Key: Blue=Bible, Red= Author notes

Hello World!

Welcome to the 4^th chapter of the False Prophet series. I have not written in a long time, but I am excited to get back at it. I pray that God gives me the light and energy to keep studying his word and putting it in action. When I first started this series, there was one story I really wanted to write about, and this post relates to that story. So, without further ado, lets jump right in!

Today story comes from 1 King 22:1-28. You may also read to verse 40 if you like. Here’s the background, the time is set years after King David and King Solomon ruled Israel. Israel is now split into 2 kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel with its capital Samaria, and the Kingdom of Judah with its capital Jerusalem. King Ahab rules Israel and King Jehoshaphat (Jeh-Ho-Se-Fat) rules Judah. As always, I would recommend reading the story before continuing in this post.

In summary, King Ahab wants to go to war with Syria and goes to King Jehoshaphat for help. King Jehoshaphat agrees, but also wants to inquire with a prophet of the LORD to see if God will grant them victory. King Ahab gathers a bunch of “false” prophets, about 400 men, who all agree that King Ahab will win the war. But King Jehoshaphat wants to hear from a prophet of the LORD. King Ahab ordered a messenger to bring the prophet Micaiah to prophesy for the war. This prophet is known to always prophesy against King Ahab’s wishes. It’s so common that King Ahab refuses to ask him anything since he knows it’s going to lead to a negative outcome. Even when Prophet Micaiah first prophesies like the other prophets, the King knew that he was not giving the truth. So, then Micaiah prophesies against the King and explains why the 400 prophets was falsely prophesying. King Ahab ordered Micaiah to go to prison and goes to war anyways but ends up getting killed.

If you read the story, you can see why I really wanted to talk about it. There are many thing good takeaways from this story. As we seen in the previous False Prophet posts, usually the true prophet preaches what goes against popular opinion, something I am a huge fan of.

I will breakdown this story in 3 take away points.

1. With any plan, it is good to inquire God’s opinion.

As we see in this story, King Jehoshaphat wants to go to war with King Ahab, but really wants to know God’s opinion on the matter. Even when he had 400 prophets preach that he will win, he wanted a “real” prophet of God to prophesy to him. As shown in the story, he asks the king if there is a prophet of the LORD.

1 Kings 22:7-8

But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?” The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat replied, “The king should not say such a thing.”

In this exchange we can see a maturity picture between the two kings. One is eager to hear from what the true God has to say, while the other hates hearing from him. And if you learn about the feats of King Ahab, you can have a better understanding why God is not on his side.

In conclusion, we should all strive to be like King Jehoshaphat and learn to lean on God with important decisions. King Ahab would have lived if he listened to the true prophet. Instead he disobeyed God’s warnings and followed the majority to his death.

2. Understand what truth is and what truth is not.

Although I contrasted the two Kings in the previous take away point, they do have one thing in common (other than the facts they are kings). They both knew what truth was. This is an important topic which can be debated with and without the bible. A perfect example is pointed out in the New Testament.

John 18:37-38

Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked.

In this story between the two Kings, one King was seeking truth and the other recognized truth. King Jehoshaphat knows that God is the source of all truth. And having his guidance would be a guaranteed victory or defeat, which is why he asked to inquire of the Lord. King Ahab sought out Prophet Micaiah and knew that he was not speaking truthfully when he first prophesied.

1 Kings 22:15-16

When he (Prophet Micaiah) arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”

“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?”

It may be a stretch, but King Ahab knew that the initial prophecy was not the truth. He knew because this prophet always prophecies bad things. He also knew because this was the only prophet of the LORD.

For us today, we need to understand where our truth comes from. Just like these two kings, hundreds of people may be telling us what your truth is and how “you will be victorious!” or how “God is with you!” when truth is, you don’t have God and you will lose your life. We must all seek truth and truth comes from Jesus. But don’t follow my truth, seek him out yourself!

3. Obey the truth

It is one thing to try to find the truth. It’s another thing to understand what the truth is. But the most important thing is what you choose to do with it. Will you accept the truth or reject it? King Ahab chose to reject the truth. We see that in this story.

1 Kings 22:26-28

The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’” Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

Micaiah seemed to have always prophesied bad things to King Ahab (vs. 18), but this was going to be his final prophecy. (And the Bible portrays it in a very epic way.) Micaiah says that he is not a true prophet of God if King Ahab comes back safely. He is declaring this as they are arresting him and taking him away. The King heard this and still chose to go to war. And if you chose to keep reading, you see how the king disguised himself so that he won’t get hurt, but still, by some “random” chance, he was killed by an arrow, and Micaiah’s prophecy eventually came to past.

There is truth, and the truth can be found in God’s words, the Holy Bible. We may not have prophets as they did in the old days, but we still have a bunch of false ones! Which is why I started this series in the first place. Please learn to distinguish between what is truth and what isn’t. Otherwise you may end up like King Ahab!

With love,

Ayodeji Alaketu