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1 Kings 20:23 "And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, 'Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.'"

 

Silly Syrians! They're so used to their multiple false gods, each having favored people and places, they can't imagine a God who is God of everything. So, having been defeated when Ahab, at God's command, attacked the besieging Syrian army with a greatly outnumbered force (1 Kings 20:13-21), the king's servants assume the preference of Israel's gods for the place of the attack was key in Israel's success. Not knowing any better, the Syrian king accepts this explanation and begins planning a campaign on the plain. God, of course, already knows what Syria will do, and has pre-warned Ahab, through a prophet, to "Come, strengthen yourself, and consider what you must do, for in the spring the king of Syria will come up against you." (1 Kings 20:22).

 

Ahab was as ready as he could be for the next assault, but Israel's forces were still greatly outnumbered, encamped "like two little flocks of goats" while "the Syrians filled the country" (1 Kings 20:27). Nonetheless, God, who is the God of everything, not just the hills, proclaimed "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).

 

Perhaps it is understandable that the Syrians would think of God the way they thought of their own gods - not all-powerful, but limited to certain spheres of influence. But there is no reason for those of us who know God to do that. Yet we often do. We hold back areas of our lives that we want to control, or that we think have to be handled by some human expert, or that we think God has no business knowing about. We might not want to let God into every nook and cranny of our lives; we might think we can handle some things better on our own; or we might trust other human beings more than we trust God to handle certain things. It's not that we don't have to take care of ourselves, and that we shouldn't rely on others to help us, but we must always remember that God is our primary caregiver and has all the power to arrange things for our good if we just let Him. When we listen to and work with Him, even when He is asking us to do something outside of our comfort zone, He will use our trust and our actions to show us and the world that He has no limits, He is the Lord of all.