1 Kings 22 (Part 1) Bible Study (Ahab and the False Prophets) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Well, praise God that we're here.

It's such a joy to be here with you tonight.

I invite you to come to 1st Kings 22 with me.

As our brother prayed, we are coming to the close of our study

of First Kings. We have arrived at the final

chapter of our study of this book, which will also be the

final chapter of King Ahab's life.

The Count of Ahab's death clearly illustrates the

detrimental consequences of spiritual compromise.

Yes, Ahab has rebelled throughout his reign.

But what you and I are going to examine today is one particular

act of defiance that will cost this man absolutely everything.

And right at the outset of this Bible study, I want to give you

an exhortation. I want to remind you of an

important universal truth. You and I may have the freedom

to choose our sin, but we can never ever determine the

consequences of that sin. And so a person may sin 1000

times before he faces any significant ramifications, and

yet his neighbour may sin similarly just once and alter

the trajectory of his life drastically.

I want you to view entertaining temptation as playing Russian

roulette with your soul. That should be enough motivation

for you to not deal with sin on any level, not to engage with

it, to stay as far as way as possible from it.

It's lethal, it's deadly, it's poison, it's deceptive, it's

destructive. And what we're going to study in

this final chapter will hopefully cement that conviction

in your heart that you will not only love God more, but you will

also heighten in your hatred for evil.

The Bible commands you and I to hate things and one of those

things is iniquity, sin, disobedience, rebellion.

And he's given us texts like First Kings to see in, in real

life example, what sin can do to a soul who fails to realize

God's warnings about it. And so we're there at First

Kings 22. I'm sure you've already got a

glimpse of it to understand that we're not going to complete this

chapter in one sitting, which has been our habit as long as

this Bible study existed. So we're here at verse one.

And I invite you, we're going to read the 1st 12 verses together

just to have an understanding of the passage holistically.

And then we will explore them verse by verse.

So join me in First Kings 22, beginning in verse one.

For three years Syria and Israel continued without war.

But in the third year, Yehoshaphat or Jehoshaphat, the

king of Judah came down to the king of Israel, and the king of

Israel said to his servants, Do you know what?

Do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us?

And we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the

king of Syria? And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will

you go with me to battle at Ramoth Gilead?

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my

people, as your people, my horses as your horses.

And Yehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the

word of the Lord. And the king of Israel gathered

the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, Shall I

go to battle against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?

And they said, Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand

of the king. But Yehoshaphat said, Is there

not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?

And the king of Israel said to Yehoshaphat, There is yet one

man by whom we may inquire of the Lord Micaiah, the son of

Imlab, But I hate him, for he never prophesized good

concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not

the king say so. And the king of Israel summoned

an officer and said, Bring quickly Makaya the son of Imla.

Now the king of Israel. And Jehoshaphat the king of

Judah, were sitting on their Thrones, arrayed in their robes

at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.

And all the prophets were prophesying before them.

And Zedekiah the son of Kanayana, made for himself horns

of iron and said, Thus says the Lord, with these you shall push

the Syrians until they are destroyed.

And all the prophets prophesied so and said, Go up to Ramoth

Gilead, and triumph. The Lord will give it into the

hand of the king. Lord bless the reading, the

exposition, the application of Your Word for the glory of your

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we sang, we long to be

conformed to His ways. We long for the Holy Spirit to

infuse in us the knowledge, the wisdom, and the grace to live

for His name in Jesus name, Amen.

Well, the only way to really make the most sense of this

narration is to recall a recent episode related to the King of

Israel and the King of Syria. It was the subject of one of our

studies a few weeks ago, but may I remind you how what we studied

in First Kings 20 relates to what we're here studying

tonight? The king of Syria and the king

of Israel were going to war. And the Lord, out of his sheer

grace, gave Ahab, the king of Israel, more than one victory.

He conquered over Syria on more than one occasion.

And part of that deal, so to speak, was that the king of

Israel had to completely exterminate Ben Haddad, the king

of Syria and his army. And predictably, Ahab did not

obey the decree of God. And the reason was because he

was persuaded by Ben Haddad with these terms, these terms of

peace. Ben Haddad the king of Syria,

proposed something to Ahab and Ahab could not refuse.

And so turn to 1st Kings 20 and look at verse 34 to to remind

yourself of why there was three years of peace to begin with.

And Ben Haddad said to him, the cities that my father took from

your father I will restore, and you may establish bazaars for

yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.

And Ahab said, I will let you go on these terms.

So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

So Ben Haddad says, look, look, look, don't kill me.

Have mercy on me. And look, I'm willing to restore

to you the cities that my father took from you years prior and

and you can establish trade in Damascus.

And so in Ahab's natural political mind, he thinks it's

helpful. This is good.

This is good for me. We're we're building an

alliance. We're securing our economy.

We're thriving more in our economy this way.

Let's do it at the cost of this obedient God.

And what we see here is that three years ago, by according to

the first verse of this chapter, and it dawns on the king of

Israel that the king of Syria didn't keep his word.

He kept back one city. And evidently that city is a

strategic one. It's a valuable one.

And this infuriated King Ahab to the point now he's ready to

break this covenant and go back to war with Syria.

Ahab's mistake cannot be our mistake in our war with sin.

As you heard in that chapter when we studied together, sin

will never fail to disappoint you and I.

It will always disappoint us. And above that, we see here that

three years has passed since he made this established deal with

the king of Syria. Three years with no problems

with peace, prosperity, problem free.

And what happened? Now?

The consequences of sin come. The consequences of sin are not

always immediate. They sometimes take time.

And the longer you remain in an unrepentant state, the more

dangerous and the wider and the deeper those consequences can

be. You know, there's a verse in Job

20, verse five. You don't have to turn there,

but listen to these words. In Job chapter 20, verse five,

Job 20 · chapter mention

we're told that the wicked, when they exalt it's, it's short.

Their state of exaltation is short.

And the joy of the godless is but for a moment, it is for a

moment. And Ahab would realize that

because the the problems that would ensue out of his

relationship with Benedad would outweigh whatever pleasure and

peace and prosperity he thought he won from it.

So he's lamenting in the presence of his servants.

But there's an unexpected character in that very same

scene, Jehoshaphat. And he's the king of Judah.

What is the king of Judah? Remember, one of the most

important things about First Kings is that it defines for us

the, the split of the Kingdom of Israel.

Now you have the northern Kingdom and the southern

Kingdom. So generally the relationship

between the north and the South, we're not on good terms.

They, they were always at odds with one another.

And that is certainly the case up to this point.

Or is it because now you have the king of Judah visiting the

king of Israel? And our suspicions grow even

more when we see how the king of Judah responds to the request of

the king of Israel, who tells his servants we got to come up

with a plan and then turns to the king of Judah and invites

him to go to war at Ramoth Gilead.

So look here again at verse four and look at the response of the

king of Judah. And he said to Jehoshaphat, will

you go with me to battle out 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.

This is the language of collaboration.

This is the language of alliance.

And so if you feel as though at some point there was some kind

of unification that took place, you would be right At an

undisclosed time, there was an effort on both parts for these

people to come together, this divided Kingdom to become one

once again. Good thing or bad thing, Who

says good thing? Who says bad thing?

Good, Who doesn't know? Stick around, You would think,

well, this is a leap towards unity.

This nation has been fractured for decades upon decades, and

now we see some sign of hope of things being restored and the

way that God designed it to be originally.

And what we're going to learn here is that unity should never

be pursued at the expense of dishonouring.

Truth should never be pursued. It should be absolutely rejected

at the expense of truth being honoured and practiced the way

God intended it to be practiced. And if you're if you're doubting

that what the king of Judah is doing here is wrong, then turn

to a parallel account again to remind you of how grasping the

entirety of the Word of God will give us the greatest revelations

of the Word of God. Look at Second Chronicles and I

want you to look at the 1st 3 verses of chapter 19 of Second

Chronicles. This is a detailed account of

when Jehoshaphat comes back from war with Ahab against Syria and

a prophet arrives on the scene and confronts Jehoshaphat.

And notice what what is said to this king of Judah for his

efforts and making peace with the king of Israel.

Second Chronicles 19 verse one. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,

returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem, But Jehu the son

of Hananiah the seer, went out to meet him and said, the king

Jehoshaphat, should you help the wicked and love those who hate

the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone

out against you from the Lord. You know there is an

illegitimate kind of love. God is love.

We are called to love. We're a faith that's known for

our love. But there is a love that's

illegal according to our faith. Love not the world.

And in this case, love, not those who hate the Lord.

Loving my enemies, What about that?

This is not the context. The context here is partnering

with someone who intentionally violates God's law, yoking

yourself to someone to such a degree that you are compromising

your testimony and your fruitfulness for the Lord.

So he's not talking about this bitterness and his anger towards

someone. The Bible has a different

dictionary than we do in our English language, but I want you

to see something in verse 3. This is important for the rest

of our study. Nevertheless, some good is found

in you. He's speaking to Jehoshaphat.

Some good is found in you. For you destroyed the ashras out

of the land and have set your heart to seek God.

Remember that. Tuck that in your heart for now.

So we can establish here that what Jehoshaphat does with Ahab

was not in accordance to God's will, and the severity of the

consequence of this one decision will only show itself when you

continue to read in the Bible. So you're in Second Chronicles

19. We're studying First Kings, but

go to 2nd Kings and go to chapter 8.

And I want you to see something with your own eyes.

If we make this effort, we will see a wonderful chain of events

that will bless our hearts. Second Kings 8, and look at

verse 16 of Second Kings 8. Now you get her.

If you're going to pay attention at any point of the Bible study,

it's at this point because there's going to be a lot of

names. And if you follow along here, it

will be helpful. In the fifth year of Jaram, the

son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of

Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, began

to reign. OK, pause here.

So we're talking here about the king of Israel, who is the son

of Ahab. What's his name?

Joram, right? And now we're talking about

Jehoshaphat, sure, but Jehoshaphat's son, whose name is

what? Jehoram.

So underlying Jahoram, right? The son of Jehoshaphat, king of

Judah. So we're discussing here at this

point the son of Jehoshaphat who succeeded his father.

And look at verse 17. Now he was 32 years old when he

became king. This is Jairam, the son of

Jehoshaphat. And he reigned 8 years in

Jerusalem, verse 18. And he walked in the way of the

kings of Israel. The king of Judah walked in the

ways of the king of Israel, as the House of Ahab had done.

Why? For the daughter of Ahab was his

wife. And he did what was evil in the

side of the Lord. So are we, are we catching on to

this? We're discussing the son of

Jehoshaphat, and we're told here that he walked in the ways of

the king of Israel, which is notoriously evil.

That's the general reputation of the Kingdom of the North.

And we're given the reason why the son of Jehoshaphat married

the daughter of Ahab. Jehoshaphat is the focus of our

study. In First Kings 22.

Jehoshaphat made a decision to make a political alliance with

Ahab. And what did that make way for A

marriage alliance between Jehoshaphat's son and the

daughter of Ahab. If if this woman is the daughter

of Ahab, then who's this? Thank you.

This woman's mother is Jezebel. Can you imagine your

mother-in-law being Jezebel? You're going to find out how

problematic that's going to be. And you, you begin to feel now

the existential threat of this. You should at least you know

why, Because the Kingdom of Judah ultimately represents what

the Davidic line, the Davidic line, the the same line that God

made a covenant with that would ultimately what?

Usher in who? The Lord Jesus Christ, our

Messiah, the Messiah of the world.

And now you have through marriage, the spiritual

corruption and influence of Jezebel infiltrating that line.

So what's problematic about that?

Does anyone know here the name of the woman of the daughter of

Ahab that Joram married? Anybody have an idea?

Any guesses? You can't use your phone if you

don't know. Scroll down in Second Kings 8,

2 Kings 8:25

verse 25 and you're going to get your answer.

In the 12th year of Jerome, Joram, Rather the son of Ahab,

king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jairam king of Judah, began

to reign. So now who are we talking about?

We're not talking about the son of Jehoshaphat.

We're talking about the grandson of Jehoshaphat, right?

This is Ahaziah, the son of Jairam.

So who is who is the wife of Jairam?

Oh no, we forgot already. The daughter of Ahab, right?

They had evidently a child, Ahaziah, the son of Joram.

So now we're talking about Isaiah.

Look at verse 26. Isaiah was 22 years old when he

began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Athalia. So what is the name of the woman

that Joram married, the daughter of Ahab?

Athalia. And if you have any doubt about

that, her identity is confirmed to the last part of verse 26.

She was a granddaughter of Umri, king of Israel.

Amri being the father of Ahab. So her name is Athalia.

Heziah only reigned for one year.

Does anybody know why he only reigned for one year?

Because God's going to raise up a man by the name of Jehu.

Jehu is going to be anointed by God to exterminate the House of

Ahab. And who got caught up in in that

Jehoram or Surah Aziah. Heziah would be put to death as

a result of his association with the House of Ahab.

Athalia is still alive though. Now Athalia is going to do

something in Second Kings 11 verse one.

Notice what she does. Remember Athalia is the daughter

of Jezebel, so you don't have to wonder too much where she got

this inspiration from. Second Kings 11 one.

Now when Athalia, the mother of Isaiah, saw that her son was

dead, that being Isaiah, she arose and destroyed all the

royal family, and she attempts to seize the throne of the

Kingdom of Judah. Where did she get the idea of

being such a vicious person and a vicious rule?

Any idea? Maybe Jezebel.

So she seizes the throne and she attempts to wipe clean the royal

family. Who's the royal family?

The true royal family, the Davidic dynasty.

So you're seeing a woman who had a very bad upbringing.

No, no, you have to see beyond that.

You have to see the spiritual reality of this.

You're seeing Satan trying to delete the messianic seed and

it's not until you read later on in Second Kings 11 how God and

His sovereignty interferes and preserves 1 descendant, 1

descendant. That's why we praise God for His

faithfulness, because if it was left up to us, we would have

been done a long time ago. God's sovereignty interferes and

He restores this line. He saves this line.

Here's my question for you. Do you think Jehoshaphat had any

idea of the domino effect of this one decision to partner

with Ahab? I doubt it.

And he serves as a strong Old Testament illustration to a New

Testament command that is very familiar to Christians today.

But I would I'm afraid some who are unwilling to adhere to do

not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness

and what fellowship has light with darkness?

I I pray that you would take First Kings 22 as a constant

reminder of how consequential your choice of fellowship is,

the ministries that you choose to be in partnership with, who

you decide to be your spouse. These decisions can have, as we

see here, generational consequences for good or for

bad. Well, God ended up preserving

the line of David anyway. Yeah, but what happened along

the way? Death, pain, hurt.

So, yes, we trust in God's sovereignty, but why don't we

also apply God's wisdom? Yeah, and know his maximum

blessing for our lives. Now we come back to our main

text in verse five, because after studying that, we might be

under the impression that Jehoshaphat was just as warped

and wicked as Ahab was. But that's not the case.

Look back at verse five, the first kings 22 and Jehoshaphat

said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the word of

the Lord. So what is he saying to Ahab?

He accepts the request, the invitation to join him in

battle. But he says, can we pray about

this first? Can we inquire of the Lord?

You know what I thought when I read this?

I thought, why didn't you pray about partnering with Ahab?

Why are you praying now? But he here is showing some

level of discernment, some level of conviction, and he tells

Ahab, why don't we do this? And Ahab here is willing to do

so, but we have to 1st discuss about Jehoshaphat's character.

This seems strange, right? We may be confused.

You're partnering with an evil man, but you want to pray about

moving forward. And as strange as this may be,

it's not as uncommon as you might think.

Because Jehoshaphat has a picture of an inconsistent

believer, a man with divided devotions, a man who has some

good qualities but is foolish in key areas.

And if you doubt that, then look back here at First Kings 22.

Scroll down to verse 42. You get a summation of his reign

and it describes this divide perfectly.

First Things 22, look at verse 42.

Joshua was 35 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 25

years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Azuba.

Azuba, the daughter of Sheila, he walked all the way and all

the way of ASA, his father. He did not turn aside from it,

doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.

Good yet OK. The high places were not taken

away, and the people still sacrifice and made offerings on

the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with

the king of Israel. There are tons of people like

this, tons of people like this. They generally have some

spiritual insight. They wouldn't necessarily be

ashamed to name the name of Christ.

They might even take the opportunity when it arises to

testify of the truth of the gospel.

But at the same time, when you observe their lives, there's

questionable behavior, questionable decisions that

would taint their testimony or even contradicts their faith.

You've probably encountered some of those people.

Maybe you have a mutual friend and you ask about the person

that you just met. Are they Christians?

And that person responds, yeah, yeah, they're believers, But but

what? Yeah, the the way, the way they

talk and just when you look at their social media, just don't,

don't be taken off guard, you know?

Yeah, they're believers, but but what strive for better than

that? Strive by the power of the Holy

Spirit. And when people look at your

life or when they inquire about your life, the response is

they're the real deal. They're the real deal.

They love Christ, they really love Christ.

Christ is everything to them. George have unfortunately

doesn't have that testimony and it's going to cost him as we see

here. He asked to inquire first of the

word of the Lord and look at the response of King Ahab in verse

6. Then the king of Israel gathered

the prophets together about 400 men and said to them, shall I go

to battle against Ramoth Gilead or shall I refrain?

And they said go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of

the king. But Jehoshaphat said, is there

not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?

This seems like an odd dialogue here, but if you pay attention

closely then it'll all make sense.

You know this very well. Whenever the word Lord is all

capitalized, it signifies the covenant name of the God of

Israel, Yahweh. And so Jehoshaphat asked Ahab,

can we inquire the word of Yahweh?

Right, Ahab seems to agree. He summons 400 men.

But notice after asking these prophets what they should do,

how these prophets respond, we see here at the end of verse six

and they said go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of

the king. Is the word Lord They're all

capitalized. No, they are not implementing

the covenant name of Yahweh. What are they doing?

They are applying the word Lord, which in Hebrews Adonai, which

speaks of the title of a master, and it can be directed towards a

human master or even to a deity. So it's more generic.

And then what you have here is that they say, yeah, the Lord

will give it into the hand of the king.

And then Jehoshaphat is hearing this.

He's not convinced and he realizes that they're not

representing Yahweh. And so he asked in verse seven,

is there not yet another prophet of Lord?

The Lord capitalized, capitalized.

So if these are not genuine prophets of Yahweh, then who are

they? We've touched on this before.

Does anybody remember who who they can potentially be?

That's right. And here's the confirmation for

that. Scroll back to First Kings 1819.

Elijah confronts Ahab, He challenges him for a face off at

Mount Carmel. And he doesn't want just Ahab to

be in attendance. He asked for these specific

people as well. Now, therefore, send and gather

all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of

Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashra who eat at Jezebel's

table. You read on, and what do you

realize? Who shows up?

Out of the 850, only the 450 prophets of bail, the 400

prophets Ashra do not come. And they in a sense evade

judgement. And we argue that it's highly

plausible that this was a strategy on the part of Ahab and

Jezebel, that they were to preserve some of their profits.

Suspicious of Elijah's invitation for the showdown.

And the next time we read a 400 prophets is when First Kings 22,

when Ahab summons the prophets, and you have 400 of them.

So it's very likely that these are the prophets of Asherah.

And if that is the case, then what a lesson we have before us.

Because Ahab thought, right that he can trick God.

Ahab thought that he can escape God's chastisement, God's wrath.

But the very same prophets that Ahab treasured would turn on him

and would be the main means to lead Ahab into his own

destruction through false prophecies, the wisdom of God.

And it's also a picture of what what we just learned about

Jehoshaphat, that whatever compromise you hold on to and

you refuse to repent from will end up coming back to haunt you.

So he thought that he preserved something for his own good, but

because these were false prophets, they would turn on

him. And what he thought would be to

his aid would actually be to his demise.

You can't run from God. You can't run from God in this

life and surely in the next life.

So Jehoshaphat here is hearing these prophets speaking in the

name of Lord Adonai Master, but he wants somebody who represents

the true God of Israel. And what happens?

Verse 8, Ahab isn't a big fan of the idea.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one

man by whom we inquire of the Lord Makaya, the son of Imlab.

But I hate him, I hate him. Why do you hate him, Ahab?

For he never prophesized good concerning me, but evil.

We've seen this attitude from Ahab before, right?

Pouting, self absorbed. It's, it's, it's my world.

You're living in a kind of attitude.

And he hates Makai. That Makai is the guy that

springs to his mind. Surely they've interacted with

one another before. And Ahab turns to Jehovah.

He goes, I absolutely despise this guy.

It's not because he's a hypocrite.

It's not because he's an evil man.

It's because what of how his messages made him feel.

That's why he only tells me evil things about me.

And you know what? I if I was George, if I or I

wish George if I would have just just said this right away.

Maybe because you are evil. Like he's not pulling this out

of nowhere. You're an evil man.

What do you expect? Good.

Of course he's going to prophecy evil concerning you because

you're a man that's drenched in sin, bent on rebellion,

stiffening your neck, though God has showered you with mercy upon

mercy. I don't know what Ahab thinks

Ahab thinks. I think Ahab thinks like what

many people think. They want the benefits of God,

but they don't want conformity to God.

Doesn't work like that way in God's economy.

So he says here that he hates this man because he never

prophesized good concerning me, but evil.

And you know what he did? As a result of that, Ahab

intentionally pushed away the true voice of the Lord and

recruited for himself. Yes, men, be very mindful,

please. I'm actually now leaning into

you and asking you here to be very mindful of the standard

that you use in determining the spiritual leadership in your

life that will preach and teach to you God's Word.

Be very mindful. What standard are you using?

What evaluation do you apply? Because Ahab's choice here would

prove to be a matter of life and death.

And it's no different for us today in 2024, that who we

choose, who we allow, who we decide to give us spiritual

guidance will either lead us to spiritual life or even spiritual

death or decay. And there are many who are

making the same fatal error that Ahab has made at this point of

his life. Like Ahab, you have many people

who choose churches that do not teach the whole council of God,

but in clever ways present to him a God that caters to what

their selfish desires desire anyway, right?

So they strategically avoid places that call you to examine

yourself, that call people to repentance, that called people

to conformity to Christ like this, that called people to

sacrifice. I want to hear it.

But like Ahab, the same people here have soothed their

conscience because they have surrounded themselves by a

charade of spirituality, but have zero concern of the lack of

substance. And like Ahab, there are those

who are under the impression that if the majority rules, then

it must be true. You realize Makai is going to

come on the scene and you're going to have 400 who have

consensus about the word of the Lord.

And then you're going to have one who's going to say,

actually, that's not the case. And like Ahab, there are many

who think if it's popular, that's the arbiter for truth.

No, no, no. It's what God said that

determines everything. But how many believe that?

Really? How many are even persuaded?

Or they are blown back and forth with every wind of doctrine just

because it's the newest thing, or because so and so adheres to

it. Who cares?

What does God say? And here's my favorite part,

that although Jehoshaphat is not the best example of consecration

on to Christ in this very moment, he is a wonderful,

wonderful picture of the true believer.

In what way? That no matter what options are

out there, like Jehoshaphat, the true Christian will not be

satisfied with anything less than what God has to say and

with a true servant of God speaking into their life, right?

He had 400 options, so to speak, and he didn't care.

That did not ultimately satisfy him.

He came to the point where he said what a true believer would

say. I want the word of the Lord,

whether it's a rebuke or it's an encouragement, whether it's

comfort or it's correction. I want the whole counsel of God.

So give me a true prophet of God.

Give me a true prophet of God. I don't care if he's popular, I

don't care if he gets invited to the biggest conferences.

I don't care if he's known. I just want to know if he walks

with God. That's what Jehovah, Jehovah

Shabad is craving. That's what the true Christian

will crave. So he asked for the true word of

the Lord, and he gives a mild rebuke to the king of Israel.

He says, let not the king say so.

So let's see what happens next. In verse 9, the king of Israel

summoned an officer and said, bring quickly.

Makaya, the son of Imla, now the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat,

the king of Judah, were sitting on their Thrones arrayed in

robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of

Samaria. And all the prophets were

prophesying before them. It's as though the Holy Spirit

wants us to just pause, and he wants to paint for us a very

colorful picture, right? You can almost envision it.

So you have these two kings with their portable Thrones.

They're sitting at the gate of Samaria, and we're told here

that they're arrayed in their robes.

And before them are just multitudes of of prophets

speaking supposedly the word of the Lord in unison.

What's that supposed to provoke in us?

A sense of anticipation? What is Micaiah going to do now

as he arrives at this scene? Because you, you see these kings

and you get this brief description, but it's enough for

you to feel intimidated. 2 kings sitting on their throne and

their robes are flowing in in the breeze.

And then you have the pressure of all these prophets all saying

the same thing. And Jehoshaphat has enough sense

to say this isn't right. And if Micaiah is a true

prophet, then he has a different word.

What is Micaiah going to do? Well, you have to come to the

next week Bible study to find out, but that's what it's

supposed to produce in us, is we're supposed to get excited

now, but we get a little glimpse of what these prophets were

saying as they were awaiting the attendance of this true prophet.

Look at verse 11. Zedekiah, the son of Canaan,

made for himself horns of iron and said, thus says the Lord,

with these you shall push the Syrians until they are

destroyed. So now he's getting theatrical

and he puts on this whole passionate demonstration, and he

says, king of Israel, with these horns, you're going to gore the

Syrians and you will completely destroy them.

You know, I've said this so many times in our study of the Old

Testament, so I'm hesitant to say it again.

But it's worth remembering passion doesn't equate

truthfulness, right? Sincerity doesn't mean it's

true, and that's certainly the case here.

You got a guy who built horns of iron, and he's showing the king

what they will do if they go to the battle at Ramoth Gilead.

But notice what he says in verse 12.

And all the prophets prophesied so and said, go up to Ramoth

Gilead and triumph. The Lord will give it into the

hand of the king. Look again, look at verse 11 and

verse 12. In what name did these prophets

speak in the same 400 prophets? What name are they speaking in

now? Is it the generic term Lord?

No, now they are imploring. Now they are invoking the name,

the covenant name of God. This has LED some to believe

that these are not necessarily the false prophets of Ashra, but

these are unfaithful prophets of Yahweh.

And that's a possibility, but there could be another

explanation that these 400 and realizing that Jehoshaphat was

adamant about having a prophet who would speak the word of

Yahweh assimilated to his request.

OK, he wants he wants the word of the Yahweh.

Yahweh says Yahweh says OK, you want Yahweh, we'll give you

Yahweh. What's what's the lesson here?

The lesson is very obvious. False prophets are very

comfortable utilizing the name, the true name of our God, even

the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to win an

audience. I hope all of us in here, if

you've been a believer for at least a year, have read through

the New Testament. Have you ever noticed how much

in the New Testament is geared towards warning Christians about

false teachers? Have you ever read that?

Have you ever seen that in the epistles?

Isn't it strange that we don't hear too much about those

warnings in our churches? Virtually every apostle warned,

almost not in all their letters, but in a lot of their letters,

about false teaching and false teachers.

So let me do my part and tell you how false teachers operate.

False teachers have no problem applying, preaching, teaching,

referring the name of Jesus Christ, though what they are

saying is absolutely untrue. They have, they have no issue

appealing to His authority, claiming that their ministry is

under His authority, that their message is signed off with His

authority, all the while they're deceiving the people before

them. And so it's not enough for you

to know or to hear from somebody that they represent or that they

are under or that they love Jesus Christ.

That's not enough. Because again, we see here and

throughout the Bible that they have no issue applying his name,

though they misrepresent His message.

Let me give you an example of that, Jeremiah 23 because I want

you to see then if if somebody's giving me the name of Jesus, how

am I supposed to see past that? What is then the litmus test?

What is then that I'm supposed to look for that will qualify

the authenticity of a supposed messenger of God?

Look at Jeremiah 23 and I want you to look here at verse 25.

Lord says, I have heard what the prophets have said.

Who prophesied lies in whose name?

My name, you know God hears it. He hears every single time

somebody uses His name righteously or in vain.

I thought about this one once. How many apologies do you think

the Lord is going to receive on Judgement Day from all the

people who said God told me this when it was their imagination

speaking? Huh.

Have you ever thought of that? I thought about that a lot.

What kind of line are we going to see on that day totally

designated for people who have used God's name to authenticate

something, whether it was a sermon or suppose a prophecy or

whatever message they claim they're getting.

What kind of apologies? I'm thinking hundreds of years

are going to go by, he says. I've heard what they have said.

Those who prophecy lies, lies in my name.

They soften their lies. They master lies with my name

saying I have dreamed. I have dreamed.

So false prophets can use the true name of God to convey their

ministry or their message. But again, do you know what a

false prophet can't do? Scroll down to verse 28.

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who

has my word speak my word faithfully.

What a strong common with wheat declares the Lord.

A false prophet may use God's name, but he cannot speak God's

word faithfully. He won't be able to, or else he

wouldn't be false. Now notice it doesn't say here

that he won't use God's word. The false prophet can take

Scripture out of context, and in fact that's what they do.

They manipulate and they twist. But Jeremiah is very specific.

Who speak my word, what faithfully, Who divide my word

rightly according to the words of Paul.

So it's not even if that person is holding a Bible in their

hands or is even quoting Scripture, do they do it

faithfully? Do they interpret it the way God

intended it to be interpreted? Do they consider the whole

counsel of God, what God says in his entire word when developing

a doctrine? Or do they take one verse here

and make a whole thing out of it?

Who speak my word faithfully? So what do you look for?

What do people do with God's word?

And do they handle it faithfully?

And that's what Jehoshaphat realized.

They're using God's name, but not speaking faithfully on

behalf of this God. And what that's going to prove

is that when people believe that kind of thing, it's absolutely

disastrous. And to our surprise, though,

Jehoshaphat was so desperate to hear from a true prophet of the

Lord. Is he going to listen to what

that prophet is going to say? Keep coming to Friday night

Bible study. Let's pray,

Lord, our hearts realize the astounding wisdom of Your Word.

It never fails to amaze us. It never fails to move us.

It never fails to intensify our love for You.

But we pray that the things that we've heard in these brief

verses would revolutionize our lives.

We asked, Lord, that we would trust every command that you

have issued in your word, including the command to not be

unequally yoked, including every warning that you have prescribed

concerning sin. So, Lord, as much as we're

praying for you to help us love you, help us hate sin more and

more, to step on it when it is in seed form, to squash it when

it is yet a spark to extinguish it, Lord, because we realize

through Ahab and many others of what sin can do when it is

tolerated and fed. Lord, in this place we pray that

we would treasure the Word of the Lord more than ever.

Father, especially in these days of great deception, especially

in these days where biblical illiteracy is intensifying, help

us, Lord, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus

Christ. Lord, if there is anyone here

who has been ignoring you as Ahab has ignored you, where you

have spoken to them about a particular thing over and over,

where you've even dispensed good to them, though they are not

right with you, Lord, let tonight's Bible study be the

instrument to redirect them once and for all.

Lord, we worship You because we believe Your word.

As a psalmist said, they believed his words and they sang

joyfully. So Lord, at this very time, we

want to respond in that way. Our hearts are swelling with

excitement knowing that we are in the truth, that Your word has

never failed, that it is endured scrutiny throughout history and

has stood the test of time. It is defeated, every single

skeptic, and it will remain forever.

The grass Withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God

will endure forever. We give you glory for that in

Jesus name, Amen. Let's stand and worship the King

of Kings and the Lord of Lords.