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 had come into this world for judgment. This does not mean he intends to keep everyone in the world from being saved; it means that judgment can come on those who have no faith, so rise up out of that place of sin and do not be judged. It means that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ can be saved. But whoever hears Jesus’ words and still cannot believe, and stays in the place of sin with a hard heart, will come under judgment. What believers must know is this: a word of blessing has to come true exactly, and a word of judgment and rebuke has to prove wrong. From a prophet’s side, as it was for Micaiah, it can be shameful to preach God’s judgment and then see it unfulfilled. But an unfulfilled prophecy is proof that the people who heard the prophet repented, so a prophecy of judgment must prove wrong.
First Kings records how Ahab, king of Israel, took the word of judgment that the prophet Micaiah preached lightly and died exactly as prophesied. Ahab, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were related by the marriage of their children. Israel is divided here into Judah in the south and Israel in the north because the split came when Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king. Rehoboam would not listen to his loyal officials and governed foolishly, and so God gave ten tribes to Jeroboam; that is how Judah and Israel were divided.
Rehoboam was given not only Judah but the tribe of Benjamin as well, and it is called Judah because Benjamin’s numbers were small. Benjamin’s numbers were small because a Levite lodged in Benjamite territory on his way home, and his wife was violated by the men of Benjamin and died. The Levite, wronged, cut his wife’s body into twelve pieces and sent them to each tribe, telling them of Benjamin’s wickedness. The tribes heard what Benjamin had done and attacked the tribe together, and so few survived that Benjamin was folded into 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 form an allied army and take it back. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had a faith that feared God, and said he wanted to ask God’s will before going to war. So Ahab, king of Israel, called four hundred prophets and asked them whether he should go to war. These four hundred were prophets hired by Ahab’s wife Jezebel to promote the worship of Baal, the god she served. They had watched Jezebel persecute and slaughter people who trusted Yahweh, and that is why they told her only what she liked to hear. The four hundred prophets said that if he went up and fought, God had promised to give him Ramoth Gilead, so he should go up at once. Every one of them was speaking whatever a lying spirit put in his mouth.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wanted the prophet Micaiah, who always preached God’s word straight, rather than the prophecy of the four hundred. The messenger sent to bring Micaiah tipped him off that the other prophets had said the war would be won, so he would have to prophesy the same thing if he wanted to live. Hearing this, Micaiah made the 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 a man dead to the world. Even with a king in front of him he would say only what God had said, and he would not lie to beg for his own life. He already knew how empty the wealth and honor of this world are.
What would you do if you met a situation like this? Four hundred men, false prophets though they were, had already prophesied victory in front of two kings — could you prophesy to a king that he will die if he goes out to this war? But Micaiah told Ahab the truth: you will die if you go out to war, so the people of Israel, left with no leader, will all be scattered. Micaiah made up his mind to die and preached God’s word exactly as it was.
Ahab heard the prophecy of his own death, flew into a rage, and complained that this man only ever curses him. But even if Micaiah’s prophecy offended him, Ahab had to listen if it was God’s word and the truth. People who are lacking always want to be told only what they like to hear. So even when it is God’s word, hearing that suffering may come displeases them, and they keep their distance from God and from the person who preached it.
A person who wants to hear only pleasant things is foolish and dull. Such people throw away the sincerity of the one rebuking them and drift away from faith. Anyone thinking normally can tell whether the other person is giving advice for their good or mocking them. Even so, those who want only pleasant words mostly cannot take counsel and make it an opportunity to grow, which is why they stand forever in the same place.
While I was wondering how far a believer’s faith had grown, God gave me wisdom: if you want to know a believer’s faith, try commending and try rebuking. He said that a person who wants only commendation is a fool, while a person who hears a rebuke and tries to turn is wise, and that if you entrust God’s work to such a believer they will carry the calling well, in a spirit of obedience.
I tried it as he said, and the faith of believers showed clearly. Proverbs says that if you rebuke a wise man he will love you for it, because he knows why the one rebuking him spoke. He knows the rebuke does not come from hate but is helping him take the short road rather than the long way around in life.
In pastoral work I have struggled a great deal, watching believers keep away from me after a rebuke, or come to argue back. I have wondered whether I was being hurt by insisting on counsel when I could simply have said nothing. There have been times when I let it pass without speaking, thinking it might be better for someone to come to church and hear the Word even one more time than to be rebuked and keep away from church.
Rebuke and commendation show you that believers differ in capacity. The person who turns immediately on being rebuked turns because they know God; the person who closes their heart is looking at me, a human being, and puts human feeling first. I, who rebuke you, am nothing. If you listen to what I say rather than looking at me, it will do your life good. I too am a child of God, and I am only working hard; the office of pastor was entrusted to me, and I am only doing my utmost to the end. What you do well you can do without being praised for it, but what you do wrong leads on to God’s rebuke, and that is why I counsel you. So believers must first let go of the world in their hearts if they want to be trusted by God.
Take a rubber band as an example. Tie a rubber band to a post, pull it and let go, and you will see the band snap back behind the post. If the post is the world and the band is a believer’s faith, then running forward without cutting the world’s band looks, for the moment, like faith growing. But the instant the heart lets go of faith — because of circumstances, because of a person — the stretched band flies back further than the place where Jesus Christ was first received, and spiritual recovery becomes hard. That is why God told us to cut the world’s band and run. Cutting the band certainly hurts, but only then can you live as one who died with Jesus on the cross, one who has overcome death, one who has risen. The way to let the world go is to know that the world is vanity of vanities and does not last, and to give God the first place. If you believe that God is absolute, then may you run with assurance, narrow as the road is.
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 was watching a vision spread out in heaven and reported it exactly. When Yahweh asked who would entice Ahab to go up to Ramoth Gilead and die there, Satan said, ‘I will become a lying spirit and make all his prophets say that he will win the war.’ Micaiah reported the heavenly council just as he saw it and told Ahab that Satan was leading him to the battlefield to kill him; but Ahab instead shut Micaiah, who was telling him the truth, in prison and left for the war. Ahab going out to that war is a self-centered, foolish judgment, like Adam choosing the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Micaiah heard the conversation between God on his throne and Satan and reported it correctly, and Ahab will not listen because he will not let go of his own ideas. People will probably ask how anyone could fail to listen to a prophet as powerful as Micaiah. But you and I, once bound to our own ideas, would not listen either, even if Micaiah came to this very place and spoke God’s word to us himself. Take what a person of faith says as precious and obey it; that is how you live.
Ahab was afraid of Micaiah’s words after all, it seems, because he went in disguise. Behavior like that is not obedience but a compromise for the sake of one’s own safety. Compromising with the Word is the same as not listening to it, and so Ahab was struck by an arrow an Aramean soldier shot at random, and died. Micaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled exactly. If Ahab had been wise he would have listened to Micaiah, who rebuked him and prophesied his death, rather than looking at the number four hundred. But Ahab, who clung to his own righteousness and lived by his own greed, put the man who truly cared for him in prison.
Looking at this event, I have wondered what was in Micaiah’s heart when he heard in prison that Ahab was dead. Did he rejoice — there, you see, was my prophecy not right? Or did he grieve, watching a man come under God’s judgment because he would not let go of his greed after being told God’s will and told to turn? Micaiah knew God’s will, so most likely he grieved sincerely. If Ahab had turned, then even though the word he had prophesied would not have come to pass as spoken, Micaiah would have been glad and thankful, because a life had been saved.
You are mature now, so you take a rebuke well and say amen; but when I first began rebuking, there were people who grew angry and asked why I never mentioned what they did well and spoke only of what they did wrong. Some refused counsel, saying that surely their faith was good enough. It must have been hard, because I counseled them on what had to be repented of rather than praising them. But a little deeper thought would have shown them that repenting and turning is a blessing, so a rebuke is love. With children, of course, commendation and rebuke should both be made clear — a sharp rebuke for what was done wrong and generous praise for what was done well will help them mature.
Adults, though, already have the wisdom to eat solid food; what they do well they can do on their own, and if they turn only in what they are rebuked for they can gain a mature character. Without repentance, what was done wrong keeps even what was done well from shining, and that is why I counsel them; but they want only pleasant words, and so their feelings are hurt. Faith and character like that need to grow further in God through the Word.
It would be enough to obey and clear away the stumbling blocks of greed and craving; I counsel people because it is so grievous to watch a life go the long way around through disobedience. Ahab would not let go of his own ideas, and that is why he lost a good man and lost his life as well. Micaiah knew Ahab would not listen even when he was given deep truth, but he preached the Word because that was a prophet’s calling.
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.
David was a hunted man, but when he saw the Philistines harassing the people of Keilah and plundering the threshing floors he fought alongside them. Those with David knew the danger and tried to stop him, but he believed God would help him, so he went to war with the Philistines. This was while David was wandering, hunted by Saul. He took the risk and saved the city of Keilah, and the people of Keilah helped David and his men to stay in the city. But the ease lasted only a moment: someone went to Saul and told him that David was now staying in Keilah. Until then Saul had not been able to catch David, skilled in war and out in the wide wilderness; but he rejoiced greatly, thinking that a David inside a city could be caught simply by taking his soldiers there.
David heard that Saul was coming toward Keilah, and prayed earnestly for God’s help. His heart racing, David prayed, ‘will Saul really come to this place?’ and God answered, “Saul will certainly come here.” ‘God, if Saul brings his soldiers to this city and threatens them that they will live if they hand me over, will the people of Keilah give me up to Saul?’ God answered, “The people of Keilah will give you up.”
Having heard God’s voice, David took his six hundred men and left Keilah without a backward look. That city was one David had risked his life to defend against the Philistines. Ordinary people would have been angry enough to do them some harm, since they had thrown away the kindness done them and betrayed David to beg for their own lives. But David did their lives no harm and left the city quietly. At the point when David leaves Keilah, Saul has not come and the people of Keilah have not betrayed him. But God had told him in detail what was going to happen, which is why he left the city at once, though nothing had happened yet. This faith is exactly why God recognizes David.
You, too, must live with the Word at the center as David did if you want God’s recognition. David was betrayed and wronged, and still, believing that life belongs to God, he did not kill people carelessly. God’s word to love your enemies is finally his love saying: live by my word and preserve your own life. If David had raged at the betrayal of the people of Keilah and killed them, he would have sinned by destroying life; if he had harmed them, he would have sinned by taking revenge.
God’s word that he will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you is the grace of being told: leave everything to me, and simply live at ease with a good heart. It is the Father’s earnest request that if you believe I made every law in the world, you should put away the evil heart that wants revenge and leave the place of sin. It does not mean losing to your enemy on purpose; it means that filling your own spirit with an evil heart is itself a sin against me, so keep only a good heart and live by faith.
When Saul heard that David had left Keilah, he turned back at once on the road he was taking to attack him and went home to his own city. But if God had said that Saul would come, then Saul had to come as far as Keilah for the word to be fulfilled. God’s word has to come to pass, as his word that they would win the war against the Philistines came to pass; yet Saul, contrary to God’s word of prophecy, did not come to Keilah. Look at this, and you see that David’s faith, which obeyed the Word without conditions, both saved his life and gave him the opportunity to become the king who would later build a united kingdom.
God had said that the people of Keilah would betray him. If David had stayed inside the city, thinking surely they will not hand over the man who saved them, or that even if Saul came he had his own soldiers and could put up a fight, then Saul would certainly have come, exactly as God said. Obeying God’s word about an event that has not yet happened is possible only where there is an absolute faith that trusts God. If David had obeyed the pleasant word that he would beat the Philistines and disobeyed the word that Saul would come, he would not have kept his life.
David was a man of true faith who showed 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, someone put me in a bad mood — in God’s sight all of that is nothing but excuses. That is why Satan can easily attack a person who hears God’s word and does not obey it but stays in the place of sin. If Jesus has told you to take up your mat and rise, only when you show obedience by getting up and moving off that spot does Satan, seeing that you are no longer in the place of sin, give up coming to attack.
Whether the word was pleasant to him or a word of rebuke and wrath, David believed it and went forward when God spoke. Even when the betrayal of people he had risked his life to save hurt him, once God said to leave that place he acted on it without a second thought. So Satan brings disaster or folds up his plan according to whether God’s children obey or disobey. This is exactly why God said that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Satan is not afraid of your praising, praying and fasting. In his eyes worship offered without a faith that will obey God’s word absolutely is only a form with no power in it. God cannot be deceived, and neither can Satan, who is also a spirit. Neither God nor Satan is taken in by a confession made only with the mouth. Only when thinking changes and behavior changes will God recognize that faith and help you overcome Satan’s work. May you too stop looking at the world and at people, and obey the Word alone. Obeying God is itself a strong power, and that is why Satan cannot come near a believer with God’s shield drawn around them. Saul turns back precisely because David is not in the place of disobedience. Micaiah was in prison, but because he lived as one dead to the world he could preach God’s will whole. David’s obedience is Micaiah’s obedience, and David’s resolve, which settled the matter of the place of sin without wavering, was Micaiah’s resolve.
What is in your heart as you live? Are you doing your utmost to live by the will God wants?
The kingdom of God is a kingdom you can enter only by dying to the world. Micaiah loved even Ahab’s soul, and that is why he preached the Word boldly; so Ahab, however much Micaiah’s words stung at that moment, should have taken them as an opportunity to look at himself. Only when you grasp this can you understand why Micaiah gladly chose death, and why he obeyed the Word.
You must have the faith of the prophet Micaiah: as Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak. God will certainly reveal his glory on 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, you must proclaim it boldly if you know the truth. Do not forget that the moment you throw the Word away you must live as Satan’s slave; and may you be believers who live with a confession like Micaiah’s and an obedience like David’s.