How Deep His Love--by Andy

I got to finish the few last chapters of 1 Kings this morning, and I was touched by the great lengths that God went through to bring His people back to Him. In my last blog on the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, God showed Himself as LORD to win the hearts of His people through the dramatic confrontation between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal. The people who witnessed it fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD--he is God! The LORD--he is God!" Then they had the 450 prophets seized and slaughtered. King Ahab was also present, but there was no mention of his repenting heart. The last few chapters of the book records mainly how God then continued to deal with King Ahab.

Chapter 20 recounted how God used two invasions by King Ben-Hadad of Aram to show Ahab again that He was the LORD God (v13, v28). God delivered the Arameans and King Ben-Hadad into Ahab's hands in battles where there were just 7000 Israelites against the vast army of over a hundred thousand of Arameans. Verse 27 says, "The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside." King Ahab remained disobedient to God inspite of this. Then God sent a prophet to tell Ahab how He will punish him for his disobedience. Chapter 21 told a story where Ahab wickedly killed a man to take his vineyard and the kind of death Ahab was prophesied to have because of his wicked act. Finally in chapter 22, God brought about a battle between Ahab and the Arameans in which, even though the Aramean army had already been severely weakened in the last two encounters with the Israelites, He not only caused the Israelites to lose but also King Ahab to die exactly the way it was prophesied. Throughout these three chapters, it was so amazing for me to see the sovereign and gracious hand of God involved in the smallest little details in how He dealt with King Ahab. God even put lying spirits in the mouths of all of Ahab's prophets to entice him into going to war with the Arameans (v23). He also caused the king of Aram to hunt only for Ahab in the battle (v31), and, even though Ahab disguised himself, he was fatally shot by a "random" arrow "between the sections of his armor." (v34). In these chapters, the author of the book clearly wanted to send me the message that God is LORD in how He sovereignly orchestrated the life and death of Ahab.

I also, however, saw in these chapters the depth of God's love toward His people. He went through great lengths to warn the prophets of Baal and king Ahab, the two governing offices that He used to guide His people. He planned the death of Ahab in such a miraculous way that the people would know that He is LORD, so that they would fear Him and return to Him. All of this reminded me again of God's ultimate plan, his salvation plan, where He orchestrated the death of His own Son Jesus such that He may turn my heart to Him. I pray that I might feel grateful and humbled by such deep love upon such a wicked sinner like me. Who is like the LORD our God?