1Kings 22 comments

 

1Kings 22:1 ¶  And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. 2  And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3  And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? 4  And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramothgilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. 5  And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. 6  Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. 7  And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him? 8  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. 9  Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. 10  And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. 11  And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them. 12  And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the king’s hand. 13  And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. 14  And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.

Archbishop Ussher, in his classic work, The Annals of the World, calculated this episode to have happened in 897BC. Jehoshaphat and Ahab unite as allies to fight the Syrians. Ahab gathers a huge number of prophets to justify his intention to seize Ramothgilead from the Syrians. They, being just so many echo chambers for his ambition much like our mainstream press today under any Democratic party president, assure him that he will be successful. However, there is one prophet who did not participate and Ahab hates him because he never prophesies anything good for Ahab.

Micaiah is not a hack, like so many so-called journalists today, but a prophet who is determined to speak God’s truth.

1Kings 22:15 ¶  So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. 16  And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD? 17  And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. 18  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? 19  And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20  And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. 21  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee. 24  But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? 25  And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. 26  And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son; 27  And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. 28  And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you.

Micaiah is being sarcastic and Ahab knows it. He is not a sychophant. He is telling the king the false thing the king wants to hear and the king knows it by the prophet’s previous pronouncements.

 

Then Micaiah tells the truth that the king will die in this battle, suggesting that a malignant spirit, a disembodied mind with malice, volunteered to deceive Ahab. By this story, which may have been made up for its explanatory power or it may be a relating of real events in the spiritual world, Ahab has been deceived by lying prophets. Micaiah is imprisoned for his truth-telling.

Note that Satan knows his fate. He can read the Bible better than we can as he has seen all of the events in it. But his pride, as Ahab’s is a picture of, prevents him from proceeding to his doom anyway. Ahab is like Satan is many ways, a fitting subject for a sermon or two.

1Kings 22:29 ¶  So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead. 30  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. 31  But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. 32  And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out. 33  And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. 34  And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. 35  And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. 36  And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. 37  So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. 38  And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake. 39  Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 40  So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Ahab is going to disguise himself and the only king wearing what identifies him as a king is Jehoshaphat. For someone who despised the prophecy of the prophet Ahab sure acts like he is concerned. But this prophecy is against who he is, not his office. God is going to deal with Ahab in a very personal way. Commentators have said that perhaps Ahab had intelligence that the king of Syria was going to focus on killing him but it is not necessary to believe that to get something out of this passage.

The Syrians were given orders to only attack the king. The only king on the battlefield appears to be Jehoshaphat. When he made it clear he was not Ahab they stopped chasing Jehoshaphat. Then, in one of those seemingly random events in history that are not truly random Ahab is struck by an arrow shot at random. He did not escape God’s prophecy by disguising himself.

Ahab’s wickedness was his undoing and there is no escape when God proclaims that judgment is upon a person. We cannot escape God’s judgments by pretending to not be who we are. His knowledge of us is not based on an outward appearance like clothing. God sees our inward parts, our spiritual hearts, our minds. The person who rejects Christ by pretending that he is a good person and in no need of a Saviour cannot hide behind that false statement. Every person is naturally wicked in the sight of God, comparing ourselves to Him, not other people. We can pretend to be righteous but without Christ we are found out and undone. Our downfall can seem very random and by chance but it is not. You can’t escape God’s judgments.

1Kings 22:41 ¶  And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42  Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 43  And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. 44  And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. 45  Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 46  And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land. 47  There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king. 48  Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber. 49  Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not. 50  And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead. 51  Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. 52  And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: 53  For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

Jehoshaphat made some political compromises although he did walk  uprightly himself. He followed his father, Asa. However, neither removed the high places where idolatry among the people was rampant.

1Kings 15:11  And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. 12  And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13  And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. 14  But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days. 15  And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels.

Leviticus 26:30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

Numbers 21:28  For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.

Numbers 22:41  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

Numbers 33:52  Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

When we get to Chronicles we’ll cross-reference the information there with what is found in earlier books. Jehoshaphat removed the male temple prostitutes from the land.

1Kings 14:24  And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

The navy he tried to build, as Solomon had built and used successfully, was destroyed,

1Kings 9:26  And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, rules over Israel in Samaria. He was as wicked as his parents, and served Baal. But Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son, reigns in Jerusalem after him.