Hard-Hearted Hearers

1 Kings 22:1-12 ESV

1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “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?” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle 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.”

5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred 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.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” 10 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. 11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” 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.”

With this month being an odd month, we will work through a series of sermons based on a narrative found in the Old Testament. And furthermore, this month is a long month, having 5 Sundays in it, so we are going to be looking at a longer narrative, as we work through 1stKings, chapter 22, verses 1-40.

And this particular narrative that we will be working through has always been one of my favorite narratives found in the Old Testament. Throughout it we see bad company corrupting godly character, we see boldness in the face of overwhelming pressure, and we see God’s judgment and overarching sovereignty.

And we have 12 verses to work through this morning, so let’s get to it.

First, we see what sets this narrative up in the first three verses of our reading, where it says:

1 Kings 22:1-3 ESV

1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “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?”

Back in chapter 20 of 1st Kings, we read of how the northern kingdom of Israel had gone to war with Syria. And eventually, Israel defeated the Syrians. After defeating Syria, as our reading says, three years had elapsed in which there was no strife between the two kingdoms.

But in the second verse of our reading, it says that in the third year of this time of peace between Israel and Syria, Jehoshaphat, who was the king of Judah, comprising the Israeli tribes of Judah and Benjamin, came down, elevation-wise to the king of Israel to that kingdom’s capital city of Samaria.

Now, as has already been stated, the king of Judah at that time was Jehoshaphat, a generally godly king. But the king of Israel at that time was Ahab, an extremely wicked, ungodly king.

What the godly Jehoshaphat sought here was unity between the two formerly united kingdoms. But while this was what godly Jehoshaphat desired, what the ungodly Ahab desired was to use Jehoshaphat’s desire for unity to benefit his own kingdom.

Because while Israel had defeated Syria three years prior, they had left Ramoth-gilead, an Israeli city of refuge under the rule of the Syrians.

Thus, after Jehoshaphat shows up, while in the presence of the king of Judah, Ahab publicly asks his servants if they are aware of the fact that though Ramoth-gilead rightfully belongs to them, they have yet to re-occupy the city? He says, “We beat Syria three years ago, yet for some reason, this city that belongs to us is still under Syrian rule.”

That was when Ahab looked to take full advantage of Jehoshaphat’s desire for unity between the two kingdoms, when he asked him:

1 Kings 12:4a ESV

4a …“Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?”

Ahab wants to go to battle with Syria in order to retake Ramoth-gilead, and he sees that Jehoshaphat wants to be friends with him, so he basically says, “Sure! We can be friends! And since we’re friends now, how about you gather your troops together and come out and help me fight!”

Jehoshaphat responded to Ahab’s request by saying:

1 Kings 22:4b ESV

4b …“I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

Jehoshaphat may be a godly king, but he isn’t a very good negotiator, and he doesn’t make very good friends either, because while Ahab is clearly using Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat eagerly tells Ahab that he will willingly go alongside him and fight with him, providing every resource that he has at his disposal.

But though Jehoshaphat is naively cooperative toward working with Ahab, he is still a godly king, so he requests that they first hear from the Lord. We see this in verse 5 of our reading, where it says:

1 Kings 22:5 ESV

5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.”

Jehoshaphat says here, “Yes, Ahab, I will fight alongside you, but only if that is the counsel of the Lord. So, let us bring forth a prophet of God to ensure that this is what God would have us do.”

Now, like I said earlier, Ahab was an extremely wicked, godless king, so it’s not like he was prone to run around with true prophets of God. On the contrary; he was sure to keep true prophets of the Lord far from him.

But Ahab had already thought about this potentially happening, so he came prepared. And we see how he came prepared in verse 6, where it says:

1 Kings 22:6 ESV

6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred 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.”

It just so happened that Ahab had several “prophets” on hand, four hundred of them to be exact. But notice, it doesn’t say that these are prophets of God, it just says that they are prophets.

These “prophets” most certainly did not hear from the Lord, instead, they were bought and paid by King Ahab to be on standby anytime that he wanted justification for the decisions that he made.

So, all 400 of Ahab’s “prophets” come marching in and Ahab asks them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” Now, I’m sure that before these paid for prophets came before the presence of these two kings, they were told that Ahab wanted to go to battle, therefore when they came in, they said, “Of course you should go to battle! God will give you victory, so go and fight!”

But as I said, though Jehoshaphat wasn’t very good at choosing friends, he was still a godly king. And because he was a godly king, he could tell here that these “prophets” weren’t genuine prophets of the Lord.

And because of this, we read in verse 7:

1 Kings 22:7 ESV

7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”

Jehoshaphat could tell that these were King Ahab’s personal “prophets”, that they were not genuine prophets of the Lord, therefore, he says to Ahab, “I realize that all of these men have said the same thing, and there are many of them, but is there not one other prophet, a true prophet of God whom we can consult in this matter?”

Then in the first part of verse 8, we read Ahab’s almost comical response to this question, where we read:

1 Kings 22:8a ESV

8a And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.”

Ahab says “Yes, there is one man here in Israel that I know of who is a legitimate prophet of God. This man actually can inquire of the Lord for us, his name is Micaiah. But I hate this man because he never tells me what I want to hear! I always want him to tell me that God favors me, that He has good things in store for me, but he always tells me the opposite, so I don’t even ask for him to come anymore!”

But kudos to Jehoshaphat, when he replies to Ahab by saying in the last part of verse 8,

1 Kings 22:8b ESV

8b “Let not the king say so.”

What Jehoshaphat tells King Ahab here is that his reasoning is foolish. It’s silly to say that because the God of heaven and earth, the One Who controls and sustains all things doesn’t say what I want Him to say that I’m just going to turn a deaf ear to Him. This is especially true when it is a king who is doing this.

As the king of Israel who is to lead the people as God commands, it is foolish to say that you’re just not going to listen to the God Who made you king in the first place.

Well, like I said, Ahab was an extremely wicked, godless king, but he was desperate to enlist Jehoshaphat’s help here, so we read in verse 9 that Ahab relented and summoned Micaiah, the prophet of the Lord to come into his presence.

Then in verse 10, we see how these two kings sat in great royal splendor on their thrones, with long, impressive robes, observing these false prophets who were sure to tell them exactly what they wanted to hear.

Furthermore, we read in verse 11 how there was a chief false prophet who stood above the rest. His name was Zedekiah, and it is written that he had made horns of iron for this special occasion and said, “With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed!”

Then in the last verse of our reading, we read of how the other 399 “prophets” all stood up and said, “Yes! He’s right! God told us that too! Oh glorious King Ahab, God is going to give you a fantastic victory this very day!”

You know, this whole thing, this whole scenario is ridiculous. It’s like saying, “I want to do something so bad that I am willing to find people who will lie to me and tell me that God approves of what I want to do, even though He doesn’t approve of it, because that’s how bad I want to do it.”

400 false prophets on hand, but 1 true prophet of the Lord on the other hand… that was the situation in Israel in those days. And while the false prophets were loved, adored, and consistently summoned by the king, the one true prophet of the Lord in the land was told to stay away because he didn’t tell the king what he wanted to hear.

But beloved, is it really any different today? The hard-hearted nonbeliever says, “Don’t push your religious jargon on me!” and even the majority of people at the big churches that are busting at the seams will say, “Don’t tell me what God says unless it’s what I want Him to say!”

Concerning such people, the Lord tells us in Isaiah, chapter 30, verses 9-11:

Isaiah 30:9-11 ESV

9 …they are a rebellious people… unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; 10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

I’m going to shoot it to you straight when I say that this church may be the only church for miles and miles and miles that will still say, “Speak to us, the Word of God! The true Word of God!”

May God sustain us so that we may be willing to truly hear His voice.

Amen?