Context No. 2802 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 20:12-17: in context

12When Ben Hadad heard this message as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, he said to his servants, “Prepare to attack!” So they prepared to attack the city. 13Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, “The LORD says, ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” 14Ahab said, “By whom?” He said, “The LORD says, ‘By the young men of the princes of the provinces.’” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” He answered, “You.” 15Then he mustered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 16They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. 17The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, “Men are coming out from Samaria.”

Ben-Hadad of Syria besieges Samaria while he drinks himself senseless in his tents with the thirty-two allied kings who have come to help him. A prophet comes to Ahab with a promise: do you see all this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and you will know that I am the LORD. By whom? asks Ahab. By the young men of the district officials, the prophet answers, and you yourself will begin the battle.

So a laughably small band of two hundred and thirty-two marches out at noon against a drunken host. The contrast is deliberate. The enemy king leans on his numbers and his wine, while Israel is handed the victory through a tiny company, so that the win can only be credited to God. The purpose is stated outright: that you will know that I am the LORD. God repeatedly saves with the few against the many, precisely to make plain whose hand did it.

Do I trust in numbers and advantage like Ben-Hadad, or believe God can save just as easily by many or by few?

Sources

1 Kings 20:13: "Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
1 Samuel 14:6: "For there is nothing that can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few."
Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts."