Where is my Help?

Read 1 Kings 20. 

The king of Syria with an allied force from 32 other kings mustered to conquer Ahab and the northern kingdom of Israel.  When negotiations failed, the two sides readied themselves for battle.

God sent an unnamed prophet to Ahab with this message, "Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the LORD" (v.13b).  Amazingly, after all of Ahab's rebellion and evil, God continued to reveal Himself to Ahab.  These are God's chosen people and He wants them to turn back to Him.  Though enormously outnumbered, Israel set themselves toward the enemy and routed them. 

But God was not through with punishing Syria or demanding obedience from Ahab.  As Syria prepared for the second battle, the advisers to Ben-hadad told him to fight in the plain of the land.  Why?  They believed Israel’s god ruled the hills, while their god ruled the valley (v.23).  In their pagan way of thinking, they believed that a war could be won by pleasing one made up god over another.

When the LORD heard this, He sent a prophet to Ahab, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because the Syrians have said, "The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys," therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD" (v.28).  The battle was not Israel against Syria, but Syria against God.  The LORD wants all nations to know who He is and of His power; that included Ahab. 127,000 enemy soldiers died that day against 7,000 from Israel.  Only God.

They looked the gods of the hills, instead of the God who made the hills.  Many today look to the stars, instead of the God who made the stars.  The Psalmist looked at the hills and asked the life changing question.

Psalm 121:1-2 "I will lift my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?  My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth."