By Pastor Bob DeKlavon
Years ago, I heard a story about a prophet who kept prophesying against the sins of a city.
One day, a boy came to him and asked: “why do you keep prophesying when no one changes?”
The prophet replied: “I do it so they won’t change me.”
This story hit home to me again as I was reading through 1 Kings 22.
Let me just summarize what transpires in this chapter:
Israel has been divided into two parts for quite a while.
The king of Israel {the northern part} and the king of Judah {the southern part} are together.
The king of Israel looks to go to war, and he asks the king of Judah to join him.
Jehoshaphat {Judah} wants there to be an inquiry of the Lord.
The king of Israel gathers 400 prophets who worship false gods.
They tell the kings to go to battle for they will have success.
Jehoshaphat worships the true God and he asks if there isn’t a prophet of the LORD who is available.
Enter Micaiah.
His very name gives an indication of his loyalties for it means: ‘who is like Yahweh?”
The king of Israel does not like him because he always prophesies evil against him.
{Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the king ‘DOES EVIL!”}.
Micaiah is told ahead of time what he is to say.
In fact, probably in a sarcastic tone—he tells the king what he wants to hear.
But—the king presses him to tell what God has said and Micaiah proceeds to do so.
Now—put yourself in the prophet’s position.
There are 400 false prophets prancing around and telling the king what he wants to hear.
The king himself is awaiting confirmation of what he expects to hear.
The penalties for not going along can be severe {Micaiah WILL be thrown in prison}.
One of the chief prophets will slap Micaiah on the cheek and mock him.
How easy it would have been to cave under the circumstances.
But Micaiah doesn’t. He prophesies against the king and tells him he will die.
In so doing—he shows himself faithful even when others weren’t.
Just to end the story.
King Ahab throws Micaiah in prison and says to feed him little ‘UNTIL I RETURN SAFELY.’
In v. 28—Micaiah says to everyone: “if you return safely then the LORD has not spoken to me.”
A blog for another time says the following about King Ahab’s death:
“A certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor.”
Here is what I thought as I finished this chapter again.
Many will say they belong to the Lord but there are many who will also fall away.
Where do you stand in that choosing?
Micaiah…..Elijah……Daniel……Ezekiel……Jeremiah……and on it goes
—stand as testimonies of those who were faithful—even when others weren’t.
Will you remain faithful too? Keep ‘prophesying’ so the world doesn’t change you!