In I Kings 22, Israel's evil king Ahab was planning to go to war with an enemy-nation. He invited Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, to visit him, hoping to persuade Jehoshaphat to join in his war.
But when they counseled together, the Godly Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to "Please inquire first for the word of the Lord" (v. 5).
Ahab called together 400 of Israel's prophets, all of whom duly prophesied that God would bless Ahab with victory over his enemies. But Jehoshaphat evidently suspected those prophets might be agents of Ahab's political "spin," and again asked "Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him ?" (v. 7).
Reluctantly, Ahab admitted "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He is Micaiah son of Imlah” (v. 8). But put on the spot, Ahab knew He had to let Micaiah speak, to satisfy Jehoshaphat.
The messenger sent to summon Micaiah warned him that all the other prophets had pronounced God's blessing on Ahab's plans, and begged him not to say otherwise. But Micaiah told him, "As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I shall speak" (v. 14).
But when he appeared before the kings, Micaiah also told Ahab to go ahead with his plan, and God would "give it into the hand of the king" (v. 15). He must have said it in a tone of heavy sarcasm: Ahab could tell Micaiah didn't mean it; and angrily told him "How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord ?" (v. 16).
So Micaiah did. He announced that God said if the kings persisted in their plan, their people would be scattered throughout the mountains, leaderless: so they and their armies should best go home "in peace" (v. 17).
Micaiah's prophecy proved true. Israel and Judah were defeated in the battle Ahab desired to fight, and Ahab himself was killed. But my attention was drawn to how Ahab received...or rather, how he refused to receive...God's word.
"Did I not tell you," Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil ?" (v. 18). Ahab said (publicly, at least) that he wanted to hear "nothing but the truth" of God's word: but he didn't really. And when God's direction was contrary to his wishes, Ahab rejected God's word.
Ahab rejected God's word in the deadly self-delusion that Micaiah's words weren't really God's words. Ahab convinced himself that Micaiah's unfavorable prophecy was personal with the prophet, because "he hates me."
It can be impossible, for those entirely certain all their ways are pleasing to God, to ever believe God would contradict them. For the self-confident, God's correction or warning can only, ever, come from the prophet's opinions, emotions, politics, or personality.
It's mortal error to mistake God's word. Ahab's deadly mistake was dismissing Micaiah's prophecy as personal animosity. He'd made the same mistake when he rejected Elijah's warning that God would punish the king's sins with nationwide drought, claiming the prophet only said so because he was an ill-intentioned "troubler of Israel" (I Kings 18:7)
So it's a heavy responsibility God entrusts to all who "...pass judgement" on prophetic utterances (I Corinthians 14:29).
Micaiah showed the true prophetic spirit, entirely determined that "what the Lord says to me, that I shall speak." Those who "pass judgement" on prophecy...the Church' "official" prophets in Spirit-filled worship, or kings, or we ordinary members of the Church to whom God is speaking...must judge prophecy on no other criteria than is it God's word ?
Today's self-willed and self-assured, like Ahab, who will not believe God's ways and plans can ever be different than their own, can only ever hear God's prophetic warnings as personal attacks by the prophet. It is a deadly error to mistake God's word, in our time as much as it was in Ahab's.
Amen.
