1 Kings 20:1

1 Kings 20:1 says, And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it.  Benhadad, king of Syria, and thirty-two other kings united and with horses and chariots besieged Samaria.  This was a large force with a lot of armament, and sometimes today Christians are confronted with large and powerful forces united against them.  Verse two adds, And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad,  Benhadad sent a message to Ahab while he had him surrounded.  Benhadad was in the position of power from earthly terms, and Ahab did not have God's protection since he had started worshipping other gods.  We cannot be Christians in name only and still expect God to protect us from evil forces in the world.  Verse three continues, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.  Benhadad told Ahab that he was taking all of Ahab's silver, gold, wives, and children, or everything he had of value in other words.  Satan today is attempting to take everything of value that we have, starting with our immortal soul.  Of course, everything we have in this lifetime will one day be gone, so we should never value any earthly thing above our relationship with God.  Verse four states, And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.  Ahab consented to Benhadad's taking everything and called him his lord.  We as followers of Christ should never consent to allowing anyone to take away the things of God in our life and we certainly should never acknowledge anyone else as our Lord.  Verse five adds, And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children;  Benhadad sent a second message to Ahab saying that he knew that Ahab had agreed to give him all that he asked.  Satan is never going to be satisfied with everything we have unless he claims our soul as well.  Verse six continues, Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.  Benhadad said he was going to send servants tomorrow to search the houses of the people in Samaria and take everything that they saw and wanted.  As just stated, if we begin to give in to the power of Satan, one day he will take all that we have, or we will lose it when Jesus Christ returns.  Verse seven declares, Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.  Ahab called the elders of the land and told them that he had done everything Benhadad had commanded, and he still wanted more.  If we begin to give in to the power of Satan, he will never be satisfied until he has it all.  Verse eight adds, And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent.  The elders told Ahab not to listen to Benhadad and not to give him everything he demanded.  We need someone today to tell us to take a stand against Satan and his forces of evil and not to just give in.  Hopefully, as Christians we will tell others the same thing.  Verse nine continues, Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought him word again.  Ahab told the messenger to go back and tell him that he would agree to what Benhadad had originally requested, but he wasn't going to comply with the new request.  We need to be willing to stand up to evil in this world before we give in and lose everything.  Verse ten says, And Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.  Benhadad swore by his gods that he was going to totally destroy Samaria and if he didn't that the gods should destroy him.  Of course, since they weren't real gods, the oath was really useless.  Verse eleven adds, And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.  Ahab told Benhadad that he shouldn't boast until what he said had been accomplished.  Satan and his forces may boast about how powerful they are, but one day they will find out how wrong they were.