Living in the Minority

1 Kings 22:13-14 ESV

13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” 14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”

There is an old hymn that is in our hymnal that is titled: “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”. And as I was preparing to write this morning’s sermon, I thought of this hymn and went online to do a little bit of research about it. In fact, as I was searching the web I found the story as to how and when this hymn was first sung.

Here is what I found:

About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales, England. As a result of this, many missionaries came from England and Germany to North-East India to spread the Gospel. At the time, north-east India was not divided into many states as it is today. The region was known as Assam and comprised hundreds of tribes...Naturally, they were not welcomed. One Welsh missionary succeeded in converting a man, his wife, and two children. This man’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity. Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man instantly composed a song which became famous down the years.

Before the village chief and the rest of the village, the man responded to his call renounce the faith by singing:

I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back!

I know that in the past, churches experienced what they consider to be their glory days. When the pews would be full and everyone was on the membership rolls. But even then as it is still today, there were and are few who can be considered legitimate Christians.

We all know what the Lord tells us concerning the number of those who legitimately follow Him. He says, “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

But though the gate is strait and the way is narrow that leads to eternal life, and though there are indeed few who truly find eternal life, the fact of the matter is that anyone whom God has set on the path and has begun the pilgrimage to heaven will indeed reach their destination.

Indeed, Jesus tells us, and the world’s culture in all ages reveal to us that there are indeed few who are on the path, but the few whom God has placed on the path will indeed persevere.

And the reason why they will persevere is because God has placed Himself as the highest desire in the hearts of those He has set on the path, His elect.

And even in spite of the fact that there be many who walk contrary to them, who walk on the path to destruction, in spite of the fact that society glorifies the path to destruction, God’s elect will steadfastly set their face on the Kingdom and press forward, even if that means going alone…

As we continue through our series of messages this morning concerning Micaiah the prophet’s showdown with King Ahab we arrive at verses 13 and 14 of this 22nd chapter of the 1st book of Kings.

Last week we spoke of the background for this entire narrative, what set all of this up.

The mostly pious King Jehoshaphat of Judah wanted to be friends with the completely godless King Ahab of Israel. And so Ahab, being motivated by his own personal interests, took advantage of Jehoshaphat’s desire to be united and friendly towards one another by convincing him to fight by his side in battle.

But before Jehoshaphat was willing to actually go through with this, he desired to hear a prophetic word from the Lord that specifically told them that going to battle was in their best interest.

So, Ahab called forth all of the false prophets that he had on his payroll who were always sure to “prophesy” favorably for the king. But Jehoshaphat recognized that something was off here, so he asked the king if there was not still one other prophet, a prophet who truly spoke the oracles of God.

Ahab confessed that there was indeed one more prophet. His name was Micaiah, but King Ahab did not make a practice of consulting with Micaiah regularly, because every time that he did, he didn’t tell him whatever it was that he wanted to hear.

In response to this, Jehoshaphat essentially told Ahab that he would not go into battle with him until he consulted with Micaiah to see what God’s determination is in this matter. Thus begrudgingly, King Ahab sends off for the prophet; a true prophet of God.

And it is here where we arrive at our reading for this morning.

First, we see in verse 13 of our reading, where it says:

1 Kings 22:13 ESV

13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.”

Ahab sends a messenger to retrieve Micaiah, summoning him to come before him. And this messenger that Ahab sends has, well, a message for Micaiah. And because this is a message from the king that means that this messenger speaks on the king’s behalf. This wasn’t the messenger’s opinion or suggestion to Micaiah; rather, it was a direct command from the king to Micaiah.

Take a look at what the king has to say to him. He begins by saying, “Behold!” in other words, “Listen up!” or, “I’m warning you! You better do exactly as I say!”

So, forewarning the prophet, the king says through his messenger that all of his paid “prophets” have spoken the same thing before himself and Jehoshaphat, and what they have spoken has been favorable. In other words, what they have spoken has been pleasing to the king.

Therefore, the king does not ask for God’s legitimate counsel in this matter, instead, he says that even if God declares that something bad will happen to himself and Jehoshaphat if they go to battle, to just agree with what the false prophets say.

Thus, we have the most powerful man in Israel at that time, King Ahab, and his 400 paid “prophets” on one side. This was the side that stood opposed to God. And on the other side, on the side that stood for orthodox truth, there was Micaiah.

Thus, Micaiah was going to the royal palace to stand before the most powerful man in Israel, surrounded by his blaspheming religious entourage. And what Micaiah was commanded to do by the king was stand before himself, King Jehoshaphat of Judah, and the 400 false prophets and publicly declare that God approves of what He does not approve of.

Now, the odds were clearly stacked against Micaiah, and to many it may seem like the easiest, most sensible thing to do here would be to just fall in line with what the king is commanding him.

I mean, Ahab literally has the power to execute Micaiah for not obeying his command and all he would have to do was stand there and say, “Yeah, these guys are all right, God says go to battle and you’ll defeat your enemies.”

But if Micaiah done that, then he would be just as false as Ahab’s paid “prophets”… clearly it isn’t always the majority who are correct. Especially when the opinion of the majority appeals to the lusts of the flesh.

Quite often, we find that the majority are the many who are walking the road to destruction, while the minority are the few that are on treading the path to eternal life.

Knowing this to be true; Micaiah responds to the king’s messenger, and in so doing, responds directly to the king by saying in verse 14:

1 Kings 22:14 ESV

14 …“As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”

This reply of Micaiah to the king’s messenger in way, is a confession of his faith, what he believes and holds to.

When he begins his reply by saying “As the Lord lives” what he is saying is that while Ahab is currently ruling and reigning in Israel and is indeed a very powerful man, the Lord, the God of heaven and earth is infinitely more powerful, rules and reigns over not only Israel, but all of creation.

Therefore, he tells this messenger that whatever God, not Ahab tells him, is what he will say, even if what God has said is at variance with what the majority say.

What this reveals concerning the conviction of Micaiah is that while he recognizes that he is indeed a subject of Ahab, king of Israel, he is foremost a subject of God, King of heaven and earth. And if what King Ahab commands of him is at variance with what God Himself commands of him, then he has no choice but to disobey the command of Ahab so that he may obey the command of God.

What this reveals is that Micaiah’s conviction is that God is worthy to be obeyed, worthy to be served, and worthy to be revered and feared… even when popular opinion says otherwise.

Beloved, we live in a world in which the popular opinion says otherwise. We live in a world in which society as a whole scoffs at the thought of a God Whom they are answerable to, Whom they must obey.

Furthermore, we live in a world where even the majority of supposedly Christian congregations are filled with people who disbelieve the doctrines of the full sovereignty of God. And because these disbelieve the full sovereignty of Gog, they then fail to properly revere God and reckon Him as holy.

Thus, we see that for those who are truly saved, it really is us against the world. We see the truth of the Lord’s proclamation that few are traveling the path to eternal life. What we see is that we live in a world that is opposed to God and is opposed to us.

Beloved, what we see is that we, as legitimate Christians are in the minority here in this world that is not our home.

And because the majority speaks out against us and our God, we have to make the decision as to who we will stand for.

Will we give into the temptations of the world and seemingly go with the flow? Or will we stand for truth? Will we stand for He Who loved us that He chose us and saved us, and died for our sake, that we may be saved by Him?

I don’t know what your choice will be, but to quote the words of Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!