Ahab was confronted with a situation before which he felt helpless. His automatic response was surrender. 1 Kings 20:1-4. He yielded to the enemy.
But then things were getting a little out of hand. It’s one thing to surrender, it’s quite another for the enemy to take over your life, humiliate you and make a public spectacle of you. So, although he couldn’t do anything about it, humanly speaking, Ahab put up some resistance. He wasn’t going to go down like that. 1 Kings 20:5-12.
Thus, in spite of the fact Ahab is a wicked king, and for His name’s sake, God intervenes to save Ahab, not just once, but twice! 1 Kings 20:13-30. Were it not for God’s intervention, Ahab had been toast. And God wanted to give Ahab a complete and thorough victory over his enemy.
But Ahab got distracted and started fraternizing with the enemy. He started making concessions and signing contracts as if it was by his own power that the enemy had been humbled. 1 Kings 20:32-34. My mama calls it playing with the devil’s tail. And yes, it did come back and bite him 3yrs down the road…
God wanted to give him a clean victory over this enemy. It would have been gone for good. But when the moment was right to slay the enemy, he chose instead to play with the enemy. Not only does the battle belong to the Lord, but so does the victory too! Quit fraternizing with the enemy and let God complete the victory.
I read some books from Joe Crews ‘Creeping Compromise’ and ‘Enemy at the gate’ think they say, what you are saying in this note.
neat!