Bye Bye Ahab
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OPENER: Your sin will find you out.
In several places in the Bible, sin is described in terms that make it seem as if it were a living being with a mind and will of its own. God poetically warns Cain that:
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
James explains how, figuratively speaking, people
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Paul, in Romans 7:14–25, describes sin as though it were a being living within him, enslaving him against his will and making him do what he himself hates and condemns:
Romans 7.20
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
In the statement “be sure your sin will find you out” is revealed the mystery of sin. The nature of sin is such that, whether or not others discover your sin, your sin will “discover you.” You cannot run from the consequences. Sin carries within itself the power to pay the sinner back, and sin’s payback is hell. Don’t even think about toying with sin. It cannot be tamed, outrun, or shaken off. No matter how safe you think you are, if you are a sinner, your sin will find you out.
This is a lesson poor old Ahab will have to learn.
These events took place during the days of the divided kingdom in Israel.
The 22nd chapter of 1 Kings tells about an incident in the life of one of Israel’s most wicked kings, King Ahab. Ahab and the Syrian leader, Ben-hadad, were about to go to war over a city named Ramoth-gilead. There had been a truce between Syria and Israel for three years, but now the tensions were heating up again (1 Kings 22:1-4).
Two chapters earlier, in 1 Kings 20, we learn about a battle in which Israel’s King Ahab defeated Syria’s Ben-hadad. Benhadad promised to return certain cities to Israel, but Ramoth-gilead (east of the Jordan river) was never returned, and so Ahab decided to retake the city by force. Ahab wasn’t sure he could do it with just his own armies, and so he appealed to Jehoshaphat (king of Judah) to help him in the task. Our lesson today tells how Ahab did get Jehoshaphat to join forces with him in going to battle against the Syrians—and we learn how the battle turned out.
Ahab (the king of Israel in the north) and Jehoshaphat (the king of Judah in the south) during this time period were on friendly terms. Ahab was the most wicked of all Israel’s kings.
And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
Jehoshaphat
And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.
When Ahab invited Jehoshaphat to go to battle with him against the Syrians, Jehoshaphat promptly agreed (verse 4), and then he suggested that they seek the Lord’s will about the expedition. It would, of course, have been much better to ask God’s leading first. Perhaps you too have had to make a decision about a matter; you leaped to a conclusion, acted on it, and then later asked God to bless what you were doing! We need to remember to seek the Lord’s will before making our decisions.
No worries - Ahab had organized a group of 400 prophets who apparently took the place of the prophets of Baal that had been slaughtered after the showdown with Elijah (as described in 1 Kings 18). These prophets were called by the king, not by God, and so they were “yes-men” who told the king what he wanted to hear. The 400 prophets unanimously predicted that it would not be difficult for Ahab to capture Ramoth-gilead, and that the Lord would deliver the city into Ahab’s hand (verses 6,11). This, of course, is what Ahab wanted them to predict.
Jehoshaphat was an upright man and was accustomed to the ring of a genuine prophetic voice. Jehoshaphat had good spiritual discernment. Just so, a true child of God who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit today can often recognize “the spirit of error” (1 John 4:1-6). It seems that Jehoshaphat detected a false note in the words of Ahab’s prophets, and so he asked,
And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?
Is there not at least one prophet in the northern kingdom who can be trusted to speak the truth? Ahab admitted that there was such a prophet, but because he did not prophesy good concerning the king—Ahab said, “I hate him” (verse 8). Ahab was more concerned about feeling good than he was about knowing the truth. The name of this 401st prophet was Micaiah.
Here is the mark of the downfall of Ahab.
He equated hearing from God to feeling Good.
The natural man rarely feels good after hearing from God’s Word.
When Jehoshaphat insisted that he wanted to hear Micaiah’s advice, Ahab reluctantly sent a messenger to bring him (verse 9). The officer who was sent to bring Micaiah before the two kings informed the prophet of the situation, and urged him not to cause trouble—but to prophesy before the king the same thing that the other 400 prophets had predicted. Micaiah’s firm and clear reply is a model of the way every spokesman for God should perform his duties. Micaiah said, “What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak” (verse 14).
That brings us to verses 15 and 16 of 1 Kings 22—the place where the core message of our lesson begins.
God’s Word is delivered. (1 Kings 22:15-18)
The appearance of Micaiah must have been a dramatic scene. He met with the two kings (Ahab and Jehoshaphat) in a wide-open arena, a threshing floor at the gate of Samaria. The kings were dressed in their royal regalia. The 400 crowd-pleasing prophets of Ahab were close by, and their chief spokesman (a man named Zedekiah) was wearing bull’s horns as an object lesson to demonstrate how Ahab would gore the Syrian armies into defeat.
When Micaiah came and stood before the kings, he at first delivered the same message as the other 400 prophets did. He said to Ahab, “Go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it (Ramoth-gilead) into the hand of the king” (verse 15b). Micaiah apparently wanted to see Ahab’s reaction, but Ahab must have sensed—perhaps by the tone of his voice—that Micaiah was using sarcasm, and that he was really mocking the false prophets (verse 16).
And so in verse 17, Micaiah unleashed the painful truth; he told Ahab the vision he had seen. Ahab was going to die in battle, and his followers would be defeated and scattered. Micaiah said that Israel’s army would be like sheep without a shepherd; the soldiers would be scattered because there would no longer be a shepherd to lead them.
Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.
God was Drawing Ahab to his rightful conclusion (1 Kings 22:19-23)
Even though King Ahab was upset with Micaiah’s words, the prophet went on to explain an additional vision God had shown him. It was a curious scene in Heaven.
Micaiah saw “the Lord sitting on his throne,” and a host of angels (and perhaps other spiritual beings) standing around God’s throne (verse 19). The Lord said to the angelic host, “Who shall persuade (entice) Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?” (verse 20). God was asking for a volunteer from among the host to go to Ahab and influence him to disregard Micaiah’s prophecy so that he would fall at Ramoth-gilead.
One of the spirits came forward and stood before the Lord and said, “I will persuade (entice) him” (verse 21). When the Lord asked the question “Wherewith?” (or, “How are you going to entice him?”), the spirit replied, “I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets” (verse 22). And the Lord gave the spirit permission to go forth and do that.
It is not necessary for us to press all the details related to this vision. God is accommodating our limited understanding, and so there will likely be some unanswered questions about these verses. In verse 23, after describing the vision, Micaiah spoke directly to King Ahab and said, “The LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.” In essence, Micaiah said to Ahab, “Your prophets may bring you some comfort, but the whole group of counselors is telling lies, and are utterly unreliable.”
The point of the strange vision is this: In some unexplainable manner, God was actively working through Ahab’s false prophets to accomplish His planned divine judgment on Ahab, the wicked king of Israel.
Ahab was so upset with these words of Micaiah that he ordered the mayor of the city of Samaria to put Micaiah in prison, and to give him a restricted diet of bread and water as punishment. Ahab planned to deal with him when he returned from battle (verses 26-27). But Micaiah had one last word. He said that if Ahab returned at all, it would be clear evidence that Micaiah had not spoken the truth. Micaiah was willing to submit his prophecy to the test of Deuteronomy 18:21-22. Micaiah would certainly have been killed by Ahab’s soldiers if indeed Ahab had returned alive from battle.
Micaiah had just predicted disaster if Ahab went to battle against the Syrians. The last section of our lesson tells about Ahab’s defeat and death. The account is also described in 2 Chronicles 18, with a few added details.
One “Random Conclusion (1 Kings 22:29-40)
Ahab disregarded Micaiah’s warning, and Jehoshaphat joined him in the battle against Ramoth-gilead. Ahab prevailed on Jehoshaphat to wear his royal clothing, and Ahab went into battle with the attire of an ordinary soldier. (By this cowardly act, we know that Ahab secretly feared that Micaiah’s prophecy might indeed be true.)
The Syrian king ordered his troops to try and capture or kill King Ahab. When they saw someone dressed in Ahab’s garments, they launched an attack on that chariot. The Syrian troops headed straight for Jehoshaphat, thinking he was Ahab. But Jehoshaphat “cried out” (verse 32b), and somehow the Syrians knew that this was not Ahab, and they stopped attacking him. Jehoshaphat almost lost his life, but God intervened.
The account in 2 Chronicles 18:31 explains that when Jehoshaphat cried out, “the Lord helped him” and drew the Syrians away from him.
And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him.
In the meantime, elsewhere on the battlefield, suddenly a Syrian archer shot an arrow at random, and it found a narrow opening in Ahab’s armor. The arrow pierced Ahab’s body (verse 34), and he bled to death in his chariot.
And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.
At a venture...
At random. just a careless, silly just let the arrow go kinda shot.
I remember we would go with my dad out to hunt on opening day weekend. But I’m a little impatient by mid morning a few of us would be tired of wandering the countryside looking for phesants. and we would just find hedge apples, and dirt clods. and we would try for some target practice. We thought all are problems weres solved when we discovered clay pigeons because now we wouldn’t have to go to the field to shoot.
When I picture this random arrow I think of that young soldier who just shoots to shoot.
When Ahab was killed, his soldiers scattered and returned to their homes—thus fulfilling Micaiah’s prophecy in verse 17. And Ahab’s body was carried back to Samaria and buried. Later, his chariot was washed out, and the dogs licked up his blood (verse 38). This fulfilled a prophecy which Elijah had made in 1 Kings 21:19.
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
When you look at the life of Ahab there is one thing that stands out about his life. He was not able to outrun what God said was true.
There are Christians today that think they are going to outrun the truth of God’s Word.
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
We have Christians today that cover up sin. Lie and deflect and attempt to cover up their sin. And You can see at chance that there is an arrow that will make contact with its mark.
You can’t see how and you can’t tell when but my friend don’t let it shock you when your sin is exposed and all is brought to light.
You will be found out and sin will corrupt. There is a judgement day coming when your sin cannot be concealed and covered up.
There are some practical applications from this lesson:
1) Jehoshaphat was a godly king; his mistake was that he sought the friendship of ungodly Ahab, and this led him into some predicaments. He almost lost his life in the battle, and when he went south back to Judah, the prophet Jehu reprimanded him. Jehu said, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. Nevertheless there are (some) good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves (idols) out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God” (2 Chronicles 19:2-3). For us today—to witness to unbelievers and to offer them help is one thing, but to join them in immoral activities is something else. The believer who is seeking to live by God’s Word will know when and how to build bridges, and when and how to build walls.
2) The man who randomly shot the arrow that killed Ahab did not knowingly aim at the crack in Ahab’s armor. God directed his action and guided the fatal missile to its mark. No matter what Ahab did, nor how much he schemed, God was in control—and God’s judgment on Ahab was sure. Ahab’s disguise could not fool God.
3) Micaiah’s courageous truth-telling arose out of his relationship with God. He knew that he was accountable to a greater King than the wicked king Ahab. He was aware that all of us someday must give an account of ourselves to God, as the New Testament says in Romans 14:12, and so he told Ahab what he knew God wanted him to say.
4) Ahab’s messenger, who had gone to bring Micaiah before the king, said to him, “Behold now, the words of (all) the prophets declare good (victory) unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good” (verse 13). The messenger was saying to Micaiah, “All the other prophets have promised victory to Ahab; the sensible thing for you to do would be to agree with them.” Micaiah responded, “What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.” One reason why some today do not speak up for what the Bible says is that they don’t know what it says. Another reason for silence is the cowardly fear that others might look down on us if we stand up for what is right in God’s eyes. We must be convinced of the fact that where the Bible speaks—right is right even if nobody does it, and wrong is wrong even if everybody does it!
The one quality that stands out about the prophet Micaiah is that he told the truth, as unpopular as it was—in spite of pressures to go along with the crowd. Those who are spokesmen for God must guard against telling audiences what they want to hear—instead of the pure Word of God which they need to hear. The Apostle Paul speaks of those who in the last days will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (see 2 Timothy 4:3). In our lesson today, Ahab foolishly chose to listen to prophets who told him what he wanted to hear, much like multitudes today who choose to attend churches where they will not be reproved for their sins. Studying Micaiah’s courageous action should help us make a commitment to tell the truth (in our daily witness) even when it is dangerous and unpopular to do so
