Is He Only the God of the Hills? (Part 2)

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And there came a man of God, and spoke unto 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 will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD" (1 Kings 20:28).

A war was about to ignite, and it looked as though Israel would be swallowed up in an instant. But a man of God arrived and told King Ahab that the LORD would show Ben-Hadad, the king and Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian forces, that He was the God of the valleys as well as of the hills.

For seven days the opposing armies faced off, which shows us two things at the same time: 1) Israel's faith, and 2) Syria's fear. The battle was Syria's call, not Israel's. But what were the Syrians waiting for? Why not attack? After all, the army of Israel looked "like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside" (verse 27). So what were they waiting for?

They hesitated because they were afraid; not of Israel, but of Israel's God. They believed He was only the God of the Hills.....but they really weren't all that sure.

The Bible doesn't tell us what triggered the fight -- a twitch here, a smirk there, an insult over there. We don't know. But we do know that once the war began it was bloody and swift. The Spirit of the Lord came upon the army of Israel, and the soldiers were unleashed upon the Syrians like Yoda in The Clone Wars!

When the fog of war cleared, 100,000 Syrian warriors lay dead in the field; an additional 27,000 who fled for their lives into the city, were crushed when a city wall fell upon them. Israel suffered no casualties.

Now the question at hand is this -- what does this story have to do with us today? Well, I will tell you the answer to that tomorrow!
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