1 Kings 20: God of the Hills and Valleys

"And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, 'Thus says the LORD, "Because the Syrians have said, 'The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,' therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD."'" 1 Kings 20:28 (emphasis added)

When's the last time you doubted God's sovereignty in every situation? So often, we believe that the Lord is fully sovereign over every situation...except the very situation that we happen to be in at this very moment. Yet, scripture tells us that our God is a God who is over every situation, both in the hills and the valleys.

In 1 Kings 20, we find the Israelites mid-battle against Ben-hadad and the nation of Syria. Syria has Samaria (an Israelite territory) surrounded, and they demand that Israel give up their gold, silver, wives, and children to them lest they be destroyed. Ahab (the current king of Israel) concurs, but then Ben-hadad (the king of Syria) asks for more. Ahab refuses, and in response, Ben-hadad resolves to destroy the city. He is rather confident in his victory (see verse 10), but the Lord has a different plan for the evil nation of Syria.

In the next part of the narrative, we find a prophet coming to Ahab and promising victory from the Lord, Thus, Ahab and the Israelites go out to fight on the mountaintops of Samaria and, by God's power, they are victorious. However, the war is not over. A prophet comes to Ahab again and tells him that the Syrians will attack the Israelites again in the following year, and they do. However, this time the Syrians attack the Israelites in the plains rather than the mountains because they thought that the God of the Israelites was only sovereign over the hills and not the valleys. Surely they were mistaken.

Although the Israelite army consisted of 7,232 soldiers and the Syrian army consisted of 127,000, Israel triumphed over the Syrians again even though they were in the valley. Thus, both Ahab and the Israelites and Ben-hadad and the Syrians realized that Yahweh was both sovereign over the hills and valleys. There was no situation in which God was not in control.

The application is obvious, is it not? Just as God was sovereign over both the hills and valleys in the lives of his people thousands of years ago, still is he sovereign over our hills and valleys, working for the good of our sanctification in every situation (Rom. 8:28-29). Although we so often doubt that God is over both the hills and the valleys in our lives, we must take firm confidence that he is. Although we might not be able to see God's sovereignty, we must trust that it is there because in his word he has promised us that it is. Likewise, we see in the person of Jesus that God is sovereign over the absolute worst valleys, as in the story of Jesus God took the worst possible valley (the cross) and turned it into the best possible victory (the salvation of his chosen people).

So, perhaps today you are struggling to trust that God is a God both of the hills and the valleys. Perhaps you trust him when you're on the mountaintop, but not when you're in the valley. Child of God, let me convict you: this is not faith, it is sight. "“Faith is not the absence of doubt, otherwise it wouldn’t be faith; faith is faith in the face of doubt" (Dr. Bryan Vickers).

Let me encourage you to pray the following prayer in response to today's devotional, if you dare:

Lord, I have failed in the past to trust that you are the Lord in every situation. I have trusted that you are Lord, but not fully. I have told other people you are the Lord of their situation, yet failed to trust that you are the Lord of mine. I have trusted you with parts of the past, parts of the present, and parts of the future, but not all of it. Lord, help me today to place my trust in a God who is sovereign over both the hills and valleys, mountains and plains. Let me never forget that you are Lord of All. Amen.