Context No. 4010 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 22:18-22: in context

18The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 19Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the LORD’s word. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20The LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing, and another said another. 21A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22The LORD said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’

King Ahab did not want to hear the truth. He kept prophets who told him what he wanted to hear, and he despised the one prophet, Micaiah, who told him the truth, complaining, he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil. And Micaiah reveals a startling vision: he saw the LORD permit a lying spirit to fill the mouths of Ahab's prophets, to entice the king toward the destruction he was determined to walk into.

It is a sobering picture. Ahab wanted to be told he would succeed, and so he surrounded himself with voices that flattered him and rejected the one that would have warned him. And in a mysterious way, God gave him over to the lies he preferred; because Ahab would not love the truth, he was left to his flatterers and to his ruin. It is dangerous to surround ourselves only with voices that tell us what we want to hear, and to reject those who tell us the hard truth we need. When we will not love the truth, we are in danger of being handed over to comfortable lies, believing what flatters us rather than what would save us.

Do I surround myself with voices that tell me the truth I need, even when it is unwelcome, or do I prefer the comfortable flatterers who tell me what I want to hear, at the risk of being handed over to the lies that soothe me on the way to ruin?

Sources

1 Kings 22:18: "Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?"
1 Kings 22:22: "I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. He said, You will entice him, and will also prevail."
2 Thessalonians 2:10-11: "Because they didn't receive the love of the truth... God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie."