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 Haddad'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

foot's 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 incites

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. Meanwhile, the prophet shows up again and tells Ahab, don't sweat this. God reigns everywhere and

God wins everywhere in the hills and in the valleys. Israel wins, and the 27,000 Syrians who

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