1 Kings 22 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: 1 Kings 22:1-17
1 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, ‘Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?’
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, ‘Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?’
Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, ‘I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.’ 5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, ‘First seek the counsel of the Lord.’
6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets – about four hundred men – and asked them, ‘Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?’
‘Go,’ they answered, ‘for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.’
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, ‘Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can enquire of?’
8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one prophet through whom we can enquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’
‘The king should not say such a thing,’ Jehoshaphat replied.
9 So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, ‘Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.’
10 Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing-floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. 11 Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, ‘This is what the Lord says: “With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.”’
12 All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. ‘Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,’ they said, ‘for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.’
13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, ‘Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favourably.’
14 But Micaiah said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.’
15 When he arrived, the king asked him, ‘Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?’
‘Attack and be victorious,’ he answered, ‘for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.’
16 The king said to him, ‘How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?’
17 Then Micaiah answered, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, “These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.”’
A. Find Out:
- What did Ahab want to do and with whose help? v.1-4
- Who was consulted and said what? v.5,6
- Who did Jehoshaphat ask for and who was sent for? v.7-9
- What further advice was being given to Ahab? v.10-12
- What happened with Micaiah? v.13-15
- How did Ahab react and what was the real message? v.16,17
B. Think:
- What are we shown about the spiritual state of Israel here?
- How is the king of Judah shown to be discerning?
- How is Ahab still shown to be discerning?
C. Comment:
We start to move into interesting waters! Things start happening with strong spiritual undertones. Having largely destroyed the army of Aram there is peace for three years, but Ahab realises that there is still some land belonging to them that is still occupied by Aram. There also seem to be friendly relations with Judah and so Ahab asks Judah to stand with them against Aram to get their land back.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah is clearly a godly man and wants to seek the counsel of the Lord before taking any hasty action. Ahab calls together his prophets – almost certainly prophets of Baal, four hundred of them! They have obviously rebuilt since Elijah had eight hundred of them put to death. Jehoshaphat is wisely unhappy about these men who are counselling victory. This doesn’t feel right to him, so he asks is there a known prophet of the Lord in the land. Ahab begrudgingly acknowledges there is one, Micaiah but he’s unhappy about him because he always speaks badly about Ahab. What a surprise!!! Micaiah is called and in the meanwhile Ahab’s men are still prophesying triumph – well they did beat Aram three years before, didn’t they! Micaiah is told to conform and does, but Ahab knows he’s not speaking the truth – how amazing. An evil but discerning king! He challenges Micaiah who then warns of defeat. Is that the end? Oh no! Watch this space!
D. Application:
- Watch and learn – even unbelievers know the truth deep down.
- Don’t go on what looks good – listen for the Lord’s counsel.
Passage: 1 Kings 22:18-40
18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?’
19 Micaiah continued, ‘Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing round him on his right and on his left. 20 And the Lord said, “Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?”
‘One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, “I will entice him.”
22 ‘“By what means?” the Lord asked.
‘“I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,” he said.
‘“You will succeed in enticing him,” said the Lord. “Go and do it.”
23 ‘So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.’
24 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. ‘Which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?’ he asked.
25 Micaiah replied, ‘You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.’
26 The king of Israel then ordered, ‘Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son 27 and say, “This is what the king says: put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.”’
28 Micaiah declared, ‘If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.’ Then he added, ‘Mark my words, all you people!’
Ahab killed at Ramoth Gilead
29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.’ So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
31 Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, ‘Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.’ 32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, ‘Surely this is the king of Israel.’ So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, 33 the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.
34 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armour. The king told his chariot driver, ‘Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.’ 35 All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. 36 As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: ‘Every man to his town. Every man to his land!’
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. 38 They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the Lord had declared.
39 As for the other events of Ahab’s reign, including all he did, the palace he built and adorned with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 40 Ahab rested with his ancestors. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.
A. Find Out:
- What did Micaiah see and what did the Lord ask? v.19,20
- What answer did he get? v.21-22
- So what conclusion did Micaiah bring? v.23
- What happened to Micaiah? v.24-28
- How did Ahab try to thwart Micaiah’s word? v.29-33
- But what eventually happened to Ahab? v.34-40
B. Think:
- What heavenly insight are we given in this passage?
- How was Ahab’s folly further seen?
- How do we see he could not avoid God’s will for him?
C. Comment:
A passage packed with challenge. First we are given a prophetic insight into heaven. It is the Lord who decrees Ahab’s death, but He will do it in a way that involves Ahab’s folly. He will get the false prophets to lie. How can that happen? He’ll simply allow a ‘spirit’ (?an angel?) to go and make the suggestion to these false prophets and because they are false they will believe what seems obvious and go along with it, even if it’s not true. Do you remember we commented previously that, after all, Ahab had defeated Aram twice before. Now he’s got the help of Judah so it shouldn’t be a problem. At least that’s how it seems to these idol-worshipping so-called prophets. The amazing thing of course, is that Micaiah tells Ahab the truth but Ahab is so caught up in deception that he cannot see it when it is put before him.
Thus it was that Ahab goes to battle, but takes the precaution of going in disguise, and even putting the king of Judah out front in his royal robes so he can attract the enemy’s attention. But you won’t avoid God’s judgement like that; for it’s an apparently ‘random’ arrow’ that pierces Ahab’s armour in a fatal place. By the end of the day he is dead.
It’s not as if this king doesn’t get enough warnings. Again and again he had had encounters with God through various prophets and again and again he ignored the warnings. Such is the folly of sin!
D. Application:
- When God declares judgement, there is still time for repentance.
- It is only repentance that will hold back the wrath of God.