The God of the Valleys and the Folly of Sentimental Kings Text: 1 Kings 20:26-34
Introduction: A Tale of Two Theologies
We come now to a passage that is dripping with theological significance for our own day. It is a story of warfare, but the central conflict is not between Israel and Aram, but between two rival theologies. On the one hand, you have the pagan, shrunken, compartmentalized theology of the Arameans. They believed in boutique gods, local deities with limited jurisdictions. Their gods were like celestial bureaucrats, each managing his own little department. They had a god for the mountains and, they assumed, a different one for the plains. On the other hand, you have the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yahweh of Armies, who is not a god, but God. He is the sovereign Lord of all creation, and He does not have jurisdictions. He has creation. He is not the God of the hills only, but of the valleys also. He is God of the subatomic particles and the spiral galaxies. He is God of the Sunday morning service and the Monday morning board meeting. He is God of your private prayer closet and your public political decisions.
This is the great conflict of our age. The secularist, and many a timid Christian along with him, wants to confine God to the hills of private piety. "You can have your God," they say, "but keep Him in your church, in your heart, in your home. Don't you dare bring Him down into the valley of the public square, the valley of the science lab, the valley of the legislature." They want to put God on a reservation. But the God of the Bible will not be managed, contained, or compartmentalized. He is the God of the valleys. And He is jealous for His name.
This passage reveals two critical truths. First, it shows us that God will go to extraordinary lengths to reveal His all-encompassing sovereignty, even using the foolish theology of pagans as the foil for His glory. Second, it shows us the profound danger of winning a great victory from God's hand, only to squander it through sentimental, political folly. Ahab is given a stunning, miraculous victory for the express purpose of knowing Yahweh, and he immediately turns around and makes a covenant with the man God had devoted to destruction, calling him "brother." This is not mercy; it is treason. It is the kind of mushy, effeminate sentimentality that passes for compassion in our day but is, in reality, a profound disobedience to the sharp-edged commands of God.
The Text
Now it happened at the turn of the year, that Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. Now the sons of Israel were mustered and were provided for and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land. Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “Yahweh is a god of the mountains, 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 Yahweh.’ ” So they camped one opposite the other seven days. Now it happened that on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel struck down of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.
Then his servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of lovingkindness, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will preserve your life.” So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ” And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” Now the men interpreted this as an omen, and hastily catching his word said, “Your brother Ben-hadad.” Then he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben-hadad came out to him, and he took him up into the chariot. And Ben-hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will return, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.” Ahab said, “And I will let you go with this covenant.” So he cut a covenant with him and let him go.
(1 Kings 20:26-34 LSB)
God's Doxological Motive (v. 26-28)
We begin with the setup for the battle and God's explicit declaration of His purpose.
"Now it happened at the turn of the year, that Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. Now the sons of Israel were mustered and were provided for and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land." (1 Kings 20:26-27)
The Arameans, having been defeated in the hills around Samaria earlier, have regrouped. Their court theologians have diagnosed the problem: they fought on the wrong turf. Their gods were out of their element. So now they have chosen the location, Aphek, down in the plains. They intend to fight in the valley, where they believe Yahweh has no power. The visual contrast is stark and intentional. Israel is like "two little flocks of goats," a picture of vulnerability and insignificance. The Arameans, on the other hand, "filled the land." From a purely human, military perspective, this is not a battle; it is an extermination. The odds are impossible. And this is precisely how God loves to work. He engineers circumstances to be humanly impossible so that when the victory comes, there is no confusion about who gets the credit. God loves lopsided fights, because He is always on the lopsided side.
Into this moment of extreme tension, a man of God comes to Ahab, the apostate king of Israel. And God does not mince words. He lays His motive bare.
"Thus says Yahweh, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “Yahweh is a god of the mountains, 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 Yahweh.’ " (1 Kings 20:28)
Notice this carefully. God's primary motive here is not the salvation of Israel. Israel, under Ahab, is in deep apostasy and does not deserve deliverance. God's motive is the vindication of His own name. The Arameans have publicly slandered the character and authority of God. They have demoted Him to the level of a pagan idol, a territorial spirit. And God says, "Because they have said this, therefore I will act." God is jealous for His glory. The central purpose of all history, all redemption, and all judgment is doxological. It is for the glory of God. He is acting so that both the pagan Arameans and apostate Israel "shall know that I am Yahweh." He is the God who is. He is the sovereign, universal, unconstrained Lord of all things. This is a direct assault on every form of practical atheism that seeks to limit God's authority to a particular sphere.
The Impossible Victory and the Collapsing Wall (v. 29-30)
What follows is a slaughter so complete that it can only be attributed to the hand of God.
"So they camped one opposite the other seven days. Now it happened that on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel struck down of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left." (1 Kings 20:29-30)
The week of waiting must have been excruciating for the Israelites, staring at an ocean of enemy soldiers. But on the seventh day, the day of completion and rest, God gives them a day of battle and victory. The numbers are staggering: 100,000 killed in one day by what amounted to a skeleton crew. This is not a testament to Israel's military prowess, but to God's covenant power.
And then, for those who might have missed the point, God adds an exclamation mark. The survivors flee into the city of Aphek, and the wall collapses on 27,000 of them. This is a clear echo of Jericho. It is a supernatural judgment. God is demonstrating that He is not only God of the valleys and the open plains, but He is also God over the walls of fortified cities. There is no place to hide from Him. His sovereignty extends over the battlefield and the ramparts. He is God of military strategy and of structural engineering. He is God of the sword and of the stone. Ben-hadad, the arrogant king, is now reduced to hiding in an inner chamber, a closet, terrified for his life. The man who thought he could dictate terms to God's people is now a fugitive in his own refuge.
The Ploy of False Humility (v. 31-32)
Now the scene shifts from the battlefield to the back room, and the warfare shifts from swords to words. Ben-hadad's servants devise a cunning, manipulative strategy.
"Then his servants said to him, 'Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of lovingkindness, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will preserve your life.' So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, 'Your servant Ben-hadad says, “Please let me live.” ' " (1 Kings 20:31-32)
This is a masterclass in manipulation. They have heard that the kings of Israel have a reputation for being "kings of lovingkindness" or merciful kings. This reputation was meant to be a reflection of God's own covenant mercy (hesed). But here, it is being used as a weakness to be exploited. They don the traditional garb of utter defeat and repentance, sackcloth and ropes. The ropes around the neck signified that they were worthy of being hanged, and they were casting themselves entirely on the victor's mercy.
Their appeal is carefully crafted. It is an appeal to Ahab's ego. They are banking on the fact that Ahab will be flattered by this reputation and will want to live up to it. They are not genuinely repenting of their idolatry or their aggression. They are not acknowledging Yahweh as the true God. This is a pragmatic, self-serving, desperate plea for survival, dressed up in the language of humility. And Ahab, a man ruled by his appetites and his ego, is the perfect mark for this kind of con.
Ahab's Sentimental Folly (v. 32-34)
Ahab's response is immediate, and it is a catastrophic failure of leadership. It is a textbook example of how sentimentality can lead to treason against God.
"And he said, 'Is he still alive? He is my brother.' Now the men interpreted this as an omen, and hastily catching his word said, 'Your brother Ben-hadad.' Then he said, 'Go, bring him.' Then Ben-hadad came out to him, and he took him up into the chariot." (1 Kings 20:32-33)
Ahab's first mistake is to call this pagan enemy of God his "brother." This is not a term of generic human fraternity. In the ancient Near East, this was the language of parity, of covenantal alliance. Ben-hadad was the man whom God had supernaturally delivered into Ahab's hand for judgment. He was the blasphemer whose theological slander had prompted this entire battle. And Ahab, in a moment of puffed-up, sentimental vanity, calls him brother. The Aramean servants, who are sharp operators, immediately seize on this. "Hastily catching his word," they parrot it back to him: "Your brother Ben-hadad." They lock him into his foolish sentiment.
Ahab then compounds his sin. He invites this enemy into his own chariot, a public symbol of honor and fellowship. He has moved from verbal folly to public treason. He is identifying himself with the man God has identified as His enemy.
The final act is the formal covenant, a complete repudiation of the victory God had given him.
"And Ben-hadad said to him, 'The cities which my father took from your father I will return, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.' Ahab said, 'And I will let you go with this covenant.' So he cut a covenant with him and let him go." (1 Kings 20:34)
Ben-hadad, seeing he has a fool on the line, offers a deal that sounds good on the surface, some restored territory and trade rights. Ahab, thinking like a short-sighted politician and not like a covenant king, snaps at the bait. He makes a covenant with a man devoted to destruction. He lets him go. Why is this so wicked? Because God had given Ahab this victory not for territorial gain or economic advantage, but so that Israel would "know that I am Yahweh." Ahab took the glorious, doxological victory God had given him and traded it for a few cities and a business district in Damascus. He preferred a good political treaty over the fear of the Lord. He showed that he valued the "brotherhood" of a pagan king more than the explicit will of the God of the valleys.
This is the sin of Saul all over again. Saul spared Agag out of a similar desire for public approval and political gain, and it cost him his kingdom. Ahab's "mercy" was not true mercy. True mercy rejoices in the truth and aligns with God's justice. Ahab's mercy was a flaccid, self-congratulatory sentimentality. It was a refusal to execute God's judgment. And as the prophet will tell him just a few verses later, the consequence is stark: "Because you have let go out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people" (1 Kings 20:42).
Conclusion: No Neutral Valleys
The lessons for us are sharp and clear. First, we must have a robust, biblical theology of God's absolute sovereignty. Our God is the God of the valleys. There are no areas of life where He is not Lord. Your business, your art, your politics, your science, your education, all of it belongs to Him. To concede any of these valleys to the enemy, to say that Christ's lordship does not apply here or there, is to adopt the pagan theology of the Arameans. It is to slander God, and He will not stand for it.
Second, we must beware the sin of Ahab. We must be on guard against the kind of sentimental foolishness that calls evil "brother" and makes covenants with those whom God has judged. Our age is drowning in this kind of thinking. It is a "mercy" that refuses to call sin, sin. It is a "kindness" that will not execute justice. It is a "tolerance" that makes treaties with wickedness for the sake of a false peace. When God gives us a victory, when He exposes evil, when He hands His enemies over to us, whether in a cultural debate or a church discipline case, we are not to get them in our chariot and call them brother. We are to be obedient to the end.
God has given us the ultimate victory in the valley of the shadow of death through His Son, Jesus Christ. He defeated sin, death, and the devil. And He has called us to walk in that victory, to enforce the terms of His triumph. Let us not, like Ahab, trade that glorious victory for a pot of political pottage. Let us know that He is Yahweh, the God of the mountains and the God of the valleys, and let us live and rule accordingly.