1 Kings 22:13-28

B. THE PROPHECY OF MICAIAH 22:13-28

TRANSLATION

(13) Now the messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah had said unto him, saying, Behold now the words of the prophets are unanimously good toward the king; let your word, I pray you, be like the word of one of them, and speak good. (14) And Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD has said unto me, that will I speak! (15) So he came unto the king and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go up against Ramothgilead to make war or shall we refrain? And he said, Go up, and you will prosper, and the LORD will give it into the hand of the king. (16) And the king said unto him, How many times have I caused you to sware that you would not speak unto me anything except truth in the name of the LORD? (17) And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains like sheep which had no shepherd; and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return each man to his house in peace. (18) And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not say unto you he would not prophesy concerning me good, but evil? (19) And he said, Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting upon His throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside Hun on His right hand and on His left. (20) And the LORD said, Who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said this, and another that. (21) And the spirit went out and stood before the LORD, and said, I surely will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, How? (22) And he said, I will go out and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, You shall entice him, and also you shall prevail; go out and do so. (23) And now behold the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you. (24) And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah drew near and smote Micaiah upon the cheek and said, Where did the spirit of the LORD pass over from me to speak to you? (25) And Micaiah said, Behold you shall see in that day when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide. (26) And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and cause him to return to Amon the governor of the city, and unto Joash the king's son. (27) And you shall say, Thus says the king: Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him bread of affliction and water of affliction until I come in peace. (28) And Micaiah said, If you surely return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me. And he said, Hear, O people, all of you.

COMMENTS

It was very important to Ahab to secure from all the prophets a positive word about the proposed military campaign. Any negative note might cause the pious Jehoshaphat to withdraw from the venture. The messenger sent to fetch Micaiah knew this well, and so he pleaded with the man of God to join the four hundred court prophets by putting his stamp of approval on the campaign (1 Kings 22:13). Both the king and his messenger completely misunderstood this man of God. He could not be intimidated or bribed. He was not afraid to stand alone. He would speak only what the Lord revealed to him (1 Kings 22:14).

When Micaiah appeared before him, Ahab put to the prophet the identical question he had put to the four hundred. Just as his question is an echo of the earlier query, so also is Micaiah's response identical with the answer which the court prophets had unanimously and dramatically given[500] (1 Kings 22:15). Ahab's hollow tone had revealed the insincerity of his question. He really did not want to know the will of God; he wanted to be deceived. No doubt Micaiah's mocking tone showed that his words were sarcastic. In an effort to impress Jehoshaphat, Ahab pretended to be greatly distressed over the prophet's manifest insincerity. Before he realized what he was saying, Ahab blurted out that what he wanted to hear was the word of the Lord[501] (1 Kings 22:16). Was this a tacit admission that what the four hundred had predicted was not the word of God?

[500] The absence of the usual introductory phrase, Thus says the Lord, in Micaiah's mocking caricature of the court prophets is to be noted.

[501] The form of Ahab's outburst (1 Kings 22:10) suggests that on previous occasions Micaiah had been accustomed to use sarcasm.

At this juncture the tone and demeanor of Micaiah suddenly changed, and the man of God became deadly serious. He had seen a vision of Israel scattered upon the hills with no shepherd; he heard the voice of God directing these scattered ones to return to their homes in peace (1 Kings 22:17). No one in the royal assembly failed to see that Micaiah was foretelling the dispersion of the Israelite army as a result of the death of the king of Israel. Ahab certainly understood the purport of those words. He had demanded the word of God and had received it. Lest Jehoshaphat be unduly influenced by this dire prediction, Ahab suggested that these words were but further evidence of the prophet's prejudice toward the king (1 Kings 22:18).

The insinuation that Micaiah spoke out of malice brought forth a vigorous rebuttal from the man of God. At sometime in the past Micaiah had seen another vision relating to Ahab. In this vision[502] he had seen the Lord on His heavenly throne surrounded by all the hosts of heaven, i.e., the angels who inhabit the heaven of heavens (1 Kings 22:19). In the vision, the Lord asked for suggestions as to how Ahab might be enticed to go up to Ramoth-gilead that he might be slain there. Various schemes were suggested (1 Kings 22:20), but finally the spirit, i.e., the evil spirit or Satan, affirmed that he would be able to entice Ahab (1 Kings 22:21). The plan was that this spirit would take control of the mouths of Ahab's prophets and they would persuade the king that the Ramoth-gilead campaign should be undertaken. The Lord then granted to this spirit permission to so entice Ahab (1 Kings 22:22). Thus, declared Micaiah, the Lord had put a lying spirit in the mouths of all Ahab's prophets; they had spoken falsehood. Furthermore, it was not Micaiah alone (cf. 1 Kings 22:18) who had spoken evil against Ahab, but the Lord who had spoken through him (1 Kings 22:23).

[502] Some take the position that Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:19 continues to speak sarcasticallythat he actually had not seen a vision. According to this view, Micaiah was only trying to express the feeling that he alone was speaking the truth, even though the entire body of prophets had expressed a contrary opinion. If they were inspired at all, it must be by a lying spirit.

Several important questions remain to be answered concerning Micaiah's vision:
1. How can it be that the Lord of glory would find it necessary to take counsel of the angelic hosts? Prophetic visions are anthropomorphic and do not always correspond to reality. Such visions are the vehicle used to convey a cardinal truth to the mind of the prophet. In this case the truth is that Ahab's death in battle had been foreordained in the counsels of God, and that divine wisdom had devised a means for accomplishing His purpose.
2. Who was the spirit who volunteered to entice Ahab? Keil and others see the spirit as a personification of the spirit of prophecy which takes hold of a man and makes him a prophet. However, the older commentators were probably correct when they identified the spirit with Satan. That Satan has or at least did have access to the heavenly council chambers is suggested by the opening Chapter s of Job.

3. How can the all Holy One give His sanction to deceit and lying for the purpose of tempting Ahab to his death? Here one must distinguish between the permissive and the positive will of God. God permitted the evil spirit to do his evil work. The same thought is expressed in Ezekiel 14:9 If the prophet be deceived ... I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Ahab wished to be guided by false prophets, and the justice of God permitted him to be so guided. Sin is punished by sin.

Zedekiah, one of the four hundred, bristled at the charge that he and his cohorts had been possessed by a spirit of lies. Without warning he stepped forward and smote Micaiah on the cheek, at the same time shouting, Where did the spirit of the Lord pass over from me to speak to you? Apparently Zedekiah was conscious of some force beyond himself which compelled him to speak his prophetic word. How is it that the Spirit of God had spoken one thing by Zedekiah and quite another through the mouth of Micaiah? Zedekiah's scoffing question was intended to counter the story Micaiah had related so dramatically. There is no more effective manner of meeting the argument of an opponent than by subjecting him to ridicule.
Micaiah was not intimidated by the bombastic Zedekiah. He did not answer directly the insolent question, but rather confidently affirmed that one day Zedekiah would see, i.e., perceive the truth.[503] Only then would Zedekiah have the prophetic vision to correctly assess the political situation. In that day when Micaiah's predictions concerning the defeat of the armies of Israel were fulfilled, Micaiah would hasten into hiding out of shame and perhaps fear of reprisals at the hand of the queen (1 Kings 22:25).

[503] Micaiah did not question Zedekiah's sincerity or accuse him of deliberately falsifying his prophecy, but rather of being a false prophet in the sense that he did not see or perceive the truth.

The two kings seem to have looked on the assault of Micaiah without protest or word of displeasure. When the brief prophetic confrontation was over, Ahab ordered Micaiah returned to his prison[504] cell. There he was to remain under the watchful eye of Amon the governor of the city and Joash, one of Ahab's own sons[505] (1 Kings 22:26). Instructions were given to those officials that Micaiah was to receive only the bread and water of affliction, i.e., the most meager provisions, until the king returned from his campaign in peace (1 Kings 22:27). It is probably owing to the presence of Jehoshaphat that Micaiah escaped with no more severe sentence. Still Micaiah was undaunted. He was willing to stake his prophetic reputation on the fulfillment of this one prediction. If Ahab returned in peace, then Yahweh truly had not spoken to him, and he was willing to face the capital punishment to which he was liable in that case. Before being dragged from the place, Micaiah shouted forth a call for all peoples to take note of the predictions which he had made (1 Kings 22:27).

[504] The Hebrews did not use prisons for punishment; the prison was a place where an individual under suspension was kept pending judgment and verdict (cf. Numbers 15:34).

[505] Another interpretation is that son of the king is a title of an official rather than an actual son. See Gray, OTL, p. 453.