What does 1 Kings 20:16 Mean?

Context Summary

What is God to us? Is He only the God of the hills? We expect religion to serve us when we come to the great summits of experience. There are times of rapture and of vision when we seem naturally to stand with God on the holy mountains. We have our Moriah, our Pisgah, our Tabor, our Hermon. But is that all?

No! God is with us in the valleys. When we descend into the valley of weeping, Psalms 84:6, r.v., the valley of the shadow of death, the valley of obscurity and loneliness, the valley of conflict, we can say with the psalmist, "Thou art with me," Psalms 23:4. Most of us, perhaps, spend the larger part of life in the valleys, walking among commonplace duties. Let us see to it that in these shadowed days we walk in close companionship with the Divine Friend; that, when the path ascends and the mountain-breeze is on our faces and the view widens, we may stand with God on our high places as with hinds' feet. See Habakkuk 3:19. What a picture is here given of national contentment and prosperity! We can almost hear the gladsome voice of the myriad-peopled land, teeming with young life and laden with golden harvests. It was the summer of their national existence. The sacred scribe enumerates first the high officials of the court, then the daily provision of the king, his studies, and his fame. Abundant proof was yielded by all these circumstances to the manner in which God kept the pledges which had been made to David, his father.

Here is Solomon "in all his glory," but as we turn from him to the lowly Carpenter of Nazareth, who had nowhere to lay His head; who found His friends among the poor; and who ultimately laid down His life a ransom for many, we realize that, even apart from His divine nature, His was the nobler ideal and the richer existence. "A greater than Solomon is here." Who can measure His empire or resources? What tongue can recount His wisdom? Happy and safe are they that sit at His table, hear His words, and are joint-heirs with Him in His Kingdom! Romans 8:17. [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Kings 20

¹  Ben-Hadad, not content with Ahab's homage, besieges Samaria
¹³  By the direction of a prophet, the Syrians are slain
²²  As the prophet forewarned Ahab, the Syrians come against him in Aphek
²⁸  By the word of the prophet, and God's judgment, the Syrians are smitten again
³¹  The Syrians submit; Ahab sends Ben-Hadad away with a covenant
³⁵  The prophet, under the parable of a prisoner,
³⁹  making Ahab judge himself, denounces God's judgment against him