Well, I am thankful that we are not so dependent on electricity for our liturgy that we can't do church. There are a lot of big-box churches right now that wouldn't have the Holy Spirit with them today because the font machine's down, and that's the problem. Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to 1 Kings, Chapter 22. 1 Kings, Chapter 22, the last chapter. of First Kings, commonly called the Third Book of the Kings. And let's read together the first 40 verses of this chapter. First Kings. And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. The king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said unto them, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, besides, that we may inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Chinanna, made him horns of iron. And he said, Thus saith the Lord, with thee shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now the words of the prophets declared 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. And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. And he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return, every man, to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said unto him, Wherewith? He said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also. Go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah, the son of Canaan, went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him forth unto Ammon, the governor of the city, unto Joash, the king's son. And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction, and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you, So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle, but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. But the king of Syria commanded his thirty-two captains that had ruled over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even. And the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. And they're in a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, every man to his city, every man to his own country. So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armor according to the word of the Lord which is spake. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Let's pray once more. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the reading of your word. May we be diligent hearers this afternoon, despite circumstances. May we give careful attention to what you are telling us in this final hour of Ahab's life. May we understand the end of the wicked. May we understand the blessing of those who fear you. We thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. You'll recall in Psalm 73 that Asaph was envious of the foolish, the boastful and the arrogant. And you'll recall that he says that that foolishness that he had lasted until he went into the sanctuary of God. And then he wrote in his psalm, he said, then understood I their end. Well, today we want to do that. We want to understand the end of the foolish. We want to understand the end of Ahab. We want to take a hard look at the last days and hours of Ahab's life here. And you'll notice that Elijah is not to be found anywhere in this chapter. We're taking a bit of a detour this afternoon from our study of Elijah, but I think this chapter is a must for us. Get closure on Ahab. We've seen a lot of Ahab in relation to Elijah. We want to get closure on Ahab before we continue in the second book of Kings. You know that we're in this month that they call Pride Month. I think a better name for it is the month of degradation. We need to be reminded of Ahab's death. Because, what does scripture say? Pride comes before a fall. We're going to see here that Ahab was a very proud man, and he fell, and he never rose again. He lifted up his eyes in Hades, being in torments by the time this chapter is finished, truly. Well, last time we considered the last half of 1 Kings chapter 21, we saw God's rebuke to Ahab from the mouth of Elijah, the prophet. And we saw that Ahab made what we call a fake repentance, or a false repentance. in response to the judgment message that Elijah proclaimed upon Ahab. And we might ask the question as we conclude that last chapter, did not Ahab know that his repentance was false? But we might answer that question in this way. It was the most real repentance that Ahab ever had. A lost man doesn't have true conversion to really compare against his own hypocritical self-deceit. And we said that this false repentance on the part of Ahab should really scare us, because if we call ourselves Christians, this should cause us to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith. When our repentance is not the genuine work of the Spirit of God, Like Ahab, we can get out of bad situations with repentance. We can smooth out earthly relationships with man-made repentance. But in the end of the day, we'll still go to hell. Ahab still went to hell. So his repentance is a warning shot for us. And so I urge each of us to not trifle in repentance. On the Day of Judgment, what did Jesus say? Many will say, Lord, Lord, and they will be shocked to discover that He never knew them. So if you're unrepentant today, what does God want you to do? He doesn't want you to just go around wearing sackcloth and burlap and to go softly. He wants a broken heart. And Ahab's legacy here is telling us to repent while there is time. Don't just wear a sackcloth, bear fruit worthy of repentance, as John the Baptist said. Well, now that brings us to chapter 22 here, the last chapter of this book. Let's read the first three and a half verses again. They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. Let's stop right there and say that in extra-biblical sources it seems that there were wars against Syria, Assyria at this time, but not between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we be still. and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria. And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? Well, you see a friendly disposition here at the beginning of this chapter between King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab. This is a new development between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. Formally, Judah had actually allied itself with Syria, also known as Aram. That would be the historical name. Aram is the literal Hebrew transliteration of the country in question here. And remember, we mentioned a few studies ago that Aram is where Aramaic, Aramaic, comes from. So, if you hear me using Aram here, Aram, that's the Hebrew transliteration of this word that you might have as Syria in your translation. Well, back in 1 Kings 15, we won't take the time to go there, but in 1 Kings 15, Asach, king of Judah, had taken silver and gold from the temple and bribed Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, to break his covenant with Baasha, king of Israel. So that gives you an idea of how different things were a few kingdoms back, and yet Here, in our chapter before us, we have a covenant now between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, in tandem against the king of Syria. The winds have changed. All of Israel's united against this king of Arum. Now, there's a parallel account to 1 Kings 22 that we're gonna be looking a little bit at this afternoon. In 2 Chronicles chapter 18, you might just keep a finger there, We'll go back to it a time or two. In 2 Chronicles chapter 18, one of the reasons that this affinity between the northern and southern kingdoms against Aram is explained here in the first verse of 2 Chronicles 18. It says, Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance, and joint affinity with Ahab. Now, in Hebrew, this joint affinity literally means to make oneself a daughter's husband. It's a bit of a mouthful, but most translations would render this something like, he married into the family of Ahab. And what this is referring to is the fact that Ahab's daughter had married Jehoshaphat's son. In fact, we see this recorded in 2 Kings 8.18, as well as 2 Chronicles 22. So, Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, had married Athaliah, Ahab's daughter. Athaliah might be a name you recognize, but she was queen for over six years. She kills all the royal seeds. She's this illegitimate queen for a while until she's dethroned and executed. Well, she was a wicked woman. She was Ahab's daughter, trained well. But through this marriage alliance between the northern and southern kingdoms, these two kingdoms of Israel and Judah were now aligned in ways that they hadn't previously been. That animosity that we would see in 1 Kings 15 no longer exists. And so we see that Jehoshaphat comes down to visit Ahab in our text here. It's interesting to read how the Second Chronicles account says that. It says that Ahab entertained Jehoshaphat with great pomp and fanfare. You might even say that they enjoyed a carnivore feast here. Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for the people he had with him. Kill all kinds of sheep and goats and cattle. It's almost like Ahab's getting Jehoshaphat buttered up to ask him this question here. Will you go with me to fight Ramoth-Gilead? Now, we want to notice an irony in this question that might not be evident just from reading it directly. Why didn't they have Ramoth-Gilead already? After all, hadn't this been something that King Ben-Hadad promised to give to Ahab? Do you remember that? A couple chapters ago, at the end of that second battle in the springtime, Ben-Hadad had told Ahab, I will restore to you the cities that my father took from your father. And Ahab said, on the basis of that covenant, I will let you go. But now, two years later and counting, it says in the third year, this is after two have completed, you're beginning the third year, he still doesn't have the city. Ramoth Gilead is still the king of Aram's possession. As Matthew Henry points out, truly the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. This was not how this was supposed to work. That wasn't the plan. Now, Ramoth Gilead here is a very strategic city. It's an interesting location. It's on the east side of Jordan. It's in the tribe of Gad. We know from Joshua that it's a Levite city. We know from Deuteronomy it's a city of refuge. And it lay on an international route called the King's Highway. This was a major thoroughfare that had significance. It lay in route between Egypt to the south and Syria, or Aram, to the north. So it's militarily and economically strategic. It's important to Israel as a city of Levi, given to them as an inheritance, and a city of refuge. And they don't have it, despite the fact that Benidad had promised to give it two chapters ago. So Ahab is upset that he doesn't have this city, and after this pomp and circumstance that he has with King Jehoshaphat, reading all these animals and getting buttered up and talking, they're starting to brainstorm things they can do together with his friend Jehoshaphat. He says, don't you know that Ramoth-Gilead is ours? We're doing nothing to take it from the King of Aram. Will you go with me to fight Ramoth-Gilead? Well, we see Jehoshaphat's answer starting in the second half of verse 4. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And then you could render the next word, but Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the mouth of Yahweh to-day. So, he wants to get God's opinion about this. There's a two-part answer to this. He's fully on board with the idea. He's ready to go to war against the Arameans. But there's this one qualifying question. He wants to know what the word of the Lord is. And we might ask the question, was this a good response? Was it right for Jehoshaphat to agree to King Ahab to go fight against, to recapture Ramoth Gilead? Well, I think we're given an answer to that in large part in 2 Chronicles chapter 19. So if you have your fingers still in 2 Chronicles 18, just turn one chapter over. This is after the battle that we read about in 1 Kings 22. Let's just read the first few verses here of 2 Chronicles 19. It says, And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. He's returning after the death of Ahab that we read about. And Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. Well, there's a nuanced condemnation there, isn't there? We're gonna see with Jehoshaphat, in some ways he's just as bad as Ahab, sometimes it seems, and then other times, he prepares his heart, and there's a good thing found in him. Our study's not primarily focused with Jehoshaphat, but keep an eye on this figure as we go through the text. But notice what's being said there unmistakably, by Hanani the seer. Shouldst thou help the ungodly, verse two, and love them that hate Yahweh? So was it right for Jehoshaphat to go along with Ahab's desire to take our reign off Gilead? No. And he made his first mistake when he agreed and said, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. We're going to see that that compromised position sinks him deeper and deeper as this story unfolds. Well, Jehoshaphat's alliance may not have been right, but to his credit, he did seek godly counsel. Verse 5 of our text. Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. And there's a lesson for us here that I don't want us to miss, and that is this. When we're embarking on the decisions of life, let us seek the word of the Lord. Let us seek godly counsel. Many Christians get into trouble when they fail to take this step. Let us use both the word of the Lord and the ministers that he has placed into our lives to guide our steps. We will avoid many missteps if we say with Jehoshaphat, first, let us ask what Yahweh's will is. Well, we see that Ahab was happy to comply with Jehoshaphat's request here. You see verse six, then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400, men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, for the Lord shall deliver us into the hand of the king. But we don't know where these 400 prophets came from. Some think that maybe they were remnants from the prophets of Baal that were killed on Mount Carmel. What we do know for sure, and what we'll see in a moment, is that a lying spirit had been put in their mouth to speak what was not true. Now, I want us to notice something very carefully about the language there in verse 6, the response on the part of the 400 prophets. They said, Go up, for the Lord shall deliver into the hand of the king. Well, if your Bible puts Yahweh in all caps, you'll note that's not present here. This word Lord here is Adonai. It's not the Yahweh that Jehoshaphat was talking about the very previous verse. And I think there's some significance here. If you were to look at the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 18, the word given there is Elohim. They said, Elohim will deliver him to the hand of God. Why Adonai? Why Elohim? What's this going on? What was this about? See, Jehoshaphat had asked for a word from Yahweh, that's the name of Israel's covenant God. But these ecumenical prophets are keeping the identification of their deity deliberately vague, it seems. It's almost like they're saying, you know, we don't know the identity of these prophets. If they're left over from Mount Carmel, they're saying, well, Baal, Yahweh, whoever, Adonai, Adonai will deliver up your enemies. Is that good enough? The Sovereign One, you could render Him, whoever He is. There's a lot of theology today that agrees with the lying spirit of these prophets. You hear things like, just coexist. Maybe just speak it in faith. Oh yeah, He'll deliver you up into the Deliver up Ramoth Gilead into the hand of the king." But notice that this pietistic paganism that kept the identity of God vague and encouraged living your best life now didn't really pass the smell test for Jehoshaphat, to his credit. We'll see him pushing back there in verse 7. Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord, of Yahweh, besides that we might inquire of him? It's like he's asking, can we get a real Yahweh prophet here, please? We should ask him the same question. Verse 18, And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Emma, by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Well, throughout this narrative, Jehoshaphat is frequently made to be uncomfortable. Like I said a minute ago, he's in a deeply compromised position at this point. He's later going to receive that rebuke that we read a few moments before from Jehu in 2 Chronicles 19. But it seems that all he can manage to say here at this point is, that's not the way that a king should talk. Let's hear him out. Let's hear what he has to say. And so then, verse 9, the king of Israel called an officer and said, Hathen hither Micaiah the son of Emla. Now, it's suspicious, to say the least, that Ahab is able to summon this prophet Micaiah so speedily. Matthew Henry is of the opinion that it's because Ahab was actually already imprisoning Micaiah. This would be in keeping with the language, I think, in verse 26 of our chapter, where Ahab tells this officer, take my child and carry him back. Doesn't sound like this is a free agent, coming or going. Carry him back unto Ammon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son, and say, put this fellow in prison. There's also a strong possibility that this Micaiah was one and the same as the unnamed prophet back in chapter 20, who prophesied to Ahab that because he had spared Ben-Hadad's life, that he would die in his place, life for life. Well, if so, then that would make Micaiah to have been kept in prison for the past two years and counting here. But whatever the case, Ahab clearly has this true prophet on speed dial, and they hasten him into his presence. And then we see in verse 10, these two kings are seated on their thrones at a threshing floor near the gate of Samaria. That language there of in a void place, it's often rendered threshing floor throughout the Old Testament, and most translators would put that here, a threshing floor, that's where they're at. And so they're here on this threshing floor, outside, near the gate of Samaria. likely an outdoor setting, and you have these 400 prophets now who are trying to outdo each other in their zeal for declaring just how victorious this battle is going to be against Ramoph-Gilead. The word for most passionate prophet surely went to Zedekiah, the son of Canaan. It says there that he set himself up a set of iron horns, And he says, okay, with these horns, you're going to gore the Arameans to death. That's the imagery. And it's also worth noting that that language switched, in verse 11, from Adonai to Yahweh. It's almost like these opportunists say, oh, Jehoshaphat, you're needing a word from Yahweh, the God of Israel? Okay, well, we have a word from Him. They got their language right once they figured out that that was a big deal to the southern kingdom. Well, notice that the messenger that went to fetch Micaiah, verse 13, encourages him to establish good rapport with these waiting kings. And he tells them in so many words, read the room. They're looking for a rubber stamp here. Just be sure you agree with them and promise success. This will go easy. Maybe you'll get out of jail. Well, let's look at Micaiah's response in verse 14. Micaiah said, So Micaiah manages this messenger's expectations from the outset. No, he's not going to just rubber stamp what King Ahab wants to do. He's only going to speak the word of the Lord. He's not going to deviate from the right hand or the left of what Yahweh tells him. Verse 15, he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramophgelia to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Now, why did Micaiah answer this way? Many take what he said to just be sheer sarcasm. In other words, he knows that Ahab's gonna push back on what he's gonna tell him, And he wants to demonstrate that no matter what he says to Ahab, he can't please Ahab. Say it's going to be good, Ahab's going to be upset. Say it's going to be bad, Ahab's going to be upset. You can't please him. Well, it's a possible explanation for what's happening here, but there may be something deeper going on here. What Micaiah is saying here may be more than sarcasm. It seems very strange that Micaiah would have sworn as Yahweh lives, made that oath in verse 14, that what Yahweh says to me, that will I speak, and then turn around and suddenly give this inaccurate prophecy. Micaiah already knew, at this point, that God had told that spirit to go forth and prosper, essentially, as we'll see in verse 22. This lying spirit was doing the work of God. And if you take this understanding from the text, what Micaiah is speaking in verse 15 here is as much at Yahweh's bidding as what he would go on to speak in verse 17. In other words, Micaiah is continuing the heavenly work of the lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab's prophets. In other words, there's a parallel between the heavenly dispatch of this lying spirit and the heavenly dispatch of Micaiah's lying prophecy. And in this sense, Micaiah is holding true to his oath. As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that will I speak. Well, we want to be very careful here. God is not the offer of sin. And yet the New Testament does build upon the biblical concept of God causing people to believe lies. Paul wrote by inspiration in 2 Thessalonians 2, God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Now notice what it is that is being said there. God is the dispatcher of the delusion of 2 Thessalonians. Make no mistake. Well, be that as it may, verse 16, the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? Ahab had long since forfeited God's honest dealings with him. That's what's happening at this point as Ahab's career sunsets. In other words, Ahab's rejection of the God of truth meant that God was judging him in like kind. You reject the God of truth, God will withdraw his truth from you. He'll withhold the truth. In other words, I think that Ahab knew in his heart of hearts that he was being given over to his bankrupt, truthless worldview. And he's pushing back. He quantifies what he wants from Maikai now. In other words, I don't just want it to be from the name of Yahweh, but I want that which is true in the name of Yahweh. Notice how he adds that to it. Well, brothers and sisters, there is nothing more terrifying than being under judgment from God of such severity that God is deliberately withholding the truth. That is the level of judgment that we are seeing here. Verse 17, Maikai responds. Now that Ahab has said what he said, here's the word of the Lord unto Ahab. And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. This is signaling very, very clearly to King Ahab that if he goes forward with this battle, he will die. These have no master. What does that mean? Their master has died. He's been killed. Send these sheep home in peace. Verse 18, And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did not I tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning thee, but evil? This is one of the insights into where Ahab is at at this point. That he seems to be more enthusiastic about having been proven right in his assessment of Micaiah than he is appalled at the sorrow that awaits him. Did you just see the disconnect there? There's a complete lack of the fear of the Lord in his response here. I think this demonstrates for us what a low view of the Lord that Ahab had. In other words, Ahab all along here never gave us any indication to believe that he had any intention other than going against Ramoth Gilead. Nothing could upset him from that. There's no prophecy from Yahweh that's going to stop that. He fully intends to carry out his plans. while at the same time knowing that Yahweh was against it. And he knew that Yahweh was against it without ever having to hear that from Micaiah. See that? This is what he was expecting to hear. Well, after this back and forth, Micaiah gives Ahab a more detailed explanation as to his prophecy, starting in verse 19. And he, Micaiah, said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. Stop right there. Notice the imagery. Remember, Ahab and Jehoshaphat are on this threshing floor near the gate of Samaria, and they're enthroned in their kingly garments. They've got their armies that they're ready to summon. But what is Micaiah saying here? He is saying that there is a king of kings on his throne, and he has his army surrounding him on his left and on his right. That army is going to do whatever his hand and what his will predestines to take place. There's not going to be any outmaneuvering of this king and this army. Verse 20, and the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? One said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. This is a very interesting section here. Maikai is giving a detailed explanation that gives us rare insight into the inner workings of God's heavenly throne room. Now, going back a second to this concept of host, just so it's clear in our minds here, we don't really use this word host this way anymore. I think that in spoken English, the word that closely maps for us is the word army. And so, when you see the word host, think army. But what Micaiah is saying this, is that here's this army of God. And he's asking the army in verse 20, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? Now, God is pictured here as asking for a volunteer to persuade Ahab to fight a battle that will kill him. And so, in other words, in creaturely terms here, God's looking for a means to carry out his purpose. And we notice that his heavenly army offers various ideas, doesn't really elaborate on them, it just says that one said on this manner, another said on that manner. But none of them seem to be satisfactory. And then one spirit simply just says, I'll do it. And Yahweh asks for elaboration. He says, what's your plan? How are you gonna do this? The spirit gives his answer in verse 22. There'll be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets. Now, it's not clear who this lying spirit is. There's discussion about this. Is this a clean spirit from the heavenly army? Is it an unclean spirit? Is it perhaps Satan himself? The text is unclear and we want to be careful not to go beyond what is written. What Micaiah is seeing here, after all, is a vision. There's mystery here. But what is clear is that this spirit put together a plan that Yahweh scrutinizes, humanly speaking, cross-examines it, vets it out, clears it, gives his blessing on it. You shall persuade him and also prevail. You could render this, you will certainly entice him. And it's an imperative, it's a command. Deceive and overpower him. There's a force element involved in this. And then he says at the very end of verse 22, go forth and do so. Go. Now, you'll notice that once the prophet here, Micaiah, finishes with that, verse 23, he says, He's done talking now, and things get ugly on this threshing floor. Zedekiah is so furious that he breaks to quorum here. And he walks right up to Micaiah, hits him on the jaw, and he says, which way did the spirit of Yahweh go for me in order to speak to you? Incidentally, some take this language of the spirit here and the fact that the article is used for the spirit in verse 22 to say that it's the spirit of prophecy that was talking with Yahweh here. Well, again, the text is not clear. We don't want to go beyond what is written. Well, it discredits Jehoshaphat that we don't read his intervening for objecting to this punch on the part of Zedekiah. We want to hear at this point that Jehoshaphat says, OK, I'm out. I asked for my profit. I got my profit. The word is bad. Clearly, you guys are animosity towards him. I'm leaving. We don't see anything like that, do we? It discredits him that we don't see this. And in fact, it's clear from his joining in battle that he's really just going with the flow at this point. Maybe he feels trapped, maybe he's too embarrassed to back out at this point, whatever the reason is. It might actually be the fact that he hears that the baddest bad news is just for Ahab and everyone else gets to go home. And he thinks, well, worst case scenario, I go home after the battle. But he's going to get that rebuke. Don't forget that. He's going to get that rebuke from Jehu in 2 Chronicles. He should not have continued to go on. Like I said earlier, our focus is primarily on Ahab in this chapter, but Jehoshaphat is not shining much brighter here at this point. Well, notice that in verse 25, Micaiah does not retaliate in like kind, because that is Micaiah's punch. He says, Behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. Now, this inner chamber is that chamber-within-a-chamber language that we saw Ben-Hadad go inside of back in chapter 20. Verse 26, And the king of Israel said, Take my chi, and carry him back unto Ammon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son. That's Ahab's son, by the way. You can almost render this, take him to my son. But the way that he would have said it in Hebrew is to the king's son. And thus saith the Lord, Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction, and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. Ahab has had enough at this point. He's gotten enough of the prophecy, and he's done. He says, take him out, take him to prison, feed him coarse bread and puddle water until I return in peace. And notice what Micaiah responds with in verse 28. Micaiah said, if thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And then it's like he turns from him to everyone listening, and he says, hearken, O people, every one of you. At this point, Ahab has made it abundantly clear that he was going to give no ear to the Word of God, and Micaiah wants everyone to pay attention and to bear witness of this. He's saying, everyone, are you paying attention to what's happening here? As I'm being hauled off here, are you paying attention to what's happening? Now, there was still time here for Ahab to repent. At the end of verse 28, there's still time for Ahab to repent. He should have repented. He should have called off the battle right here and been done with it. And yet, what had happened here? This lying spirit had done his work. Ahab is literally hell-bent on thwarting the word of Yahweh. We see in verse 29, after Micaiah is hauled off, that the armies mobilize and they march what would be a multi-day journey, really, many, many miles to Ramoth Gilead. And again, the fact that it mentions Jehoshaphat's name there, says the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king, went up to Ramoth Gilead. They mobilized the northern and southern kingdoms. Their armies mobilized in unison to this northeast corner of the nation. And we just have to ask the question, Jehoshaphat, what are you thinking? You've got your godly prophet that you asked for. The verdict is in. Ahab's going to die. And importantly, the battle's not going to be successful. Why would you go into a battle that the prophet you asked for said is going to be unsuccessful? All we can say is that Jehoshaphat feared man more than he feared God. And yet I wonder, if we read a biography of our lives, would there ever be times where we look back and say, wow, that didn't make any sense. I was fearing man more than I was fearing God. May God give us the strength and the boldness to follow his word in the easy times and the difficult times. Well, notice in verse 30, they get within sight of the city gates And somewhere along, whether it's during the march over there or when it is about to commence, Ahab realizes he needs to formulate some kind of a plan with his co-king. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle. He's starting to get some second doubts here. But put thou on thy rose. King of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. Now you would not want to be in Ahab's shoes at this point, right? Yahweh has said, if you go into this battle, you're going to die. They're going into the battle. You wouldn't want to be in Ahab's shoes. And yet he's telling Jehoshaphat to be in his shoes, more or less. Is this how you treat a friend? But then Jehoshaphat goes along with it. And it's interesting, you know, Ahab had mocked Micaiah earlier, told him, put him in jail, give him the bread of affliction, the water of affliction. But you see, now that he's within sight of Ramoth Gilead, he's a little leery of the possibility that what Micaiah had prophesied might actually come to pass. And again, there's time to repent. What he should have done within the steeples of Ramoth Gilead is return, go to Samaria, disband the troops. There was still time for that. But what does Ahab do? He thought he could outsmart God. After everything he witnessed, I mean, think about the things we've studied together over the months. from the drought at the very beginning that Elijah had prophesied of, the fire on Mount Carmel, Elijah running for 18 miles in front of his chariot all the way back to Jezreel, all of the things that God had done. At the end of the day, none of this deterred Ahab from entering his final battle. Ahab is a vivid illustration for us of the deceitfulness of sin. Verse 31, but the king of Syria commanded his 32 captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. Notice, the king of Syria knows something that is true, and that is, if you take out the king, everyone else scatters. And so he says, let's not waste a bunch of time with a bunch of bloodshed. I want you to do one thing. You 32 captains, you have rule over my chariots, you have one task, get Ahab. And it's not clear whether or not he's wanting them to take him alive or dead. It actually may be the case that he wants to take him alive, but God's not going to let that happen. Zahab's going to die. Verse 14, it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, surely it is the king of Israel. You know, Jehoshaphat's wearing his Judah robes, and they didn't have the color coding that we have with sports teams today. They see the king in Judah's robes, and they think that must be the king of Israel's robes. This is the king, let's get him. They turn aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. Boy, I would have loved to have seen that. as Jehoshaphat cries out in a way that was probably quite unkingly for him. He was probably very embarrassed about that. Served him right. It came to pass when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel that they turned back from pursuing him. Well, this is interesting because we're given a little bit more insight in 2 Chronicles. In 2 Chronicles 18.31 it says, Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God moved them, that's the Arameans, to depart from him. So, author of 1 Kings says, they perceived it wasn't Jehoshaphat, they moved away. Chronicles kind of gives us God's point of view. He sovereignly overrides and moves them to not do that. To not kill Jehoshaphat or try to capture him. Verse 34, and a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore he says to the driver of his chariot, turn thine hand and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. Now this phrase venture, we don't really use venture this way anymore. Usually when we talk about ventures, we're talking about business ventures that are very strategic, very planned. Joint ventures, different companies coming together and making strategic plans. That's not what this is speaking of here. You could render this, a certain man drew a bow at random. That's the idea. The Hebrew is interesting because the literal Hebrew is, a man drew his bow in his innocence. Now what is that conveying? What it's conveying is that he didn't have a specific target. That's really what's being intended to be conveyed there. He didn't have a specific target. He's involved in some process in the battle, almost undoubtedly, but he doesn't have a specific target. He's just drawing a bow here. This soldier would have almost certainly been an Aramean archer. He could have been firing in tandem with all the archery. In these battles, before they had guns and things like that, the archery played a very significant role in the battle. In fact, the sky would temporarily dim with the number of arrows going towards the enemy. So one of these thousands of arrows fired that day made its way between the plates of incognito Ahab's armor. And upon being hit, he tells his chariot driver, turn the horses. Chariot driver has got his hand on the reins. He says, turn your hand. What do you do when you turn the hand with reins? You're turning the horse. He says, turn the horses. I've been hit. I'm wounded. And he says, take me back from the battle line. See that word host there? Turn thy hand and carry me out of the host. Remember, host is army. Take me out of the army. Take me out of the battle line. Verse 35, And the battle increased that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even. And the blood ran out of the wound in the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. Well, what we see here is that Ahab lived long enough to witness the second half of that prophecy come true. In other words, he lived long enough to see that not only is he going to die, but the battle is not successful. The battle is a failure. Every man to his house in peace. He lived long enough to see that battle fail. In other words, Ramaph Gilead was not, in fact, theirs. As he had so pompously told Jehoshaphat in verse 3 of the chapter. Concerning the slowness of his death, this blood dripping out, the slippery chariot bottom as he's riding along, Matthew Henry writes, quote, his death was so lingering that he had time to feel himself die. And we may well imagine with what horror he now reflected upon the wickedness he had committed. Henry goes on to say that Ahab felt Zedekiah's horns of iron pushing, not the Syrians, but himself into destruction. What a sobering passage. And then it just says in verse 37, so the king died, and was brought to Samaria. Left Samaria in great pomp and circumstance, well fed from that feast he'd been having with Jehoshaphat. Changed his armor, what's the chances of getting hit having done that? And then he dies, and he's brought back to Samaria, and they bury the king in Samaria. He should have never left Samaria, but it was God's intended purpose as a judge on unrepentant Ahab. And then verse 38, one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armor. And that phrase, they washed his armor, is very difficult to translate, and there's different interpretations as to what's being talked about there. Some render it that the harlots washed themselves in that same pool. Some even think that Jezebel had lewd women painted on the chariot, and that that was what's being talked about there. There's ambiguity there. But the point is, when it says, according to the word of the Lord, when she spake, this is a prophecy of the dogs licking up his blood. And indeed, it came to pass. the rest of the Acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the ivory house that he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? Now you might ask, where in the world is this written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? Well, this is a no longer extant source that the author of 1 Kings would have utilized in putting together this. Verse 40, So Ahab slept with his fathers, and ate his eye of his son, and reigned in his stead. We'll see in 2 Kings that Ahaziah doesn't learn a thing. Ahaziah and Elijah, once again, overlap. Well, as we close, we return to where we started with Asaph's words in Psalm 73. Are you foolish? Are you envious at the foolish today? You know, Asaph was embarrassed to admit it. He was embarrassed to admit to the people of God that he was envious at the foolish. But he came to the sanctuary of God and he understood their end. God's word calls us to do that. Come into the sanctuary of God and understand their end. Understand Ahab's end here. Nobody's envious of Ahab. Nobody wants their end to be like his. And if they're being honest, no one would want their life to be like his life because how he lived, so he died. What would Ahab have to say to us today? Surely he would tell us, don't be like me. Isn't that the very perspective that the New Testament gives us in the example of the rich man in Hades? As he begs Abraham, he says, please send Lazarus. If you're not gonna give me a drip of water, at least send Lazarus to talk to my five brethren and warn them. What would Ahab say to us? He would say, go back. Hear the prophets. Go back to the scriptures. Go back to the basics. Read scripture with the weight of the text. You know, there's a lot of scripture reading and scripture discussion that refuses to do that. It refuses to wrestle with the weight of the text. What is God commanding you to do in it? Think about how much word that Ahab heard in his lifetime. It's not enough to hear it. You have to hear it and understand it and do it. Ahab heard it, and he blew it off. He squandered it. I mean, he heard much of the Word of God. He squandered all of it. So, that begs the question, what are you doing with God's Word? How are you hearing? Take heed how you hear. And let us learn from this to not be envious of the foolish. Understand their men. Fear God and fear His words. I close with the words of the psalmist. He says, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Let's pray once more. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. May we not hear it as Ahab heard it. May we hear it and fear you. And may we live in light of your word. Help us to put away our sin, knowing that if we do not kill our sin, it will kill us, even as it killed Ahab. Help us to have a bigger view of you than Ahab had of you. To see that you are not just a God that we can wield at the end of our caprice and our own will, but that you are the God that we are to bow in submission in all things in life, so that we can truly say that you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords of our life. and we will rejoice and be glad in that. We give you thanks and we give you praise for showing us these things. We thank you that you have not left us to our own devices like you left Ahab. And Lord, for those who are enmity with you, we pray that they would give themselves to you as a living sacrifice, repenting of their sin, that they would bow the knee in their heart and confess that you are God and they are not, We ask these things now in Jesus' name, amen.