“And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel” (1 Kings 22:1). Aside from the question of God’s judgment, this then was what had resulted from Ahab’s covenant with Ben-Hadad: a short respite of three years without war! After that Ben-Hadad, just scarcely set free, had not kept his promises (cf. 1 Kings 20:34): he had not restored Ramoth-Gilead. “Do ye know,” says the king of Israel to his servants, “that Remoth in Gilead is ours, and we keep quiet without taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” It would be shameful to pass over this in silence; thus war is unleashed again. God is not taken into account in these claims between peoples. History is ever the same, and the Christian nations of our day are no better in this respect than the heathen nations. The desire to expand, on the one hand, and the desire to resist such encroachments on the other, form the basis of politics. God does not engage in politics; He is a stranger to these strifes, though He has the upper hand in all things and makes use of all to accomplish His purposes.
Jehoshaphat, the son of pious Asa, and faithful like him to maintain the worship of the Lord in Judah without admixture, goes down to the King of Israel. From whence did this relationship arise? From the fact that Jehoshaphat had “allied himself with Ahab by marriage,” not personally, but Jehoram his son had taken a daughter of Ahab as wife (2 Chron. 18:1; 21:6). This alliance was a great evil, and the king of Judah had to prove its serious consequences. “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate Jehovah?” Jehu the son of Hanani, seeing this, later said to him. This alliance disastrously led the faithful king to espouse the interests of a king unequaled for his iniquity in the land of Israel (1 Kings 21:25-26).
“Wilt thou go with me to battle?” Ahab asks Jehoshaphat. The latter replies: “I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses” (1 Kings 22:4). This alliance thus leads Jehoshaphat to declare that he, the godly king of Judah, is just like wicked Ahab, and to throw down the barrier separating the man of God from the world. Is there any great difference between this word and that of Ahab to Ben Hadad: “Thou art my brother”? Alliance with the world, we cannot repeat too often, makes us liable for its iniquity. In the historical books again and again we find the solemn truth that to associate or cooperate with a system where evil is tolerated or recognized is to become jointly liable for that system. One might ask whether Ahab’s momentary repentance may not have influenced Jehoshaphat’s frame of mind. We are not told this, but it would not have excused the king in any way. A believer does not remain in any system whatsoever because he can find some good there, but because it is approved by God. But Israel and its king had no more to expect than God’s final judgment, and there were no more righteous men in the city who could save them from this.
Still (1 Kings 22:5-12), in this unfortunate alliance Jehoshaphat is too pious to act without consulting the Lord and His Word. Ahab immediately assembles four hundred prophets. There were many of them. Where did they come from when hardly a few isolated prophets could be found in all the territory of Israel? They were few, for only one prophet of the Lord was sufficient to make known His mind. These four hundred prophets of Ahab’s, who were they? Could they perhaps have been in disguise the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, the female divinity, who had not been destroyed at the Kishon? This is quite likely! Whatever it may have been, if they were the same, they had changed their dress with the circumstances. They were now pretending to speak by the Spirit of God, whereas a lying spirit who served their own interests had taken hold of them. One can wear the livery of a prophet of the Lord and be lying. How often this has been so at all times, and how much more so today. “Go up,” they all cry, “and the Lord will give it into the king’s hand” (1 Kings 22:6).
Nevertheless Jehoshaphat is ill at ease. There is a spiritual sense that warns a true heart, though perhaps not being able to account for it, that certain spiritual manifestations do not have the Spirit of God as their agent. This is not the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), which is not given to all, but a sense which, however weak it may be in a child of God, ought never to be wanting with him. He feels ill at ease in an environment opposed to God, ill at ease in presence of certain discourse which claims to come from religious tongues but lacks the divine character, ill at ease confronted with such vaunting as that which takes place here before the king of Israel. So it was with Jehoshaphat, too, for after having been present at the scene brought on by his request to Ahab, “Inquire, I pray thee, this day of the word of Jehovah” (1 Kings 22:5), he finds himself obliged to add: “Is there not here a prophet of Jehovah besides, that we might inquire of him?” (1 Kings 22:7). It would be enough for him that there be one, truly separated to God, to counterbalance the other four hundred. Ahab replies: “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil: it is Micah the son of Imlah” (1 Kings 22:8). He hated him, and he likewise hated all those who pronounced the Lord’s judgment upon him. He wanted the prophet to “prophesy good concerning him.” Such will ever be the character of the religious world. Those composing it choose for themselves teachers according to their own lusts, teachers who call them brothers just as Ahab himself said “My brother” to Ben-Hadad, teachers who praise them, extolling the world in which they live, and foretelling success and prosperity for them. Honest Jehoshaphat cannot suffer these words. He is accustomed to respect every word that comes from the Lord. One does not see him contesting Jehu’s word condemning him later on (2 Chron. 19:1). “Let not the king say so!” he says (1 Kings 22:8).
Ahab has but one thought: to show proof of Micah’s malice toward himself (cf. 1 Kings 22:18). Promptly he has him sent for. The man of God naturally kept himself apart from the four hundred prophets—a good example for the king of Judah who had joined himself to the profane king. The very sad but necessary result of this alliance is that he follows Ahab instead of following Micah. Such is the effect of “evil communications” upon the believer. Never does one see the opposite effect produced, that is to say, that the world follows the example of God’s children. One has well said: “There is no equality in an alliance between truth and error, for by the very alliance itself, truth ceases to be truth and error does not become truth.”
To make that which he is going to proclaim even more solemn, Micah at first speaks just like the four hundred prophets: “Go up, and prosper; for Jehovah will give it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:15). “How many times,” replies Ahab, “shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but truth in the name of Jehovah?” (1 Kings 22:16). We see here what conscience is, even a hardened one. It speaks within the heart, telling Ahab: What Micah is saying cannot be the expression of his opinion! And even though Ahab is seeking after a lie, his conscience forces him to want the truth. He will not follow it nor obey it, but the uneasiness produced by his conscience allows him no rest until he hears, knows, and sees it, like a murderer who despite himself is drawn back to the scene of his crime. Then these harrowing words reverberate in his ears: “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace” (1 Kings 22:17).
The prophet does not stop there. He points out the satanic lying spirit that has gotten hold of all the prophets in order to cause Ahab to go up to Ramoth. Jehovah had said: “Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?” (1 Kings 22:20). This was the judgment of God, prepared beforehand against Ahab, an indirect judgment by which the demonic spirits he had worshipped became the instruments for their victim’s doom.
Zedekiah, who had played the leading role in this scene, making himself horns of iron and saying to the king: “With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have exterminated them” (1 Kings 22:11)—this Zedekiah smites Micah on the cheek and says: “Where now went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak to thee?” (1 Kings 22:24). He claims the Holy Spirit’s direction and makes use of violence to prove this, but he thus proves what spirit is urging him on. He too would come under judgment when he would “go from chamber to chamber to hide” himself (1 Kings 22:25).
Micah, like so many prophets and faithful servants of the Lord, is thrown into prison, cruelly persecuted for the truth which he had proclaimed (1 Kings 22:27, 28). But his testimony spreads, in that way becoming public, just as later that of Paul. He has the honor of speaking the mind of God as to the future to all: “Hearken, O peoples, all of you!” (1 Kings 22:28).
Poor Jehoshaphat beholds this scene in silence. Being on his ally’s territory, he has no authority to thwart his orders. Did his feeble remarks change Ahab’s plans and decisions? Does he find the courage to break this unfortunate alliance? Nothing of the kind. And of what use is this alliance to him except to lead him to be unfaithful to God? He goes up with the king of Israel to Ramoth-Gilead.
But here is that troublesome conscience coming again to besiege Ahab. What if Micah has spoken the truth? Has he really foretold Ahab’s death on this expedition? He wishes and believes he has found a sure means of escaping that judgment which is directed towards him and pursuing him. He disguises himself, and under the sway of selfish fear is not even noble enough in heart to avoid imperiling his ally against whom, on account of his royal garments, the attacks in the battle are going to be directed. The captains of the chariots turn aside after Jehoshaphat, thinking that they have to do with Ahab. Just then “Jehoshaphat cried out.” We see in 2 Chronicles 18:31 That in this extremity Jehoshaphat had recourse to the Lord: “Jehoshaphat cried out, and Jehovah helped him.” He does not forsake His own in distress.
Ahab is struck by an arrow shot “at a venture,” something he had not anticipated. He dies a hero, as the world would say, stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians even though dying. He dies at even and his blood fills the bottom of the chariot. “And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked his blood, where the harlots bathed: according to the word of Jehovah, which he had spoken” (1 Kings 22:38). Thus the judgment against him is carried out, but it is not fully accomplished until later by the hand of Jehu.
How differently men would have written up this history than God has done! The reign of Ahab was long and relatively glorious. For a man not having divine revelation his victories over the Syrians were deeds of high value and intrepid courage; his alliance with Ben-Hadad one of noble clemency and good politics; that with Jehoshaphat still wiser yet; the war at Ramoth was forced upon him for the honor of his kingdom. The annals of his reign, probably lost forever, enumerate all the cities he built and fortified, tell of his ivory palace — probably an imitation of Solomon’s palace — and of still other things (1 Kings 22:39). But of all this nothing remains except the horrible example of a man responsible to serve God who, knowing Him, preferred his idols and his lusts to Him and hated the faithful witnesses of the God of Israel.
A few words close this book (1 Kings 22:41-50) and refresh our heart a little in the midst of so much ruin. Jehoshaphat was faithful, though not free from reproach, for he was not zealous enough to destroy the high places, remains of the idolatry which had been implanted in Judah. He exterminates those infamous creatures who had established themselves in the land along with the Canaanitish idolatry. But one sees with regret that he does not immediately learn the lesson that Jehu had taught him upon his return from Ramoth. He joins himself with Ahab’s son Ahaziah who does wickedly (2 Chron. 20:35-37), and associates himself with him in building ships and in going together to Ophir for gold. Wanting the riches that would be acquired by the alliance with Ahaziah is a motive that is taken up less than his wanting the influence that would be acquired by the alliance with Ahab. But the Lord does reprove him: “And Eliezer the son of Dodavah, of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has broken thy works. And the ships were broken, and could not go to Tarshish” (2 Chron. 20:37).
Thank God, after the prophet’s word and the destruction of his fleet Jehoshaphat understood what had been the great weakness of his life—that an alliance with the world, whatever its purpose may be, is a thing of which God disapproves and which will bring judgment upon His children. “Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not” (1 Kings 22:49).
This scene, cheering after all, is followed by a few words (1 Kings 22:51-53) summarizing the reign of Ahaziah the son of Ahab, a short reign, but one filled with all that could provoke the Lord to anger. Under his reign the worship of Baal revives again in Israel, and the king himself bows down before this abomination of the Zidonians.