Turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 22. I figure we'll finish the Ahab story. Last week, we looked at Ahab's confiscation by way of murder of Naboth's vineyard in 1 Kings chapter 21. So we'll read 1 Kings chapter 22, verses one to 28, and then God willing, take up the latter part next Sunday evening.
But beginning in 1 Kings 22 at verse one. Now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Then it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went down to visit the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth and Gilead is ours?
But we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria. So he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to fight at Ramoth-Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Also, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire for the word of the Lord today.
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain? So they said, go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, is there not still a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is still one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.
And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say such things. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, bring Micaiah, the son of Imlah, quickly. The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, having put on their robes, sat each on his throne at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them.
Now Zedekiah, the son of Canaanah, had made horns of iron for himself. And he said, thus says the Lord, with these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand. Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him saying, now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encouraged the king.
Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak encouragement. And Micaiah said, as the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak. Then he came to the king and the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead or shall we refrain? And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.
So the king said to him, how many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? Then he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? And Micaiah said, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who will persuade Ahab to go up that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?
So one spoke in this manner and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said to him, in what way? So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
And the Lord said, you shall persuade him and also prevail. Go out and do so. Therefore, look, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you. Now Zedekiah, the son of Canaanah, went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, which way did the spirit from the Lord go from me to speak to you?
And Micaiah said, indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide. So the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son, and say, thus says the king, put this fellow in prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and water of affliction until I come in peace. Micaiah said, if you ever return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, take heed, all you people.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, thank you for the written word. And I pray that now the Spirit would guide us in our study of that word. and help us to see the importance of that word in this chapter.
Give us grace, Lord God, to have ears to hear and not to sort of pick and choose from the Bible what it is that we want and the things that we don't want. Give us grace to be submissive, subordinate to that blessed word of truth, that authoritative word that comes from the mouth of God Most High. Forgive us again for our transgressions and our sins. Supply to us now the Holy Spirit to aid us and to direct us and to guide us.
And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Introduction
Well, remember that last week when we looked at 1 Kings chapter 21, I mentioned that Ahab was a notoriously bad king. Ahab was a man, according to 1 Kings chapter 16, that thought it wasn't enough to sin the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Up until this point, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, is sort of the benchmark standard of wickedness in terms of kingdom. And when Ahab comes along, he engages in gross idolatry.
He marries Jezebel, that woman of the year, the one who comes from the Sidonians. He marries her. He turns his heart to Baal worship. And then he even builds an altar to Baal in the northern kingdom, in Samaria.
He has a go-around with Elijah the prophet in 1st Kings chapter 18. In 1st Kings chapter 20, he is victorious over the Syrians. God demanded, however, that he spare not the life of Ben-Hadad, the king of the Syrians. But he did.
He called him my brother. He made a treaty of peace with him, and he allowed Ben-Hadad to live. The prophet comes, could have been Micaiah the prophet, and told him that the end is coming. In 1 Kings chapter 21, he does confiscate the vineyard of Naboth by having Naboth murdered.
Well, Elijah the Tishbite comes and prophesies against him that he will die. And so we have in 1 Kings 22 the record of his death. It comes later on in the chapter, but I think his dealings with the true prophet of God is very instructive for the church today. I think there might be a little bit of Ahab in each and every one of us.
There are times when the word of God comes to us and we may not like it. we may come to the Word of God, we may be looking for a particular situation or a particular issue, and it might bristle against us because God demands one thing and we're not so far willing to comply in that particular area. In fact, the Apostle Paul has what I would say is a parallel passage to this particular interaction between Ahab and Micaiah. It's found in 2 Timothy 4. The apostle tells Timothy, preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. And then Paul gives Timothy two reasons why Timothy is to preach the Word. The second reason is that Paul is about to die.
So Paul wants the men that he has passed the baton to, to faithfully preach the Word. But the first reason that he gives Timothy is the time will come when they, the Church of Jesus Christ, or professing Church of Jesus Christ, will not endure sound doctrine. Rather, they will find teachers that will tickle their ears. they will find teachers that tell them what they wanna say. That is precisely what is happening here in 1 Kings 22.
Sermon Overview and Structure
So I wanna look at this section under two considerations. First, the alliance between Israel and Judah in verses one to 12. And then secondly, the rejection of the true prophet of God in verses 13 to 28.
Alliance Between Israel and Judah
But let's look first at this alliance between Israel and Judah. Remember back in 1 Kings 12, if you weren't ever schooled in this, it's not remembering time, it's beginning to know time. In 1 Kings chapter 12, the kingdom of Israel was split in two. The kingdom of Israel was divided.
You had a northern kingdom referred to as Israel, and then you had a southern kingdom referred to as Judah. Now these kingdoms coexisted side by side and oftentimes were engaged in war among themselves, civil war. In fact, Jehoshaphat is to be commended. The Jehoshaphat that's mentioned in our passage here is the king of the southern kingdom.
And Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom. So Ahab wants to elicit Jehoshaphat and his troops as they go and try to liberate Ramoth Gilead from Syrian occupation. But with reference to these particular kings, you only had bad kings in the north, you had some good kings in the south, but for the most part, both of them ended under the judgment of God Most High. So let's look here specifically now at verse 1.
It says, now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Now that goes back to chapter 20. I don't want to confuse everybody too much, but it's important that we get the lay of the land. In 1 Kings 20, as I said, Israel defeats Syria.
The Syrians then say, let's cast ourselves upon their mercy. There are people with a merciful God. There are people that actually deal in mercy. So we'll cast ourselves upon them. for their mercy.
They do that, and it works, and they have spares Ben-Hadad. And so they had made this treaty, they had made this peaceful arrangement, but obviously now Ben-Hadad is reneging on his particular part of the treaty, because they are occupying Ramoth-Gilead And this is a concern to Ahab. Notice in verse two, then it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went down to visit the king of Israel. Again, there had been civil war between the North and the South in Israel, not in America or not in the 1800s, but rather there was this civil war.
And so Jehoshaphat's desire to have unity among these two kingdoms was very noteworthy. It's very commendable. However, what he does in this particular section is not very wise. In fact, Ralph Davis makes the observation, Jehoshaphat scored high in piety, but low in sense.
He didn't always make the wisest and best decisions. Later on in this chapter, you'll get a description of Jehoshaphat, and he was a godly man. He did good things within his time of kingship over Judah. So this man Ahab now wants to engage in alliance with the Judahites so that they can liberate Ramoth Gilead.
Notice in verse 3, the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth and Gilead is ours? But we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria. So he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead? It's a very important trade route, it was a very important place strategically and economically, so of course they wanted Ramoth Gilead back.
Now notice Jehoshaphat's response. He wants prophetic guidance for this particular alliance. Again, he's a godly man. When it gets to his description later on in this particular chapter, Jehoshaphat gets thumbs up.
He's a pious man. He's a godly man. Again, lacking in some sense going into this particular alliance with Ahab, But nevertheless, it's his request that we seek prophetic alliance. That doesn't come from Ahab, it comes from Jehoshaphat, and that's what we have to direct our attention to now in verses five to 12.
Jehoshaphat's Request for a Prophet
He requests this, verse five, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire for the word of the Lord today. Now in verses six to nine, you have this gathering of prophets. Now, 1 Kings 18, when Elijah meets Ahab and ultimately ends up on Mount Carmel, we read of two sets of prophets. There are 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.
But all of them sit at Jezebel's table. Now, for those of you who don't understand that terminology, that means they were on the government payroll. They were court profits. They were being fed.
They were being subsidized. They were being given a living by Ahab and Jezebel. This is how bad Israel is at this particular time. 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah are on the payroll. They are recognized government employees.
They are the sorts of people with tenure. These are the sorts of people you can't fire. These are the sorts of people that get benefits. They get money.
They get retirement. They get a whole host of things. And so 450 of them died on that day when they met the true and living God that Elijah had preached. But there's still these 400 prophets.
There's still these 400 prophets that serve the goddess Asherah, and that's probably who these prophets are that come now to encourage Ahab on a fool's errand. Notice the word of these prophets in verse six. The king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain? Notice their answer.
It's really ambiguous. I mean, I think they are trying to assure the king. I think they are trying to encourage the king, but their response is kind of like a fortune cookie. You read a fortune cookie and it says, everything will be okay today.
Well, what does that mean? I don't understand. Look at the way they respond. They said, go up for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.
Okay, which king? What king? You want to make this a little bit clearer? I think that's the nature of false prophecy.
It's the nature of fortune-telling. It's very ambiguous. It's very vague. The true prophet of God speaks specifically concerning details.
Micaiah tells Zedekiah that you're going to ultimately run and hide. You're going to find an inner room, the way Ben-Hadad did, and run and hide when the battle starts. You see, vagary and ambiguity is key to the false prophetic ministry, and that's what I think we have in this particular instance. But nevertheless, Ahab interprets it as a victory or as a win for him.
Now note Jehoshaphat's suspicion in verse 7. This is really good, because Jehoshaphat maybe smells something fishy. It's all too tidy. It's all too perfect. 400 men?
Every single one of them say, yeah, go ahead, go into battle because God's going to deliver it to the king today. Every single one. Notice in verse 7, Jehoshaphat said, is there, there's still not a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? then maybe there should be some divergent opinion. Maybe there should be some debate.
Maybe there should be some opposition. Maybe we should have a little bit from the floor to make sure that everything is good before we march into battle at Ramoth Gilead. Now
Ahab's Hatred of Micaiah
notice with reference to the hated prophet, verses eight and nine. So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is still one man, Micah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Now, again, maybe you don't have Ahab in you. Maybe you don't share any affinity whatsoever with Ahab.
But the fact that Paul wrote 2 Timothy chapter 4 seems to envisage that some professing Christians might have something in common with Ahab. I hate him. He never prophesies good for me. How do we explain the success of Joel Osteen?
How do we explain the success of the health, wealth, and prosperity preachers? They never tell anybody anything that's hard. They never tell anybody anything that's difficult. They never tell anything to anybody that is going to make them bristle.
It's all health, wealth, and prosperity. We can understand at a certain fundamental level why they're so popular. It's the men like Micaiah that make people upset. It's the men like the Apostle Paul that make people upset.
It's the men like John Knox, hanging over his pulpit, putting his finger into the face of Mary, telling her that she needs to repent and forsake her wickedness. It's those kinds of people that upset the garden variety person in the pew. Ahab is alive and well if 2 Timothy 4 is to be trusted. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but rather they will gather up for themselves teachers that will scratch their ears.
Teachers that will tell them what they want to hear. Teachers like these 400 prophets of Asherah, represented by Zedekiah. All of his theatrics notwithstanding, he is a liar and a cheat and a deceit. It is Micaiah who is telling the truth.
Now notice, specifically, verse 8. At the end, Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say such things. And then in verse 9, we read, and the king of Israel called an officer and said, bring Micaiah the son of Imlah quickly. Now I want you to notice something.
Verses 10 to 12 and verses 19 to 23. They're both what we call throne scenes. There are scenes that occur before a throne. In verses 10 to 12, it's a throne occupied by Ahab and Jehoshaphat.
In 19 to 23, it's the throne of Yahweh himself. So you need to sort of see how this binds the narrative together. But here, particularly in this throne scene, notice in verses 10 to 12. We have the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, having put on their robes, they sat each on his throne at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them.
Now Zedekiah, the son of Canaanah, had made horns of iron for himself, and he said, thus says the Lord, with these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed. Now that's not uncommon. Even the true prophets of God at times engaged in what's called an acted parable. They would engage in those sorts of things that would visibly demonstrate the reality of what they were prophesying.
So it's not making the iron horns and putting them on his head that's a problem. Other prophets, true prophets, do that. The problem is that he's lying. The problem is, is that he's a fake.
The problem is, is that he's a cheat. The problem is, is that he is deceitful and that is Zedekiah's problem. Now notice in verse 12, and all the prophets prophesied so saying, go up to Ramoth, Gilead and prosper for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand. So just here, we need to stop for a moment and consider the folly of Ahab.
He is willing to listen to lies if he likes those lies. We'll learn that he hates the reality, the truth that Micaiah speaks, because he doesn't like it. You see, there is this mindset among Ahab, at least, and according to Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4, that would seem to imply, or we can infer from, that people will treat the Word of God as what they like or what they don't like. That's not our prerogative.
There might be things in Scripture that you don't necessarily like. Say you're a thief, and God's Word says, don't steal. Say you're covetous, and God's Word says, don't covet. Say you're a gossip, and God's Word says, don't gossip.
Say you're a fornicator, and God's Word says, don't fornicate. You see, it's not about what we like, it's about what is true. It's not what is going to make me feel good, but rather what is calculated to promote good in my own life and heart. It's a strange thing that men will embrace the false because it's a message that they want to hear, while rejecting the true because it's a message they don't want to hear.
We need to retrain our minds. We need to thank God for His message. We need to praise God for the truth, and we need to receive it, whether it's something we want to hear or whether it's something we don't want to hear but desperately need to hear.
Rejection of the True Prophet
Now let's look at the rejection of the true prophet of God in verses 13 to 28.
Pressure on the Prophet
Notice the pressure on the prophet in verse 13. Micaiah doesn't have an easy job here. He's in a lose-lose situation and Micaiah knows him. John Gill supposes that he is the prophet mentioned in chapter 20.
The fact that Micaiah, they knew where to find him, might indicate that he was already in jail. The fact that he was readily at hand may suggest that he was the prophet that already spoke to Ahab and told him the end was coming. Ahab didn't like it then, so he imprisoned him then. Now, it may have been a different prophet, but I think there's some merit to that particular theory.
Notice in verse 13 what the servant says to Micaiah. Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, now listen, Word to the prophets with one accord, and encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement." What a worm, huh? What a terrible person.
He says to Micaiah, you know, when the king gets mad, it's kind of a bummer. When the king gets messages he doesn't like, he kind of flips out. He gets sullen. He gets displeased.
We already see that in chapters 21 and in chapter 20. I mean, he's the kind of guy that you know when he's in a grumpy mood and you know when he's having a down day. You can see that spirit of melancholy all over him. So please encourage him with those other 400 prophets.
Just tell him what he wants to hear, Micaiah. We don't really care whether it's true or not. We just want the king to be happy. Again, I think this mindset is rampant, at least according to Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4.
The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. You get people telling pastors or suggesting to preachers, you know, you might want to tone it down a little bit. I mean, the way that you say certain things, it makes people feel a little bit uncomfortable. It makes people feel a little bit awkward.
It really doesn't make people want to come after their Wheaties on Sunday morning and sit amongst you. It really is a bit offensive. And you should tone it down. You should smile like Joel Osteen.
You should have hair like Joel Osteen. You should have teeth like Joel Osteen. No, we should preach the word. What happened to that?
What happened to preach the word? Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort. That's what this messenger is saying.
Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encouraged the king. What's he suggesting? Truth is democratic. We already saw that blasted out of the water in 1 Kings 18 at Mount Carmel.
Truth is not democratic. 450 prophets of Baal said that Baal was God. 450 prophets against the one prophet, Elijah, the Tishbite. See, we can never say, well, that particular religion has this many adherents. We wonder perhaps if they're true. Maybe they're on to something.
No, true is true. It doesn't matter how many people adhere to it. It doesn't matter how few people adhere to it. True is true.
That's what we need to keep in mind. So he's nudging Micaiah and he's saying, tell him what he wants to hear.
Micaiah's Unbending Resolve
Now Micaiah's words in verse 14 ought to be printed on the mind and heart of every one of God's pastors or preachers and every one of God's people. Micaiah said, verse 14, as the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak. That's it. Whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.
Listen to Davis. Davis says, Micah has just nailed something which neither Ahab nor his messenger understands. Look back at Ahab's words in verse eight and the messenger's in verse 13. What do both assume about the word of Yahweh?
They assume that the prophet controls or can control that word. This is a problem. They assume that the prophet controls or can control that word. How does David describe the word of Yahweh in Psalm 29?
It crushes, the voice of Yahweh crushes the cedars of Lebanon. There's no creature that tames that word. There's no creature that controls that word. There's no creature that can change or modify that word.
He goes on to say Ahab's remark in verse 8 implies that Micaiah didn't have to be such a purveyor of doomsaying, anti-Ahabian sentiment. If he wanted to, he could speak a kinder, gentler word. The messenger assumes that Micaiah could agree with the prophetic caucus if only he would. They do not understand Micah's position, which he states in verse 14.
He is in bondage to the word of God. Hence, the word of God is free and cannot be manipulated by kings or messengers or even slick prophets. Whatever word Yahweh gives a prophet, that is what the prophet must speak. The prophet is not at liberty to massage or shape or bend, let alone pervert that word.
That's what Micaiah says in verse 14. Now
Micaiah Before the King
notice the true prophet and the king. The first interchange in verses 15 to 16. Now you need to understand something about Micaiah. In verse 15, his response is utter sarcasm.
If you think, well, prophets shouldn't do that. Remember Elijah on Mount Carmel when he mocks the prophets of Baal? Where's your God? Maybe he's sleeping.
Maybe he's relieving himself, literally. Maybe he's in the bathroom. Elijah is slapping his knee while he's mocking these people and he's laughing at them. How about the prophet greater than Elijah?
When he says to the Pharisees, you strain out the gnat and you swallow the camel. Brethren, people smile when they heard Jesus say that because it's funny. It really is funny. It's a wonderful word picture.
Most kids laugh, adults feel, oh, she can't laugh. Jesus said something funny, we should laugh. Well, Micaiah is being sarcastic. Notice in verse 15.
So the king, I'm sorry, verse 15. Then the king, he came to the king and the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead or shall we refrain? And he answered him, go and prosper for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. That's just utter sarcasm.
He doesn't say, thus saith the Lord. He just says, go ahead. What does this indicate? And I think what Ahab says to him indicates this isn't their first rodeo.
Micaiah knows the drill. He tells Ahab what God wants Ahab to know. Ahab utterly rejects what Micaiah says, and on they go. And so what he does here, he engages in sarcasm.
Let John Gill explain. He answered not in the name of the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Nor did he speak his own sense and in his own words, nor seriously, but by way of derision. He took up the words of the prophets and bantered them.
But he delivered the above words with such gestures and such a tone and with a contemptuous smile in his countenance, which showed that he spoke not seriously, but sarcastically. And this the king plainly discovered, as appears, by what follows. Notice the response of Ahab in verse 16. So the king said to him, how many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?
That indicates that his response in verse 15 was sarcastic. This wasn't their first rodeo. Micaiah knows the drill. So Micaiah says, okay, just what all the other prophets said, go ahead, go prosper in Ramoth Gilead.
Everything's gonna be wonderful. And Ahab gets angry. He doesn't like his sarcasm. Now notice we come to his particular work.
Verse 17, then he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let each return to his house in peace. This is the true word of the Lord.
This is the prophetic statement. This is what's gonna happen at Ramoth Gilead. The reference to Israel will be like sheep having no shepherd means that Ahab's gonna die in battle. Ahab, you're gonna lose.
What's Micaiah saying? These 400 people are lying to you. Zedekiah's horns, notwithstanding, these men are lying to you. They're fake, they're false, they're deceivers.
You are not gonna win at Ramoth, Gilead. You're not gonna liberate it from Syrian stronghold, but rather you're gonna die on the field of battle. And then notice the biting sarcasm at the end of verse 17. He says, these have no master.
Let each return to his house in peace. What's he saying? Ahab, when you're dead, Israel will have peace. Ahab, when you die on the field of battle, when that random arrow finds its mark in your heart, the people of Israel are going to have peace.
They don't have peace now while you're the king. They don't have peace while you have Jezebel sitting with you on the throne. They don't have peace while you have Baal worship going on in the Northern kingdom. They don't have peace when the throne is that corrupt.
But when you're dead, Ahab, there's gonna be peace in Israel. Now notice in verse 18, the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? Like that's the worst response in the world, isn't it? He should say, oh, wow, Micaiah, thank you for that nugget.
Thank you for that warning. Thank you for that realization. Thank you for that reality check. No, he nudges Jehoshaphat and say, you see why I hate him?
You see why I despise him? You see why I can't stand him? Because he doesn't fall in rank with all those false prophets and tell me what I want to hear. It was infuriating to Ahab.
Now,
The Heavenly Throne Room Vision
note that second throne room. Now, this is a tough bit of scripture. I'm not going to answer all your questions as to what is going on here in verses 19 to 23. It is a tough bit of scripture.
Let's just read it. Verse 19, then, Micaiah said, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who will persuade Ahab to go up that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?
So one spoke in this manner and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said to him, in what way? So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
And the Lord said, you shall persuade him and also prevail. Go out and do so. Therefore, look, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you. Now, the first thing we need to sort of unpack here is, what's happening?
Does God actually interact with angelic beings, seeking their counsel, seeking their input, evaluating the data before him, and then casting his vote on that which makes the most sense to him? That's not what's going on. The text is speaking to us in the manner of man. It is accommodating this decision for us on earth.
Matthew Poole, I think, has the best explanation. He says, this is not to be grossly understood as if God did ask and take counsel from his creatures, or were at a loss to find out an expedient to accomplish his own will, did consider several ways, and then closed with that which upon debate appeared to be the best, all which it is ridiculous to imagine concerning a God of perfect and infinite knowledge. but only to bring down divine things to our shallow capacities. If you get that, you're going to understand the doctrine of divine impossibility. You're going to get, you know, the vistas will open up and you'll say, wow, I understand an aspect of theology proper I hadn't before got.
But what he says is right. It's in the manner of men that he speaks to us. but only to bring down divine things to our shallow capacities and to express the various means which God has to execute his own designs. Matthew Henry says this matter is here represented after the manner of man. Now what is happening in this throne room scene?
First, the vision denounces the false prophets. It's sort of a theological rationale behind false prophecy. It's the theological explanation for the fact that there's these 400 men, Zedekiah with his horns, telling Ahab a lie. This is the theological rationale.
Secondly, the vision declares the will of God. Some suggest that God is lying, according to this throne room scene. How could it possibly be thought that God is lying when God is telling Ahab, through Micaiah the prophet, the exact truth about what's going to happen at Ramoth Gilead? God is not lying.
And then finally, this scene demonstrates the absolute unrivaled and unparalleled sovereignty of God Most High. Nothing happens on this earth apart from God. Nothing happens on this earth apart from His rule. Nothing happens on this earth apart from His government.
And that's what this throne room scene indicates.
The Prophet's Punishment
Now notice, finally, the prophet and his punishment. Zedekiah, verse 24, Or now Zedekiah the son of Canaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, which way did the spirit from the Lord go from me to speak to you? And is this a kind response? He smacks him on the face because he told him the truth.
And now what? happens, he's in prison. Verse 26, I'm sorry, verse 25. And Micaiah said, indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide. So the king of Israel said in verse 26, take Micaiah, return him to Amon, the governor of the city and to Joash, the king's son, and say, thus says the king, put this fellow in prison and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction until I come in peace.
And then the final thing that we need to appreciate in verse 28 is that the prophet affirms his veracity. The prophet affirms his truthfulness, and this is important for us to understand. He affirms his truthfulness in the way that you affirm the truth of a prophet. Let's do Deuteronomy 18, tell us in terms of testing a prophet.
The prophet makes a prediction and it doesn't come true. Guess what? He was a false prophet. The penalty is death.
If you say, I'm going to speak for God, I'm going to prophesy something that's going to take place, and then it doesn't take place, and I'm found to be a fake, then according to the law in Israel, I should be stoned. Now, what happens when that prophecy comes true? Well, then you know the prophet of God is the real deal. That's precisely how Micaiah handles this.
Notice in verse 25, and Micaiah said, indeed, you shall see. That's the way the prophet underscores his veracity. You shall see. I'm not blowing smoke here, Zedekiah.
I'm not making this up. You shall see. That's the task of a prophet's veracity. Verse 28, he does the same thing.
But Micaiah said, if you ever return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, take heed all you people. You see, a lot of people in the history of the Church have made prophetic statements. A lot of people have claimed to have the gift of prophecy.
A lot of people have said, such and such is going to happen on such and such a day, and it never ever happens. Thankfully, the Church doesn't execute these people for their benefit, but that happens. They say, believe me, buy my book, listen to my teach, hear my sermons, do what I think and do what I say, and change your life. Remember what happened several years ago?
Harold Camping. He was the one that said, oh, the Lord Jesus is going to return. First, it was 1994. It didn't happen.
And then I forget the date. Was it 2016, 2014? Somewhere around there. He had predicted.
Does anybody remember? It was in that time frame. 2012, maybe. But he predicted that the world was going to end. And he wasn't a dispensationalist, which was very interesting.
He was a non-millennialist, but he was driven to this position by his understanding of mathematics and the Bible and whatnot. He was a false prophet. You see, Micaiah says, if Ahab returns, if Ahab doesn't die in Ramoth Gilead, then the Lord hasn't spoken by me. That's the way to determine whether or not a prophet is true.
He doesn't affirm his veracity by making a claim to inspiration, or by saying the Lord spoke to him, or by assuming an authoritative tone. He basically says, wait and see. And once you see, then you'll know that I am true. Davis, again, says, Micaiah willingly submits himself to the prophetic desk.
If a prophet speaks in Yahweh's name and the prediction does not come to pass, Yahweh has not spoken by that prophet. And so he puts his money where his mouth is, and he ultimately ends by saying, take heed, all you people.
Application: Lessons from Ahab and Micaiah
Well, brethren, as I said at the outset, I think there's some parallel with reference to Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4. I just want to draw out a few lessons and then we'll close. First of all, the rejection of the true prophet of God here. The rejection of the true prophet of God is ultimately the rejection of the Word of God Himself.
And this manifests itself here, first, in the desire to only hear what we want to hear. The desire to only hear what we want to hear. What's the purpose of Paul in 2 Timothy 4? Before he says, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, Paul says with reference to preaching.
He tells Timothy, not only gives Timothy a command to preach the Word, but he specifies how Timothy is to preach the Word. Now put his hands in his pocket and have fireside chats. He is to convince. In other words, don't let people wriggle out from what the truth of God's word really says.
Convince them that what you're saying is true through accurate exegesis, through proper hermeneutics, through comparing scripture with scripture. Convince them, rebuke them. Why? because all of us stand in need of rebuke. The idea that I don't want to go hear that because it might make me feel bad.
Brethren, we all need a great big dose of feeling bad once in a while so that we will repent and forsake the wickedness that we find ourselves doing. Convince, rebuke, Exhort, the people of God ought to be about doing the things of God. Exhortation seeks by the grace of God to move the will of men. I told people in our Saturday morning study yesterday, all preaching includes teaching, but not all teaching is preaching.
Preaching has that added dimension where it's not just enough to present information. But it's a call to people to act upon that information. It's a call to the unsaved to flee to Jesus Christ. It's a call to the saved to put off their sin and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not privy to just hear what we want to hear. We need to be convinced, we need to be rebuked, we need to be exhorted. As well, the desire to encourage the prophet to speak what we want to hear. I mean, Ahab's a wretch, he's terrible, but at least he's honest.
He says to Jehoshaphat, I don't like him because he doesn't tell me what I want to hear. The guy in 13 is just a worm. He comes to Micah and he says, don't tell him stuff he doesn't want to hear. Tell him what's encouraging to him.
Again, not applauding Ahab, but at least the guy, to some degree, is honest. I hate him because he tells me the truth. The guy in verse 13, trying to exercise pressure on the prophet so that the prophet will tailor the message to fit his audience. That is reprehensible and that is happening in the church today.
The desire to listen to false prophets who tell us what we want to hear. Boy, you need to come and listen to this guy. It's such a positive and uplifting message. I'd like to think that biblical preaching is ultimately a positive and uplifting message.
But before we are positively uplifted, there are times we need to be first cast down. We need law so that the gospel comes as that balm of Gilead. There is a biblical precedence for this kind of preaching. And when we find that our hearts are drawn only to people that tell us what we wanna hear, we have fallen into this sin of Ahab and the desire to be rid of the true prophets of God through physical violence, verse 24, through imprisonment, verses 26 and 27.
Now, secondly, the integrity of the true prophet of God. He is committed to speaking whatever the Lord says. He is committed to speaking whatever the Lord says, not whatever Ahab wants, but whatever the Lord says. He is committed to speaking whatever the Lord says, not what the church wants.
There's a disconnect there, right? We preach what God's word says. We don't preach what God's people want. Your kids may want cake for dinner, but you know that steak or meat or some other protein source is far better for them than a hunk of cake.
Your kids may want cake instead of broccoli. Your kids may want cake instead of Brussels sprouts. But you, as a wise parent, don't let them call the shots. God is a wise parent, and he knows precisely what we need.
He doesn't say, cake, cake, cake, every Sunday that you come in. Positive and uplifting oftentimes comes after the law has done its work in our hearts. As well, he is speaking, or committed rather, to speaking the truth of God, not catering to the felt needs of his hearers. Verse 13, Micaiah doesn't say, you know, messenger, you've got a point.
I don't want to upset Ahab. I've seen him so in him displeased. I don't want to be on the wrong side of him today. So I'm going to tell him what he wants to hear.
I'll be the 401st prophet, and I will emphasize that what Zedekiah did with the horns is actually going to take... He doesn't care about that. He is not going to be manipulated to tell lies. Thirdly, he is committed to speaking the truth, notwithstanding the pressure to do otherwise.
I said at the very beginning, Micaiah had a very difficult task here. Ahab hates him. Micaiah knows this. The messenger's trying to cajole him into twisting the message.
All of this is pressure upon the prophet. The fact that he remains faithful is the model for men today. And then notice, he is committed to suffering physical violence, imprisonment, and even death itself, instead of compromising the truth of God. Beautiful thing, isn't it?
It's the kind of stuff we need in preachers today. And then I would suggest, thirdly, the measure of the people of God. See, Ahab, there might be, as I said, a little Ahab in all of us. We might want to gravitate toward the false because we like it, and we might want to resist the true because we don't like it.
We need to guard our hearts, brethren. We need to watch our souls. We need to be a people that hear the Word of God, that receive the Word of God, that esteem the Word of God, and that prize the Word of God. The prophet Amos condemned the nation of his day, or the nation in his day, and he promised them that if they did not repent, there would be a famine.
Not a famine for food, not a famine for water, but a famine for hearing the Word of God. And the final observation is I want us all to appreciate the continuing mercy of God. The continuing mercy of God. What is God doing here?
He still sends the true prophet. I was talking to a brother this morning after the sermon on abortion and the thought, the thought of abortion, the thought of euthanasia, the thought of all that innocent, judicially innocent blood in the ground crying out to God Almighty, the way the blood of Abel cries out according to the book of Genesis. Do you ever just think that God is furious with Canada? Do you ever just think that God is going to lash out in judgment against the people that really don't regard life at all, where life has become disposable, where life is just, you know, if it's inconvenient to us, we dispose of it?
Does that ever cause you a bit of fright or a little bit of fear, a little bit of trembling? If you ever reflect on numbers, the end of numbers, either 35 or 36, God the Lord tells the nation of Israel, that the only way to deal with blood, shed, and murder is through capital punishment. God doesn't accept a ransom. God doesn't accept a price.
God doesn't accept sacrifice when it comes to the crime of murder. The only thing that will requite that is the blood of the guilty. If you ponder that for just a moment, you'll cry with the prophet Habakkuk, in wrath, remember mercy. In wrath, remember mercy.
Well, I want to suggest that that's a legitimate prayer for our generation because God still sends Micaiah to Ahab. Ahab is a wretch. Ahab is horrible. Ahab is terrible.
It's already been prophesied that he's going to die. And yet God, in his mercy, sends Micaiah. We look at Canada, filled with blood guiltiness. There are still pulpits preaching the truth.
That's indicative of the fact that God is a merciful God. That's indicative of the fact that we can cry to him in light of that unrequited blood. In wrath, please remember mercy. Every minister preaching the truth in every pulpit in Canada underscores the continuing mercy of God, the way that Micaiah does, even right up until the end of this wretched King Ahab.
God is about mercy. God is about kindness. God is about goodness. Yes, he is wrathful.
Yes, there is judgment. Yes, he is righteous. Yes, he will, by all means, punish the guilty. But brethren, he is long-suffering.
And in 1 Kings 22, Micaiah is proof positive that God the Lord is long-suffering. If you have not made your peace with this God, go. Flee. Run.
Hide. Find your refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ and that through faith in Him. It's not by works, it's not by performance, it's not by moral reform, it's not by getting a little bit better, stopping this particular habit, adding a little bit of this to my life so that I have some virtue to commend myself to God. Nothing we do will commend ourselves to God.
All our righteousness are like filthy rags, the prophet says. Now think about that for just a moment. Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. The sacrifices that Israel brought out and presented to God.
The fasting that Israel brought out and presented to God. The Sabbath keeping that Israel brought out and brought to God. The temple worship that Israel brought out and brought to God. Their very righteousness, was like filthy rags in the sight of God.
It's the same for us today. You reading your Bible, you praying, you doing this, you doing that, all of it, without Christ, is like filthy rags. The way of salvation is not moral reform. The way of salvation is not by adding a little virtue to your life.
The way of salvation is not by ending a bad habit. The way of salvation is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, His precious blood, cleanses us from all sin. Believe on Him. God is merciful.
God shows it with the prophet Micaiah. God is showing it presently all throughout this nation wherever there are men actually preaching the truth of God. You have every warrant to believe that God is merciful. You have every warrant to come to our Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, for salvation.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this scene in Ahab's life near the end that so closely parallels what Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4. We confess with Solomon, there is nothing new under the sun. And I pray that you would guard us from being the types of people that seek out preachers that that we only tell us things that we want to hear.
Help us, God, to appreciate, to hear the things that we need to hear. You know what is best for us, you know what is good for us, and we pray that you would give it to us and help us to be willing, compliant, and receptive to the truth of your holy word. Raise up more men, men of the stripe of Micaiah, men that will preach in the face of opposition, men that will preach in the face of manipulation, all these things, Lord God. and send them forth to glorify your holy name. We pray that you'd go with us now, bless us in this coming week, and help us to honor you.
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.