GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 18:27-34
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27 Micaiah said, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!” 28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. 29 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will go into battle in disguise, but you wear your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and they went into battle. 30 Now the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except against the king of Israel.” 31 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they wheeled around to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him. 32 When the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him. 33 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. Ahab told the chariot driver, “Turn around and get me out of the battle. I’ve been wounded.” 34 The battle raged all day long, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died.
(1) Deception. As the prophet was dragged off to his prison, he cried out that his words were the very words of God. Ahab, the king of the northern tribes of Israel, decided to hedge his bet by disguising himself. Exactly how he talked Jehoshaphat into wearing his robes is not clear. He might have deceived the king, or he might have simply caught him with a wardrobe problem– if Jehoshaphat actually had nothing else to wear into battle. The best answer might be that of Seminary President Paul O. Wendland: “Perhaps (Jehoshaphat) thought it was beneath his dignity to play silly games of subterfuge, and simply went into battle wearing his royal insignias as he had intended all along.” But the deception went ahead, and Ahab went into battle disguised as an ordinary soldier.
(2) Strategy. The Arameans had only one real objective: to attack Ahab. While Jehoshaphat was supporting the Israelites, they had no real quarrel with him. Therefore, if they could defeat the Israelite army, the army of Judah would turn back. And if they could kill Ahab himself, his army would stop their attack. So their attack went forward. Soldiers, pikemen, swordsmen, horsemen, lancers, archers and charioteers passed by the Israelite ranks, not engaging anyone except in defense as they passed.
The peak of Jebel Osha rises up from this far eastern border of Israel, more than twenty miles east of the Jordan. Standing on the summit, one can turn south and just see the gray hills of Jerusalem and the saddle of Benjamin, the twin peaks of Ebal and Gerezim, then Gilboa where Saul fell, and Tabor, and then snow-streaked Mount Hermon in the far north. A deserted plateau northeast of the summit marks the traditional site of Tishbe, today called Jilad, the birthplace of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1). As one faces Tishbe, with your back to Israel, the shoulder of Jebel Osha to the right is the peak of Ramoth Gilead. Everything around is green, lush, and what is not covered in grass is covered in trees. One can imagine the warriors of Ben-Hadad avoiding obvious advantages in Ahab’s lines as they searched for one thing only: A king in his robes. Then, down in the plains below the well-defended slopes, they saw what they were looking for. Trumpets blared out and soldiers looked to the bannermen; a signal indicated the quarter of the battlefield, and everyone’s eyes quickly found the royal robes. The attack pressed forward. The whole army of Aram surged toward Jehoshaphat. He was the wrong man, but they didn’t know it.
(3) Prayer. Jehoshaphat had been foolish. Duped by Ahab into being the decoy, he found himself the only target facing an army of tens of thousands. He had been faithful to the Lord in so many things, but now he found himself in a foolish position. Ridiculously stupid of him! He was the only man on the field that anyone was trying to kill. How many times do our own foolish sins put us into this position? Alone among thousands of soldiers who were in little to no danger at all, he cried out for help.
Jehoshaphat’s cry was heard by God, who counted it, whatever his words, as a righteous prayer spoken in faith. “O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs” (Psalm 22:19).
(4) Discovery. What did the Arameans hear? “Don’t shoot– I’m the King of Judah!” Something along those lines, maybe. Or maybe Jehoshaphat’s voice was so obviously different from Ahab’s that no one could be mistaken that this was the wrong man. In an opera, the deep bass is either the villain or the wise king (if a woman is the villain). The tenor is usually the hero. So if it weren’t his voice or the language of his cry, it could also have been that they saw that his robes were from Judah and not Samaria. In any case, the battle changed at once.
(5) Chance. With Ahab nowhere to be found, the Arameans simply used the advantage of the high ground (since they were defending Ramoth Gilead) and held the field against the attackers. But then, an Aramean soldier drew his bow and shot. He did this tom, “in innocence; with integrity.” That means that he was not trying to kill Ahab in particular, but was simply letting his arrow fly when the order came. But his arrow struck between the parts of Ahab’s armor, perhaps in the lungs, or the belly, or the liver, and he told his chariot driver to get him out of the fighting. He sat propped up as the battle raged, but by sunset he was dead.
Humanly speaking it was pure chance. But we know that it was not. The moment had come for the soul of Ahab to be judged, to await the end of time in the prison of “blackest darkness” (Jude 1:13). Ahab was dead, and when a man dies, his soul either returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7) or else it is thrown immediately and directly to hell (Luke 12:5; 16:23).
For all of us with faith in Christ, death is a sleep from which our bodies will awaken. “We eagerly await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20). We will be transformed and be taken, body and soul together again, into heaven, where we will live forever in peace.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 18:27-34 The death of Ahab