Ahab’s War against Aram: Elijah has recruited Elisha, and we expect to read now, perhaps, of his anointing of Hazael as king over Aram and of Jehu as king over Israel (19:15–18). Instead, we find a story in which a different prophet takes up the running (Elijah does not appear at all) and in which a different king of Aram (Ben-Hadad) loses a war with Ahab. The message of chapter 19 is thus underlined. Elijah is not the only servant of God left, in spite of what he has claimed (19:10, 14), and the quiet ways of God must take their course yet a while before the events that 19:17 speaks of come to pass. At the same time, chapter 20 picks up themes from chapter 18. Ahab is the “troubler of Israel,” the Achan and the Saul of the northern monarchy. He knows that the LORD is God, but he acts in w…