1 Kings 22:1-28

[0:00] All right, take your Bibles, go with me to 1 Kings. We're rapidly coming to the end of 1 Kings. My mic's just a little loud back to me, if you don't mind, brother, turn me down just a little bit.

[0:10] 1 Kings 22. 1 Kings 22. We're coming to a close on this particular book, and we won't finish it up tonight, but we'll kind of, again, set the scene for what will finish it up.

[0:27] So our text this evening, as we get into 1 Kings 22, will be verses 1 through 28. 1 Kings 22, verses 1 through 28.

[0:41] If you remember, the majority of, in particular, the latter half, if not probably the latter three quarters of the book of 1 Kings, deals with the northern kingdom, or the kingdom of Israel.

[0:56] And it doesn't apply much to the southern kingdom or the kingdom of Judah. And its focus on the northern kingdom is really in their wickedness, their departure from the things of the Lord God, their false worship, their idolatry.

[1:10] It is setting the scene for God's judgment upon them. They're being overtaken by the Assyrians in the north, and God will use the Assyrian Empire as an instrument or a tool of judgment for their rebellion.

[1:27] And He is without excuse for that judgment because over and over again, they had opportunity to repent. Over and over again, they had opportunity for faithfulness. Yet they do not. Even in the midst of those dark times, God always has His people.

[1:39] We'll see that again tonight. God always has His people there to declare His word, to represent Him, or to call His people back. And it is really man's stubbornness and failure to repent of those things which leads to the judgment.

[1:53] The southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, lasts approximately 200 years longer because of their faithfulness. We will encounter one of those such faithful kings of the tribe of Judah this evening.

[2:07] Really, to get its full story, you have to understand what's going on in 2 Chronicles, but we will focus more on the kingdom of Judah as we get into 2 Kings.

[2:19] But still, we see that God is in control of all this, but yet man is, and in particular we see it tonight, man is set on his just particular desire and ambitions and his sinful ways.

[2:34] So, I want you to see this evening in the first 28 verses, a man set on sin. Really, this man, this king, who is the king of Israel, Ahab at that time, who did more wicked than any other king of his time, did more wicked than any other king who went before him.

[2:49] The last time we met Ahab, he was in a season of repentance because he had been confronted, in particular as it resulted in the vineyard of Naboth, how Jezebel, his wife, conspired, had Naboth and his sons killed.

[3:04] Ahab took it, and then Elijah confronts him, and Ahab repents. And we thought, oh wow, you know, this repentant God and his mercy, and his grace, spares, at least for the time being, Ahab's life.

[3:18] But yet we see that this repentance, or this humility, doesn't last very long because of the events which follow it here in the 22nd chapter. And we just see that he is set on sin.

[3:29] And this will bring us to the climax of the account dealing with Ahab. At the end of the first Kings, I know this is a very technical introduction, but I want you to understand why we look at it this way, okay?

[3:44] I say this because recently I read something about how to introduce a sermon, and you're not supposed to do it in a technical fashion because it can bore your people. I'm sorry. You're Wednesday nighters, so guess what?

[3:55] You can handle it. So this sets us up for the right that we see at the end, how Ahab is in this battle, and there's a bow drawn at random, shot at random, and it goes into the joint of his armor at random, and he dies.

[4:12] So we need to know all these technicalities so that we know that's not accidental, right? That God directs the arrow, the path of the arrow to the person.

[4:24] And we need to have it in light of what goes on here in the first 28 verses, and that is that Ahab is really a man set on sin.

[4:35] And therefore, by the time we see the judgment of God upon Ahab, we don't look at that and go, wow, that's just bad luck. We say, no, this is the judgment of God for the sin of man, and his lack of repentance and admittance of that.

[4:51] So we have really the introduction to that. Okay, enough technicality. Let's get into the text. Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel, and in the third year, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel.

[5:05] Now the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth-Galib belongs to us, and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Aram? And he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go up with me to battle Ramoth-Galib?

[5:17] And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire first for the word of the Lord.

[5:31] Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go against Ramoth-Galib to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, go, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

[5:43] But Jehoshaphat said, is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.

[5:59] He is Micaiah, the son of Imlah. But Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imlah. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor of the entrance, at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.

[6:21] And all the prophets were prophesying before them. Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenanah, made horns of iron for himself, and said, thus saith the Lord, with these you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed.

[6:35] And all the prophets were prophesying, thus saying, go up to Ramoth-Galib and prosper, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Then the messenger, who went to summon Micaiah, spoke to him, saying, behold now, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king.

[6:51] Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably. But Micaiah said, as the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I shall speak. When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-Galib to battle, or shall we refrain?

[7:06] And he answered him, go up and succeed. The Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Then the king said to him, how many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?

[7:19] So he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace. Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?

[7:37] Micaiah said, therefore hear 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 and on his left. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-Galib?

[7:49] And one said this, while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, how? And he said, I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.

[8:01] Then he said, you are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so. Now, therefore behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you.

[8:14] Then Zedekiah, the son of Tanana, came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, now how did the spirit of the Lord pass for me to speak to you? Micaiah said, behold, you shall see on that day when you enter an inner room to hide yourself.

[8:29] Then the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and return him to Ammon, the governor of the city and to Joash, the king's son, and say, thus says the king, put this man in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely.

[8:43] Micaiah said, if you indeed return safely, the Lord has not spoken to me. And he said, listen, all you people. First Kings 22, verses one through 28, we see a man set on sin.

[8:58] We know, we've read the rest of the account. We know how it ends. We know that this is the battle which eventually Ahab will die in. This will be the end of him and this will be God's judgment upon him.

[9:11] He has had time after time after time to repent. He has heard the word of the Lord. He himself has seen God do wondrous deeds. He has seen the testimony of the heavens being shut up.

[9:23] He has seen the showdown on Mount Carmel. He has seen the heavens being opened. He has heard the word of Elijah. He has seen a number of events. He's been confronted. Now this makes the third prophet that has confronted him because if you remember, not only has he been confronted by Elijah, he was also confronted by the unnamed prophet after his battle with the king of Aram at which he did not kill.

[9:47] And he brought, he entered into a covenant with him which has bearings upon this chapter. That would be in chapter 20. And there was an unnamed prophet who met him on the way and pronounced to God's judgment. He again was confronted by Elijah and now he has Micaiah.

[9:59] So if there was one man who had opportunity to hear the word of God and to repent from the word of God, it was Ahab. And yet this is the man that the Bible tells us did more wicked and more evil than any who went before him.

[10:11] He not only sought to add to the worship of God, he sought to completely replace the worship of God with the worship of the bells and the Asherah. The Asherah would be the groves of idols and worships that were put in place there because of the influence of his wife Jezebel.

[10:27] This is a man who has done so much yet we see the grace and mercy and even the patience of the Lord God Almighty as he has reached out repeatedly to this man and this man is set on sin.

[10:42] And therefore we know that beyond a shadow of a doubt when he dies as God has pronounced that he would die and he fulfills the prophetic word even in his death that it is a judgment that was well deserved and God is judging him for his sins.

[10:57] But yet we see in this chapter he continues to be this man set on sin. We are reading this chapter in light of the events and even the humility and the humbling and the repentance of Ahab as he has heard the judgment of God where God said the dogs would lick up his blood in the vineyard of Naboth.

[11:16] Now the literal fulfillment of that is his children but the blood of Ahab will be licked up as well because it will be spilled out of the chariot. But yet we see here this repentance does not last long.

[11:27] We are told that there are three years of peace. Now three years does not literally mean three long years but at least three partial years or this year that the peace started the next year in full and then the third year in which there was not a battle yet but there was about to be a battle.

[11:41] And it was during that time that we are now told that Jehoshaphat the king of Israel comes down. Now it is amazing when we read the account we pay special attention to what goes on because Ahab is only called by name when God declares what is going to happen to him, right?

[11:56] Who is going to go deceive or how can we lead Ahab to destruction? Other than that within our passage he is referred to as the king of Israel the king of Israel the king of Israel the king of Israel but the king whose name keeps being repeated is Jehoshaphat and we pay attention to Jehoshaphat because he is the king of Judah and he is the first one that we have met in a number of chapters because God has been showing us through the writing and through the historical writing of first kings of what is going on in the northern kingdom and we haven't paid any attention really to what is going on in the southern kingdom so I will kind of catch you up to date and I will try to do it in a very cliff notes version so you can understand it you would have to go read 2nd Chronicles and you read I believe it is starting in about chapter 16 or 17 and we get to Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat is one of those kings who does what is right in the sight of the Lord his God and walks in the ways of his father David remember northern kingdom multiple dynasties family after family after family after family over a short period of time there are a number of dynasties that try to establish themselves and rule southern kingdom unlike the northern kingdom over an extended period of time they never change dynasties it is all the family of David the lineage of David now this is according to the word of God and it shows the faithfulness of God and it shows the promises of God because this is what

[13:14] God has declared to David that he would not fail to have a seed who sat upon the throne right he would establish his family we meet kings of the lineage of David who are not good but Jehoshaphat is not one of those he is one of those who is righteous if you study his life you will see that during his time he established his reign now Judah is only two tribes much smaller geographically than the northern kingdom of Israel but yet they become more established again pay special attention to this because strength is not measured in scripture by numbers or size or volume it is numbered by faithfulness to the Lord God Jehoshaphat strengthens his armies fortifies his cities and is so established that the nations including the Arameans bring him tribute they are paying him and bringing him the wealth of the nations is coming to him why is God showing such favor because with all of these military advancements Jehoshaphat also sends out among Judah teachers and instructors of the law of God so that the people can understand what God has told them so he is sending out

[14:25] Levites he is sending out priests he is sending out teachers that would go around Judah and teach the people this is what the Lord God has said to us so he is not only establishing them militaristically he is also establishing them spiritually right he is building up the nation for all of the good things which Jehoshaphat did the one bad thing that we can say he did is that he aligned himself with Ahab through marriage that is his daughter married Jehoshaphat's daughter married Ahab's son we don't know why he did it because up to this point the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom are at odds with one another and they are not really peaceably living with one another but if we look at the grand scheme of things he is not necessarily outside the full counsel of God because God never recognizes a divided kingdom he always recognizes all twelve tribes right he recognizes the one people yet he aligns himself with this wicked king Ahab and so this is during that period he shows up again another long introduction but you need to know these things because you need to know the first thing that we understand about a man set on sin the first thing is that we see is a result of deception because Jehoshaphat comes and while Jehoshaphat is present the king of Israel makes it a point to say to his servants do you know we have not taken Ramoth

[15:44] Gilead back now some time has taken place since this because Ramoth Gilead was promised to them when he made that alliance with the king of Aram in the chariot all the way back in chapter 20 that is there where he spared his life Ben-Hadad's life that the king said everything that my father has taken I give it back to you we don't know why he delayed other than the fact that he wasn't that concerned about it and maybe he didn't think that his kingdom was strong enough until Jehoshaphat comes into the picture so now that he is there just checking on him maybe the marriage has already taken place we don't know he shows up and it is while he is there he decides to say to his own servants you know there's a city we haven't taken back yet even though Ben-Hadad tells us we can have it now I'm elaborating for you just a little bit he says we haven't went and claimed it so I think it's good time that we go claim it and then he turns and all of a sudden looks at this well established well fortified strong army king and says do you want to fight with us now we wish he wouldn't have done it but Jehoshaphat immediately agrees to do it sure I'll do it my horses are your horses my men are your men and as far as Ahab is concerned that's a good deal we need to go fight the battle because now he has a military alliance because he didn't want to go defeat Aram now the only reason that we can say that Jehoshaphat would have said to do that because the Arameans were natural enemies of all of God's people and they were on the border but they wanted to go and so we see that Ahab wants to go back but this is where the deception comes in because pay very close attention to what happens next

[17:18] Jehoshaphat agrees to go with him but he stops him and he says but first he says please inquire first for the word of the Lord now the word first there means this very day he doesn't say let's go to battle and you promise me that you're going to seek the word of the Lord he said please inquire today right now for the word of the Lord now what does he ask for pay special attention because the names of God matter right it is capital L capital O capital R capital D right the covenant name of God Yahweh he says please inquire first for the word of Yahweh that's what he asked for this is where we get to deception because from appearance sake it looks like the king of Israel Ahab does that he calls in the prophets 400 prophets he has a lot of them on staff standing by here we go 400 prophets come in they're all speaking in unison but what do the 400 prophets say pay special attention to this he asked them should I go up to battle should I do this and they say yes look at what it says there in verse 6 go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king now wait a minute red flag here they use a different name for God

[18:31] Jehoshaphat asked for a word from Yahweh capital L capital O capital R capital D you say alright pastor you said that before right pay attention to it they don't use the name Yahweh which is a covenant particular God they use I know it's kind of we don't want to make it this way but they use the name Elohim or master which is the same name that every other God was referred to during that time they use a generic name they're not even claiming to have a word from Yahweh they're just saying some translations will render it master for the master will give it to the king but the deception stops there because Jehoshaphat notices it see what he says but Jehoshaphat said is there not yet a prophet of Yahweh again he uses that particular name is there not yet a prophet of Yahweh here that we may inquire of him see what had happened is Ahab had filled his court with prophets who would tell him what he wanted to hear they probably were on staff that is they were being paid by the king and they were being paid by the king to tell him what he wanted to hear when he wanted to hear so that he could have a quote unquote spiritual blessing for everything that he did and he tried to pass the spiritual blessing over to

[20:01] Jehoshaphat so that Jehoshaphat would go to war with him deception works that way right it looks close to the truth sometimes it even speaks loudly as if it is the truth and quite often it speaks with the majority of people in declaring what they proclaim to be truth 400 prophets use a name of God but they don't use the name of the covenant God that they're asking for because he doesn't just want to know what God says he wants to know what Yahweh our God says what the God that we're in covenant relationship with says he wants to make sure that we're not kind of skimming by Jehoshaphat is asking for something in particular what Ahab gives him is something very generic this is how deception works it fronts itself as being real it fronts itself as being loud it fronts itself in being numbers it is telling you what you want to hear and quite often only those who are walking in close relationship with the Lord God Almighty catch on Jehoshaphat notices it very quickly why because it had been his practice to teach the people of Judah what God has said and since this had been his practice as a king he was one of those kings who knew clearly what the

[21:16] Lord God had said therefore he was testing the prophets if we want to move beyond deception then we need to spend time with the truth and those who spend the greater amount of time with the Lord God Almighty those who know who they hang out with are those who quite often pick up very quickly on the deception that is being offered them and we see this reality here we see this reality that is caught on very quickly by Jehoshaphat and he stops it in its track because the world likes to move in deception and people set on sin operate in this area of deception you know there's not one not one grand faith or practice that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ it's a matter of where they place him or who they claim him to be every major faith at least admits and acknowledges the person of Jesus

[22:16] Jesus is whoever they want him to be for their particular moments he's either the great prophet he's the great teacher he's the great model he's the great martyr go on and on and on and on but as one man said why don't we let Jesus himself tell us who he is and we open up our scripture and we see that Jesus says that he is the son of God and unless he is that everything else is deception we understand this reality that Jehoshaphat picks up on this because when people are set on sin they get close but they don't get right he picks up on deception which leads us to this discernment because in order to overcome that we need to have discernment and Jehoshaphat picks up on that he says wait a minute this isn't right is there not yet one who would give us the word of Yahweh and in discernment he asks and he presses the question and this discernment actually reveals the depravity of Ahab because Ahab himself knows in case we think that he is fooled we understand that he says yes there is one man and he doesn't name him until the end he says well there is one man that we can call there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the

[23:34] Lord now what does Ahab do Ahab uses the name Yahweh right so he knows and he admits that the prophets before him are not proclaiming a word from Yahweh and I know what you're saying you're saying well wait a minute at the end they're saying Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh yeah because even false prophets can say the right thing at the right time when they realize what you want to hear right they're saying these things and we'll get to that in just a moment but Ahab says there is one so he understood it now this is what you need to understand about this man Micaiah that we meet because Micaiah we don't know where Elijah is it's probably one of his seasons where he kind of withdrew himself Elijah had a way of doing that he would go he'd be on the scene and he'd pull back he'd go be on the scene he'd pull back he'd go be on the scene pull back right so we don't know where he's at at this present time but here we have Micaiah he said there's but one man now what's astounding when we read the text and we let the text kind of speak for itself it's not like Ahab didn't know where Micaiah was because he sent someone to go get Micaiah right he said go get

[24:35] Micaiah the son of Imlah and bring him here now how did he know where he was at well when we get to the end of this text it says now take him back so from all appearances it looks as if Micaiah is already in prison when this event begins to take place if you have to go get him and then you have to take him back that means that you had him in custody already right so he said go get him we know where he's at now take him back to the governor of the city and tell him to kind of cut his rations a little bit to feed him with bread and water not treat him as nice as they used to be so so he was probably already in a little bit of trouble because as the king says he never prophesies anything good about me so he has spoken to Ahab before this event we don't have it recorded for us in scripture but Ahab has heard him because he says but I hate him I don't like this man because he never tells me anything I want to hear and you know that's not a good thing to do for Ahab because people die when you tell him what he doesn't want to hear think Naboth in the vineyard he didn't want to give him he died right so now

[25:38] Micaiah probably is in prison but he goes and gets him he brings him there which just adds to the scene a little bit more because more than likely Micaiah came in with his hands bound and that way when the man slapped him on the cheek you should think of another man standing before a king whose hands were bound and he was slapped on the cheek as well which should bring you all the way to the trial of Jesus Christ because just like Christ Micaiah didn't say anything but the truth yet what we find is Micaiah is brought here and we are still looking at this discernment and as they go and get him the one who goes and gets him begs with him the Bible tells one grand story over and over again isn't amazing how often it repeats itself right we should see this please everybody else is saying one thing only say what they're saying much like Balaam's prophets right don't say anything that he doesn't want to hear and he says I'm not going to do that for I will only say what the Lord God declares to me so Micaiah is a man of discernment as well he's going to declare the truth and

[26:46] I know in your mind there are flags already coming up but we'll address those in just a second so we see that there's deception but there's discernment Ahab knew there was one Jehoshaphat knew these were false and Ahab even knew where he was at but yet he didn't want to hear him this brings us to the third thing that is kind of the meat of the past is the declaration Micaiah as brought before King Ahab now don't miss the scene King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab as one translation says are in their royal garb both sitting on their thrones they're royally arrayed sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor at the gate of Samaria they have traveling thrones they take them with them when they go that's how they move about as kings now don't miss that because here's Micaiah standing before two kings on the throne two kings in royal array on the throne again there are other accounts in scripture we can go to Paul standing before Felix on the throne and everybody in all their pomp and display and Paul coming in with his chains and he's standing before this great tribunal and he's given a testimony of

[28:15] Christ but yet here we see Micaiah comes in two kings on the throne out in the public square in the forum there's 400 prophets that are out there saying what the kings want to hear there's one man Zedekiah who has horns of iron who's saying they're going to gore them to death there's all these things even the right name of God is being declared Micaiah comes in and the king asks the same question and he gives the same answer that every other prophet gives he says sure he says go up and succeed and the Lord will give it into the hand of the king he said well that's not true that's not accurate stay with me he said the same thing but he said it in a way in which the king evidently knew that he was mocking or at least not completely reporting so he says how many times I have to injure you to tell me only that which the Lord God tells you and then we get to the prophecy and its fulfillment now before you accuse Micaiah of being a false prophet you need to read the rest of the account because what he said was I will only say that which the Lord God tells me to say and in his word the vision he saw was the Lord

[29:34] God was going to use this prophecy to lead Ahab to his destruction I know it gets deep but again we're the Wednesday night crowd we can handle deep right because the charge will be that God told a lie if you're not careful but stay with me and somebody said why how do you get there just stay with me and in this declaration he says I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd and the Lord said these have no master let each of them return to this house in peace so what is God saying the first level of this prophecy is that you're going to go to battle and only one person is going to die and it's going to be you oh King Ahab everybody else gets to go home in peace Ahab instinctively knew that this prophecy was against him because he turns and looks at Jehoshaphat said did I not tell you that he never says anything good about me Jehoshaphat doesn't give a time to answer isn't given time to answer because as soon as the question is posed Micaiah gives the rest of the prophetic word now here's the man who is sitting before two kings in royal array upon their thrones and here is one who is given this great declaration of truth but the reason he can give such great declaration of truth is because he says but I saw another king see he saw a greater king on the throne and you have to watch out in scripture anytime somebody else saw another king when you see someone who's already seen a higher king and a greater king on his throne then it doesn't matter which king is before them on their throne they're only going to tell you what they heard from that throne the reason Paul could stand before the throne of

[31:16] Rome and give his great testimony is because he saw another king the reason John was exiled on the island of Patmos is because he saw another king over and over again throughout scripture the people who saw another king have something else to say and look at what he says he says therefore hear the word of the Lord I saw the Lord sitting on his throne he said I see the two of you sitting on your throne but before I saw you I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and when I saw the Lord sitting on his throne he didn't have 400 prophets prophesying he had all the myriads of heaven around him look at what he says he said I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him so he saw a picture of the courtroom of heaven before he ever stood in the courtroom of man and his courtroom of heaven gives him the vision so that he can make the bold declaration in the court of man he had spent time it says in the throne room of heaven I have seen the Lord on his throne and it is here that we understand the rest of the prophetic word he says God is going to bring judgment upon you oh Ahab and he's asking how will we lead him how will we bring him now we're not here to talk about which spirit this is some say that this is Satan in heaven like the book of Job some say this is an evil spirit in the presence of God we're not here to make that declaration we're just saying that there was a spirit as the word of God says that came to him and says Lord I know how to do it let's put a deceiving word in the mouth of his prophets that is let's make his prophets false prophets to give him a false assurance so that he will go to battle and die so now this is where the charge will go well God lied if God is permitting it then God is the author of it well not really and we'll bring that to a full account that would have been true if it had not been Micaiah because the truth was found out because the same God who allowed the false spirits to testify through the false prophets is the same God who brought the true word through the true prophet who also declared the fulfillment thereof and he is the God who allowed and permitted all these events to go on the reason Micaiah could say first go ahead and be successful is because that's what he had heard God say in heaven he had seen him on his throne and then he brought the rest of it to account so that the truth of the word of God would be fully known and the responsibility would lay at the feet of Ahab Ahab has 400 false prophets but he also has the true word of God before him though truth has been declared even what has been transpired in heaven and what would transpire on earth now the responsibility to the action upon that truth rest at Ahab's feet and I hope you understand that did God permit a false spirit or a false testimony of the false prophets to be the bait that lead

[34:08] Ahab to his destruction yes is God the author of that quote-unquote lie no because God also brought that up to the truth he said I'm allowing them to say this so that I can judge you and without Micaiah then there is no full revelation of the truth of God but with the Micaiah that was there because of Jehoshaphat because of the discernment all of a sudden now we have the full revelation of what God is doing and now Ahab is utterly responsible for every one of his actions that's a good way saying we need to pay attention to all that God has said because the full revelation of the word of God is that which holds man account what did Jesus say it is the word of God that would judge you in those latter days right he says I do not judge you but it is the very word of God that judges you and we understand this that man is now responsible because the truth is laid at his feet and here we see it in this declaration we have deception discernment declaration but we're looking at a man set on sin how do we get that we get that from dismissal

[35:23] Ahab dismisses it we understand this you have the multitude over here saying this but he himself has testified that Micaiah can give a word from the Lord Yahweh but he doesn't like it Jehoshaphat is there so we need to hear a word from him and then we see the king of Israel said take Micaiah and return him to Ammon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son see return him take him back to where he came from and say thus says the king put the man this man in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely Ahab was so self-confident so set on his sin that he dismissed the warning and the heeding of the word of God Micaiah declared the truth openly publicly and boldly and yet Ahab dismisses it Micaiah said if you indeed return safely the

[36:24] Lord has not spoken by me what does Micaiah do Micaiah he's not given a test to Ahab because he says what listen all you people Micaiah is providing a litmus test for everybody there so that everybody there will know what he has proclaimed was the very word of God and now the responsibility by dismissing it is not only Ahab but when Ahab dies in battle and everybody goes back home peacefully the northern kingdom doesn't repent and there's no doubt that a prophet is among them he's eating bread and water in the prison cell the litmus test had been provided but the people will dismiss him as well because the truth has been publicly boldly declared and God uses his people to declare the truth to which the world will be held accountable because the day of judgment is soon coming we ought to be those people who overlook the deception live with discernment and live in bold declaration with a multitude of people dismiss it and cast it aside well sure they will because scripture tells us that that puts the responsibility at their feet not at ours I'm reminded even as Paul said my hands are clean from the blood of all men what a bold statement Paul made and we see this reality that sure there are people that are set on sin and we may never turn them back we don't know anything other anything else about Micaiah other than this one moment where God used him to be a declare of the truth we ought to be those people who are used in that moment when God calls upon us in the world in which we live in and we see it in first kings 22 verses 1 through 28 thank you my brothers so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i

[39:01] Thank you.