1 Kings 20

Friendship with the world... Jesus doesn’t speak to kindly of it. In fact, he says that “friendship with the world is ENMITY with God”. In our chapter today we have the “world” represented by the evil king of Syria Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad is a real bully, when he is stronger and more equipped than Israel, he sends messengers saying “your silver, your gold, your women, and your kids… they all belong to me now”. Ahab says, “I guess that will be alright”. Then Ben-Hadad sends word again, he says “we are going to come and search your houses, and we are going to take anything that looks good”. Ahab says, “no way man, I already gave you my silver, gold, women and children; you can’t have my stuff”! They continue to talk smack to each other until it becomes clear that a battle is going to ensue.

The Lord sends word by a prophet and says, “I am going to deliver you… and I am going to do it using the YOUNG LEADERS of the provinces”. So you have these young faithful guys, and God equips them and uses them! Sweet! God wants to use you students just like He used these young leaders. The doom was imminent, but the Lord was their strength; deliverance took place at the hands of these young people! The Lord tells them that this isn’t the last they will see of the Syrians, they will be back in the spring. So the armies prepare and sure enough, the spring comes and with it come the armies of Syria.

This is where things get sad. The Lord delivers the armies into the hands of the Israelites once again, and this time they really wreck house. They have Ben-Hadad cornered in the inner recesses of one of the cities, and he sends out a group of ambassadors looking for mercy. The ambassadors arrive and they say, “Ben-Hadad asks that you would let him live”. Ahab’s response is astounding. He doesn’t seek the Lord; He doesn’t even acknowledge the Lord! Instead he says, “Ben-Hadad, he is my brother”. STOP! WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE!! The dude tried to take everything from you, he said he would completely destroy you, and now you call him BROTHER?!?! God can forgive even the hardest of criminals… but they need to repent!

Ahab and Ben-Hadad broker a LAME peace deal. Ahab agrees to let his worst enemy go free for the right to trade his products for free in their capital city. It’s like saying, “ok world, you’ve really worked me over, but I’ll be your friend as long as I can profit from it a little.” The Lord isn’t pleased with this decision so he sends a prophet who gives an interesting analogy… read it again for yourselves in verses 35-43. The gist of it is this “Ahab, the Lord had put your enemy into your hand, and HE had a plan for what was to be done… but you let him go! You called him brother and cut a deal with him”!

In this life we as Christians have three enemies and they all work together. They are the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. We can learn a VERY IMPORTANT LESSON about our dealings with them. We should NEVER cut a deal with the enemy, but should always turn those things over into the hands of the Lord. You can’t make deals with the devil, you can’t have peace with this world, and you surely cannot peacefully co-exist as a spiritual being with your wicked flesh. We resist the devil, we flee from the temptations of this world, and we CRUCIFY the flesh… we never make deals.