We all remember the stories about King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. We know that King Ahab was considered by some to be to be one of the worst and most evil kings to have ever ruled. We know that his wife Jezebel had set up a very large group of false prophets who were operating a false prophetic system. They were highly organized and essentially had control over the spiritual atmosphere of the day.
Let’s revisit the story of the time when King Ahab met with King Jehoshaphat and discussed the idea of going to war together to defeat a common enemy – I Kings 22. Remember in this story how King Jehoshaphat, after hearing all of the false prophets giving their false prophecies, turned to King Ahab and asked “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of him?”.
And, remember King Ahab’s response which was “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”.
Let’s look at King Ahab’s response very closely. Note what is implicit in his words. King Ahab says that “he does not prophesy good concerning me”. What this clearly indicates is that Micaiah had prophesied to King Ahab before. It is obvious that a relationship had developed between King Ahab and the prophet Micaiah, albeit a troublesome one. What this means is that Micaiah had given prophecies to King Ahab in times past and they were not favorable to King Ahab. And, we can reasonably conclude that because Micaiah was a true prophet of the Lord, that the prophecies of Micaiah had come to pass. In other words, King Ahab knew that Micaiah was a true prophet and that his words were the words of the Lord. This is very significant.
So, we see that King Ahab recognized that Micaiah was a true prophet. Some may, at this point in the analysis, come to the mistaken conclusion that because King Ahab was evil, that he somehow couldn’t recognize the truth or that he was unable to discern true prophecy. Not so. King Ahab was a king. King Ahab lived during a very spiritually charged time. He knew the things of the spiritual realm. The point I am making is that King Ahab did NOT make the decisions he made that day because he was spiritually unaware. No, but rather, King Ahab chose between good and evil, and he chose evil.
To make an accurate and comprehensive analysis of King Ahab’s decision, one needs to step back and look at the context of his decision. There was a false prophetic system which had been organized and set up by his wife Jezebel. And, this false prophetic system had a very large group of false prophets operating within its ranks. And, they were espousing a river of false prophecies. But, King Jehoshaphat, also being a spiritual person, had discernment to know that what he was hearing from the false prophets was inaccurate and bad information. So, King Jehoshaphat pursues the truth.
So, the question is, why would King Ahab, knowing that the false prophets would give false prophecies, be reluctant to call upon the true prophet from whom he knew he would hear the true world of the Lord? I will tell you why. The false prophetic system that his wife had set up didn’t simply happen overnight. It was very large and very influential. It had slowly gained control in the kingdom of Ahab over the years, to the point that it had become quite large and had infiltrated the entire society. Now, in the analysis of all this, one has to see that with such a large contingent of false prophets involved, there would also be a lot of money involved. Also, the false prophets had devoted their very lives and careers to this false prophetic system. So, understanding this, one can see why the false prophets would want the King to go along with their false prophecies. Also, the King himself would probably be somewhat hesitant to go against such a formidable and well established religious system. After all, he didn’t want a bunch of false prophets angry with him.
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