Today’s Scripture Reading (October 24, 2016): 1 Kings 20
On September 25, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson collapsed. A week later (October 2) he suffered a debilitating stroke. He would never recover. The cause has often been seen as a case of exhaustion and stress. And that is not all that surprising considering everything that had happened during his presidency. He had led his nation through the First World War, an attempt to form the League of Nations (a concept that Wilson had co-authored but that he was never able to convince his country to join) and, at the time of his collapse, his aggressive campaign in support of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles.
The immediate result of Wilson’s physical collapse was that he was effectively unable to fulfill his duties as President of the United States, although no one was willing to make that determination officially. For the rest of his Second Term, the effective power lay in the hands of his wife, Edith Wilson. It was Edith that made the determination concerning which matters went to her husband and which could be shifted to Congress or be delegated to some other authority within the Government. Edith Wilson became the power behind the throne while Woodrow Wilson would finish off his career as just the figurehead of that power.
While President Wilson’s figurehead years were as a result of illness, an examination of the story of King Ahab reveals a man who was never more than the figurehead of power. The real power of his reign was actually held by his wife, Jezebel. I am not sure how obvious this might have been to Ahab’s contemporaries, but this story suggests that it might have been possible that Ben-Hadad had figured that out. Ben-Hadad demands that Ahab send him his gold and silver and the best of his wives and children. After all, Ben-Hadad and Ahab believed that everything that Ahab possessed belonged to this northern king.
Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, Ahab agrees. Some commentators believe that, in Ahab’s mind, this was nothing more than a prelude to a demand of tribute – which Ahab was happy to give. But the reality is that Ahab did not possess the character to stand up to anyone. What he wanted in life were ease and comfort, and he was more than willing to pay for that pleasure. He was also more than willing to allow Jezebel to run his kingdom. Ahab did not desire power; he desired an easy life.
But the demand from Ben-Hadad would have surely included Jezebel the Queen. And it might have been that she was the object of his demand in the first place. He could leave the hapless Ahab in Israel. By taking the best of his wives, it would mean that Ben-Hadad would have had the real power in Israel living under his roof – and under his thumb.
On the part of Jezebel, this must have been a terrifying moment. Everything that she had dreamed of was about to be thrown out the window. And there was no god that she served, and certainly no king to whom she was married, that had the ability or the courage to come to her defense. She was alone as a foreign King made his attempt to take her prisoner, and there was nothing that she could do to stop the process.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 21
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