Micaiah's Second Vision

I. Introduction
A. When we look at the world around us, we see only part of the picture. All we see is the earthly causes and effects. But every so often God pulls back the curtains and allows us to see what is going on backstage, behind the scenes. We have one such story before us.
B. In our series, we’ve been looking at Bible stories which teach us about the Bible.
C. This is the third and final week we’ll be looking at the story of Micaiah & Ahab from 1Kings 22.
D. This story appears twice in the Bible – here and in 2Chronicles 18, but it rarely gets much attention.
1. There are reasons preachers don’t Scripture stories like this one to preach on.
2. It is a long and involved story. It raises difficult issues. It’s complicated. It’s disturbing.
3. It definitely isn’t one of the happy stories of the Bible.
E. I know a number of you love this story of Ahab & Micaiah. However, it is a bit dark. This Friday evening & next Sunday morning I have the privilege of preaching three very bright & uplifting sermons.
F. Review story of Ahab and Micaiah
1. Two kingdoms (Israel and Judah), two kings (Ahab and Jehoshaphat)
2. Jehoshaphat's visit to Israel: Ahab requests Jehoshaphat to go to war with him to recapture the city of Ramoth-Gilead from Syria. Jehoshaphat is willing, but first, he wants to consult the prophets.
3. So Ahab brings out his 400 court prophets – Ahab's yes-men prophets whose job was to support the king. They all declare that the kings will be successful if they go to war. (We don’t know for sure who these 400 prophets were, but they may have been the 400 prophets of the Asherah – 1Kings 18:19 – who were summoned but never showed up at Elijah’s confrontation with the priests of Baal at Mt. Carmel. They may have been Israelized for political purposes in order to placate Israel’s more religiously conservative citizens. Israel’s religion was already perverted and had been since the division. It was ripe for being further perverted.)
4. It is obvious to Jehoshaphat that these prophets are just saying what Ahab wants to hear, so he asks if there isn’t some prophet of the Lord they could consult.
5. Ahab says there is one, but he hates this prophet, for he always prophesies evil against the king.
6. Nevertheless they summon the prophet Micaiah and ask him for God’s word concerning going to war. The prophet, in the face of opposition, first speaks the truth by describing his vision of Ahab's death and Israel’s humiliation, a vision which later came true in the death of Ahab during the battle.
G. But Micaiah had a second vision — the one we will focus on this morning. It was a vision which explained why the 400 prophets spoke falsely to Ahab about the disastrous consequences of attacking Ramoth-Gilead.
II. Micaiah’s second vision
A. 1Kings 22:19-23 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; 20 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. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 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.’ 23 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.”
1. In his vision Micaiah sees God sitting on His throne in the throne room or court of God in heaven, surrounded by all the angelic beings, both good and evil.
a. This sounds very strange, but we find the same thing in Job 1:6, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.”
2. Stating His intention to bring disaster upon Ahab, God asks all the angelic beings for suggestions as to how to go about doing this, and for volunteers to carry out the project.
a. One spirit steps forward & volunteers for the task, and God asks, "How do you propose to do this?"
b. The spirit then describes his intention to deceive Ahab's prophets into persuading Ahab to go against Ramoth-Gilead. God then agrees with this plan and declares that it will succeed.
3. Then Micaiah concludes his prophecy against Ahab with these words in v.23: “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.”
B. Who was this spirit?
1. It seems to me that it must have been a demon, a fallen angel, an evil spirit (Revelation 12:9).
a. He is called "a deceiving (or lying) spirit."
b. His work is to entice Ahab to go to battle through the lies of his false prophets.
c. Who but a fallen angel would volunteer for this job?
2. Why would an evil spirit cooperate with God?
a. I don’t think God has to force an evil spirit to do this kind of thing. Demons desire to do evil and therefore they are the ones God calls to do the dirty work which sometimes needs to be done.
b. But the demons, of course, in an ultimate sense, are serving God. Luther: “The devil is God’s devil.”
c. They intend it for evil but God means it for good (Gen.50:20).
III. Micaiah tells Ahab that “the LORD has proclaimed disaster against you.” Why? So often God is portrayed as patient and slow to anger. Why was God so furious with Ahab? Why was God so determined to kill Ahab? Well, God is slow to anger, but that doesn’t mean He never has anger.
A. To understand God’s anger toward Ahab you have to go back to the story of what Ahab had done.
1. Marrying Jezebel and worshiping idols
a. 1Kings 16:30–33 Ahab did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of the king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
b. 1Kings 18:17–18 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals.”
c. 1Kings 19:2–3 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then Elijah was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life.
d. 1Kings 21:25–26 There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. 26 He acted very abominably in going after idols.
2. Killing the prophets
a. We talked about why Ahab had 400 yes-men prophets. But we didn’t talk about why Micaiah was the only true prophet in Israel. Well, as it turns out Micaiah wasn’t the only true prophet. Why then when Jehoshaphat asked if there was a true prophet did Ahab only mention Micaiah? If there were other prophets in Israel, why would Ahab call the one he hated so much?
b. Well, the reason is because Queen Jezebel had killed most of the prophets and the rest were forced to go into hiding. 1Kings 18:4 “When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.”
c. You see, God sends prophets as an act of love to a rebellious people. And think of the sin of not only refusing to listen to the prophet God sent, but killing the prophet because you don’t want anyone else to listen either. (Think about all the families of the killed prophets which were left fatherless or motherless.)
3. The ruthless theft and murder of Naboth in the chapter before (1Kings 21)
a. Even though it was Jezebel who did this, Ahab’s support is obvious by 1Kings 21:15-16 and by the fact that God sends Elijah to confront not Jezebel but Ahab afterwards (1Kings 21:17-24).
B. Ahab’s repentance & God’s response (1Kings 21:27-29)
1. In spite of Ahab’s murderous cruelty toward Naboth, God was very kind to Ahab, and let him off because he showed such remorse.
2. It seems to me that the story of Micaiah and the 400 false prophets is a story of God giving Ahab one more chance to prove his change of heart.
3. As part of this test, He sends Micaiah with this message.
4. Why was Ahab so antagonistic toward Micaiah?
a. Has Micaiah appeared in the story before? He may well be the prophet in 1Kings 20:35-42.
5. And then this story of Micaiah
C. Why didn’t God want Ahab and Jehoshaphat to fight Syria to get Ramoth-Gilead back?
1. After all, He’d supported the effort to get back the rest of the territory Syria had taken.
2. What’s so bad about wanting to take back a city which belonged to Israel?
3. I think He was testing Ahab after his supposed repentance, giving him one last chance. And Ahab failed his one last chance miserably, proving to all who he really was.
IV. Like all the Bible’s stories, this story happened and was written down for us (1Cor.10:6, 11). And it is important to help us understand the world around and understand our lives.
A. In this story we learn that God has allowed there to be plenty of apparent evidence to support the person who doesn’t want to listen to God.
1. In other words, God allows the deception which gives those who oppose Him the ammunition they need to justify their unbelief.
2. So we don’t need to fret over arguments and claims made against God and His word.
3. In life, we learn to rely on the experts. We can’t know everything. We can’t study everything. We have to rely on experts. But what about when the experts say that it is clear that Christ and His word are false?
a. Ahab’s 400 prophets were the experts. Sometimes Satan deceives through the experts.
4. We can see here what is often behind popular opinion, can't we? Deceptive evil spirits.
5. And like Ahab, those who listen to the 400 lying voices instead of listening to the One who speaks the truth, is going to be convinced by the lies.
6. Why all of a sudden does an objective, scientific historian become so biased? Because EVERYBODY has a vested interest in the historical controversy concerning Jesus Christ.
a. Did Jesus rise from the dead? If he concludes that Jesus did, it means either he must surrender to Christ or he is under the just judgment of God.
b. Did the God of the Bible create the world out of nothing? (Heb.11:3)
c. He cannot be neutral or objective about these issues.
7. The reason there is so much opposition to the Bible, the reason that there is so much criticism of the Bible and questioning of the Bible and maligning of the Bible is because God has allowed evil spirits to deceive people who oppose Him and resist Him. This is not some strange OT concept...
a. Our passage says that "He sent them a deluding spirit." This is picked up by Paul in 2Thes.2:11-12 “God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” That’s Ahab! And that’s many modern-day Ahabs.
8. God does not do the deceiving. He allows this evil spirit to go deceive Ahab, but He doesn't do the deceiving Himself. It is very important that we recognize that no evil proceeds from the nature or being of God. There is absolutely no evil in God, there is no inclination toward evil in God (1John 1:5; Psalm 5:4, 92:15; James 1:13).
B. And not only does God allow those who oppose Him to be deceived, He also tests His own beloved people by surrounding us with deceived people who don’t accept God’s word.
1. And then He says to us: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” – 1John 4:1
2. The main weapon that Satan uses is deception. He doesn't change reality, he just gets people to misinterpret it.
3. Jesus said: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “ -John8:44
4. In Revelation 12:9 Satan is called the deceiver of the whole world.
5. What is it like when Satan and his demons are at work? Is it magical and eerie?
a. Did these prophets suddenly fall into a trance and did the evil speak through them with a voice different than their own?
b. No, usually it is ordinary and looks very human. These 400 prophets spoke out of their own minds. They willingly lied, they purposely spoke things that Ahab wanted to hear – for political purposes.
c. They felt insulted by Micaiah’s second vision. That’s why their leader slapped Micaiah in response. They sincerely didn’t think it was true.
d. But it was. The evil spirit was speaking through them. Yes, just like Satan spoke through Peter when Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan.” (Matt.16:23)
e. This is one of Satan's ploys. He makes us think that his activity is going to be manifested in such a strange and spooky way that we will recognize it when it happens.
f. 2 Corinthians 11:14 “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
C. The good news here is that there is One whom God has sent to speak the truth to us. And He’s told us, “Listen to Him!”
1. You see, Jesus is the new and greater Micaiah.
2. Things which happen on earth are first planned out in the courts of heaven. Whether it’s losing your job, finding our you have cancer, getting rejected by the one you love or going to college and getting ridiculed by everybody for believing what the Bible says, all of these are times of testing, times when we are called to believe what Jesus says in His word and not to the other voices in the world or in our head.
3. Our God is a good father. He’s proven that by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. We can trust Him to know what He’s doing, and to speak the truth to us. And to carry us through.