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Presently, at Ahab's invitation, Ben-hadad himself was brought, and made to stand by
the side of the king in his chariot – both in token of companionship and for more
private conversation. In truth, nothing less than a treaty of alliance was in hand
between them. Ben-hadad undertook to restore the towns which his father had taken
from Ahab's father (in a warfare of which we have no other record) and to allow to
Ahab the same rights and privileges as to having "streets," or rather "bazaars" - what
in modern language would be called an Israelitish "factory" – in the Syrian capital,
which Ben-Hades' father had possessed in Samaria; and with this covenant Ahab
dismissed the Syrian king.
We have said that it is not easy to understand what motives could have prompted an
act which, even politically, was a grave mistake. Was it flattered vanity on the part of
Ahab, or sympathy with the heathen king, or part of his statecraft to secure, not only
an ally, but a vassal on the northern flank of his kingdom, or all these combined? In
any case he must have looked upon the victory over the Syrians in a manner far
different from that in which it had been announced to him by the God who had
wrought it. Ahab no longer thought of Jehovah; he inquired not as to His purpose or
will. There was an ominous similarity between his conduct and that of Saul in regard
to Agag (1 Samuel 15). Evidently, Ahab claimed to have himself gained the victory,
and felt sure that in like circumstances - should Ben-hadad rebel - he would equally
gain it once more. It was he, and not the LORD, who would shape and direct the
destinies of Israel. Jehovah was only the national deity of that Israel of which Ahab
was the king. And so the error of the Syrians was substantially repeated by Ahab, and
the lesson which Jehovah would have taught by their defeat had to be learned anew
by Israel and its king - this time in judgment.
This explains the commission with which God now charged one of "the sons of the
prophets." We mark that the expression here occurs for the first time.^53 It referred to
those associations^54 under the leadership of some prophet (hence sons of the
prophets) which, in the decay of religious life in Israel, served such important
purposes, alike for the preservation of religion, and in the execution of the Divine
behests.
In fact, they would recall to Israel, what, as a nation, Israel had been destined to be,
and ever keep it before them. Thus they represented, so to speak, ideal Israel in the
midst of apostate Israel. To a member of this community it came "by the word of
Jehovah" - that is, by direct command from Him - to confront Ahab with such a
symbolic (or parabolic) presentation of his late conduct as would show it in its true
light, and lead the king to pronounce sentence on himself. Thus only could a man
like Ahab be convicted, if not convinced, of sin.
(^)