1 Kings 20:40, commentary and pictures

1 Kings 12-22 records about eighty years of the history of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel from the revolt of the ten tribes to the death of Jehoshaphat, including the reigns of several kings of both kingdoms. The verse belongs to the account of the defeat of Ben-hadad king of Syria and shows another effort by God to win the weak Ahab. It shows an assigned duty going undone because the servant was occupied here and there until the entrusted person was gone, illustrating how being busy elsewhere lets an opportunity slip away through inattention.

Being busy here and there means neglecting the urgent duty to tell someone of the Saviour's love and of personal danger, and putting off speaking the gospel can leave that person gone without hope with no way to recover the opportunity. That failure brings grief and a fearful reckoning at the judgment, for people face judgment for their choices and neglected duties. The same warning applies to people so occupied with worldly business that they neglect to welcome Christ while He waits for them, with the result that when they finally seek Him He may be gone.

The warning is not to let the appointed week of prayer pass unheeded, lest its opportunity be lost and regretted. It applies to fathers who are so busy with affairs, plans, and ambitions that they leave their children's upbringing to mothers, schools, and others, for which neglect they may have to answer to God. It is echoed in Israel being occupied with ceremonies while Christ had come and was gone, performing the Passover and other rites without recognizing that their purpose was fulfilled in Christ as the true Passover and the substance of the ceremonies, so that after His coming the old feasts, fasts, and sacrifices could no longer serve as outward rites because their meaning was now found in Him.