Now please turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts for our New Testament reading, Acts chapter 12. And we’ll read verses 18 through 25, starting in verse 18, mostly for context, but then focusing on the The judgment that was brought upon Herod brought upon him because he did not honor the Lord. So Acts chapter 12, verses 18 through 25, listen to this. This is the very word of God.
Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord. And having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.
And the people were shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathes his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied.
And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.” And then for our Old Testament reading and the text of our sermon, we’ll read of a case in which others did not glorify God, and similarly, suffered consequences for it. 1 Kings chapter 20, beginning in verse 22 and reading through verse 34. 1 Kings 20, 22 through 34.
Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, come, strengthen yourself, and consider well what you have to do. For in the spring, the king of Syria will come up against you. 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 will be stronger than they. And do this, remove the kings, each from his post, and put commanders in their places, and muster an army like the army you have lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.”
And he listened to their voice and did so. In the spring, Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Afek to fight against Israel. And the people of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went against them. The people of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats. But the Syrians filled the country. And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, thus says the Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is a God of the hills, but he is not a God of the valleys. Therefore, I will give all this great multitude into your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.
And they encamped opposite one another seven days. Then on the seventh day, the battle was joined. And the people of Israel struck down the Assyrians, struck down of the Assyrians 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. And the rest fled into the city of Afek. And the wall fell upon 27,000 men who were left. Ben Hadad also fled. and entered an inner chamber in the city.
And his servant said to him, behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put on sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life. So they tied sackcloth around their waists and put ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel and said, your servant, Ben-Hadad says, please let me live.
And he said, does he still live? He is my brother. Now the men were watching for a sign, and they quickly took it up from him and said, yes, your brother, Ben-Hadad. Then he said, go and bring him. Then Ben-Hadad came out to him, and he caused him to come up into the chariot. And Ben-Hadad said to him, the cities that my father took from your father I will restore, and you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria. And Ahab said, I will let you go on these terms. So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s go to him once again and pray that he’ll bless his word to us. Father, your word was written for our instruction, and so we pray that you would instruct us tonight. We are bold to pray that your Holy Spirit would be our instructor, and that we would hear the voice of Christ speaking in his word, and that Christ will be exalted among us. We pray this in his name. Amen.
So in the previous passage we looked at, God had given Israel victory over Syria, and he’d given them victory over a much larger enemy. But the enemies of God’s people rarely rest. That’s true. It was true of Syria with reference to Israel. It was true for us, too. The enemies of our souls rarely rest.
And if they do, it’s not for long. If you’ve ever wondered why Satan and his minions don’t get discouraged and just drop it, just quit, It’s because that’s not what they do. They are a defeated foe and they know it. And with the remaining time they have, they will never give up in the war against you and against your souls. And it was the same, and it’s illustrated for us even in this passage with Syria and how Ben-Hadad and his vassals mounted a second assault on Israel. So you have now a new year and a new battle to go with it. And what we learn from this passage is that all the people of earth are obligated to acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.
Occasionally, even as we read tonight, I may, when reading excerpts from our text, instead of saying the Lord, I may just insert the divine name. That’s what it means when you see the Lord in all capitals in your English Bible. That means it’s translating the memorial name, Yahweh or Jehovah, God’s name, His name that He has revealed to us.
And I was I was exhorted recently that God reveals his name to us, and he wants us to say it. And we want to be sensitive, certainly. And we want to treat his name with great care and reverence. But it is his name that he reveals to us. And I think the meaning of the text, the meaning of what’s really happening in the text, comes out a little bit more vividly if we say the name instead of just saying the Lord. But all people on earth are obligated to acknowledge Yahweh as the God of heaven and earth.
That’s what this passage shows us. And we’ll look at three points tonight in conjunction with that. We’ll first see how the Lord takes special care of his people. The Lord takes special care of his people. Secondly, the Lord upholds the honor of his name. And then finally, the Lord requires that we honor him above all. So first of all, the Lord takes special care of his people.
What we see at the beginning of the passage that we’re looking at tonight is the Lord sent a prophet to the King of Israel. He sent a prophet to Ahab. He sent his word to Ahab. And it reminds us that the Lord is the God who is there, and he is not silent. He reveals himself. He speaks to us. He speaks through his word to us. He speaks through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the days of Ahab, he spoke through his prophets. And God graciously and kindly sent a prophet to Ahab, the king of Israel. And he does that twice just in the text we’re looking at. He’d sent Ahab a prophet in the previous passage as well.
So you see, God continues to send word. He continues to speak to his people, even though his people were, in so many respects, in rebellion against him. And yet he speaks to them. But he sends, first of all, this prophet at the beginning of the text to send warning and to give wise counsel. Look at verse 22 again.
Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, come, strengthen yourself and consider well what you have to do. For in the spring, the king of Syria will come up against you. But later on in 2 Kings, through the prophet Elisha, that God is going to reveal to the king of Israel what his enemies are doing. So he continues to outmaneuver and outsmart his enemies because God, through the prophet, is revealing what the enemies of Israel were doing.
And that’s what’s happening here. God sends a warning. Israel was fresh off of this resounding victory over Syria. They had had a tremendous success in battle and driven off the Syrians. But God warns His people that their enemies are going to attack again. They’re not going to let up. They’re not going to be content with the defeat. And so Israel must not let their guard down. But they need to regroup. They need to prepare. And it’s similar with us in our spiritual lives. We need to not let our guard down. daily, as we’re told in Ephesians, to put on the full armor of God. So the prophet sends warning and wise counsel, but the prophet, perhaps the same, but it’s spoken of in a slightly different language a little bit later in our text, we’re told that a man of God sends words of assurance.
In verse 28, a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, thus says the Lord, And he assures Ahab that God himself is going to give Israel victory over Syria again. Why would he do that when Israel was in such a state of infidelity? Why would God give up to Israel this vastly superior Syrian army? Well, the answer is, It’s for his own glory, for his own glory. He spells out the reason in verse 28.
Thus says the Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is a God of the hills, but he’s not a God of the valleys. Therefore, I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Once in a while, somebody in a place of importance, a place of prominence, a place of leadership, they open their mouth, and they say something, and you think, oh, they should not have said that. And you wonder what’s the aftermath, what the backlash is going to be. And that’s what happened when these Syrians said this. Oh, they’re gods. They’re gods of the hills, but they’re not gods of the plains. Every time I read that, I think, oh, man, you just stepped in it really bad.
Because if there’s anything you can do to provoke God to act against you, if there’s anything you can do to paint a target on yourself, it’s to dishonor the Lord God like that. So for his own glory and honor, God is going to give up the Syrian army. And he’s going to do it also for another important reason. a reason that correlates and goes hand in glove with that. He’s going to do it for his own glory, for his own honor and the honor of his name, but also so that the people would know him. So that the people, as they experience this glorious deliverance from the Lord God Almighty, will be persuaded that Yahweh is God. God’s grace is on display here, sending his word even to a wicked king, sending his word and giving assurance even to a people that were in such rebellion against him.
And as you see, God takes special care of his people, and he did so by giving them the victory. He’d done so once already, remember, in the passage that we looked at last time. If you just glance back to verse 20 in the same chapter we’re looking at this evening, each struck down his man.
The Syrians fled. Israel pursued them. Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, escaped. And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots and struck the Syrians with a great blow. They’d already experienced this wonderful victory. Then God gives them another. Syria rearmed. They rebuilt the army. and invaded again the next year. And the text gives a description of the two armies in battle array, lined up against one another. Look at verse 27.
The people of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country. And not only was the Syrian army much, much larger than the Israelite army. But they’d also improved their tactics. One might argue that the reason the Syrians were defeated last time is because all their kings were in the tents getting drunk when they should have been getting ready for battle.
But this time, at the advice of his servants, Ben-Hadad decided, well, I’m not going to send the army into battle under the leadership of these kings. He said, take the kings out of their places and put commanders there. In other words, let the professionals take over. These kings, they may be entitled to honor, and they may like to be at the head of their troops in the day of battle. But they don’t necessarily know what they’re doing out there. But you’ve got professional soldiers. Put them in charge. That would be the smart thing to do. And that’s what they did. And the Syrian coalition vastly outnumbered Israel. And now they’re better organized, even. But as promised, Yahweh empowered a smaller Israelite army to prevail over a larger Syrian army.
And that harkens back to one of the promises that God had made to his people, one of the covenant promises. of which there were so many and so varied and so glorious. One of them was that if God’s people were faithful to him and if they kept covenant with him, that when they went out to battle against their enemies, that one of them would put 1,000 to flight. They would be able to prevail over vastly superior numbers because God would be with them.
And we even see an example of him doing such a thing right here, time and time again. We see God being faithful even when his people are unfaithful because the Lord takes special care of his people and you as his church. If God under the old covenant would take special care of his people even when they were walking in rebellion to him for his namesake, how much more can we trust that God in his providence will take special care of his church and watch over those who are united to him by faith in Christ. The Lord takes special care of his people. Well, secondly, we see that the Lord upholds the honor of his name.
And that’s really what this military conflict was all about and the outcome of it. Ben-Hadad’s servants had given Ben-Hadad tragically foolish advice. Their gods are gods of the hills, and that’s why they were stronger than us. That’s why we lost. We were fighting them in the hills, and their gods are gods. Their gods are mountain gods. We fight them down on the plain, we’ve got them.
Now, from a tactical sense, purely military sense, this made sense from a military standpoint. Because the Syrians and their allies, they had horses in abundance. They had chariots. And horses and chariots are much more effective on level ground than they are on uneven ground or in hills or in mountains.
But what they so tragically failed to realize is that is that Yahweh is not a local God. He’s not a God of just one kind of terrain. He’s not a God of just one parcel of the earth. Yahweh is the God of all the earth. He’s the very creator of the earth.
And so when they gave that advice to Ben-Hadad, they were just making an open invitation for God to bring judgment on them. I thought Matthew Henry made an interesting observation. He wrote, if the Syrians had said, Ahab and his people have forgotten their God, and so put themselves out of his protection, and therefore we may venture to attack them, God probably would have delivered Israel into their hands. But when they go upon a presumption so very injurious to the divine omnipotence, they shall be undeceived at the expense of that vast army which is so much their pride and confidence.” So in one respect, it was that blasphemous, God-dishonoring advice that really spelled defeat for Syria. God’s people had been disobedient. They’d been rebellious. They’d been idolatrous. They were serving Baal. But the Lord upholds the honor of his name. This text is one example of the Lord God acting for the honor of his name.
God’s zeal for his own glory is seen in other passages as well, where God even testifies to his own people, even in their disobedience, that he’s going to act, he’s going to deliver, he’s going to save. And it’s not for their sake, but for the sake of his own name. So for example, we read in Ezekiel chapter 36, God gives words for Ezekiel to speak to his people who are now in exile. And he says, therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I’m about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh. declares the Lord Yahweh, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. So you see, God has great zeal for his own glory. He has great zeal for the holiness and the honor of his own name.
Even in the Exodus, even when God brought his people out of the house of bondage, his purposes in doing that were at least twofold. First of all, he did it to free his people from bondage. He heard their cries, he had compassion on them, and he brought them out of Egypt so that they would serve him, so that they might serve him in the land that he was giving them. But he had another purpose as well. Equally important. And that purpose was to get glory for himself, to reveal himself to Pharaoh, and to get glory over Pharaoh and over the people of Egypt, and so that his people might know him.
He makes that purpose very clear to Ahab in verse 28, doesn’t he? It’s because what the Assyrians said, that he’s going to give this great multitude into the hand of Ahab, Not because Ahab was a good guy, not because he was a righteous king, not because he walked in the ways of his father David, because he didn’t. But for his name’s sake, for the glory of his name. What does God want for Ahab? God wants Ahab to know that he’s the Lord.
Did you see that in verse 28? I will give all this great multitude into your hand and you shall know that I am Yahweh. He said the same thing back in verse 13 in the passage we looked at last time. The prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, thus says the Lord, have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day and you shall know that I am the Lord.
So Israel’s two little encampments that looked like a couple of tiny flocks of goats rout the Syrian horde. People of Israel struck down of the Syrians 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. And then a large number of them are crushed by a city wall, says the rest. In verse 30, the rest fled into the city of Afek, and the wall fell upon 27,000 men who were left.
That might seem a little bit far-fetched. I don’t know if it strikes you that way. But think about this. Where in scripture do you read about cities great and fortified up to heaven? Well, you could try Deuteronomy 9, verse 1. That’s how the cities of the land of Israel, the land of Canaan, are described before Israel went in to take possession of them.
Remember the spies, when they went in to spy out the land, they said, oh yeah, it’s a great land. The fruit’s wonderful. It’s land flowing of milk and honey, just as the Lord said. But the problem is, these people are really strong. And they have these great cities that are fortified. Afek was one of those cities. Big and fortified, up to heaven, like Jericho.
So think about, something we know, something we’re familiar with. Think about Angel Stadium. How many people will Angel Stadium seat? What I read today was about 45,000. And that’s with a big hole in the middle where the baseball players play. Just the stands on the periphery of Angel Stadium, 45,000.
So if you can imagine an ancient walled city. Fortified up to heaven, that’s obviously sort of hyperbole. But they had high walls, big cities that were designed as fortification. So it’s easy to think that 27,000 Syrians might flee into Afek and take refuge there from an Israelite army that was destroying them. And then God acting in power just the way he did at Jericho. shaking and bringing down the walls of that city, 27,000 easily could fall under those walls. And God may have even had a special intent in taking out some of those Syrians in that way. Matthew Poole suggested that it was to give proof of his sovereign and infinite power and to show that he was the god of the plains as well as the mountains, and that he could effectually destroy them in their strongest holds, just as in the open fields, and to make the very walls to whose strength they trusted for their defense to be the instruments of their ruin.
And it just reminds us. as we see in so many other ways, that God does extraordinary things when he’s upholding his own honor. The Lord upholds the honor of his name, and so ought we to do. Well, finally, the Lord requires that we honor him above all. That’s the final point that we’ll look at tonight. The Lord requires that we honor him above all. When we looked at the previous passage last time that gave the sermon the title, Ahab at his best.
And again, it wasn’t that great, but it was the one bright spot perhaps in his rule, in his reign, because for that moment, he listened to the Lord. He trusted in the Lord. Did as the Lord commanded. Well, here in this text, Yahweh gave Abraham another glorious victory. Notably, he gave victory over a foe that had dishonored the God of Israel.
We see that Ben-Hadad somehow survived the disaster at Afek. He had gone into an inner room, and his servants give him some more advice. Verse 31. Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel.
Perhaps he will spare your life. Now, as we read the passage, and maybe you on some occasion having read or heard this passage in the past, you wondered, well, was Ahab really wrong? Was it wrong of him to spare Ben-Hadad? Was it wrong for him to show mercy? to this Syrian king? That’s a question we might ask and justifiably ask that.
Well, the answer is, the Lord God Almighty had devoted Ben-Hadad to destruction. We don’t find that out, it’s not spelled out for us until we get to verse 42 of this chapter. You’ve let go out of your hand the man whom I devoted to destruction. And for God to say, this man is devoted to destruction, all that simply means is, you don’t let him live. You slaughter him. You kill him, as an act of my judgment.
So Ben-Hadad had been devoted to destruction. And the Syrians seemed to either be aware of that or assumed it, because they give this advice to Ben-Hadad, thinking that maybe he’ll spare your life. Perhaps he will spare. But what is Ahab’s response? Is it to obey the Lord and devote Ben-Hadad to destruction? No, his response to the plea for mercy is, he’s my brother.
So Ahab overlooked the dishonor that had been given to the name of the Lord. He even disregarded the ravages of Ben-Hadad’s previous campaigns against Israel. All the harm, all the grief, and the suffering that had been brought to his own people by Ben-Hadad, Ahab overlooked. And as Matthew Poole puts it, he only minds his own grandeur and the advancement of his power So I say again, all the people of earth are obligated to acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, including Ahab.
Ahab had that obligation. But Ahab honored Ben-Hadad more than Yahweh. And so Ben-Hadad comes out. He senses that the sting of death has passed. And he concedes cities that had been taken by his father from Israel. And he offers economic incentives. You can build bazaars in Damascus.
Ahab spares him, which shows that probably Ahab wasn’t a very good student of history either, because there are other kings who had done similar things, most notably Saul. Remember when God commanded that Saul devote Agag to destruction and instead Saul spared him? John Bimson writing in the New Bible Commentary said, the readiness with which Ahab agreed to an alliance suggested that he regarded it as his best guarantee for Israel’s future security. For the second time then, Ahab failed to acknowledge God as Israel’s protector. So like Saul, before him, Ben-Hadad honored men above God.
Ultimately, he honored himself above God. So just by way of application, perhaps a somewhat difficult application, but let me encourage you and myself as well. Let’s search our hearts. Search our hearts and ask. the Lord Jesus Christ to show us whether we’re honoring anyone above God, that we’re honoring another person or another thing, anyone or anything above Christ, because the Lord requires that we honor him above all.
And so all people of the earth are obligated to acknowledge Yahweh. as the God of heaven and earth. And sooner or later, they all will. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes in glory with all the holy angels, everyone will bow the knee to him. All the earth will acknowledge him as Lord. He is coming again to judge the living and the dead. That’s when all of God’s proud foes will be fully, finally, and eternally humbled.
Just a couple of closing points of application. This passage shows us that God is sovereign over kings, rulers, commanders, and leaders. Ahab was a wicked king, yet God gave him victory over Syria. God allowed him to remain on the throne of Israel for some years. And that teaches us that God has wise and holy purposes in allowing wicked people to hold positions of authority.
We sometimes bemoan the fact that some of our leaders are wicked people. They have bad policies, policies that are hurtful to the very people they govern. And we wonder, why does God allow it? Well, the fact is, we don’t have all the answers. We don’t have all the reasons.
But the fact is, God does allow wicked people to hold positions of authority, and he has wise and holy purposes for doing so. Wise and holy purposes into which we do well not to pry. But we can be certain of this. God will get glory through them, from them, and over them, sometimes even in this life, but perfectly and totally in the age to come.
Secondly, let’s consider what happened here. Because yes, Ahab was wrong to spare Ben-Hadad. But let’s think about Ben-Hadad for a second. And we can glean something from that. Because Ben-Hadad didn’t deserve mercy, did he? didn’t deserve mercy. He didn’t deserve to be spared.
He was told that Israel’s kings were merciful kings, and indeed Ahab showed him mercy. There were times when Israel had some kings that weren’t very merciful. And in the present case, Ahab extended mercy when he should have administered justice. But think of what Ben-Hadad’s servants said to him, we have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings.
And I can tell you with full certainty that God, the maker of heaven and earth, is a merciful God. He’s good. He’s forgiving. He’s abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon him so we can kind of see in Ben-Hadad a picture of ourselves before the Lord, guilty, helpless, without hope, except for the sovereign mercy of the God of heaven and earth. And that God, the one true God, the God who is God of not just the mountains, but the valleys as well. The God of heaven and earth is a God who is merciful and he hears when sinners cry out to him for mercy. Let’s pray. Father, we see in this account, this little snippet of the history of your old covenant people. To you, our Lord, we see how you’ve dealt with your people. We see how you have zeal for the honor and the glory of your name.
And we see a man who did not deserve to be spared, and yet he was spared. We don’t deserve to be spared. We don’t deserve mercy. But we thank you that there is mercy with you. that you’ve extended that mercy in your son, Jesus Christ. We cry out to you afresh for it. We pray, oh God, that you’d have pity upon us. Help us by your grace to turn from our sins unto you. And we pray that you will spare us, that you will save us. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.