And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.
Israel has just beaten Syria in the hill country. Now the Syrian king's advisers hand him an explanation and a plan: Israel's God works on high ground, so move the war down to the plain and the result will change. The verse raises two questions — where does such reasoning come from, and what does God do with it?
Unbelief's explanation
Commentators trace the advice back to the Syrians' whole idea of what a god is. They had no category for a God who rules everywhere, so they read the defeat as a matter of terrain.
Leslie M. GrantThe Syrians had no idea of a God who rules everywhere. They assumed that each nation had its own 'gods' of various kinds, and that all of them shared the weakness and failure seen in humans. Ben Hadad's servants got the idea that Israel's God was a God of the hills, because Israel had won in the hill country (v.23). So they thought they would win if they fought Israel in the plain. Such is the stupidity of unbelief!
Why the hills
The theory had its own logic. The Syrians looked at Israel's hill country and at the battle they had just lost, and planned a rematch.
William KellyThey knew very well that Samaria was a hill, and Jerusalem was a hill. So they thought that the Lord God of Israel was only a god of the hills. So the next time they would go down into the valleys and see whether the God of Israel was able to meet them there. But the God of Israel was the God of the valleys as much as of the hills. There they are beaten far worse the second time than the first. They gave the challenge, God answers, and they were overwhelmed.
A god tied to one place
This was not a Syrian peculiarity. One writer places it inside the idolatry of every land and age, where each nation kept its own god — the same thought he finds in Balak.
The Bible TreasuryTo his dark idolatrous mind, what was the Lord of Israel more than the guardian god of one particular people, or of one limited area where He might indeed be supreme, while in another place another god would win? That was clearly the thought of Balak. The idolatry of every land and age never went beyond this; each nation had its own god… Long afterwards the Syrians said the God of Israel was the god of the hills, and not of the valleys.
The rematch on the plain
Ben-Hadad followed the advice in full. The result tested the theory, and both sides learned from it.
H. L. RossierThis time it is a matter of proving to the Syrians that Israel had not won the victory by their "gods of the mountains." Ben-Hadad changes the organization of his army and the place of battle, but it is useless. The Israelites, in number like two little flocks of goats, strike down one hundred thousand of the enemy's men in one day. The wall of Aphek falls on those who were left. So the Syrians had to learn who the Lord was, and so Israel could know Him.
Hills and plains in daily life
What the Syrians said is easy to reject as an idea. It is harder to reject as a habit. One writer asks how our daily conduct matches what we say we believe.
W G TurnerIn theory we dismiss as plainly absurd the idea of a God who is Almighty on the hills but powerless on the plain. But it is worth asking how our practice matches what we say we believe… we know the steep slopes of the rugged hills of confusion, trial and temptation, where we found the present help and strength we needed… Yes, we have often known the truth that "God is the God of the hills". But on the plains of home life, at work, and in the valleys of life with other people, how often has our fretful, selfish, crooked conduct given the enemy an occasion to say: "Their God is the God of the hills, but not of the plains and valleys, so let us fight them on the plains."
No valley out of reach
The Syrians shut God out of the valleys. One writer shows how far His love actually reaches.
F. A. HughesThere is no valley experience that is beyond the reach of the love of God. The Psalmist could say, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." So in the darkest valley of all, where we meet the strongest enemy, we have not only the endless blessings of our God, but His actual presence with us.
Summary
- Cause. The advisers judged God by the map. They assumed every nation has a local god with human limits. That is the reasoning of unbelief.
- Plan. Their remedy was a change of ground: fight in the plain and the outcome will change.
- Answer. New troops, new battlefield, worse defeat — the God of the hills proved to be the God of the valleys too.
- Purpose. The defeat was a lesson to both sides: the Syrians had to learn who the Lord was, and Israel could know Him.
- Application. The enemy still says it of us when we are strong on the hills of trial and weak on the plains of home, business and friendship. Yet no valley, not even death's, is outside His presence.