Thought from today’s Bible reading from 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18.
When Ahab wished to go up and fight against Ramoth-gilead, he asked the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, if he would join him. Before committing to this, Jehoshaphat wanted to first consult one of the Lord’s prophets.
“Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, ‘Please inquire first for the word of the Lord.’ Then the king of Israel assembled the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, ‘Shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?’ And they said, ‘Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king.’
“But Jehoshaphat said, ‘Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him?’ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me but always evil. He is Micaiah, son of Imla’” (2 Chronicles 18:4-7).
Though Ahab had four hundred prophets, they were not prophets of the Lord. He did know of one prophet of the Lord though – Micaiah. But the king hated him because of his message. But because of Jehoshaphat’s insistence, the king sent for this man.
“Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, ‘Behold, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. So please let your word be like one of them and speak favorably.’ But Micaiah said, ‘As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak” (2 Chronicles 18:12-13).
“So he said, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd; and the Lord said, “These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace.”’” Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?’” (2 Chronicles 18:16-17).
The messenger who summoned Micaiah tried to brief him about what he should say. But the prophet makes it clear that he would only speak what was revealed by God. We find three commendable traits in Micaiah in this account.
- He was not afraid to teach an unpopular message. He had spoken against the king before, and it was expected that he would do it again. He taught what was necessary and right, not what would be liked by his audience (cf. Galatians 1:10).
- He was not worried about being the lone voice of truth. All of the other prophets delivered a favorable message. Micaiah was willing to stand alone knowing that the Lord was on his side (cf. 2 Timothy 4:16-17).
- He was not intimidated by the threat of punishment. After delivering God’s message, Micaiah was placed in prison (2 Chronicles 18:25-26). Even then, he did not back down (2 Chronicles 18:27); threats and punishments did not deter him (cf. Acts 4:18-20; 5:27-29).
Truth is often unpopular. Those who teach it will be hated. We must be prepared to speak out and remain strong like Micaiah did.
Tomorrow’s reading: 2 Chronicles 19-23
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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