Old Testament: 1Ki 20.26–30

To read the Bible in a year, read First Kings 19–20 on May 9, In the year of our Lord Christ 2025

By Don Ruhl 

The northern kingdom of Israel was in sin, but the Syrians made the mistake of thinking that the God of Israel was only a God of the Hills. Therefore, they believed that if they could get the children of Israel into a valley, they would defeat Israel: 

So it was, in the spring of the year, that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside. Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the LORD: Because the Syrians have said, ‘The LORD is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,’ therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” And they encamped opposite each other for seven days. So it was that on the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; then a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left.  And Ben-Hadad fled and went into the city, into an inner chamber.

– 1 Kings 20.26–30 

Did you see that Israel killed 100,000 soldiers of Syria in a single day? The writer had said that the Syrians outnumbered Israel greatly. 

However, Israel won, because it was not about Israel, but the Syrians needed to know that the God of Israel is not just a God of the hills, but of the valleys also, and for that matter, he is the God of heaven and of all the Earth. 

Questions: 

• Is he the God of your life? 
• How do you show that he is the God of your life? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com