So it was, in the spring of the year, that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside. Then a man of God came and spoke to 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 I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” (26-28)
The king of Syria, Ben-hadad, together with his great army, had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel and king Ahab. Since Palestine is rather mountainous, king Ben-hadad mistakenly concluded that the Israelites had been successful because their God was a god of the hills. If he could but engage them again in the valley, he was sure that he could easily overcome them.
A prophet of the Lord then spoke to King Ahab saying, “Thus says the Lord: 'Because the Syrians have said, “The Lord is a God of the mountains, but He is not a God of the valleys," I will therefore give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord'" (v.28). When the battle came, the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; then a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left. And Ben-Hadad fled and went into the city, into an inner chamber without protection (vv.29-30).
Thus, both Israel and the Syrians were shown that God is not limited by time or space, He is the LORD of all the earth - even in the valley of deepest testing!
The Truth: “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)
