What’s better than being rescued when we cry out? When we see the danger signs, and Keep Out!
Ramoth Gilead (Heb, Rāmōt Gil‘ād), meaning “the heights of Gilead,” sits in a commanding position on the north bank of the Jabbok River. It isn’t far from Peniel, where Jacob wrestled with the Man, or from Mahanaim, where David held court in exile. Once both a Levitical city and a city of refuge east of the Jordan, it had been lost to the Syrians. Was it God’s will that it should be in Israel’s possession? Ahab could argue that, but not by this man, or at this time, or in this way. Now at the battlefield, Ahab slips in disguise among the ranks, but Jehoshaphat is impossible to miss. Oh, sorry, that’s an unfortunate turn of phrase to use in a war zone! Especially because “the king of Syria had commanded…‘Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel’” (2 Chron 18:30). Ahab had made sure it would be easy for the Syrian archers to think Jehoshaphat, the only one in kingly attire, was the target. “So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, ‘It is the king of Israel!’ Therefore they surrounded him to attack” (v 31). Remind me: When was it a good time for Jehoshaphat to have a prayer meeting? Before he left Jerusalem? Certainly before he left Samaria! But here he is, right in the thick of it, with Syrian troops closing in and arrows pointed at his heart. We don’t read that a prayer left his lips, just that “Jehoshaphat cried out.” But the God of all grace was standing by, “and the Lord helped him, and…diverted them from him” (v 31). Not so with Ahab. “A certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor” (v 33). But there was nothing random about God’s judgment, and wicked Ahab was DOA as the sun forever set on his pathetic life.