Jehosophat’s Blunder
Yesterday
we began by speaking about Asa’s blunder.
Remember that Asa’s problem was that he did not consult the Lord. He came up with a great plan and the plan
worked. But in doing so he forgot to
consult the Lord. It is easy to forget
the Lord when our problems are small, manageable, or we approach them with too
big of an ego.
Today we
get a look at Jehosophat’s blunder.
Allow me a moment to summarize the story by glossing over some details
that I’ll come back to a bit later.
Jehosophat’s son marries a daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of
Israel. To celebrate their new alliance,
Jehosophat goes to the capital of Israel and is impressed with what he finds
there. Ahab invites Jehosophat to go to
war with him. Jehosophat agrees, but he
does so conditionally. Jehosophat
requests a prophet come before him and give a word from the Lord. At this point, it looks like Jehosophat has
actually learned the lesson that Asa forgot!
In fact,
when Ahab brings four hundred of his best prophets to come before him, Jehosophat
will not listen to them. Jehosophat
knows that they are not true prophets of God.
They are false prophets who seek to soothe the king’s will and thus gain
favor with the king. So Jehosophat
demands that a true prophet come before them.
It looks even more like Jehosophat is on the right track!
So Micaiah
is found. Micaiah comes and begins by
simply telling the king what he wants to hear.
The king is not fooled, however.
The king demands that Micaiah speak what he has truly heard rather than
mocking the king. So Micaiah tells the
king that God has put this battle before Ahab so that Ahab might die in
it. Micaiah declares disaster on the
plans for battle.
At this
point, we expect to hear Jehosophat back away from the battle plans. After all, up until now he had made all the
right choices. He discerned until he
heard a true prophet. He actually got
the prophet to speak truth. Yet after
Micaiah speaks and is sent away to prison we hear of Jehosophat going to battle
anyway. Here we see a sad and
unfortunate truth. Jehosophat gets the
whole way to hearing truth, but he doesn’t listen. How many times do we make the same
mistake? We are so diligent about
seeking out truth yet we don’t often listen.
The
choice is almost disastrous for Jehosophat – and we’ll get to even more outcomes
tomorrow. But for today, realize that
the Syrians had come with a single goal – to kill King Ahab. When they see Jehosophat riding into battle,
many think that Jehosophat is Ahab and they nearly kill him. But for the grace of God, he would have
fallen that day. His inability to listen
to God’s will nearly cost Jehosophat his life.
Micaiah
Having
looked at the story from Jehosophat’s perspective, allow me to circle back
around and pick up some of the details that up until now I’ve left off. First, allow me to take a look at
Micaiah. Here is a prophet in a very
dangerous land. The priests and Levites
had already been expelled from Israel.
The only people of God in the whole land are the prophets and the few
who followed them. Talk about living in
a hostile environment!
Second,
Micaiah had to know that his prophecy would get him into trouble. He had to know that when he spoke he would
end up in prison. If we listen to Ahab’s
words prior to Micaiah’s speech we can ascertain that Micaiah had spoken poorly
of Ahab before. There seems to be a
pattern of Micaiah speaking, Ahab rejecting, and Micaiah feeling Ahab’s wrath
in one way or another. Yet, Micaiah
continues to speak.
I believe
that this is one of the more inspirational portions of God’s Word as it relates
to prophets. In a world that enjoys
rejecting God’s Word, it is difficult to continue to stand for God’s Word. It is difficult to stand among four hundred
people all saying one thing and lift up a contrary voice knowing that it will
be refuted and people will despise you for it.
But someone has to stand. The
true prophet of God will indeed stand.
Even knowing the consequences, even knowing the persecution that will
follow, and even knowing the future ramifications the true prophet will stand
for God’s Word.
God
I’ve
still left out one very important detail in all of this. In Micaiah’s recounting of what is going on
here, there is a clear story of God enticing Ahab into battle. It is clear that God has planned this battle
to bring about Ahab’s death. Ahab does
in fact die in battle – even after hearing Micaiah’s truthful recollection of
what God said would happen.
We should
be careful here. There is truth in this
story, but there is also a very easy sidetrack that does not lead to
truth. Let’s talk about the sidetrack
first. It is easy to read this story and
come away seeing God as a deceiver.
After all, this story reads like God wanted to trick Ahab into going into
battle so that he would die. The reality
is, however, that there is no trick.
Micaiah is up front with Ahab in that it will lead to destruction. It is not God but the false prophets who
willingly make it seem like God will bless Ahab in battle. God is not the trickster, the false prophets
are. God is willing to use the false
lips that will say anything to sooth King Ahab and bring about His plan through
their willingness to speak falsehood to the king.
That
being said, the truth is that God did plan this event to bring about Ahab’s
death. In the battle, God clearly
protects the fool Jehosophat – who was where he should not have been – while offering
no protection at all to Ahab from a random arrow let loose by a nondescript
soldier. It might bother some people to
understand that God determined that it was time for Ahab to die. But this is not the first time that such a
determination has been made by God. I
only need to remind you of how God deals with evil in the stories of the Great
Flood, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the Exodus wanderings in the wilderness,
etc. God is not afraid of dealing with
evil by bringing death to those who embody it.
As you
contemplate this, however, don’t lose sight of the fact that Ahab knew what he
was getting into. Micaiah told Ahab what
would happen, he just didn’t listen! For
the record the people of the flood likewise knew, Moses warned Pharaoh, Moses
warned the Hebrew people in the wilderness, etc. God does not determine judgment without
giving proper warning and an opportunity for repentance, either.
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