Micaiah
14Micaiah said, “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.” 15When he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?” He answered him, “Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.” 16The king said to him, “How many times do I have to adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in Yahweh’s name?” 17He said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. Yahweh said, ‘These have no master. Let them each return to his house in peace.’” 18The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 19Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing; and another said another. 21A spirit came out and stood before Yahweh, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’ 23Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.” 24Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did Yahweh’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?” 25Micaiah said, “Behold, you will see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself.”
In John 9:39 Jesus said that he came into this world for judgment. This does not mean he will keep everyone in the world from being saved. It means that without faith we may be judged, so we should rise from the place of sin and not come under judgment; anyone who believes in Jesus Christ can be saved. But those who hear Jesus’ words and still do not believe, who stay in the place of sin with hardened hearts, will be judged. What we need to understand is that words of blessing should come true just as spoken, while words of judgment and rebuke ought to fail. For a prophet like Micaiah, proclaiming God’s judgment and seeing it go unfulfilled could be embarrassing. But an unfulfilled prophecy is a sign that the people who heard the prophet repented; for that reason, prophecies of judgment must fail.
The book of 1 Kings records how Ahab king of Israel made light of the word of judgment the prophet Micaiah delivered, and then died just as the prophecy said. Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were related by marriage. Here Israel appears as two kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, because the kingdom split when Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king. Rehoboam ignored his loyal counselors and governed foolishly, so God gave ten tribes to Jeroboam, and Judah and Israel were divided.
God gave Rehoboam not only Judah but also the tribe of Benjamin, yet because Benjamin was so small, the southern kingdom is simply called Judah. Benjamin was small for this reason. A Levite on his way home stopped for the night in the territory of Benjamin, and the men of Benjamin abused his wife until she died. The wronged Levite cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them to each of the tribes, telling them of Benjamin’s wickedness. When the tribes heard of this evil deed, they attacked Benjamin together, and so few survived that Benjamin was counted as part of Judah.
Ahab, king of Israel in the north, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah in the south, that Ramoth Gilead, which they had lost to the king of Syria [Aram] in an earlier battle, was their land, and he proposed that north and south join forces to retake it. Being a man who feared God, Jehoshaphat said he wanted to seek God’s will before going to war. Ahab therefore summoned four hundred prophets and asked whether they should go to war. These four hundred were prophets whom Ahab’s wife Jezebel had hired to spread the worship of her god Baal. Having seen Jezebel persecute and slaughter those who followed Yahweh, they told her only what she wanted to hear. The four hundred prophets said that God had promised to give them Ramoth Gilead if they went up and fought, so they should go up at once. Every one of them was speaking whatever a lying spirit put in their mouths.
Jehoshaphat looked past the prophecy of the four hundred to Micaiah, a prophet who always proclaimed God’s word rightly. The messenger sent to fetch Micaiah warned him that, since the other prophets had foretold victory, he too would have to prophesy the same if he wanted to live. Hearing this, Micaiah made an astonishing confession of faith, recorded in 1 Kings 22:14: “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.” Micaiah was already standing in God as one dead to the world. Even before a king, he would declare only what God had said; he would not lie to beg for his life. He already knew how empty the wealth and glory of the world are.
What would you do in such a situation? Four hundred prophets, false though they were, had already foretold victory before two kings. Could you tell the king that if he went to war he would die? Yet Micaiah told King Ahab the plain truth: if he went to war he would die, and the people of Israel, left without a leader, would all be scattered. Micaiah had resolved to die, and he delivered God’s word just as it was.
Told that he would die, Ahab flew into a rage and complained that this man never prophesied anything but evil against him. But even if Micaiah’s prophecy offended him, if it was God’s word and the truth, Ahab had to listen. Immature people always want to hear only what pleases them. So when they hear that they may suffer, even if it is God’s word, they take offense and keep their distance both from God and from the one who brought the word.
But those who want to hear only pleasant words are foolish and senseless. Such people spurn the sincerity of those who rebuke them, and they drift away from faith. Anyone who thinks clearly can tell whether another person’s words are advice given for their good or mockery. Yet most of those who want to hear only pleasant words cannot take counsel and use it as a chance to grow, and so they stay stuck where they are.
When I was wondering how far my congregation had grown in faith, God gave me wisdom: if I wanted to know someone’s faith, I should try both praise and rebuke. He told me that those who want only praise are fools, while those who hear rebuke and turn themselves around are wise; if I entrusted God’s work to such people, they would fulfill their calling with an obedient heart.
When I did as he said, I could see each person’s faith plainly. Proverbs tells us that if you reprove a wise man, he will love you for it, since he knows why the one reproving him has spoken. He understands that the reproof does not come from hatred; it is meant to help him take the short road through life instead of a long detour.
In my ministry I have often struggled when, after I rebuked someone, they kept their distance from me or came to argue back. I wondered whether I was only getting hurt by insisting on counsel when I could simply have said nothing. Sometimes I let things pass without a word, thinking it might be better for them to keep coming to church and hear the word one more time than to be rebuked and stay away.
When I try both rebuke and praise, I sense that each person has a different capacity. Those who turn back at once when rebuked do so because they know God; those who close their hearts are looking at me, a mere human being, and so they put human feelings first. I, the one who rebukes you, am nothing. If you listen to my words rather than look at me, it will profit your life. I work hard only because I too am a child of God, and I give my utmost to the end only because God has entrusted me with the office of pastor. What you do well, you can do on your own without praise; but what you do wrong leads to God’s rebuke, and that is why I counsel you. So, to win God’s trust, we must first let go of the world in our hearts.
Take a rubber band as an example. Tie it to a post, stretch it, and let go, and it snaps back past the post. If the post is the world and the band is our faith, then as long as we keep running forward without cutting the cord that ties us to the world, our faith seems for the moment to be growing. But the instant we let go of faith in our hearts because of circumstances or people, the stretched band snaps back even farther than the place where we first received Jesus Christ, and spiritual recovery becomes hard. That is why God told us to cut the cord of the world and run. Cutting it certainly hurts, but only then can we live as those who died with Jesus on the cross, who have overcome death, who have risen. The way to let go of the world is to know that it is vanity of vanities and will not last forever, and to put God first. If you believe that God is sovereign over all, I hope you will run with confidence, even if the road is narrow.
1 Kings 22:19
19Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
Micaiah reported exactly what he saw in the vision unfolding in heaven. When Yahweh asked who would entice Ahab to go up to Ramoth Gilead and die there, Satan said that he would become a lying spirit and make all of Ahab’s prophets lie that he would win the battle. Micaiah told Ahab just what he had seen in the heavenly council: Satan was leading him to the battlefield to kill him. Yet Ahab threw Micaiah, who had told him the truth, into prison and set out for the battle. Ahab’s going to war is a foolish, self-centered choice, like Adam’s choosing the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Micaiah had heard the conversation between God on his throne and Satan, and he reported it faithfully; but because Ahab would not let go of his own ideas, he would not listen. People may well ask how anyone could refuse to heed a prophet as powerful as Micaiah. But if you and I are bound by our own ideas, we would not listen even if Micaiah came here now and spoke God’s word to us in person. Only by treasuring and obeying what a person of faith tells us can we live.
Still, Ahab seems to have feared Micaiah’s words, for he went into battle in disguise. That was not obedience but a compromise for his own safety. Since compromising with the word is no different from not listening, Ahab was killed by an arrow a Syrian soldier happened to shoot. Micaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. Had Ahab been wise, he would have heeded Micaiah, who rebuked him and foretold his death, rather than the sheer number of four hundred. But Ahab, who had insisted on his own righteousness and lived by his own desires, ended up putting in prison the very man who truly cared for him.
Reflecting on this event, I tried to imagine how Micaiah felt when he heard in prison that Ahab was dead. Did he rejoice, telling himself that his prophecy had proved right? Or did he grieve to see Ahab judged by God for clinging to his greed, after being shown God’s will and urged so earnestly to turn back? Knowing God’s will, Micaiah most likely grieved from his heart. Had Ahab turned back, the prophecy he had delivered would not have come to pass, yet Micaiah would have been glad and grateful to have saved a life.
Now that you have matured, you accept rebuke with an amen; but when I first rebuked you, some of you grew angry, asking why I spoke only of what you did wrong and never of what you did well. Some refused counsel, insisting that their faith was good enough as it was. Being counseled about what needed repentance rather than praised must have been hard. But had you thought a little more deeply, you would have seen that rebuke is love, because repenting and turning back brings blessing. Of course, children grow more mature when both praise and rebuke are given clearly, when wrongdoing is rebuked sharply and good behavior is praised warmly.
But adults already have the wisdom to eat solid food, so they can go on doing what they do well, and if they turn from whatever they are rebuked for, they can grow into mature character. I counsel because, without repentance, what is wrong keeps even what is right from shining; but people want only pleasant words, and so their feelings are hurt. Such faith and character need to grow further in God through the word.
Obeying and clearing away the stumbling blocks of greed and lust is all that is needed; but it grieves me so to see someone disobey and take the long way through life that I counsel them. Clinging to his own ideas, Ahab lost not only a good man but his very life. Micaiah knew that Ahab would not listen even when he declared deep truth, but he proclaimed the word because that was his charge as a prophet.
1 Samuel 23:12-13
12Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” Yahweh said, “They will deliver you up.” 13Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. Saul was told that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.
Though David was a fugitive, when he saw the Philistines harassing the people of Keilah and robbing their threshing floors, he fought on their side. The men with David knew the danger and tried to stop him, but believing that God would help him, he went to war against the Philistines. This was at a time when David was being hunted by Saul and wandering from place to place. Because David had risked danger to rescue the town of Keilah, its people helped David and his men to stay there. But the respite was short. Someone went to Saul and told him that David was now staying in Keilah. Until then Saul had been unable to catch David, a skilled warrior, in the open wilderness; now that David was inside a walled town, Saul was overjoyed, thinking he could capture him simply by marching his soldiers there.
When David heard that Saul was coming toward Keilah, he called on God for help and prayed earnestly. In his urgency David prayed, ‘Will Saul really come here?’ and God answered, “Saul will surely come here.” ‘God! If Saul brings his army to this town and threatens to spare the people only if they hand me over, will the men of Keilah deliver me to Saul?’ God answered, “The men of Keilah will deliver you up.”
Having heard God’s voice, David took his six hundred men and left Keilah without a backward glance. This was the town David had defended against the Philistines at the risk of his life. Had ordinary people been betrayed by those who repaid kindness with treachery to save their own skins, they would have been angry enough to do them any harm they could. But David did them no harm and quietly left the town. When David left Keilah, Saul had not yet come, and the people of Keilah had not yet betrayed him. But because God had told him in detail what was going to happen, he left at once, though none of it had happened yet. It is precisely for faith like this that God approved of David.
If we are to win God’s approval, we ought to live, as David did, with the word at the center. Even when betrayed and wronged, David did not take lives lightly, because he believed that life belongs to God. God’s command to love our enemies is, in the end, God’s love telling us to live by his word and so preserve our own lives. Had David raged at the betrayal of Keilah and killed its people, he would have committed the sin of taking life; had he harmed them, he would have committed the sin of revenge.
God’s word, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you,” is grace, as though he were saying: leave everything to me, and simply live at peace with a good heart. It is a Father’s earnest plea: if you believe that I made every law in the world, put away your evil desire for revenge and leave the place of sin. It does not mean that you should let your enemy win on purpose; it means that if you fill your heart with malice, you too sin against me, so keep only a good heart and live by faith.
When Saul heard that David had left Keilah, he turned back on the road at once and went home to his own city instead of coming to attack David. Yet if God had said that Saul would come, the word would be fulfilled only if Saul actually came all the way to Keilah. God’s word must come to pass, just as his word that David would defeat the Philistines had come to pass, yet Saul did not come to Keilah, contrary to God’s prophetic word. From this we can see that David’s unconditional obedience to the word not only saved his life but also caused him to receive the opportunity, later on, to become the king who established a united kingdom.
God had said that the people of Keilah would betray him. Had David stayed in the town anyway, thinking, ‘Surely they will not hand me over, after I saved them,’ or thinking that even if Saul came, his own soldiers made a fight worth trying, Saul would certainly have come, just as God said. To obey God’s word about something that has not yet happened is possible only when we have an absolute faith that trusts God. Had David obeyed the pleasant word that he would defeat the Philistines but not the word that Saul would come, he would not have survived.
David was a man of true faith who showed his obedience by acting the moment he heard God’s word. ‘I want to live by God’s word too, but I am too busy, too tired, my circumstances will not allow it, or someone has put me in a bad mood, so I cannot live by the word’: in God’s sight, all of this is nothing but excuses. And so Satan can easily attack those who hear God’s word yet do not obey but stay in the place of sin. If Jesus has told you to take up your mat and get up, you must show the obedience of rising and moving from that place. Only then, when Satan looks and finds you no longer in the place of sin, will he give up coming to attack you.
Whether God’s word was pleasant to hear or a word of rebuke and wrath, David believed it and went forward whenever God spoke. Hurt as he was by the betrayal of those he had risked his life to save, when God said he must leave that place, he acted without a second thought. In this way, whether God’s children obey or disobey determines whether Satan brings misfortune upon them or abandons his plans. This is exactly why God said that to obey is better than sacrifice.
Satan is not afraid when you sing praise, pray, and fast. In his eyes, worship offered without a faith resolved to obey God’s word absolutely is a powerless formality. Just as no one can deceive God, no one can deceive Satan either, for he too is a spirit. Neither God nor Satan is fooled by a confession of faith made only with the lips. Only when our thinking and our actions change will God acknowledge our faith and help us overcome Satan’s work. I hope you too will look not to the world or to people, but obey the word alone. Obedience to God is itself a mighty power; that is how Satan is kept from approaching those over whom God’s shield is spread. Saul turned back precisely because David was not in the place of disobedience. Though he was thrown into prison, Micaiah lived as one dead to the world, and so he could proclaim God’s will in full. David’s obedience was Micaiah’s obedience, and David’s firm resolve to leave the place of sin was Micaiah’s resolve.
How are you living? Are you doing your utmost to live according to God’s will?
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom we can enter only by dying to the world. Micaiah proclaimed the word boldly because he loved even Ahab’s soul; Ahab, however much Micaiah’s words stung at the time, should have taken them as a chance to examine himself. Only when we grasp this can we understand why Micaiah willingly chose death and obeyed the word.
We must have the faith of the prophet Micaiah, who said, “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.” God will surely reveal his glory upon that confession, and he will grant a great reward.
Even if the world denies God’s word, as the king and the four hundred false prophets did, if you know the truth you must proclaim it boldly. Do not forget that the moment we abandon the word, we end up living as Satan’s servants. May you live with a confession like Micaiah’s and an obedience like David’s.