In First Kings, chapter twenty, verse thirteen, despite the unfaithfulness of Ahab and the people of Israel, God showed them mercy and delivered Samaria from the Syrian army in verse twenty. A year later, God gave Israel a great victory over Syria east of the Jordan River, near Aphek, as in verses twenty-two through twenty-nine. Ahab, however, refused to submit to and worship the true God of Israel.
The appearance of this unknown prophet shows that Ahab’s animosity to the prophetic order was over since the great day at Carmel and that the schools of the prophets were forming themselves again. Perhaps not free from connection with the idolatry of Jeroboam, but safe from all attacks from the worshippers of Baal. In all these political functions of prophecy, Elijah does not appear, reserving himself for a higher moral and religious mission from God. Ahab receives the prophet’s message with perfect confidence and reverence; he has returned in profession to the allegiance to Jehovah, which he had, perhaps, never wholly relinquished. In the following verse, the response from Ahab, the King of Israel, after the unknown prophet gives the message from the Lord, was “By whom?”
The comment from King Ahab is interesting because the unknown prophet directly told him in verse thirteen, “Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou saw all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.” Despite the unknown prophet mentioning to King Ahab the name Lord twice in that statement, the king of Israel still responded, “By whom?” This gesture indicates how said it can be for those who serve idols and live in darkness. The solution for the ungodly could be right in front of them. Yet unable to comprehend or see the light in front of them.