Scripture Daily

Context No. 951 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 22:23-27: in context

23Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.” 24Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the LORD’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?” 25Micaiah said, “Behold, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to hide yourself.” 26The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son. 27Say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.”’”

King Ahab has assembled four hundred prophets who all tell him to go to war and win. Only Micaiah tells the truth: the army will be scattered, and the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets to lure Ahab to his doom. At that, Zedekiah, one of the false prophets, slaps Micaiah across the face and demands, which way did the Spirit of the LORD go when it left me to speak to you? Ahab orders Micaiah thrown in prison on bread and water of affliction until the king comes back in peace. Micaiah answers: if you return in peace at all, the LORD has not spoken by me.

The lone true prophet is outnumbered four hundred to one, struck in the face, and jailed, and he does not bend. Micaiah has every worldly reason to join the chorus, tell the king what he wants, keep his standing, avoid the blow and the cell. Instead he says only what God gave him to say, even knowing it will cost him. The scene exposes how a person can prefer a comfortable lie from many voices to an uncomfortable truth from one. Ahab does not imprison Micaiah because he thinks Micaiah is wrong; he imprisons him because he does not want him to be right, which is a different and more dangerous thing. And Micaiah stakes his whole credibility on the outcome: if you come back safe, then I am a false prophet. He is willing to be tested by events because he actually heard from God. The truth-teller here is not loud or self-righteous; he simply refuses to unsay what is true no matter what it costs.

When the crowd of voices around me is telling someone what they want to hear, do I have the nerve to say the one true thing that will cost me?

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