And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
1 Kings 20:40 KJV
The passage above tells the story of the encounter between Ahab the King of Israel and one of the sons of the prophet.
The son of the prophet wanted to communicate an error Ahab committed in sparing the life of Benhadad (the king of Syria), the rules of engagement or mechanics of the war are topic for another discussion but what is worthy of note is the means by which the son of the prophet communicated his message.
He concocted a parable about how he was in the midst of battle and how a man gave him a prisoner of war to watch and guard but he left his primary assignment and began to dabble into other affairs, in his words he was “busy here and there”, and in his busyness the man escaped. Alas, his life was bound in the life of the prisoner.
We can draw salient lessons