JEHOSHAPHAT, the pious King of Judah, and Ahab, the impious King of Israel, had allied themselves together. “I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses,” said Jehoshaphat to Ahab. They were going to make war for Ahab’s benefit. They had feasted together, and now they sat upon their thrones together in the sight of the city of Samaria. It was a strange thing to witness the king who had served God so well, who had done so much to destroy the idols in Judah, and who had received such great tokens of divine deliverance, in alliance with the king whose lifetime had been one of rebellion against Jehovah, who had done “very abominably in following idols,” and who was a proverb for selling “himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.” Could such an alliance prosper?
In prospect of the coming battle, Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, “Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today.” Then Ahab assembled his prophets together—about four hundred men. These were probably the prophets attached to the calves of gold set up by Jeroboam, who by them “made Israel to sin.” These idols were set up to prevent Israel from going up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah in the place the Lord ordained to set His name there. So the kings sat, and the prophets stood around them and spake smooth things: “Go up to battle,” they cried, “and prosper.”
But Jehoshaphat was uneasy: “Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?” he asked. He was in a most humiliating position. He had committed himself to the alliance with Ahab, yet he looked for Divine guidance. Let this spirit of contradiction be a warning to ourselves, for God does not guide in an evil path, but out of it.
There was one prophet of Jehovah left in Samaria, and he was in prison. “I hate him,” Ahab had said, “for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.” However, to please Jehoshaphat, Micaiah was sent for.
While he was coming, all the prophets prophesied prosperity, and one of them for Jehoshaphat’s special benefit added to his words a “Thus saith Jehovah.” This was Zedekiah, who had brought horns of iron to emphasize his prophecy. “Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them,” he cried. These iron horns—these emblems of power—offered the very assurance the kings wished to have, and the accommodating spirit proclaimed the future the kings desired. The promise of what they wished for was given to them in the Lord’s name by the lying spirit. We may well take this solemn warning to our everyday life, for a lying prophet who foretells an issue in accordance with our wishes will ever be at hand when we have departed from the plain commands of our God.
Presently the messenger brought Micaiah to the kings, and on the way he bade him speak like the rest— “The prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.” Be popular, Micaiah, go with the stream, it is a great day for union; see you not that all are of one mind; be thou, therefore, harmonious! Does not the same sentiment now echo around? All are for unity, all are for sinking their differences—what matters it whether a man discredit the Bible, or teach that the atonement of Christ is a fable; what matters it whether we believe nothing or everything? let us be one. Yes! let the pious be one with the impious, the believer with the infidel, only let us be in alliance. Speak good things, for it is the fashion. Away with the old narrow-minded spirit; away with the old and hard belief of the Scriptures! Thus enjoined, Micaiah stood before the kings and the four hundred prophets of good, and to the loud chorus of their voices, saying, with one assent, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper,” he echoed, mockingly, “Go! and prosper.”
But his tones galled Ahab, who adjured him in Jehovah’s name to deliver the message Jehovah had given him. Then Micaiah declared his vision of defeat and ruin—even all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep without a shepherd—and lifted the vail, and showed the mystery of a lying spirit blinding men’s eyes, the mystery of God sent delusion making the rebels against Him believe lies.
This solemn warning, which he himself had sought, failed to move Jehoshaphat. It was too late; he had committed himself and his people to Ahab’s cause. He could not retire from his position. So far did he fall, that he heard the ungodly king’s sentence on Micaiah, and saw him carried off to the dungeon for delivering the message of God. How Ahab’s prophets must have despised Jehoshaphat at that moment!
It is easy enough to compromise the truth, and to ally oneself with rebels against God, but it is utterly vain to hope to compromise the alliance, for when once allied with the enemies of God, the people of God are forced into giving up the truth and their conscience, while of necessity their moral influence vanishes.
There is a remarkable comment on the effect of Micaiah’s words—if we may term it— in the narratives of this incident in both the books of Kings and Chronicles. “So the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead.” It is as if the Spirit of God would indicate to us, for whose sakes these things are written, how steep the downgrade is, and how fatal it is once to get in motion upon it. “So”! —the sequence to the solemn warnings of Jehovah’s prophet is this— “So” Jehoshaphat went down, down to the bitter end!
Christian readers! Let us look to the end. Temporizing with evil, uniting with the enemies of God’s truth, may be popular; there may be the four hundred prophets of good foretelling the favorable result of such a course on the one side, and the solitary prophet warning of evil on the other, but the end will be as God has proclaimed it shall be. Therefore, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2 Cor. 6:14-1614Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:14‑16)).
The battle came, and the word of Jehovah was fulfilled. The allied army was broken up; Ahab fell mortally wounded in his chariot, Jehoshaphat fled to save his life. The end of the unholy alliance was defeat, and shame, and death.
Let us take our warning from the story, for God has declared that what a man sows that also shall he reap, and in our times the temptations to compromise the truth and to enter into alliances with the enemies of God’s word is terribly severe, and numbers of God’s people are falling under the temptation, and are thus losing the value of their conscience, while their moral influence vanishes away. If a Christian man desire to be despised by the enemies of the truth, let him ally himself with them. If he desire to bring shame and dishonor upon His Lord’s Name, let him associate that Name with Belial. Defeat, shame, and death are the results of an unholy alliance.