Good king Jehoshaphat and evil Ahab
22
📚And they continued for three years without war between Syria and Israel.2 📚And it came about in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel.
22:2 Jehoshaphat was allied with Ahab king of Israel by marriage (2 Chron 18:1). Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah, married Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. The results of this were very grave for the whole nation of Judah. The wicked influence of the house of Ahab permeated Judah through Athaliah. See 2 Kings 8:16-18; 2 Chron 22:1-3, 10. So because of the foolishness of a good man (Jehoshaphat – v 43), great evil came to God’s people. Wrong marriage alliances can bring much harm to the people of God. So God has given us 2 Cor 6:14-18.⚜
3 📚And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth 📖 in Gilead is ours, and we are quiet and not taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”
4 📚And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses”.
22:4 Jehoshaphat was a godly man (v 43), but he made a very bad mistake in allying himself with the evil Ahab, and God’s anger came on him because of it. See 2 Chron 19:1-3.⚜
5 📚And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please consult the word of the LORD 📖 today”.
Lying prophets join hands
6 📚Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets 📖 together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Should I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or should I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the LORD will deliver it into the hands of the king”.
7 📚And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might consult him?”
22:7 Jehoshaphat was uneasy about these prophets (and he did well to be), and wanted a more sure word.⚜
8 📚And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we can consult the LORD. But I hate him 📖, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but disaster”. And Jehoshaphat said, “May the king not say so”.
9 📚Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Bring here Micaiah 📖 the son of Imlah, quickly”.
10 📚And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, having put on their robes, each sat on his throne at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. 11 📚And Zedekiah, the son of Kenaanah, had made iron horns for himself, and he said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you will gore the Syrians, until you make an end of them.’ ”
12 📚And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the king’s hands”.
22:11-12 These were all lies spoken in the name of God. Let us beware of such. This is how Satan ensnares men, keeps them in bondage and destroys them (John 8:44).⚜
The prophet Micaiah tells the truth
13 📚And the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Look now, the messages of the prophets with one accord declare good to the king. Please let your message be like one of their messages, and speak what is good”.
22:13 Did they think God’s true prophets could invent their own messages? How little are God’s true servants understood!⚜
14 📚And Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, I will speak just what the LORD says to me”.
22:14 This is the only business of a true prophet.⚜
15 📚So he came to the king. And the king said to him, “Micaiah, should we go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or should we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go, and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hands of the king”.
22:15 Micaiah spoke in a mocking way which Ahab immediately saw (v 16).⚜
16 📚And the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear to tell me nothing but what is true in the name of the LORD?”
22:16 Verse 8. Ahab spoke so because of the presence of Jehoshaphat.⚜
17 📚And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each one of them return to his house in peace.’ ”
22:17 Ahab said he wanted the truth, though he did not (see another example of this in Jeremiah chapters 42 and 43. Men frequently deceive themselves in a similar manner). In this case Micaiah gave the truth to him straight.⚜
18 📚And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but disaster?”
19 📚And Micaiah said, “Hear, therefore, the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him at his right hand and at his left. 20 📚And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, so that he goes up and falls at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said this, and another said that. 21 📚And a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 📚And the LORD said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and I will be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You will entice him, and also succeed. Go and do so.’
23 📚“Now therefore, look, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken disaster concerning you”.
22:19-23 God is sovereign and even evil spirits can operate only within the bounds of His will and wise purposes (1 Chron 21:1; Job 1:12; Matt 8:28-32). God had decided to bring disaster on Ahab and this was the method He chose. When individuals love to hear lies and reject the truth, God will permit others to tell them the lies they want to hear. This is God acting in perfect justice. See Ps 18:25-26. Compare Jud 9:23; 1 Sam 16:14; Ezek 14:9; 2 Thess 2:11.⚜
24 📚But Zedekiah, the son of Kenaanah, went near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me 📖 to speak to you?”
25 📚And Micaiah said, “Look, you will see in that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself”.
22:25 Micaiah indicates that Zedekiah will try to hide from the danger that would come to him.⚜
26 And the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, 27 📚and say, ‘Thus says the king: put this fellow in the prison 📖, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.’ ”
28 📚And Micaiah said, “If you return at all in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me”. And he said, “Listen, O people, every one of you”.
The death of Ahab, Micaiah’s word is fulfilled
29 📚So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead.
22:29 Verses 3,4.⚜
30 📚And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and enter the battle, but you put on your robes”. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.
22:30 Ahab, it appears, was worried by Micaiah’s prophecy. But did he not realize that God can see through all disguises? See Heb 4:13. How great is the folly of men in the games they try to play with God!⚜
31 📚But the king of Syria commanded his thirty-two captains who had charge of his chariots, saying, “Do not fight with either small or great, but only with the king of Israel”. 32 📚And it happened that when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel”; and they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. 33 📚And it came about, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.
22:33 God showed mercy to His foolish servant.⚜
34 📚And a certain man drew a bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of the armour. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded”. 35 📚And the battle increased that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and at evening he died. And the blood ran out of the wound into the middle of the chariot. 36 📚And about sunset a cry went throughout the army, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his own country”.
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. 38 📚And someone washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria. And the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armour, in accordance with the word of the LORD which he had spoken.
22:34-38 Ahab could not escape the judgment of God. He chose what pleased him rather than the message God sent, and he had to suffer the consequences. The “random” shot was not mere accident. God is sovereign over all circumstances, and can guide the flight of an arrow as easily as He can do anything else.⚜
39 📚Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of The Annals 📖 of the Kings of Israel?
22:39 Ahab was a great builder in the material realm, a great destroyer in the spiritual realm.⚜
40 📚So Ahab slept 📖 with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
Judah’s good king Jehoshaphat
41 📚And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. 42 📚Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah. She was the daughter of Shilhi. 43 📚And he walked in all the ways of Asa 📖 his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the eyes of the LORD. However the high places were not taken away, for the people still offered and burned incense on the high places 📖. 44 📚And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
45 📚Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he made war, are they not written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Judah? 46 📚And he removed from the land the rest of the male temple prostitutes who had remained in the days of his father Asa. 47 📚There was then no king in Edom. A deputy was king.
48 📚Jehoshaphat had ships of Tarshish go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go; for the ships were broken at Ezion-Geber. 49 Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships”. But Jehoshaphat would not.
22:48-49 This was God’s judgment for his alliance with the evil Ahab – 2 Chron 20:35-37.⚜
50 📚And Jehoshaphat slept with his ancestors, and was buried among his ancestors in the city of David his father, and his son Jehoram reigned in his place.
Israel’s evil King Ahaziah
51 📚Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. 52 📚 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 53 📚For he served Baal and worshipped him, and provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger 📖, as his father had done in everything.