1 Kings 22:1 - Meaning and Application

Though Ahab still lived under guilt, God’s anger, and the power of the sins he had chosen, the Lord gave him a three-year peace. This came as a kind of reward for his outward signs of repentance and humility, even though the time was near when he would go into battle and die (1 Kings 22:1). During that peace, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, paid Ahab an honorable visit (1 Kings 22:2).

Some Jewish writers told a made-up story that when Ahab humbled himself in sackcloth, he sent for Jehoshaphat to come punish him and stay with him for some time. They even claimed Jehoshaphat struck him a certain number of times each day. This tradition has no basis. More likely, Jehoshaphat came to talk with him about matters affecting their kingdoms. It is surprising that such a great king would show so much respect to a kingdom that had broken away from David’s house, and even more surprising that such a good man would show such kindness to a king who had turned from God’s worship. Still, though Jehoshaphat was godly, he was too easygoing, and that led him into trouble and temptation.

The Syrians did not dare trouble Ahab for the moment. Yet Ahab began to think about war against them and talked it over with the people around him (1 Kings 22:3). The king of Syria had given him the reason. When the Syrians were at his mercy, he had promised to restore his cities (1 Kings 20:34), and Ahab foolishly trusted him. He should not have let him go until the cities were actually returned. Now Ahab learned by experience what he should have known before, that the promises of an enemy are as unreliable as his kisses. There is no safety in agreements that were forced by weakness and distress. Ben-hadad was the kind of ruler who thought his word mattered only as long as it served his own advantage. We are not told whether other cities were returned, but Ramoth-Gilead was not. It was an important city in Gad, east of the Jordan, a Levite city, and one of the cities of refuge.

Ahab blamed himself and his people for not working to recover it from the Syrians and for not punishing Ben-hadad’s broken agreement. He decided to show that ungrateful and deceitful king that, as he had given him peace, he could also give him trouble. Ahab had a good cause, yet he did not succeed. We cannot judge what is right by what prospers.

Then Ahab drew Jehoshaphat into his plan and persuaded him to join the campaign to recover Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22:4). It is no surprise that Ahab wanted the help of such a godly and successful neighbor. Even wicked people often want the friendship of the good. It is wise to value those who have an interest with heaven and to stand with those whom God is with. But it is surprising that Jehoshaphat went so far with Ahab that he said, “I am as you are, and my people as your people.” Surely Jehoshaphat and his people were not as wicked and corrupt as Ahab and his people. Too much politeness toward evildoers has brought many good people, through carelessness, into dangerous fellowship with darkness. Jehoshaphat almost paid dearly for that compliment when he was mistaken for Ahab in battle. Some people also observe that by joining Israel against Syria, he made up for his father’s sin in joining Syria against Israel (1 Kings 15:19-20).

At Jehoshaphat’s special request, Ahab then asked the prophets what they thought about the campaign. Ahab thought it enough to consult his officials, but Jehoshaphat urged him to ask for the word of the Lord as well (1 Kings 22:5). A good man wants to take God with him wherever he goes. He wants to acknowledge God in everything, seek his direction, and depend on him for success. A good man should also take his religion with him wherever he goes and not be ashamed to own it, even among people who do not respect it. Jehoshaphat did not leave behind in Jerusalem his love for, and respect for, the word of the Lord. Instead, he openly brought it into Ahab’s court. If Ahab drew him into war, Jehoshaphat would draw Ahab into worship.

Ahab’s four hundred prophets, his regular group of court prophets, all agreed to encourage him and promise victory in the campaign (1 Kings 22:6). He asked them in a way that seemed fair: “Should I go, or should I stop?” But they knew what he wanted and aimed only to flatter the two kings. To please Jehoshaphat, they used the name of the Lord: “He will give it into the king’s hand.” They borrowed language from the true prophets (Jeremiah 23:30). To please Ahab, they simply said, “Go up.” They did have some outward reasons on their side. Ahab had recently defeated the Syrians twice, he had a good cause, and his alliance with Jehoshaphat made him stronger. But they claimed to speak by prophecy, not by human guesswork, by divine knowledge, not by common reasoning: “You will surely recover Ramoth-Gilead.” Zedekiah, one of the leading men among these prophets, copied the true prophets by adding a sign to his false message (1 Kings 22:11). He made a pair of iron horns, meant to picture the two kings and their power and honor, since horns often stand for strength and exaltation. With these, he said, the Syrians would be pushed back. All the prophets agreed, as one voice, that Ahab would return from battle victorious (1 Kings 22:12). Agreement does not always prove a true church or a true ministry. Here were 400 men speaking with one mind and one mouth, and yet they were all wrong.

Jehoshaphat could not enjoy this kind of preaching. It was not like what he was used to. The false prophets could not imitate the true ones so well that a person with trained spiritual senses would not notice the difference, so he asked for another prophet of the Lord (1 Kings 22:7). He was too much of a courtier to criticize the king’s chaplains openly, but he made it clear that he did not truly count them as prophets of the Lord. They seemed to be something, whatever they were, but when he heard them speak, they gave him nothing solid. They gave him no real answer or satisfaction (Galatians 2:6). One faithful prophet of the Lord was worth all of them together.

Ahab had another prophet, Micaiah, whom he hated, but for Jehoshaphat’s sake he was willing to send for him (1 Kings 22:8-10). Ahab admitted that people could ask the Lord through Micaiah, and that Micaiah was a true prophet who knew God’s mind. Yet he hated him, and he was not ashamed to tell the king of Judah so. He said Micaiah did not prophesy good concerning him, but evil. But whose fault was that? If Ahab had done what was right, he would have heard only good from heaven. If he did evil, he had only himself to blame for the rebukes and warnings that God’s word brought him.

People are in a terrible and dangerous state when they hate God’s ministers because those ministers speak plainly and warn them about sin. Such people begin to rush toward ruin when they count as enemies the very ones who tell them the truth.

Micaiah seems to have been imprisoned before this. When Ahab later sent him back, he told the officer to take him to the place where he had come from (1 Kings 22:26). He may have been the prophet who rebuked Ahab for sparing Ben-hadad, and for that he was likely cast into prison (1 Kings 20:38). If so, he had already been there for three years. That helps explain why Ahab knew exactly where to find him so quickly (1 Kings 22:9).

Even in prison, God had not withdrawn from Micaiah. The spirit of prophecy still rested on him there. He was bound, but God’s word was not bound. Prison did not weaken his courage or make him less faithful in delivering God’s message.

Jehoshaphat gave Ahab only a very mild rebuke for showing anger toward a faithful prophet: “Let not the king say so” (1 Kings 22:8). He should have spoken more strongly. He ought to have told Ahab that he was treating the prophet unfairly, wronging himself, and insulting both the prophet’s Lord and his own. Sinners like Ahab need a firm rebuke.

Still, Jehoshaphat’s words had some effect. Ahab did not want to upset him so much that Jehoshaphat would break off their alliance, so he quickly sent for Micaiah (1 Kings 22:9). The two kings sat in their royal robes and chairs of state at Samaria’s gate, ready to hear the prophet. Many people will listen to God’s word, but they will not obey it.

They were surrounded by flattering prophets, who could only imagine saying what was pleasant and smooth to two such powerful rulers now joined together. Those who love flattery will always find people willing to flatter them.

Micaiah was then urged by the officer who brought him to agree with the others (1 Kings 22:13). That officer had no right to tell a prophet what to say, but he thought Micaiah was like the rest, men who tried to please people instead of God. He told Micaiah that all the other prophets agreed on the king’s success, and that the king liked that message. He was hinting that Micaiah could gain favor, and even promotion, if he said the same thing.

People who care only about worldly gain often assume everyone else thinks the same way. They believe that right and wrong matter less than personal advantage. The officer also suggested that it would be pointless to stand against so many voices, and that Micaiah would be mocked for being stubborn and different if he did.

But Micaiah, who knew better, firmly declared, and backed it with an oath, that he would speak God’s message fully and honestly, whether the king liked it or not (1 Kings 22:14). “What the Lord says to me, that I will speak,” was his resolve, without adding to it, taking from it, or changing it. That was a noble answer from a man who looked to a greater King than either of these, one clothed in brighter glory and seated on a higher throne.