hast thou seen all this great multitude?” God asks Ahab. Yes, Ahab had seen the multitude, indeed, that was about all he had seen; but now he was to see one far more impor tant and potent than all the multitude, he was to see Jehovah. Ben-hadad’s vast mul titude had seemed very great indeed com paring them with his own little seven thousand, but the multitude dwindled into nothingness in comparison with omnipo tent Jehovah. The one question that per turbed Ahab was, “What shall I do against this great multitude?” God answered the
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