Lux Lucet

Jeroboam sets up a golden calf.

Among other things, the Bible is a book of examples. As God’s people, we can be thankful for this. Had he wished, God could have given his bare commandments and left it to us to draw our own lessons. But that’s not what he did. After providing very clear instructions to his covenant people in the Law of Moses, God inspired the writers of the Old Testament to record a detailed and fascinating history of his people. Some of this history was recorded as a warning to future generations. In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul highlighted several negative examples from the history of Israel and made the point, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (I Corinthians 10:11).

In a previous post, we looked at two bad examples from the Old Testament, specifically the actions of kings Rehoboam and Jeroboam. In the case of Rehoboam, his was a political failure. Instead of being a servant to his people, he instead chose to lord it over them, answering a reasonable request for lower taxes with a churlish threat to increase them. His arrogance was the proximate cause of the division of the twelve tribes into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. On the other hand the failure of Jeroboam, the first ruler of the Northern Kingdom, was of an ethical nature. He was charged by the prophet Ahijah to walk in the commandments of God. But Jeroboam, doing what he ought not, was quick to set up an idolatrous religion in the Northern Kingdom, which corrupted the people for generations. At bottom, the failures of both kings were epistemological, for both men rejected the clear commands of God and followed the dictates of their own hearts.

As a follow up to the bad examples, over the next two weeks we will look at two good examples from the Old Testament, one of them a prophet, the other a king. Both of had this in common: they trusted in God, not themselves.

Micaiah the Prophet

Micaiah before Ahab and Jehoshaphat

Micaiah is not considered to be among the major prophets. He does not even rank as a minor prophet. There is no Book of Micaiah in the Old Testament.
Apart from the name of his father and that he carried out his work in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Ahab (874-853 B.C.), little is known about him. I Kings 22 and the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 18 represent the only known appearances of Micaiah in the Bible. Yet for all that, Micaiah is a masterful example to Christians of how should conduct themselves when facing those who oppose God’s truth. What lessons can Christians learn from Micaiah? It seems to me that there are at least four. First, Micaiah’s example can teach us about the authority of the Word of God. Second, from him we can learn how to be bold in our witness. Third, Micaiah’s perseverance in the face of punishment is a lesson for us today. And fourth, we learn from Micaiah that despite their show to the contrary, the ungodly do hear the words of the faithful and are troubled by them.

But before studying Micaiah’s actions in detail, it may be helpful to provide some context. During the times of the judges and the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, the twelve tribes of Israel were a united nation. They were united in their government and united in their religion. That changed when Solomon’s son Rehoboam came to power in 930 B.C. As discussed in my previous post Good Lessons from Bad Examples and summarized above, Rehoboam’s arrogance was the proximate cause of a revolt by the northern tribes. From this point onward, the formerly United Kingdom of the twelve tribes would be divided into Northern Kingdom, usually referred to in Scripture as Israel, and a Southern Kingdom called Judah. Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, immediately set up a false religion in the north, the purpose of which was to control the people and keep their loyalty from drifting back toward the king of Judah. Israel, though larger in land area and population than Judah, was always unstable, with several ruling dynasties coming to power over its 208 year history.

Judah, though the smaller of the two kingdoms, generally had a more stable government. The kings of Judah were all of the Davidic dynasty. Further, the religious practice of Judah tended to be more orthodox than that of Israel. The temple was located in Jerusalem, the kingdom’s capital city, and was the place approved by God for the worship of himself. The defection of the Levites from Israel to Judah recorded in 2 Chronicles 11:13 was a severe blow to the Northern Kingdom., for it left the nation of Israel had no legitimate priesthood within its territory.

From the beginning of the Divided Kingdom in 930 B.C. until 853 B.C., Israel and Judah existed side by side in a state of simmering hostility. It was a sort of ancient version of the Cold War that would occasionally turn hot. But that all changed during the reigns of Jehoshaphat King of Judah and Ahab King of Israel. I Kings 22 and the parallel account recorded in 2 Chronicles 18 tell of a state visit made by Jehoshaphat to Ahab. The two kings met in Samaria, the capital of Israel, to discuss plans for a military alliance against Syria. Ahab had already scored major victories against the Syrians and seemed to be of the opinion that he was on a roll of sorts. It appears that he thought this would be a good time to form an alliance with Judah, the more easily to defeat the Syrians and recapture territory for Israel that had previously been lost. The Scriptures do not speak of Jehoshaphat’s motive for this visit, but he certainly seemed eager to forge closer ties with Israel. But as he was about to learn the hard way, this was a serious mistake.

It was during Jehoshaphat’s visit to Samaria that Ahab proposed a grand military alliance against the Syrians. Ahab was hardly the sort to seek the Lord’s counsel for his actions, but godly King Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from the prophets before agreeing to a military campaign against Syria. So Ahab brought out his prophets, about four hundred in number according to I Kings 22:6, and they put on quite a show. When Ahab asked them whether he should go to war against Syria, to a man they responded, “Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” Jehoshaphat, whom the Scriptures present favorably as a godly man, did not seem terribly impressed with any of this. He asked the Ahab, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him.” To which Ahab answered, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” At this point, Ahab charged an officer with brining Micaiah before himself, Jehoshaphat, the assembly of four hundred prophets, and anyone else who happen to be present. It is at this point that we begin our lessons from Micaiah.

The Authority of the Word of God

Scripture records the words of the messenger sent to fetch Micaiah as, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.” But in good prophetic fashion, Micaiah’s responded to him, saying, “As the LORD lives, whatever the LORD says to me, that I will speak.” This is the very definition of a prophet, a spokesman for God (see Exodus 4:16). And as a spokesman for God, Micaiah had a responsibility to communicate fully and accurately only what God had given him to say. This is also the point of 2 Peter 1:20, 21. According to the King James and New Kings James translations, verse 20 reads, “[N]o prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.” But as Gordon Clark convincingly argues in his commentary on this passage, a better translation is, “[N]o prophecy of Scripture is of private release.” That is to say, prophecy did not originate with the prophet himself, but with God.

What lesson can we take from this? After all, we’re not prophets of God. But while we do not lay claim to receiving new revelation, we do have a book, or rather a whole library of 66 books, of it available to us for use. Micaiah’s standard for knowledge, his epistemology as it were, was revelation alone. He did not trust in his own imagination, but spoke only what God charged him to speak. Christians today are no different. The sole source of knowledge for the Christian is revelation alone. Not our own private ideas or feelings, but the very words revealed to us by God in the Scriptures. And it is these words that we must speak. We are not to add to them, neither are we to take away from them. We must respect the authority of God’s holy Word.

Boldness in our Witness

The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1). I’ve always liked this verse, for it reminds me of my calling as a Christian to be bold for God’s truth. At the same time, I’ve also come under conviction from these words, for I realize that my own cowardice, my own lack of faith in the promises of God, has caused me to fall short of the Biblical standard for courage. But the Bible doesn’t just talk about the need for courage, it provides example after example of men who were willing to stand for the truth, even when it wasn’t popular. And Micaiah’s example is one of the best.

In what must have been a dramatic scene, Micaiah was brought before Ahab and Jehoshaphat to give his prophecy. I’ve wondered at times how all this looked and sounded. I’m old enough to remember a popular series of ads run by E.F. Hutton in the late seventies. E.F. Hutton was a brokerage firm. And its ads always featured two people talking about investments in a restaurant or some other noisy public place. During the ad one of characters would say to the other, “Well, my broker’s E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says…,” at which point the whole room would fall into hushed silence and everyone would lean over to hear the words of wisdom from the company’s brokers. I don’t think E.F. Hutton is around anymore, so maybe their advice wasn’t really so great after all. But the ads certainly were memorable.

It seems to me that the Micaiah’s appearance before the two kings was something like this. While the messenger was brining Micaiah to the place where the kings sat, the Scriptures tell us that a fellow named Zedekiah was prophesying before Ahab and Jehoshaphat using iron horns that he had made for this occasion. Zedekiah told the kings, “With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed.” And he was not alone. Scripture tells us, “And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the king’s hand.”

Into this noisy show stepped Micaiah the prophet. As he took center stage, one can imagine a hush coming over the assembly not unlike in the ads for E.F. Hutton, the air pregnant with anticipation. What would this rebel prophet say? Would he play the yes man as he was told? Would he say something outrageous? The answer came soon enough. In the hearing of hundreds, if not thousands, of people, Ahab cried out, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall we refrain?” To which Micaiah answered, “Go and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king!” “What was that,” you may be asking yourself? Did Micaiah just fold? Did he just give in to peer pressure? Did he just go along to get along? As is made plain by Ahab’s response, Micaiah did just the opposite. Said Ahab, “How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” Micaiah, you see, was being sarcastic with the king, and Ahab knew it. It was almost as though Micaiah were saying, “you’ve already made up your mind and will by no means listen to me, so go knock yourself out.” Micaiah was answering a fool according to his folly.

What great boldness, what great confidence, what great presence of mind is here demonstrated by Micaiah. Single handedly he took on a king and all his prophets. And not only that, but in a situation that would terrify most men, he had the chutzpah to actually mock Ahab. Of course, Micaiah really wasn’t alone. When he came before Ahab, he came in God’s strength, not in his own.

In a previous post titled Practical Calvinism I mentioned that one of the effects of believing the doctrines of grace is a certain boldness. And this is another great lesson we can learn from Micaiah. Christians must never fear to declare the truth, even before a hostile world. The world hates the truth. It always has. According to the apostle Paul, the unsaved not only do not believe the truth, but actively suppress it, with the result that they are punished by God. In these times of increasing darkness, may the people of God be quick to imitate the lion-like boldness of Micaiah.

Perseverance In the Face of Punishment

Micaiah knew his prophetic calling meant his loyalty must first and always be to God, not to his own comfort or reputation. Punishment or the threat of punishment is a great deterrent to Christians speaking and acting for God. As John Robbins pointed out, “[H]eretics frequently use force to persecute Christians. Force works; it silences the opposition. That is why heretics and tyrants use it. The blood of the martyrs is not the seed of the church; only the Gospel is” (Why Heretics Win Battles).

After Micaiah had finished telling Ahab what Ahab did not want to hear, the king responded as

Ahab hit with arrow.

expected by bellowing, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ‘ ” Micaiah was being imprisoned, not for any wrongdoing on his part, but unjustly for speaking what was right in the eyes of God.

But none of this deterred Micaiah from speaking the truth. In fact, Micaiah, far from being intimidated by Ahab’s order of imprisonment, seemed by cry out all the more against the king, saying, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” Micaiah even warned the onlookers in the crowd saying, “Take heed, all you people!”

Christians today increasingly face the threat of punishment for speaking the truth. In some places, Christians can be murdered for their faith. In the United States and other Western nations, Christians are coming under attack for their opposition to the aggressive and wicked Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) political agenda. As disciples of Christ, we have to be aware that we are not of the world and for that reason the world is going to hate us. That means we may be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. But as Jesus himself said, we should not fear this, but rather rejoice in it, for great is our reward in heaven. With Micaiah as our example, let us not shrink from speaking the truth to a lost and dying world, even in the face of slander and gross injustice.

Confidence that the Truth Hits Home

Scottish reformer John Knox was famous for speaking out against the evils of his day. But his approach was not always admired by his contemporaries. In his essay The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, Knox argued against the idea that a woman should bear rule over a nation. Knox certainly was correct in what he had to say, but there were some who discouraged him from speaking out. They said of such arguments that first, they were seditious, second, that they were dangerous to the author, publisher and reader, and finally, that those in power wouldn’t listen anyway.

To these arguments, Knox responded,

I answer, if any of these be a sufficient reason that a truth known shall be concealed, then were the ancient Prophets of God very fools who did not better provide for their own quietness than to hazard their lives for rebuking of vices and for the opening of such crimes as were known to the world (First Blast of the Trumpet).

Scripture does not record anything about Micaiah after he was dragged from the presence of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, but it does record something very interesting about Ahab’s behavior. For in spite of Ahab’s public bluster at Micaiah for the prophet’s rebuke of his war plans, when Ahab went into battle against Syria, he took extra precautions. As they were preparing to face the always dangerous Syrian army, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle; but you put on your robes.” From this it appears that Ahab was not quite so confident in himself or his four hundred prophets after all. Micaiah had predicted Ahab would not return in peace, and it seems that the prophet’s words were echoing in the ears of Ahab even as he made final preparations for battle. Not that it moved him to repent of his war plans or his treatment of Micaiah, but nevertheless as a result of Micaiah’s prophecy Ahab appears to have been concerned for his life and hedged his bet with a disguise.

In like fashion, Christians today may think that their words have little effect on those who oppose the truth. When Christians speak out against abortion, sexual sin, feminism or any number of other evils of the day, they are mocked, called names, and held in disrepute by the world. At times it can seem as though speaking the truth has value only insofar as it makes us bigger targets for abuse from the ungodly. But this is not the case. We do not always know what effect our words have on our hearers in the secret places of their hearts. We may witness the outward anger and rebuke from unbelievers, but who knows, God may use the very words that anger a man today to save him tomorrow. Micaiah didn’t act like a defeated man who thought he was wasting his time speaking out against Ahab’s evil plans. Likewise John Knox had confidence that the truth would hit home. So too should we speak the truth, with confidence that God will use it to his purpose.

Conclusion

Christians should be thankful for the Scriptures. Thankful for the Law of God, thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, thankful for great many examples of faith and boldness in the Bible such as that of the prophet Micaiah. May we follow his example as we live in and minister to a lost world hostile to the truth. May we, as Micaiah, speak the truth with courage, trusting God with the results.