And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’”
God has just given Israel victory over Syria, and the defeated king Ben-hadad is in Ahab's hands. Instead of carrying out God's sentence, Ahab calls him a brother and lets him go — and a prophet in disguise comes to tell him what that will cost.
The Charge: Letting Go What God Had Condemned
The charge rests on one point. Ben-hadad was not Ahab's to release. God had already condemned him, and Ahab acted as if the decision were his own.
J. N. DarbyBen-hadad is defeated, and Israel is free from his power. But Ahab knows nothing at all of the mind of God, and he lets the man God had condemned escape. Sometimes treating a matter lightly only proves that God's honour and God's thoughts have no influence over the heart. It was not for Ahab to treat as a brother a king whose constant aim was to oppress God's people.
One earlier king had already made this mistake:
C KnappHe made the same fatal mistake that king Saul made when he spared Agag.
"He Is My Brother"
The words Ahab chose for the king of Syria sounded warm and generous. God heard them differently.
H. L. RossierAhab replies: "He is my brother," when God had given him into his hands for destruction. The idol-worshipper who had compared Jehovah to "the gods of the mountains" is brother to the king of Israel! What an outrage against the glory and the holiness of God there is in this word, "He is my brother"! ... The world loves and approves this sort of mercy and friendliness.
One writer sees the same failing among Christians today:
Leslie M. GrantMany Christians today act in the same way. They think it is gracious to treat even unbelievers as brothers. By doing so they take their place with the enemies of the Lord, excusing it as tolerance. But this is treachery against the Lord.
Mercy That Is Not from God
Sparing a life usually looks like mercy. Here it was not.
William KellyMercy is not always from God. There are times when God's honour is at stake. Then mercy is a curse. It is merely human, merely self-will, and the more deceitful because it seems so fair. There are times when sparing the enemy of the Lord means failing the Lord's will and the Lord's glory... So when the time comes to stand firm, let us see to it that we do, even though it may look unkind. We are bound to stand firm against whatever overthrows the glory of the Lord. God alone can show us when mercy is right and when it is fatal.
The King Who Sentenced Himself
A prophet came to Ahab with a bandage over his face, and asked him to judge a case.
H. L. RossierAhab, like David when the prophet Nathan came to him, has to pronounce his own sentence (v. 40). He was blind; the bandage he saw over the prophet's eyes was the bandage he had over his own eyes, and he did not even know it! Suddenly the word of God, like a violent wind of judgment, echoes in his ears.
Life for Life, People for People
The sentence has two halves, and the second one reaches far beyond Ahab himself.
Leslie M. GrantHe told Ahab that he had let the king God had appointed to destruction slip out of his hand. So the Lord would take Ahab's life for the life of Ben Hadad, and Ahab's people for Ben Hadad's people. Not only would Ahab die; his people, Israel, would suffer for Ahab's wickedness. This was fulfilled by the raging conquest of Jehu (2 Kings 9:14-10:28).
The nation Ahab had treated as a friend became the means of his death:
C KnappFrom that time on God appears to give Ahab up: first to greed and murder, and then to war with the nation whose blaspheming king he had called "my brother" and allowed to escape. That nation killed him.
Sullen Instead of Broken
The next verse records how Ahab took the news.
Leslie M. GrantThis message did not turn Ahab back to the Lord. It only made him sullen and displeased (v. 43). That is what foolish unbelief looks like. Ahab is a sad witness to the truth of Proverbs 29:1: "He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing."
Summary
- Given — God handed Ben-hadad over for destruction. He was not Ahab's to bargain with.
- Spared — calling God's enemy "my brother" looked generous. It insulted God's holiness, just as Saul's sparing of Agag did.
- Weighed — some mercy is self-will dressed as kindness. It is "the more deceitful because it seems so fair," and only God can show when sparing is fatal.
- Sentenced — Ahab passed the verdict before he knew it was his own: life for life, people for people.
- Hardened — he went home sullen, not repentant, and the nation he had embraced later killed him.