1 Kings 22 is an interesting story of one man who listened to God in the midst of 400 prophets and 2 kings who disagreed with him. Let me walk you through the story.
The story begins when the King of Israel asks Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah if he would go with him to Ramoth-gilead and fight. You see, Ramoth-gilead used to belong to Israel, but the King of Siria had taken control of it and Israel wanted it back. Jehoshaphat wisely said “we should inquire of the Lord to make sure that we are not going to get our but’s handed to us on a plate” (paraphrasing). So, The King of Israel brought 400 prophets of the Lord and asked them what they felt the Lord was saying. All four hundred unanimously said “go and God will hand Ramoth-gilead over to you.”
For some reason these 400 prophets were not enough for Jehoshaphat so he said to the King of Israel “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” To which Israels King responded “there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.”
So, they brought in Micaiah and when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’”And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
WOW, that took guts and faith. When I read this I thought “would I be able to stand against the word of many in order to stand strong in what I felt the word of the Lord was for me?” I was challenged by this to not listen to man, but to listen to God. How many times have I folded under pure pressure and just compromised? To many I’m afraid. The challenge that I am getting from this passage of scripture is to speak the word of the Lord, no matter how unpopular it may be, or how unwelcome’d it is. Jesus didn’t ask me to obey him as long as it’s easy, he just asked me to obey. I pray I can be more like Micaiah and fear the Lord more than man.
