Day 105 – January 16, 2024: I Kings 20-22 and Proverbs 4-5

We continue along with the story of Ahab, the king of the North, and his military exploits and how, even in his unfaithfulness, the Lord still accompanies him into victory in battle. That is until he decides that he is going to spare a king and not kill him, against the will of God. Then we find this interesting alliance between the North and the South, and Ahab is able to convince the southern king, Jehoshaphat, to wear the king’s robes so that he would be an obvious sitting duck in the middle of the battle field. I’m always curious as to why Jehoshaphat agrees to this, but he does, and it actually ends up sparing his life. Ahab then dies in battle.

In the meantime we do see an interesting humbling of Ahab as he asks for forgiveness for taking the vineyard from Naboth, even though it was basically his wife trying to cheer him up who does it. The Proverbs Scriptures all begin with a reference to “my son” or “my child”. The author is obviously writing to someone whom he considers a mentee and gives him life directions on how to live as a child of God. There are many admonitions to stay on the right path especially in regards to not straying from the love of your youth to pursue someone who might entice you in the moment. Pretty powerful stuff whose insight has made it through the ages.