Talk 15

0:00 Well, today we come to the final chapter in 1 Kings. It's not the end of our series because next couple of weeks we're going to be starting 2 Kings. But this is the final little section, and it is also the demise of Ahab. I told somebody that this morning my job is to finish off Ahab, but that's not my job, is just to tell you the story. Now, those of you who know my wife will know that she loves movies with happy endings. And I suspect that most of us are fairly similar in the end, because it comes from a good place. We want justice to win over corruption. We want love to win over hate and so on.

0:55 It comes from a good place. And yet, as we dive into the story in chapter 21 and verse 16, we're reminded that this is not a happy ending in terms of this life with the character we've been considering last week, and that is the character of Naboth. This is 1 Kings 21, and we start in verse 16. When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard. Now, if you've been following along and reading the verses leading up to this, There's a remarkable insistence on the fact that Naboth was killed. He died. I think it's six or seven times it's mentioned just in case we miss it. In other words, there was no happy ending in the sense that Hollywood understands it for Naboth.

2:02 That was the reality, which may be the reason why this story is not necessarily the top of everybody's list of Bible stories. We prefer the fantastic story of how God delivered the three from Nebuchadnezzar's blazing furnace, or David's victory over Goliath, or Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison, the start of Acts, or Paul's deliverance from those he plotted to kill him and from the shipwreck. And those are all great stories and those happened. But here's the story of a man loyal to the living God who refused to sell his God-given inheritance and he died because of it. And God did not intervene miraculously to save him from death. That's the reality. And sometimes these stories are important for us because we can persist sometimes with two childlike a notion. And sometimes it's fed by those speakers and teachers who want us to believe that if only we have enough faith, God always intervenes and always delivers.

3:15 And that is simply not the case, certainly not the way that they talk about it. Jesus was perfectly clear when describing the reality of what it means to follow him in a world that has rejected him, a world that murdered the Prince of life. And with Paul and Peter, who both experienced miraculous interventions of God in their life, both of them in the end were martyred for their faith and God did not miraculously intervene. That is reality. Indeed, according to Open Doors, on average, 13 Christians worldwide are killed for their faith every day, amounting to about 5,000 a year. So to teach and to talk as if these people lacked faith, and if only they had enough faith, God would have intervened. Not only is it discredit to those people, but it is a dishonoring to God himself. If we are to develop a robust, real faith, we must face what the Bible itself so faithfully and realistically records.

4:28 God did not intervene to save Naboth from suffering and death. But is not the end. As Easter, that we've just celebrated, as the resurrection of Jesus demonstrated, it changes everything. And I have no doubt that Naboth, from the perspective of eternity, is not spending his time protesting about God and why didn't you do this and why did you do that. He understands it now from that perspective, but we haven't been told the rest of his story. That's for him to tell us in heaven. What we are told is what God actually did. While he didn't intervene to deliver Naboth, he did intervene to deal with Ahab.

5:25 And so we've read that Ahab took possession of Naboth's vineyard. There's no expression of remorse, no horror at what his wife had done on his behalf. It was basically just a deal to be done. He had the power. The vineyard was now vacant. Why not take it? What's the harm? Why not?

5:45 And that's the way it goes, isn't it? That's just the way it goes. When tyranny rules, when the justice system is corrupt, it's just tough. Get over it. Except it isn't the end of the story. In God's universe, the story isn't over until God has the last word. so let's follow it verse 17 chapter 21 then the word of the lord came to elijah the tishbite god's prophet go down and meet ahab king of israel who rules in samaria he's now in nebo's vineyard where he has gone to take possession of it say this to him this is what the lord says please notice that this is what the lord says have you not murdered a man and seized his property. Then say to him, this is what the Lord said.

6:41 In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood. Yes, yours. And Ahab said to Elijah, So you have found me, my enemy. So God sends Elijah to confront Ahab with his word. This is what the Lord says. And Ahab's response is fascinating, as it always is, I think, with Ahab. He says to Elijah, not dealing with the words he said, but making it personal, so you found me, my enemy. The words of a guilty, haunted, unrepentant individual.

7:40 But Elijah was only his enemy because Ahab had made himself the enemy of God by rejecting God's words to him. And Elijah doesn't mince his words, but then they're not his words. And the emphasis constantly is on this. Elijah, this is what the Lord said. Elijah, this is what the Lord said. Elijah is bound to communicate the message that God has given. He's just the messenger. He's not responsible for the reaction to it.

8:23 He is responsible to be faithful to the message. And of course, in this case, it's a message of God's judgment on Ahab. And it's not terribly pleasant to read, for example, of dogs licking up the man's blood. But this is not some ill-tempered, angry threat. It is just a clear statement of what is going to happen. And I've already spent considerable time addressing certain aspects of judgment in an earlier talk, and I'm not planning to repeat today what I said then, but just again to repeat that justice is something that we all long for. It is therefore to be celebrated that in Christianity we have a God who is the judge of all the earth who will do right and will be seen ultimately to do right in the end. How different this is from the accounts of tyranny and the gods and so on, where evil tyrants simply get away with what they do.

9:35 What kind of a god would it be if that happened? And in case we have missed the seriousness of what Ahab had done, the historian, unusually for him, sort of interposes comments in the text in verse 25 of chapter 21, There was never anyone like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel, his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel. This is the reality of his disobedience, his evil, his corruption. And the Psalms in the Old Testament, the prophets in the Old Testament, rejoiced, actually, to think that one day, God, the judge, would rise up and come and judge the whole earth. They didn't see it as a threat. They saw it as a fulfillment of the longing in the end for evil to be put down and justice to be done. The story is not over.

10:53 The reality is that those who do evil will not simply get away with it, even if they don't have to face judgment here on earth, they will face it. And so faced with these words pronounced to him, look at verse 27 of 21. When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, he put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay on sackcloth and went around meekly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite. Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son. Amazing again.

11:39 Another insight into Ahab. It just seems that now he's got the message. Now he's responded. He's torn his royal robes, his garments that were a symbol of his greatness as a king and his role. And so he's torn and he's replaced them with old sackcloth, a symbol of mourning, of repenting, and goes around meekly and humbly. And you think, finally he's got it, finally he's responded. And God now gives him even more time. I'll not now move in.

12:13 Gives him more time. but we have chapter 22 and we read there then that three years pass lots of things happened in between but three years have passed and now we're reminded of the wider context of Ahab's story because all of her stories are in a context aren't they there's all sorts of other things going on in her life that's how the reality of God our relationship with God is tested and revealed it's all the other stuff it's not what's happening in here this morning that's a part of it but it's all the other stuff of work of context in which we live of family pressures and all the rest of and we're reminded now of some of the reality of Ahab's world and the conflict ongoing unease with the Arameans that he as king of Israel was experiencing. And in particular, he was getting more and more annoyed because there was a city that was one of the refuge cities, one of the six refuge cities. These were cities that God had designated for the people that if you accidentally killed someone, you could go to that city and be safe. One of these cities was still in the possession of the Arameans, even though it belonged to Israel. And Ahab was really frustrated about this.

13:42 In this context, Jehoshaphat decides to go on a royal visit to Ahab. Now, Jehoshaphat is the king in Judah. Remember, the kingdom is divided. Two tribes in Jerusalem under the king Jehoshaphat, his name is at this point, and the other tribes under Ahab. Jehoshaphat goes in a royal visit, but behind the scenes of that royal visit is the fact that Jehoshaphat, who was a good king, who'd done a lot of good things, devoted to obeying the Lord, doing what was right, strengthening Judah, bringing in a period of relative peace and prosperity, become wealthy and powerful, but he was now connected to Ahab by marriage because his son had married Ahab's daughter. Now, perhaps it was love. I suspect it was a lot more about Ahab trying to do a deal about politics.

14:46 The way kings married off their children in those days was more like that. and we're not told what the wedding ceremony was like but I dread to think you know with Jezebel as the mother of the bride that must have been fun but I'll leave that to your imagination to put that straight but since they were now related Jehoshaphat decides perhaps he was invited by Ahab subtly but decides well he had better go and see the in-laws and Ahab saw the opportunity. Perhaps he had manufactured it to ask Jehoshaphat for his help. So let's read verse 4 of chapter 22. So Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead? That's the city that they wanted to take back. And Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, You've got to imagine this. Now, Jehoshaphat's not in Jerusalem.

15:45 He's now in Samaria. He's on Ahab's turf. He's connected in marriage. There's all kinds of dynamics going on here. So Jehoshaphat said, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, first, seek the counsel of the Lord. So the king of Israel, Ahab, brought together the prophets, about 400 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.

16:25 But Jehoshaphat asked, is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of. So Ahab king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat there is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord but I hate him. Why does he hate him? Because he never prophesies anything good about me but always bad. He's Micaiah son of Imlet. The king should not say such a thing. Jehoshaphat replied, So Ahab, king of Israel, called one of his officials and said, Bring Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once. So it seems really that Jehoshaphat naively had walked into a trap.

17:22 But at least he had the sense to insist that they inquire of the Lord to find out God's wisdom on the proposal. So Ahab called in the prophets about 400. You've got to picture this now. This is, maybe they were at a royal dinner when Ahab had subtly mentioned up and then the conversation. Okay, bring in the prophets. So they're sitting there regaling the dinner and the 400 prophets come in. And Ahab, the dramatic thunder roll, here comes the question from the king. Should I go?

18:02 Do I have the divine go or the divine no-go? Which is it? And they all said, go for the Lord will give it into the king's hand. Wow. All of them. You just imagine it. All 400 of them, all shouting out the same message. Jehoshaphat, to his credit, was still uneasy.

18:29 The question he asked is so intriguing. Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord, that is Jehovah, whom we can inquire of? What on earth prompted that? There was something about the setting, something about the behavior of these men, something about what they were saying, etc., that he realized that these prophets are not genuine prophets of the God of Israel. Whatever their title, whatever their religious language, whatever their unity, their zeal, their numbers, they didn't fool him. And so he asked, is there not one prophet left? Well, Ahab reluctantly confessed that there was, in his estimation, still one genuine prophet left who was in touch with the Lord. Why hadn't he got him first?

19:32 Well, that's easy. but it's interesting to see that Ahab himself realized that these guys weren't genuine they weren't the real thing and yet they were his entourage so interesting it's also interesting to notice that Ahab makes no mention of Elijah probably smarting after their most recent encounter. But he didn't like Micaiah much either, because he never prophesies anything good about me. It's all about me. What a fascinating insight into the kind of man, the kind of leader. I suppose these days we would call this narcissism, falling in love with his own image. This is what life is all about.

20:37 It's all about me surrounding himself with people who are the kind of positive people, not simply yes men, but you are the greatest man. Always seeking to bolster up his ego. And you see, in that kind of context, truth is an early casualty, whether it's in politics or business or church or even family. And as we read this story, we should keep in mind Paul's warning about churches who were getting tired of listening to what God had to say. And so what they did was that they started to invite speakers in who said the things that they liked to hear, that tickled their ears, that spoke to their desires and their aspirations, that fitted in with their outlook on life. Oh, you can't. I mean, oh, see that guy. Don't have him again.

21:38 Boring. Oh, talk about holiness. I mean, hey, come on. And talk about the, you know, how the dealing with the challenges of sin in our own life. How does that help my self-esteem? I just want people to say all the time positive, good things and just hide this other stuff. There's a warning here, I think. Jehoshaphat, to his credit, was not impressed with Ahab's protest.

22:13 He shouldn't talk like that, he said to Ahab. That was brave. So Ahab sent for this hated Micaiah and now follows one of the most brilliant scenes in the entire Bible. I would love to film this, but I'm not a film director. But if I had the chance, I would just love to put this on the screen. And maybe you could spend time thinking over lunch, you know, who would you cast in the various roles here? Which role would Liam Neeson play, for example, in this drama? Let me tell you the story and we'll dip into the text.

22:52 We've got to picture this. The two kings of this divided kingdom now together for a special, I was going to say conclave, but I don't mean conclave. It's a special kind of get together. Here the two leaders of the divided nation dressed in their royal finery, each sitting on a throne, 400 prophets before them, calling out what they believed was the divine word on their mission. One of them, a man called Zedekiah, even had a visual aid, because you need to give people a picture, don't you? I mean, they need something visual. So he had constructed out of iron a pair of animal horns. And with great drama, with all these 400 prophets all shouting the same message and swaying and chanting and dancing and all the rest of it, He held the horns up with these horns.

23:44 You're going to gore the enemy. This was all fabulous stuff. Meanwhile, the camera pans away from that. And we have this official who's sent to get Micaiah. And he's going to bring Micaiah into the middle of this. So he decides, it's brilliant. He decides to give just a little bit of media advice. Just before you go on TV, let me tell you what to say and what not to say.

24:18 I mean, you know, just so. So he says to Micaiah, look, of course, I wouldn't presume to tell you what to say. But the other prophets, all of them, without exception, are predicting success for the king. So, my advice, don't rock the boat. Play nice this time. Let your word agree with theirs. To which, Micaiah replied, and what a fantastic reply. Write it over your life.

24:59 As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me. Remarkable. He believed in the living God, the living God who speaks, his word is truth, his word is ultimate, final authority. And that commitment gave him clarity that so many, sadly, these days, lack. It didn't make life easy. He was taking his life in his hands, but it made it clear. This is what the Lord says.

25:46 And I can, that's all I want to communicate to the world, is what the Lord says. Just like Jesus when tempted, it stands written. This is what God says. Just like Peter and Paul when facing opposition and all kinds of temptation to water down their message and all the rest of it. Can't do anything else because I'm bound to this. I'm committed to this. I'm committed to what the Lord said. I have no other message than the one given to me by the Lord.

26:23 So that's the background. So Cameron now follows Micaiah into the room and Ahab asks him in front of everybody, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth, Gilead or not? And Bacchaeah replies, he's just brilliant. Sure, go right ahead. Attack, be victorious. The Lord will give the city into the king's hand. And Ahab, stunned, looks at him and said, how many times have I got to tell you to tell me the truth?

27:09 Ahab knew that what Micaiah was telling him was false. It was a lie. Ahab knew the difference between truth and lies. This is verse 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? So now that Micaiah has got that out of him, all right, Ahab, you know that this message is false. It's the same message as your prophets have been saying and chanting and all the visual aids and the pictures and all the rest of it. But you know deep down it's false.

27:54 Now let me tell you the truth. And he proceeds to tell him the truth. 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 and when he came out with this message Ahab turned to King Jehoshaphat and said what did I tell you he never says anything good about me. Amazing. The self-focus is staggering. Gets in the way of truth. Micaiah courageously pressed on regardless. Let's look at verse 19.

28:48 Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. Notice that again. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there? And one suggested this and another, that finally a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. 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.

29:19 Go and do it. So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit on the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you. And Zedekiah went up and slapped Micaiah in his face. It's so interesting. Raises all kinds of questions. God's sending a deceiving spirit. What on earth is going on here?

29:46 Here is Micaiah pulling back the veil to let him see a little bit of what's going behind the scenes. And remember, he's telling this to Ahab. So it's not that Ahab is deceived in that sense. Notice the word the Lord uses. He is enticed. he is enticed because he has constantly and consistently in his life suppressed the truth gone against the truth gone against his own way and God in the end has said to him all right go your own way you know this is false but you'll be enticed into it anyway because that's the way you have set your life. The representative of the false prophets, Edekiah, of course what Micaiah said went against what he said so he publicly embarrassed him.

30:56 Slapping in the face is an insult in that culture. a supreme insult in public. Remember, Jesus was slapped in the face. Paul was slapped in the face. This is an insult. And Zedekiah sarcastically said, which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you? Trying to engage him in argument discussion. But there was an assumption in his question.

31:23 The assumption was, of course, that the spirit of the Lord has spoken to me. And we notice that Micaiah wasn't drawn in. He wasn't intimidated by the violence. He wasn't conned into engaging with the false assumption. His response is very simple. You will find out, he said, on the day you go to hide in an inner room. In other words, I have given you God's message. You will find out whether God has truly spoken through me or not.

32:03 We will wait and see. I have huge admiration for Micaiah because this psychologically was not easy. With all this splendor and pomp and 400 prophets saying the thing, one of them claiming to have a picture from God using a 3D model of the picture, and Micaiah just said, this is the message. You will find it if the Lord has spoken through me. We'll wait and see. It's not a cop-out to do that, is it? I've known situations in my own life where people have come and brought me definite prophecies of what the Lord was going to do. Some of them were easy to see that they weren't true because in one case I was told, well, this event is going to be 10,000 conversions.

32:57 There weren't even 1,000 people turned up, so that was easy enough. But others aren't quite so easy, and you don't want to be a wet blanket and so on, and people are enthusiastic, but you can tell there's something not quite right. One, some of the prophecies, very flattering. Connecting you with some great Bible heroes. You think, oh wow, could I be that person? An appeal. Wait and see. This is what I know the Lord has said.

33:29 It's clear, it's here. We'll wait and see. So Ahab's response was to put Mekhiah in prison with instructions that he be kept there on bread and water until Ahab returned safely from battle. So here is Ahab now persisting in following the lie. He knew it to be a lie. He knew what the truth was. He preferred to ignore it. And with bravado, he stood and defied Micaiah and the living God.

34:08 And Micaiah, just the same as ever, said to Ahab, well, if you return safely, that means the Lord hasn't spoken through me. I'm happy to wait and see. Put me in prison if you want. Kill me if you want. It changes nothing. Well, what happened to just end this little bit of the story? Jehoshaphat, he went along with Ahab. He knew that Micaiah was telling the truth.

34:42 I suspect he felt caught. He bowed to the pressure at the moment, joined Ahab in battle, nearly lost his life, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord saved him. He had made a mistake, an error of judgment, and allowed himself to be sucked in, and God delivered him. But Ahab, wow. Well, he decided not only to go into battle, but to go into battle in disguise. Because he thought he could hoodwink God. So he dressed up as an ordinary soldier in a chariot. And he figured out, well, they'll not target me now.

35:17 Because I'm just dressed like anybody else. They'll target Jehoshaphat, which they did. That was very nice that they have to his in-laws. But anyway, he thought he'd got away with it. But it just so happened that some nameless soldier was having a little archery practice and put an arrow in his bow and just went, not even looking, at random. And the arrow found its way to the weakness that's under his armpit in his armor of Ahab. And Ahab received a mortal blow, just as God's word had said. Ahab knew the difference between the truth and the lie, but he preferred the lie because he liked it better.

36:13 He liked the positivity and the yes people to be the man, and he thought he could outfox God. And in the end, God sent him a strong delusion, which he knew to be a delusion. And he went along with it. So as I finish, it's a serious thing. It's a serious message to know what the truth is and to reject it time and time again and eventually go with a lie, even though you know deep down it's a lie. Listen as Paul writes in Romans 1. the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor give thanks to him. But their thinking became futile.

37:18 Their foolish hearts were darkened. They exchanged the truth about God for the lie. It's translated in our English New Testament as a lie, but actually it is the lie. And worshiped and served created things rather than the creator. And what is the lie? To put it in modern terms, the lie is the concept that the universe created itself from nothing. That's the lie. That has been bought into by, I suppose, the majority of academia, certainly by the cultural voices that are allowed on our television screens, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

38:11 that's the lie and Paul is saying people know it's a lie but they prefer it because they don't want to acknowledge God and retain God in their knowledge because they don't want to be thankful to him they don't want God being accountable to God so they think they can get rid of that by going with the lie it's going to go a stage further in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9 the verses appear on the screen the coming of the lawless one Paul writes about the end will be in accordance with how Satan works he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie. In other words, that will convince people that there is no God out there. And all the ways of wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth. And so be saved. And for that reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

39:42 A willful following of the lie. We live in a culture that has largely replaced facts with feelings. that delights in things. And so if you delight in it, it must be right. And so we'll go with it. Rather than going with the truth, even though it may contradict my feelings and desires and aspirations. We have to choose. We have to choose to stand like Micaiah

40:30 and say the only message that I've got for the world and for my own life is what the Lord says. Or go with Ahab. Knowing that the prophets, the false prophets outnumber the genuine ones 400 to 1. And it's much easier to go with them. More acceptable, more socially acceptable to set aside what God's word said and go with them. But God will not be mocked. The story is not yet over.

41:10 Pray for me that by God's grace I'll continue to be like Micaiah as I pray for you also. I suspect that some of us here, maybe many of us, are struggling with a lack of clarity, with a confusion in our lives in many areas because we have set aside the truth because we don't like it. Not because we don't think it isn't true. We just don't like it. It doesn't suit us. Well, by his resurrection, Jesus demonstrated himself to be the son of God. The issue is not, do you like what he says?

42:07 Never ask people that question. He's calling you to follow him and obey him, to obey his word. Let's take a moment and pray. Father, it's a really serious story. Thank you for placing it in Scripture. My prayer is this story will be so graphic that it will stick in our minds. And it will remind us of both the ease and the foolishness of setting aside what you say and going with our heart's desires and what everybody else says.

43:03 It is challenging, Lord, to read the final statement about Ahab, that his accomplishments, of which there are many, are written in some other books, but not here. the fact that he built a magnificent palace covered with ivory wow we'd love to know about that but we can read about that in Hello magazine if we want but it's not here because ultimately what matters is how he treated the living God and his word may that be ultimately what matters to us we pray in Jesus name Amen