1 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage. 2 Some years later he went down to see Ahab in Samaria. Ahab slaughtered many sheep and cattle for him and the people with him and urged him to attack Ramoth Gilead. 3 Ahab king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will join you in the war.” 4 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”
5 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I not?”
“Go,” they answered, “for God will give it into the king’s hand.”
6 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?”
7 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.
8 So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
9 Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. 10 Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns, and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”
11 All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
12 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”
13 But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what my God says.”
14 When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I not?”
“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for they will be given into your hand.”
15 The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”
16 Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”
17 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”
18 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing on his right and on his left. 19 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’
“One suggested this, and another that. 20 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’
“‘By what means?’ the LORD asked.
21 “‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.
“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
22 “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”
23 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from[a] the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.
24 Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”
25 The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son, 26 and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’”
27 Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!” 28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. 29 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
30 Now the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” 31When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him, 32 for when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him.
33 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the breastplate and the scale armor. The king told the chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.” 34 All day long the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died.
Jehoshaphat fears the Lord and he insists that they "first seek the counsel of the Lord." I love this because it reminds me of all the times I am faced with a situation or a decision and the first thing I say to myself is NOT "I must first seek the counsel of the Lord." This is such a wake-up call to me because we SHOULD first seek the counsel of the Lord in EVERYTHING we do! We become so caught up in the excitement and chaos of life that we make every decision our own when it is really God's. How much more would we benefit from our decisions if they were based on the Lord's answer?
The second thing I love about this story is the King of Israel's answer when he is asked if there is another prophet of the Lord they can talk to. He says "There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” This made me laugh out loud when I read it. What a childish remark! It reminds me of something I would say when I was five. But that is beside the point. The point is we are reading the foreshadowing of the man who will be used to bring glory to God in this story. His name is Micaiah and he is LEGIT!! The messenger who goes to get him is like "alright Micaiah all the prophets are prophesying the success of the king, let your word be the same and tell the king what he wants to hear."
What I really got out of this story was the way Macaiah handled this entire situation. He stood firm on his word and the word that the Lord gave him. Even when he was told to give the "favorable" answer he said no. He tells the king that they should not go to battle and he is slapped in the face and sent to prison. But before he leaves he says "If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me." Macaiah is so confident in the Lord that he tells the king he is going to die!! And he does!! Even though he was frowned upon and sent to prison, Macaiah stood on what the Lord had shown him and he didn't compromise his answers to please people.
We need to live our lives like this. We should have so much faith in God and so much boldness that our lives SCREAM the glory of God and declare his promises, even when they don't make us popular. We must inquire of the Lord before everything and when we are told what to do we must obey and stick to it. If Macaiah had given in and told the king to go to war, the king would have probably still died. But since Macaiah told him not to go and that he would die, God received glory in the fulfillment of his word! Even though it was hard, and he was punished, standing on the truth in faith brought glory to God and everyone that witnessed the truth was able to believe.
We are in a constant battle. And God has already won the battle. But, it is up to us whether we choose to fight the battle His way or ours. In all of the problems or "battles" that I am dealing with right now, I need to stay on God's side until the very end. There is no switching sides!! What are your battles? Are you inquiring of the Lord for the answers? Are you obeying the answers and bringing glory to God?
