Episode 4: The Battle for Ramoth-Gilead | 1 Kings 22:1-40

Intro

King Ahab Reminder

7 weeks ago we were first introduced to King Ahab, the 7th King to rule in a divided Israel, and the 2nd in line of the 3rd dynasty.

The life of Ahab is divided into 4 main episodes

Episode 1: The Contest of the gods.

Early in his reign Ahab set up worship of Baal and built an Asherah, at the behest of his wife, Jezebel (who really wore the pants in the relationship).

As a consequence of this Israel was led into false worship so God, by Elijah, sent a three year draught in Israel so that Ahab would know that He is God

As we covered, rain (and consequently, crops) were in the domain of Baal, so for YHWH to claim unilateral power of the rain was significant.

After the three years Elijah returns, and calls for Ahab (a bold move if ever there was one) and confronts Ahab to a “dual of the gods”.

The contest was simple: whichever god can consume the sacrifice … wins.

This contest was HIGHLY weighted in Ahab’s, and Baal’s, favor.

The prophets of Baal

were 450

had the home court advantage

got to pick the better sacrifice

pleaded to a god of storms (ie. Lightning)

and called out to their god for hours to little affect

Elijah

was just 1 man

was operating in Baal’s domain

picked the second best

soaked his sacrifice and alter with a ton of water

pleaded to the God of creation

and called out ONE time to great affect.

Immediately, the rain starts to fall, showing that it is YHWH, not Baal, who has power of the winds and the rain

a fact that we later see in the life of Jesus on a boat threatened by a storm.

So ends episode 1 of Ahab’s life

Episode 2: Ahab’s Victory over Syria & Ben-Hadad (20:42).

King Ben-Hadad came against Israel in Samaria and claimed ownership of all the King Ahab owned because he outnumbered Israel at least 10:1

But God says, through an unnamed prophet, that He will win the day for Ahab so that he shall know that God is the Lord

Ahab then carries the day

Yet again Ben-Hadad of Syria comes against King Ahab and the Lord promises victory so that he shall know that God is the Lord.

Yet, after this victory, Ahab lets Ben-Hadad go: a man devoted to destruction by God.

Therefore, “your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people”

the first prophesy that Ahab shall die.

So ends episode 2 of Ahab’s life

Episode 3: Naboth’s Vinyard (21:21-24).

Episode 3 of Ahab’s life begins with a deceptively simple request: Naboth, give me your vineyard for one that is better or for cash.

Rejected Ahab goes and literally cries in a corner like a toddler

His wife, Jezebel, finds him in this pitiful state and demands he get up like a man, telling him that she will take care of it.

Jezebel organizes a state sanctioned murder ending in Ahab’s acquisition of Naboth’s vineyard.

Ahab, effectively, murders Naboth.

After a long time away, Elijah is back to bring yet another word from the Lord

because you have sinned, by murdering Naboth for his property, you shall die just as he died (ignominiously)

the second prophesy that Ahab shall die

Yet Ahab responds with humility and contrition, so the Lord is merciful and says that the destruction of his family line will be after Ahab’s death

So ends the 3rd episode of Ahab’s life

Episode 4: The Battle for Ramoth-Gilead (22:17 & our text).

The 4th, and final, episode of Ahab’s life is what we find ourselves reading this morning.

it is made up of 1 Kings 22:1-40, and hearkens back to episode 2 (Victory over Syria & Ben-Hadad)

When Ahab defeated Ben-Hadad the second time he let him go, in exchange for all the land lost to Ben-Hadad’s father & tax money from within the kingdom of Syria

Sweet deal … but not why the Lord gave Ahab the victory

He gave Ahab the victory, so that Ahab would know that the Lord is God.

The problem was that Assyria was starting to stretch their legs, and all the kings of the middle east had to band together to ward off King Shalmaneser III

They succeeded, but now that the immediate threat was over, Ahab wanted Ben-Hadad to make good on his promise to deliver over one key city: Ramoth-Gilead.

Set up for the coming battle:

Begin Episode 4 of Ahab’s life by reading from 1 Kings 22:1-14)

When Ahab asks Jehoshaphat for support, Jehoshaphat surprisingly (seeing as he was a man who loved the Lord), commits all his resources to Ahab and his endeavor to take back Ramoth-Gilead

As an afterthought, it seems, he says “but let us ask the Lord what he thinks of this”.

Ahab calls in 400 prophets to tell him what they think of this military move

they all say that the battle is a sure victory, and that the kings should attack

But Jehoshaphat seems to have some reservations, and this introduces the first of a number of vague and unclear elements to the story.

Jehoshaphat asks Ahab if there is another prophet of the Lord that they might ask

when we read this, it is a little confusing, he already made this request, and the prophets spoke for YHWH when they said go to battle.

yet he asks again.

Was he not satisfied with their answer?

Did he know that Ahab had not invited another prophet?

Were these prophets not actually prophets of the Lord, but just on Ahab’s payroll & Jehoshaphat knew about it,

or did he sense there was something off about their answer?

I believe the confusion in this passage in intentionally put there. The author makes it vague on purpose. And we will get to why later.

Reluctantly, Ahab admits there is one other prophet: Micaiah the son of Imlah.

But “I hate him, for he never says good things about me, only bad”

MORE OR LESS QUOTING

He is throwing another temper tantrum like we saw when Naboth refused to give him his vineyard.

Here we see a pattern, that Ahab is prone to childish fits of exasperation when he does not get what he wants.

This is not exactly a king you can look up to …

yet Micaiah is called forth. and the messenger advises him to answer the kings in the same way as the rest of the prophets.

As Micaiah is traveling to the kings to tell them what the Lord says, the other 400 prophets continue to prophesy in increasingly dramatic ways that Israel will win and drive out Syria from Ramoth-Gilead.

Finally, Micaiah arrives, and is asked the same question: should we go up to battle against Ramoth-Gilead?

Please continue to read with me from 1 Kings 22:15-18

Enter: our second confusing element to the story - Micaiah, who had just said that he will only speak from the Lord, now repeats exactly what the other prophets are saying.

Because Ahab complained the Micaiah only ever says negative things about him,

and because the story builds up this “need” for Micaiah to just agree and go along with the crowd,

we expect him to go against the grain.

the plot development pigeon-holes Micaiah into saying “Ahab, you should not go to battle”, yet he says “sure, go for it”.

AND, enter our third confusing element to the story - Ahab scolds Micaiah and tells him to only speak the truth.

You would figure, after Ahab expecting Micaiah to be negative, that to hear what he wanted to hear Ahab would be happy to leave it there and move on with the plans for battle!

but he doesn't.

Whether because Micaiah was being sarcastic and Ahab could tell,

or Ahab felt compelled by some other unknown motive,

he asks Micaiah to answer again, but truthfully.

Micaiah then answers a second time, truthfully: your people will live, they will be scattered, but you will die.

but he did not end his address to the king there: he goes on to speak of things only a true prophet of the Lord would know.

Let’s keep reading: 1 Kings 22:19-28)

Micaiah tells Ahab and Jehoshaphat of a scene set out in Heaven of the host of Heaven sitting around the Lord.

I kind of think this is like when Todo pulls back the curtain on the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.

The Lord asks: who will entice Ahab to attack Ramoth-Gilead, so that he may die?

Now, bear in mind the now 3 prophesies that Ahab will die.

A spirit comes forward and suggests that he will be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets, so that they are unable to tell the truth.

so that when Ahab asks if he will win the battle, they will lie to him.

In this way Micaiah points to the 400 prophets saying “they are all liars, unable to tell the truth, and it is God who has done this

… cue our 4th confusing element to the story: is God able to lie, and to deceive?

Lying is a sin, and God cannot sin, therefore God cannot lie … right?

I believe the most convincing way to look at this confusion is to look at the timeline of events, rather than just at the words themselves.

The passage says that God sent a lying spirit, to lie to Ahab, but the timeline says another thing

Sure, God sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab, but before Ahab acted on that advice, God also sent a true prophet to speak truth.

Micaiah, who tells him to not go to battle.

Consequently, I believe this also takes care of our 3rd confusing element to our story: why did Ahab not just accept the first word of Micaiah, but instead press him for the truth?

If we understand that God cannot lie, and therefore must communicate the truth to Ahab, then Micaiah needed to tell the truth.

Ahab pressed Micaiah for the truth because he needed to. Micaiah told the truth finally, because he needed to.

so to answer our 4th confusing element to our story, whether or not God can lie:

no God cannot lie, and He did not lie here,

he put lying prophets in place yet gave Ahab the truth as well,

forcing him to choose between a lie and the truth.

God did not lie, he gave Ahab a choice. Listen to my word, or reject it

which has been the lesson of Ahab’s life for the last 7 weeks.

Of course Ahab, being unhappy with what Micaiah said, threw him in prison on meager rations, and said in a confident provado … “I’ll be back, just you wait and see. And when I do .... oooohhhh”.

But Micaiah takes it a step farther, he stakes his status as a prophet on his claim as Moses did in Deuteronomy 18

If you return in peace (instead of pieces) then the Lord has not spoken to me and I am a false prophet.

The unspoken but sobering reality to this statement is that within Deuteronomy 18, God says that if a prophet’s word should fail, they will be killed as a result.

Micaiah has just staked his life on this prophesy.

The Battle is joined

Let’s finish reading from 1 Kings 22:29-40

Despite everything Micaiah said, Ahab goes up to battle against Ramoth-Gilead with Jehoshaphat

Ahab tells Jeho. to wear his kingly garb, while Ahab will dress as a common soldier to disguise himself in battle.

TBH I think Jeho. needs better friends! What friend asks you to go to a fight with them, and then when you get there tells you “ok so, you go ahead and fight them and I will be behind that dumpster throwing stones”?

That’s a bad friend! Quite honestly I do not know why Jeho stuck around, other than to fulfill God’s purposes which we will get to shortly

King Ben-Hadad of Syria told his soldiers to ONLY go after Ahab, so the soldiers were chasing down the man in kingly robes.

narrowly, Jeho. lives when they realize that he is not Ahab and turn away to find the king of Israel.

as they turn away, a Syrian archer decides, uncharacteristically, to fire a “random” shot at Israel and Judah.

It just happens that arrow is aimed directly at Ahab, and slips between the slits in his armor, mortally wounding him.

With Ahab dead, a cry goes out “every man to his city, and every man to his country” … the sheep have scattered … and the king is dead.

and with Israel scattered, they dispose of Ahab’s body for the dogs to clean up, just as God had promised would happen three times over

Ahab’s Postmortem

What happened with Ahab? What is his story? How do we make sense of the last 7 weeks of sermons? and how do we make sense of today's passage?

Episode 1: The Contest of the Gods

God is in control

Ahab did not learn that.

Episode 2: Victory of Syria & Ben-Hadad

God is in control

Ahab did not learn that.

Episode 3: Naboth’s Vineyard

God loves the Righteous

Ahab did (kind of) learn that.

he humbled himself then, but as we see in episode 4, that lesson did not stick.

Episode 4: The Battle for Ramoth-Gilead

Ambiguity throughout the passage

The only thing that seemed to be clear in this whole passage was God’s intent.

God was intent on deceiving, temporarily, Ahab so that he could present him with the truth later.

God was intent on justly punishing Ahab for his many sins.

God was intent on fulfilling the three prophesies made against him

when he let Ben-Hadad go, killed Naboth, and sought to go to war with Ben-Hadad over Ramoth-Gilead.

In poetic fashion, the author makes this painfully clear

after so much vagueness and uncertainty in our passage, he paints in vivid color a scene:

a certain man drew his bow, AT RANDOM, and killed Ahab.

Firstly, arrows were precious in battle, you would not waste a good arrow by randomly shooting into the air.

Secondly, the chance that arrow hit its mark is so minute that it only serves to emphasis God’s hand in the affair.

You see, this archer, whoever he was, was God’s instrument of justice in the life of Ahab.

In Ahab’s life we see

An unwillingness to listen to godly and sound advice, and even more: God’s own word

A Repeated theme of the impossible

God consuming Elijah’s sopping wet sacrifice while Baal was silent.

the random arrow shot to kill Ahab.

Ahab tries to hide from God: disguises himself as a common soldier

Adam & Eve (Gen 3:8-10)

Saul, asking for the spirit of Samuel (1 Sam 28:8)

Jeroboam’s wife (1 Kings 14:5-6)

Jonah running in the opposite direction God told him to go (Jonah 1:3)

But you know, Amos 9:3 says …

God sees all and acts.

Without question Ahab is characterized as a complex, inconsistent man. He is capable of positive action, such as listening to prophets, repenting of sin, and defeating Israel’s foes. He builds a strong military force and constructs a beautiful palace. At the same time, however, he is equally capable of bowing to Jezebel’s master plan for expansion of Baalism, of benefiting from her killing Naboth, and of ignoring the Lord’s prophets. He fights battles yet sulks when things do not please him. Ultimately, he is judged as a man who heard from God yet did not act on the revelation he received (House, P. R. (1995). 1, 2 Kings (Vol. 8, p. 240). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

This is the last time I will be up here, teaching you all from God’s word.

The frustration of ever Pastor is that he feels he did not speak clear enough, forcefully enough, winsomely enough or effectively enough for the souls under his charge to hear the voice of God.

Seeing as this is my last time to speak with you, please hear my voice now, heed what I have to say, and give me some measure of peace:

Do not be like Ahab, who heard from God yet did not act on the revelation he received.

You have been given the ability to read and study the word of the Lord, and because of it you are in greater danger than you know.

For to know the word of the Lord, yet not act on it has proven fatal in the life of Ahab.

Please do not let it prove fatal in your life as well.

Please pray …