Ahab
Today we
meet an interesting character, the prophet Micaiah. He is one of my “favorite people in the Bible
that you’ve probably never heard about.”
His great claim to fame is that Ahab hates him because he never
prophesies anything good about Ahab. Pay
attention to those words, because they speak volumes about the people whose
focus is the world:
- Ahab doesn’t want truth.
- Ahab doesn’t want accuracy.
- Ahab wants good things to be said about him.
- Ahab wants people to talk well of him whether it is true of false.
There
should be a huge neon warning sign going off in your head as you read this
story. If someone always said bad things
regarding your life and they keep coming true, don’t you think you would listen
to the person and go to them and figure out why your life keeps having these
dark moments? It would be one thing if
someone slanders you with untruth and their words never come true. But Micaiah is a prophet of the Lord! The things that Micaiah speaks that he
received from the Lord are all true. You
would think that Ahab would get the hint, come to Micaiah, and figure out why
his life is the way that it is.
But this
isn’t the case. Ahab would rather
continue living his life the way he desires.
Ahab doesn’t want truth and accuracy; he actually wants the truth and
accuracy to shut up and go away! So it
is with people who have a worldly perspective in life.
Person
after person turns a deaf ear to those who proclaim God’s Word in our
midst. This world is full of pain,
bitterness, and disappointment; yet rather than seeking truth in God’s Word,
people turn away from God and continue to live in the world. They seek the fleeting and temporary joy, which
ultimately results in bitterness, rather than seeking the joy from God which
can sustain our life.
What worse
about Ahab is that this shows that he had multiple avenues to God. We already know that Ahab and Elijah knew
each other and Ahab refused to listen.
Now we find out that Ahab refused to listen to Micaiah, too. God often tries to reach us multiple
ways. We don’t usually get one shot with
God. We often get chance after chance
after chance with God.
Micaiah vs. the Leaders of the World
Micaiah
goes up before the king and mocks the false prophecy spoken by the false
prophets who told Ahab and Jehosophat to go to war. Micaiah tells Ahab what he wants to hear, but
Ahab refuses to believe him. This is
proof of what I said earlier in this blog post.
Ahab knows the difference between God’s truth and the world’s lies. He knows that when Micaiah speaks what he
wants to hear that it isn’t from God.
This actually proves that Ahab knows difference; he just chooses to
ignore God’s truth!
When Micaiah
speaks the truth, Ahab has him imprisoned.
What was it I said yesterday? No
good deed goes unpunished. Micaiah’s pay
for following the Lord is imprisonment, bread, and water. Yet better to be in prison following the Lord
than to enjoy the luxury of the world that is gained from following the world.
Christians,
take heed. If you proclaim your faith,
expect persecution. If you don’t want to
face the persecution, don’t proclaim God’s truth. But also be prepared. If you don’t proclaim God’s truth, don’t
expect God to look up you righteously in your time of judgment.
Ignoring God’s Truth
So Ahab
and Jehoshaphat go out to battle and we see that Ahab continues to be
despicable. Ahab tells Jehoshaphat to
take leadership and “wear the robes.”
Ahab knows that in a battle the enemy will focus on the leadership. After all, strike the head and the body will
crumble. Ahab sets Jehoshaphat up so that
the brunt of the pursuit will be against Jehosophat rather than himself.
The cool
part of this chapter is that Ahab cannot fool God. Ahab can ignore God, but he cannot fool
God. Nor can he escape God.
A random
archer draws and arrow and procures the dying blow. Ahab cannot deceive God, he cannot cheat God,
and he cannot be victorious when God’s hand is finally against him. God wins.
It is an important lesson to learn while we are still alive to learn
it. In the end, God wins. God wins over humanity. God wins over creation. God wins over death. God wins over evil. God wins; we would do best to align ourselves
with Him, submitting to His will and His power while we still can.
Jehoshaphat
We then
hear the epitaph of Jehoshaphat, son of Asa.
Remember that Asa was a good king.
Jehoshaphat is said to walk in the ways of his father – although like his
father he was not able to purge the Ba’al worship happening in the high
places. Yet he was a good king and
walked in the ways of the Lord. I think
this is an important point. We can be
good and still not completely change the world around us. Sometimes people just won’t listen.
This is a
great time to go back to the beginning of 1 Kings 22 and also remember that it
was Jehoshaphat who demanded to hear from Micaiah – a true prophet of God. Jehoshaphat did well in searching out for
God’s truth. He was not perfect, but he
trusted in God.
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