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Context No. 1706 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 20:29-33: in context

29They encamped opposite each other for seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day. 30But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled and came into the city, into an inner room. 31His servants said to him, “See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life.” 32So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, “Your servant Ben Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’” He said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” 33Now the men observed diligently and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, “Your brother Ben Hadad.” Then he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot.

After Israel defeats the army of Ben-hadad of Syria, the Syrian king takes refuge in an inner room. His servants come to him with a plan: they have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful; perhaps if they go out in sackcloth and plead, the king of Israel will spare Ben-hadad's life. They do so, and Ahab, hearing Ben-hadad called his servant, responds warmly, he is my brother, and brings the defeated king up into his chariot.

There is one detail here worth pausing over: the servants of Syria appeal to a reputation. We have heard, they say, that the kings of Israel are merciful. Even Israel's enemies knew this about them, that they were a people, and had kings, known for mercy, so that a defeated foe could throw himself on that mercy and hope to be spared. That reputation is itself a kind of testimony. To be known, even by one's enemies, as merciful is no small thing; it reflects something of the character of the God of Israel, who is himself merciful, and it draws even foes to hope in it. A people marked by mercy bear witness, without a word, to the God whose mercy they reflect. And yet the episode carries a caution alongside the commendation, for Ahab's particular mercy here was not obedience but its opposite; God had given Ben-hadad into his hand, and a prophet would soon rebuke Ahab for letting him go. So the passage holds two things together. On one side, a reputation for mercy is a good and God-reflecting thing, worth having; the world should be able to say of God's people that they are merciful. On the other, mercy must remain under God, not become a sentimental self-will that spares what God has said to deal with, or that flatters us as generous while we quietly disobey. True mercy reflects God's own mercy and stays obedient to him; it is not the same as a soft indulgence that does what pleases us and calls it kindness. The reputation is worth having, if it is real mercy, ordered under God.

Am I known, even by those who might oppose me, as a person of mercy, reflecting the God who is merciful, and is my mercy the real kind, ordered under God and obedient to him, rather than a self-pleasing indulgence that spares what I should not and flatters me as kind?

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