But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the breastplate and the scale armor. The king told the chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.” – 2 Chronicles 18:33

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 28, 2016): 2 Chronicles 18

There is an old episode of M*A*S*H where Colonel Potter and Hawkeye are called out to a small combat hospital at the front. With bombs and shells falling all around them, their task is to put the wounded back together long enough to get them to a hospital. After completing their job, they were making their way back to the 4077 when all in a sudden bombs start exploding all around them once more. Now, it probably didn’t help that the two homeward doctors had also discovered that Klinger had remembered to pack some beverages for the ride back and both of the men were now drunk. But, just at the right moment, the doctors find a foxhole and jump in - and then begins a conversation over the use of guns. Potter is adamant. They have sidearms with them, and the guns are meant to be used. But Hawkeye disagrees. His memorable statement is that he would heal their wounds, and he would bind their wounds, but he would not inflict their wounds. Potter finally convinces Hawkeye just to discharge his weapon into the air to try to scare the enemy off with the noise, and to that suggestion, Hawkeye agrees. He pulls the trigger on his gun with the barrel pointed at the sky until he has no bullets left. No harm was done, either to the bodies of the enemy or Hawkeye’s ideals. Just six wasted bullets.

In the story of this battle between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the Kingdom of Aram, it is clear that Ahab is the target of the enemy. And so when the enemy sees a man dressed as a king, it is natural that they would think that that king would be Ahab. But when they take a closer look, they realize that it is not Ahab. It is still a king – in this case, it is the King of Judah - but in the heat of the battle it seems that the king of Judah is not worth an arrow.

And yet, even though the soldiers of the attacking army have been commanded to fight only against Ahab, someone fires an arrow even though the intended target has not been spotted. This arrow is the counterpart of Hawkeye’s bullets. It is fired without purpose and without a target. It is as if someone had the arrow loaded into the bow and just decides to loose the arrow rather than release the pressure on the bowstring and put the arrow away. The bolt is wasted. It has no chance of doing any damage, except that it does.  Somehow that wasted arrow finds the one spot on Ahab’s armor that is vulnerable to attack.  

Throughout history, people have tried to put a name to the soldier that fired the fateful arrow. But in so many ways that just seems to defeat the point of the story. Ahab’s death is not brought on by a skilled warrior and it is not the result of a cleverly designed attack. Ahab would be killed by the wasted arrow of a warrior too lazy to not to let the arrow fly. Ahab’s life ends in such a way that it could only be called an act of God – and in fact, it is an act of the God that Ahab had denied throughout most of the length of his life.

(See also 1 Kings 22:34)

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 19