Religious Study

Well, I am certain that most of you have heard of Adam, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth.  Some of you may even have heard of Isaiah, Daniel, Samuel, or Joel.  But ask yourself this: Have you heard of Micaiah??   Yes, my friends, Micaiah is a prophet in the Old Testament.  He has just one chapter in the entire Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 18.  So, Jehoshaphat, the leader of the kingdom of Judah joins with Ahab, the leader of the kingdom of Israel (these two kingdoms used to be one, but they split at some point in history) to oust the Syrians.  Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to inquire of the Lord as to whether they should go against the Syrians.  So Ahab gathered 400 prophets and asked whether they should attack Syria and these 400 prophets all said "Go up; for God will deliver it into the king's hand (verse 5)."  Here is some of my own interpretation: it seems that Jehoshaphat was not satisfied by these 400 prophets.  Maybe he thought they were just telling Ahab what he wanted to hear.  So Jehoshaphat asks if there isn't some other prophet in the area and Ahab, like a cantankerous child says, "There is yet one man, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla (verse 7)."  Poor baby; it seems like Ahab doesn't want the truth, and here is confirmation that he only wants his "prophets" to tell him what he wants to hear.

When approached, Macaiah said "As the Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak (verse 13)."  Now it seems a little confusing in the scriptures, but we find out that Micaiah is the only prophet to prophesy the fall of Ahab in Syria.  We also find out that Ahab's prophets have a lying spirit inside of them.  Micaiah is cast into prison and Ahab gives his so-called last word, dooming Micaiah to bread and water "until I return in peace."  But it is Micaiah who gets the final word here with, "...If thou certainly return in peace, then hath not the Lord spoken by me."  Ha!  Well, poor Ahab, he died in the last verse of the chapter, thus confirming that Micaiah was indeed a mouthpiece of the Lord in this instance.

Here are the lessons that I learned from Micaiah; (1) a prophet always tells the truth regardless of the consequences and (2) it is best to follow the prophet or suffer the consequences.