Scripture reading – 1 Kings 21; 1 Kings 22
1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18 are parallel accounts of the same historical events. The focus of this bonus devotional is 1 Kings 22.
1 Kings 22 – The Tragic Death of King Ahab
1 Kings 21 concluded with Elijah prophesying that King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, would suffer alarming deaths for murdering Naboth for his vineyard (21:17-24). Hearing the prophesy of his death, Ahab humbled himself and God mercifully spared him for a season (21:27-29).
1 Kings 22 is the climax of King Ahab’s reign over Israel. Three years had passed since Syria and Israel warred (22:1), and in the third year Jehoshaphat, the godly king of Judah, visited Ahab who enquired if Judah would be Israel’s ally and go to war against Syria (22:2-4).
You might wonder what motive Judah would have to be Israel’s ally. That answer is revealed when we read, “Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people” (22:4). You see, Jehoshaphat and Ahab had become family through the marriage of Jehoshaphat’s son with Ahab’s daughter (2 Kings 8:16-18).
Evidencing the judgment of a wise king, Jehoshaphat desired the LORD’s direction before going to battle and requested, “Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day” (22:5).
Ahab complied with Jehoshaphat’s request, and gathered nearly four hundred of his own prophets. Those prophets, no doubt in order to please the king, prophesied the LORD would give Israel and Judah victory over the king of Syria (22:6). Godly Jehoshaphat, however, was not satisfied and enquired further if there was not another prophet in Israel, one who had not compromised himself with Ahab’s prophets (22:7).
Ahab acknowledged there was another prophet whose name was “Micaiah the son of Imlah” (22: 8); however, the king of Israel confessed, “I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil” (22:8).
Complying with Jehoshaphat’s request, Ahab sent a servant to invite Micaiah to prophesy. That servant, however, warned the prophet how the other prophets were of “one mouth: [and demanded] let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good” (22:13).
In a twist of irony, Micaiah prophesied precisely what Ahab wanted to hear (22:15). The king, however, rebuked the prophet and demanded, “How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is truein the name of the LORD?” (22:16).
Micaiah then prophesied how Ahab would die, and Israel would be “scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd” (22:17). Acknowledging his own self-fulfilling sentiment, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, “Did I not tell thee that he [the prophet Micaiah] would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?” (22:18).
Micaiah’s prophesy proved true, and Ahab was mortally wounded in battle, and died in his chariot (22:34-35). The prophecy of Elijah was fulfilled, for in the place Naboth had been murdered, Ahab’s blood was washed from his chariot and “the dogs licked up his blood” (22:38; note 21:19).
Closing thought – Ahab was reluctant to invite Micaiah to prophesy, because he said, “I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil” (22:8).
I fear that has become the malady of the majority of ministries in our day. Pulpits of once thriving churches, Bible colleges, and institutional boards are filled by preachers soft-pedaling God’s Word. Like Ahab, who gathered four hundred prophets willing to lie and tell him what he wanted to hear, our churches and schools have few men like king Jehoshaphat who asked, “Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides?” (22:7).
Warning: When an individual, church or institution dismisses the clarion call of God’s prophets, they do so to their own demise.
* This concludes the second of today’s devotionals. Please remember to subscribe to Pastor Smith’s daily chronological devotionals, and have them sent to your email address.
Copyright © 2021 – Travis D. Smith
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