Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We spent today in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. We open with a man named Ben Hadad, the king of

Syria, invading the Northern kingdom. Syria is their immediate neighbor

to the northeast. Ben Hadad gathers an alliance including 32 other kings or chiefs and sends his

demands to Ahab. He wants all his wealth and the best of his women and offspring. King Ahab, ever the

gentleman, says, you can have him. Okay. In the face of the military threat

of Ben Hadad's massive coalition, King Ahab agrees to give them everything they demand. But the

Syrian coalition takes things a step too far when they say they're going to come to a raid on

Ahab's palace. The elders of Israel put their foots down. Feet down, whatever. But then Ben Haddad is like,

you got to be kidding me. You seriously have no idea how big my army is, do you? You're about to

find out. And then Ahab responds, oh really? We'll see about that. You might put your armor on tomorrow,

but you won't be taking it off. This is ancient Israeli trash talk that basically amounts

to a death threat. This insights Ben Hadad, who is already three sheets to the wind. That's unadvisable

when you're trying to win a war. And while Ben Hadad is seeing double, King Ahab is seeing a prophet,

who tells him he'll win the war despite the size of the enemy army.

Following the prophet's instructions, Israel attacks the coalition and wins.

The prophet warns Ahab that the Syrians are going to come back to mount another attack in the spring

and suggest that Ahab get ready.

The Syrians prefer to fight in the plains because they have chariots.

And they think the reason Israel won the last battle is because they had the advantage

of fighting in the hills where chariots are useless.

So Syria goes to attack them on the plains.

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