Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 329. Ahab's Glory

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 329. Ahab's Glory


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II



Ahab's Glory



1. It was in this interval of partial and transient reformation that Ahab, by Divine encouragement, defeated the king of Syria and repelled his invasion. Ahab's military career shows him to have been a warrior of considerable prowess. Samaria had for some time been closely invested by the Syrian army under Benhadad, or more probably Hadadezer (Dadidri), if we follow the Assyrian annals. Of the defeats sustained by Israel prior to this siege we have no information. Benhadad (Hadadezer) made the insolent demand of the Israelitish king, in the extremity of the latter, that Syrian envoys should search the royal palace and the houses of Ahab's servants. This was refused by Ahab with the unanimous approval of his people and their elders. To the arrogant menace of the Syrian, the king of Israel replied in the proverbial phrase: “Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Benhadad at once ordered the engines of war (LXX “lines of circumvallation”) to be placed against the city. Beyond this he did nothing, but gave himself up to voluptuous ease in his camp. Ahab at the head of seven thousand men suddenly attacked the Syrians and completely discomfited them. In the following year Benhadad renewed the campaign. He attributed his recent defeat to the difficult nature of the hill country which surrounded Samaria. The god of Israel, his officers told him, was a god of the hills: “but let us,” they said, “fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” The Syrian king accordingly pitched his camp in the open valley near Aphek. After an interval of seven days, a battle took place, and again the Syrians were routed with heavy loss. After this victory, however, for some reason unknown to us, Ahab completely changed his policy. He received, with marked friendliness, Benhadad and his followers, who abjectly sued for their lives, and he was even induced to conclude a treaty with Syria.



Very different was this treatment of Benhadad, who, a few years before, had so long and severely oppressed the community of God, from that which had been looked for at Ahab's hands by many a prophet who could not yet forget the sternness of the ancient community towards such conquered heathens. And, indeed, simply on the ground of ordinary judgment, many a clear eye could perceive how unfounded was Ahab's hope of good faith on the part of such an enemy. The result actually proved what they expected. Benhadad did not observe the conditions of peace, e.g., he would not surrender the town of Ramoth in Gilead, the war for the recovery of which, three years later, proved fatal to Ahab himself.



Like many of the east-Jordan sites, the identification of the famous city of Ramoth-Gilead, which was the scene of so many battles between the Hebrews and their northern foes, is uncertain. On the whole, the most probable site is that suggested by Principal G. A. Smith, of Aberdeen University. He identifies it with the present city of Gadara. This town lies one thousand one hundred and ninety-four feet above the sea-level, on a bold plateau which runs out from the hills of Gilead. This height, two miles wide, and at least four miles in length from east to west, is bounded on the north by the deep valley of the Yarmuk, on the west by the Jordan, four and one-half miles away and over one thousand eight hundred feet below, and on the south by the Wady el-Arab, which cuts a deep gorge into the Gileadite hills. It is due south of Aphek, where was fought the great battle between the Hebrews and the Arameans under Ahab, and is on one of the chief highways which lead up from the Jordan through Arbela to join the pilgrim highway to Damascus and Arabia. It is, therefore, the chief gateway and at the same time the natural fortress which guards northern Gilead. On the wide level plateaus about there is ample room for the manœuvring of chariots, and an important road leads directly from it across the Jordan to Ahab's northern capital.1 [Note: C. F. Kent, Biblical Geography and History, 174.]



2. Ahab knew well that the faithfulness of the kings and people of God was shown in cutting off those whom they were commissioned to destroy. But he made friends for his own interest with the king of Syria, whom he had overcome, and sat with him in his own chariot. Perhaps Ahab wanted to show himself a magnanimous as well as a mighty monarch. He wanted to pose as a man who, having life and death in his grasp, could dispense life when death was expected. Benhadad cleverly played upon this vanity; and so, without considering counsel or country, Ahab exercised his royal prerogative, and let his enemy go free. He had victory given to him, and final deliverance secured, if only he had been willing, in faith, to follow up and follow out the advantage he had gained. But he would be wiser-more polite or more pitiful-than God. He would make terms of compromise, drive a profitable bargain, and, in consideration of a merely nominal and apparent concession,-for the Syrian king soon showed he was not in earnest,-let the oppressor go in peace.



3. Whatever may have been Ahab's motives, his conduct gave great offence to the prophets, one of whom expressed by a symbolic action the Divine displeasure which the king had incurred (1Ki_20:35-43). It is possible, however, that both Ahab and Benhadad recognized at length the necessity of bringing to a conclusion hostilities which weakened their power of joint resistance to Assyria.



Under baleful Atheisms, Mammonisms, Joe-Manton Dilettantisms, with their appropriate Cants and Idolisms, and whatsoever scandalous rubbish obscures and all but extinguishes the soul of man,-religion now is; its Laws, written if not on stone tables, yet on the Azure of Infinitude, in the inner heart of God's Creation, certain as Life, certain as Death! I say the Laws are there, and thou shalt not disobey them. It were better for thee not. Better a hundred deaths than yes. Terrible “penalties,” withal, if thou still need “penalties,” are there for disobeying.1 [Note: Carlyle, Past and Present, Bk. iii. chap. 15.]