1 Kings 22 (Part 1) Bible Study (Ahab and the False Prophets) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Well, praise God that we're here. It's such a joy to be here with you tonight. I invite you to come to first Kings 22 with me. As our brother prayed, we are coming to the close of our study of first Kings. We have arrived at the final chapter of our study of this book, which will also be the final chapter of King Ahab's life.

The account of Ahab's death clearly illustrates the detrimental consequences of spiritual compromise. Yes. Ahab has rebelled throughout his reign, but what you and I are going to examine today is one particular act of defiance that will cost this man absolutely everything. And right at the outset of this bible study, I wanna give you an exhortation. I wanna remind you of an important universal truth.

You and I may have the freedom to choose our sin, but we can never ever determine the consequences of that sin. And so a person may sin a thousand times before he faces any significant ramifications, and yet his neighbor may sin similarly just once and alter the trajectory of his life drastically. I want you to view entertaining temptation as playing Russian roulette with your soul. That should be enough motivation for you to not deal with sin on any level, not to engage with it, to stay as far as ways possible from it. It's lethal.

It's deadly. It's poison. It's deceptive. It's destructive. And what we're gonna study in this final chapter will hopefully cement that conviction in your heart that you will not only love God more, but you will also heighten in your hatred for evil.

The Bible commands you and I to hate things, and one of those things is iniquity, sin, disobedience, rebellion. And he's given us texts like first Kings to see in in real life example what sin can do to a soul who fails to realize God's warnings about it. And so we're there at first Kings 22. I'm sure you've already got a glimpse of it to understand that we're not gonna complete this chapter in one sitting, which has been our habit as long as this bible study existed. So we're here at verse one, and I invite you.

We're gonna read the first 12 verses together just to have an understanding of the passage holistically, and then we will explore them verse by verse. So join me in first Kings 22 beginning in verse one. For three years, Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year, Jehoshaphat or Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know what do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?

And he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle at Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the word of the Lord. And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said to them, shall I go to battle against Ramoth Gilead or shall I refrain? And they said, go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imla, but I hate him. For he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. And the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imla.

Now the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones arrayed in their robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the Gate Of Samaria. And all the prophets were prophesying before them. Zedekiah the son of Kenaana made for himself horns of iron and said, thus says the Lord, with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed. And all the prophets prophesied so and said, go up to Ramoth Gilead and triumph. The Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

Lord bless the reading, the exposition, the application of your word for the glory of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we sang, we long to be conformed to his ways. We long for the Holy Spirit to infuse in us the knowledge, the wisdom, and the grace to live for his name. In Jesus name, amen. Well, the only way to really make the most sense of this narration is to recall a recent episode related to the king of Israel and the king of Syria.

It was the subject of one of our studies a few weeks ago, but may I remind you how what we studied in first Kings 20 relates to what we're here studying tonight. The king of Syria and the king of Israel were going to war, and the Lord, out of his sheer grace, gave Ahab, the king of Israel, more than one victory. He conquered over Syria on more than one occasion. And part of that deal, so to speak, was that the king of Israel had to completely exterminate Ben Hadad, the king of Syria, and his army. And predictably, Ahab did not obey the decree of God.

And the reason was because he was persuaded by Ben Hadad with these terms these terms of peace. Ben Hadad, the king of Syria, proposed something to Ahab, and Ahab could not refuse. And so turn to first Kings 20 and look at verse 34 to to remind yourself of why there was three years of peace to begin with. And Ben Hadad said to him, the cities that my father took from your father, I will restore. And you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.

And Ahab said, I will let you go on these terms. So he made a covenant with him and let him go. So Ben Haddad says, look, look, look, don't kill me. Have mercy on me. And look, I'm willing to restore to you the cities that my father took from you years prior, and and you can establish trade in Damascus.

And so in Ahab's natural political mind, he thinks to us, well, this is good. This is good for me. We're we're building an alliance. We're securing our economy. We're thriving more in our economy this way.

Let's do it at the cost of disobeying God. And what we see here is that three years go by according to the first verse of this chapter, and it dawns on the king of Israel that the king of Syria didn't keep his word. He kept back one city. And evidently, that city is a strategic one. It's a valuable one.

And this infuriated King Ahab to the point now he's ready to break this covenant and go back to war with Syria. Ahab's mistake cannot be our mistake in our war with sin. As you heard in that chapter when we studied together, sin will never fail to disappoint you and I. It will always disappoint us. And above that, we see here that three years has passed since he made this established deal with the king of Syria.

Three years with no problems, with peace, prosperity, problem free. And what happened? Now the consequences of sin come. The consequences of sin are not always immediate. They sometimes take time.

And the longer you remain in an unrepentant state, the more dangerous and the wider and the deeper those consequences can be. You know, there's a verse in Job 20 verse five. You don't have to turn there, but listen to these words. In Job chapter 20 verse five, we're told that the wicked, when they exalt, it's it's short. Their state of exaltation is short, and the joy of the godless is but for a moment.

It is for a moment. And Ahab would realize that because the the problems that would ensue out of his relationship with Benadad would outweigh whatever pleasure and peace and prosperity he thought he won from it. So he's lamenting in the presence of his servants, but there's an unexpected character in that very same scene. Jehoshaphat, and he's the king of Judah. What is the king of Judah?

Remember, one of the most important things about first Kings is that it defines for us the the split of the Kingdom Of Israel. Now you have the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. So generally, the relationship between the North and the South were not on good terms. They were always at odds with one another and that is certainly the case up to this point, or is it? Because now you have the king of Judah visiting the king of Israel.

And our suspicions grow even more when we see how the king of Judah responds to the request of the king of Israel, who tells his servants, we gotta come up with a plan and then turns to the king of Judah and invites him to go to war at Ramoth Gilead. So look here again at verse four, and look at the response of the king of Judah. And he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle at Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. This is the language of collaboration.

This is the language of alliance. And so, if you feel as though at some point there was some kind of unification that took place, you would be right. At an undisclosed time, there was an effort on both parts for these people to come together, this divided kingdom to become one once again. Good thing or bad thing? Who says good thing?

Who says bad thing? Good. Who doesn't know? Stick around. You would think, well, this is a leap towards unity.

This nation has been fractured for decades upon decades and now we see some sign of hope of things being restored in the way that God designed it to be originally. And what we're gonna learn here is that unity should never be pursued at the expense of dishonoring truth. Should never be pursued. It should be absolutely rejected at the expense of truth being honored and practiced the way God intended it to be practiced. And if you're if you're doubting that what the king of Judah is doing here is wrong, then turn to a parallel account again to remind you of how, grasping the entirety of the word of God will give us the greatest revelations of the word of God.

Look at second Chronicles. And I want you to look at the first three verses of chapter 19 of second Chronicles. This is a detailed account of when Jehoshaphat comes back from war with Ahab against Syria, and a prophet arrives on the scene and confronts Jehoshaphat. And notice what what is said to this king of Judah for his efforts in making peace with the king of Israel. Second Chronicles 19 verse one, Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem.

But Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to king Jehoshaphat, should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord. You know, there is an illegitimate kind of love. God is love. We are called to love.

We're faith that's known for our love, but there is a love that's illegal according to our faith. Love not the world. And in this case, love not those who hate the Lord. Well, wait a while. Loving my enemies.

What about that? This is not the context. The context here is partnering with someone who intentionally violates God's law. Yoking yourself to someone to such a degree that you're compromising your testimony and your fruitfulness for the Lord. So he's not talking about this bitterness and this anger towards someone.

The Bible has a different dictionary than we do in our English language, but I want you to see something in verse three. This is important for the rest of our study. Nevertheless, some good is found in you. He's speaking to Jehoshaphat. Some good is found in you, for you destroyed the Asherahs out of the land and have set your heart to seek God.

Remember that. Tuck that in your heart for now. So we can establish here that what Jehoshaphat does with Ahab was not in accordance to God's will. And the severity of the consequence of this one decision will only show itself when you continue to read in the Bible. So you're in second Chronicles 19.

We're studying first Kings, but go to second Kings. And go to chapter eight, and I want you to see something with your own eyes. If we make this effort, we will see a wonderful chain of events that will bless our hearts. Second Kings eight, and look at verse 16 of second Kings eight. Now you get if you're gonna pay attention at any point of the bible study, it's at this point because there's gonna be a lot of names.

And if you follow along here, it will be helpful. In the fifth year of Jeram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. Okay. Pause here. So we're talking here about the king of Israel who is the son of Ahab.

What's his name? Joram. Right? And now we're talking about Jehoshaphat. Sure.

But Jehoshaphat's son whose name is what? Jehoram. So underline Jehoram. Right? The son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

So we're we're discussing here at this point, the son of Jehoshaphat who succeeded his father. And look at verse 17 now. He was 32 years old when he became king. This is Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat. And he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

Verse 18. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. The king of Judah walked in the ways of the king of Israel as the house of Ahab had done. Why? For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

So are we are we catching on to this? We're discussing the son of Jehoshaphat, and we're told here that he walked in the ways of the king of Israel, which is notoriously evil. That's the general reputation of the Kingdom Of The North. And we're given the reason why. The son of Jehoshaphat married the daughter of Ahab.

Jehoshaphat is the focus of our study in first Kings 22. Jehoshaphat made a decision to make a political alliance with Ahab. And what did that make way for? A marriage alliance between Jehoshaphat's son and the daughter of Ahab. If if this woman is the daughter of Ahab, then who's this?

Thank you. This woman's mother is Jezebel. Can you imagine your mother-in-law being Jezebel? You're gonna find out how problematic that's gonna be. And you you begin to feel now the existential threat of this.

You should at least. You know why? Because the kingdom of Judah ultimately represents what? The Davidic line. The Davidic line.

The the same line that God made a covenant with that would ultimately what? Usher in who? The Lord Jesus Christ, our Messiah, the Messiah of the world. And now you have, through marriage, the spiritual corruption and influence of Jezebel infiltrating that line. So what's problematic about that?

Does anyone know here the name of the woman of the daughter of Ahab that Joram married? Anybody have an idea? Any guesses? Can't use your phone. If you don't know, scroll down in second Kings eight verse 25, and you're gonna get your answer.

In the twelfth year of Jerom, Jeram rather, the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. So now who are we talking about? We're not talking about the son of Jehoshaphat. We're talking about the grandson of Jehoshaphat. Right?

This is Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram. So who is who is the wife of Jehoram? Oh, no. We forgot already. The daughter of Ahab.

Right? They had evidently a child, Ahaziah, the son of Joram. So now we're talking about Ahaziah. Look at verse 26. Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Athalia. So what is the name of the woman that Joram married, the daughter of Ahab? Athalia. And if you have any doubt about that, her identity is confirmed to the last part of verse 26. She was a granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.

Omri being the father of Ahab. So her name is Athalia. Ahaziah only reigned for one year. Does anybody know why he only reigned for one year? Because God's gonna raise up a man by the name of Jehu.

Jehu is gonna be anointed by God to exterminate the house of Ahab. And who got caught up in in that? Jeoram or Ahaziah. Ahaziah would be put to death as a result of his association with the house of Ahab. Athaliah is still alive though.

Now Athaliah is gonna do something in second Kings 11 verse one. Notice what she does. Remember, Athalia is the daughter of Jezebel, so you don't have to wonder too much where she got this inspiration from. Second Kings eleven one. Now when Athalia, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, that being Ahaziah, she arose and destroyed all the royal family.

And she attempts to seize the throne of the kingdom of Judah. Where did she get the idea of being such a vicious person in a vicious rule? Any idea? Maybe Jezebel. So she seizes the throne, and she attempts to wipe clean the royal family.

Who's the royal family? The true royal family. The Davidic dynasty. So you're seeing a woman who had a very bad upbringing. No.

No. You have to see beyond that. You have to see the spiritual reality of this. You're seeing Satan trying to delete the messianic seed. And it's not until you read later on in second Kings 11 how God in his sovereignty interferes and preserves one descendant.

One descendant. That's why we praise God for his faithfulness because if it was left up to us, we would have been done a long time ago. God's sovereignty interferes, and he restores this line. He saves this line. Here's my question for you.

Do you think Jehoshaphat had any idea of the domino effect of this one decision to partner with Ahab? I doubt it. And he serves as a strong Old Testament illustration to a New Testament command that is very familiar to Christians today, but I I'm afraid some who are unwilling to adhere to. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers? What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

And what fellowship has light with darkness? I I pray that you would take first Kings 22 as a constant reminder of how consequential your choice of fellowship is. The ministries that you choose to be in partnership with, who you decide to be your spouse, these decisions can have, as we see here, generational consequences for good or for bad. Well, God ended up preserving the line of David anyway. Yeah.

But what happened along the way? Death, pain, hurt. So yes, we trust in God's sovereignty, but why don't we also apply God's wisdom? Yeah? And know his maximum blessing for our lives.

Now we come back to our main text in verse five. Because after studying that, we might be under the impression that Jehoshaphat was just as warped and wicked as Ahab was, but that's not the case. Look back at verse five of first Kings 22. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the word of the Lord. So what is he saying to Ahab?

He accepts the request, the invitation to join him in battle, but he says, can we pray about this first? Can we inquire of of the Lord? You know what I thought when I read this? I thought, why didn't you pray about partnering with Ahab? Why are you praying now?

But he here is showing some level of discernment, some level of conviction. And he tells Ahab, why why don't we do this? And Ahab here is is willing to do so, but we have to first discuss about Jehoshaphat's character. This seems strange. Right?

We may be confused. You're partnering with an evil man, but you wanna pray about moving forward. And as strange as this may be, it's not as uncommon as you might think. Because Jehoshaphat is a picture of an inconsistent believer, a man with divided devotions, a man who has some good qualities but is foolish in key areas. And if you doubt that, then look back here at first Kings 22.

Scroll down to verse 42. You get a summation of his reign, and it describes this divide perfectly. First Kings 22, look at verse 42. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty five years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Azubah.

Azubah, the daughter of Shelah. He walked all the way, and all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Good. Yet, okay, the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. There are tons of people like this. Tons of people like this. They generally have some spiritual insight. They wouldn't necessarily be ashamed to name the name of Christ.

They might even take the opportunity when it arises to testify of the truth of the gospel. But at the same time, when you observe their lives, there's questionable behavior, questionable decisions that would taint their testimony or even contradicts their faith. You've probably encountered some of those people. Maybe you have a mutual friend and you ask about the person that you just met. Are they Christians?

And that person responds, yeah. Yeah. They're believers. But but what? Yeah.

The the way the the way they talk and just when you look at their social media, just don't don't be taken off guard. You know? Yeah. They're believers, but but what? Strive for better than that.

Strive by the power of the Holy Spirit that when people look at your life or when they inquire about your life, the response is, they're the real deal. They're the real deal. They love Christ. They really love Christ. Christ is everything to them.

Jehoshaphat, unfortunately, doesn't have that testimony. And it's gonna cost him, as we see here, he asked to inquire first of the word of the Lord. And look at the response of King Ahab in verse six. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said to them, shall I go to battle against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain? And they said, go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire? This seems like an odd dialogue here, but if you pay attention closely then it will all make sense. You know this very well. Whenever the word Lord is all capitalized, it signifies the covenant name of the God of Israel, Yahweh. And so Jehoshaphat asked Ahab, can we inquire the word of Yahweh?

Right? Ahab seems to agree. He summons 400 men, but notice after asking these prophets what they should do, how these prophets respond. We see here at the end of verse six, and they said, go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Is the word Lord there all capitalized?

No. They are not implementing the covenant name of Yahweh. What are they doing? They are applying the word Lord, which in Hebrews Adonai, which speaks of the title of a master. And it can be directed towards a human master or even to a deity.

So it's more generic. And then what you have here is that they say, yeah, the Lord will give it into the hand of the king and then Jehoshaphat's hearing this. He's not convinced and he realizes that they're not representing Yahweh. And so he asked in verse seven, is there not yet another prophet of Lord the Lord capitalized? Capitalized.

So if these are not genuine prophets of Yahweh, then who are they? We've touched on this before. Does anybody remember who who they can potentially be? Prophets of Joshua. That's right.

And here's the confirmation for that. Scroll back to first Kings eighteen nineteen. Elijah confronts Ahab. He challenges him for a face off at Mount Carmel, and he doesn't want just Ahab to be in attendance. He asked for these specific people as well.

Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. You read on and what do you realize? Who shows up out of the 850? Only the 450 prophets of Baal. The 400 prophets of Asherah do not come, and they, in a sense, evade judgment.

And we argue that it's highly plausible that this was a strategy on the part of Ahab and Jezebel, that they were to preserve some of their prophets, suspicious of Elijah's invitation for the showdown. And the next time we read of 400 prophets is when? First Kings 22, when Ahab summons the prophets and you have 400 of them. So it's very likely that these are the prophets of Asherah. And if that is the case, then what a lesson we have before us.

Because Ahab thought, right, that he can trick God. Ahab thought that he can escape God's chastisement, God's wrath. But the very same prophets that Ahab treasured would turn on him and would be the main means to lead Ahab into his own destruction through false prophecies. The wisdom of God. And it's also a picture of what?

What we just learned about Jehoshaphat. That whatever compromise you hold on to and you refuse to repent from will end up coming back to haunt you. So he thought that he preserved something for his own good, but because these were false prophets, they would turn on him, and what he thought would be to his aid would actually be to his demise. You you can't run from God. You can't run from God in this life and surely in the next life.

So Jehoshaphat here is hearing these prophets speaking in the name of Lord, Adonai master, but he wants somebody who represents the true God of Israel. And what happens? Verse eight. Ahab isn't a big fan of the idea. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we inquire of the Lord Micaiah, the son of Imla, but I hate him.

I hate him. Why do you hate him, Ahab? For he never prophesies good concerning me but evil. We've seen this attitude from Ahab before. Right?

Pouting, self absorbed. It's it's it's my world. You're living in it kind of attitude. And he hates Micaiah. The Micaiah is the guy that springs to his mind.

Surely, they've interacted with one another before. And Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat, goes, I absolutely despise this guy. It's not because he's a hypocrite. It's not because he's an evil man. It's because what?

Of how his messages made him feel. That's why. He only tells me evil things about me. And you know what? I if I was Jehoshaphat or I I wish Jehoshaphat would have just just said this right away, maybe because you are evil.

Like he's not pulling this out of nowhere. You're an evil man. What do you expect? Good? Of course, he's gonna prophesy evil concerning you because you're a man that's drenched in sin, bent on rebellion, stiffening your neck though God has showered you with mercy upon mercy.

I don't know what Ahab thinks. Ahab thinks I think Ahab thinks like what many people think. They want the benefits of God but they don't want conformity to God. Doesn't work like that way in God's economy. So he says here that he hates this man because he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.

And you know what he did as a result of that? Ahab intentionally pushed away the true voice of the Lord and recruited for himself yes men. Be very mindful, please. I'm actually now leaning into you and asking you here to be very mindful of the standard that you use in determining the spiritual leadership in your life that will preach and teach to you God's word. Be very mindful.

What standard are you using? What evaluation do you apply? Because Ahab's choice here would prove to be a matter of life and death. And it's no different for us today in 2024 that who we choose, who we allow, who we decide to give us spiritual guidance will either lead us to spiritual life or even spiritual death or decay. And there are many who are making the same fatal error that Ahab has made at this point of his life.

Like Ahab, you have many people who choose churches that do not teach the whole counsel of God, but in clever ways present to him a God that caters to what their selfish desires desire anyway. Right? So they strategically avoid places that call you to examine yourself, that call people to repentance, that call people to conformity to Christ likeness, that call people to sacrifice. I wanna hear it. But like Ahab, the same people here have soothed their conscious because they have surrounded themselves by a charade of spirituality but have zero concern of the lack of substance.

And like Ahab, there are those who are under the impression that if the majority rules, then it must be true. You realize Micaiah is gonna come on the scene and you're gonna have 400 who have consensus about the word of the Lord, and then you're gonna have one who's gonna say, actually, that's not the case. And like Ahab, there are many who think if it's popular, that's the arbiter of truth. No. No.

No. It's what God said that determines everything. But how many believe that really? How many are even persuaded or they are blown back and forth with every wind of doctrine just because it's the newest thing? Or because so and so adheres to it?

Who cares? What does God say? And here's my favorite part, that although Jehoshaphat is not the best example of consecration onto Christ, in this very moment, he is a wonderful, wonderful picture of the true believer. In what way? That no matter what options are out there, like Jehoshaphat, the true Christian will not be satisfied with anything less than what God has to say and with a true servant of God speaking into their life.

Right? He had 400 options, so to speak, and he didn't care. That did not ultimately satisfy him. He came to the point where he said, what a true believer would say, I want the word of the Lord, whether it's a rebuke or it's an encouragement, whether it's comfort or it's correction. I want the whole counsel of God, so give me a true prophet of God.

Give me a true prophet of God. I don't care if he's popular. I don't care if he gets invited to the biggest conferences. I don't care if he's known. I just wanna know if he walks with God.

That's what Jehovah Jehoshaphat is craving. That's what the true Christian will crave. So he asked for the true word of the Lord, and he gives a mild rebuke to the king of Israel. He says, let not the king say so. So let's see what happens next in verse nine.

The king of Israel summoned an officer and said, bring quickly Micaiah, the son of Imlah. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were sitting on their thrones arrayed in robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the Gate Of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. It's as though the Holy Spirit wants us to just pause, and he wants to paint for us a very colorful picture. Right? You can almost envision it.

So you have these two kings with their portable thrones. They're sitting at the Gate Of Samaria, And we're told here that they're arrayed in their robes. And before them are just multitudes of of prophets speaking supposedly the word of the Lord in unison. What's that supposed to provoke in us? A sense of anticipation.

What is Micaiah going to do now as he arrives at this scene? Because you you see these kings and you get this brief description, but it's enough for you to feel intimidated. Two kings sitting on their throne and their robes are flowing in in the breeze. And then you have the pressure of all these prophets all saying the same thing. And Jehoshaphat has enough sense to say, this isn't right.

And And if Micaiah is a true prophet then he has a different word. What is Micaiah going to do? Well, you have to come to the next week bible study to find out. But that's what it's supposed to produce in us. It's We're supposed to get excited now.

But we get a little glimpse of what these prophets were saying as they were awaiting the attendance of this true prophet. Look at verse 11. Zedekiah, the son of Kenaiah, made for himself horns of iron and said, thus says the Lord, with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed. So now he's getting theatrical. And he puts on this whole passionate demonstration.

And he says, king of Israel with these horns, you're going to gore the Syrians and you will completely destroy them. You know, I said this so many times in our study of the Old Testament, so I'm hesitant to say it again, but it's worth remembering. Passion doesn't equate truthfulness. Right? Sincerity doesn't mean it's true.

And that's certainly the case here. You got a guy who built horns of iron, and he's showing the king what they will do if they go to the battle at Ramoth Gilead. But notice what he says in verse 12. And all the prophets prophesied so and said, go up to Ramoth Gilead and triumph. The Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

Look again. Look at verse 11 and verse 12. In what name did these prophets speak in? The same foreign prophets. What name are they speaking in now?

Is it the generic term lord? No. Now they are imploring now they are invoking the name, the covenant name of God. This has led some to believe that these are not necessarily the false prophets of Asherah, but these are unfaithful prophets of Yahweh. And that's a possibility.

But there could be another explanation. That these 400 and realizing that Jehoshaphat was adamant about having a prophet who would speak the word of Yahweh assimilated to his request. Okay. He wants he wants the word of the Yahweh. Yahweh says Yahweh says, okay.

You want Yahweh? I will give you Yahweh. What's what's the lesson here? The lesson is very obvious. False prophets are very comfortable utilizing the name, the true name of our God, even the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ to win an audience.

I hope all of us in here, if you've been a believer for at least a year, have read through the New Testament. Have you ever noticed how much in the New Testament is geared towards warning Christians about false teachers? Have you ever read that? Have you ever seen that in the epistles? Isn't it strange that we don't hear too much about those warnings in our churches?

Virtually every apostle warned almost not in all their letters, but in a lot of their letters about false teaching and false teachers. So let me do my part and tell you how false teachers operate. False teachers have no problem applying, preaching, teaching, referring the name of Jesus Christ, though what they are saying is absolutely untrue. They have they have no issue appealing to his authority, claiming that their ministry is under his authority, that their message is signed off with his authority. All the while, they're deceiving the people before them.

And so it's not enough for you to know or to hear from somebody that they represent or that they are under or that they love Jesus Christ. That's not enough. Because again, we see here and throughout the Bible that they have no issue applying his name though they misrepresent his message. Let me give you an example of that. Jeremiah 23.

Because I want you to see then, if if somebody is giving me the name of Jesus, how am I supposed to see past that? What is then the litmus test? What is then that I'm supposed to look for that will qualify the authenticity of a supposed messenger of God? Look at Jeremiah 23 and I want you to look here at verse 25. Lord says, I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesied lies in whose name?

My name. You know, God hears it. He hears every single time somebody uses his name righteously or in vain. I thought about this one once. How many apologies do you think the lord is gonna receive on judgment day from all the people who said god told me this when it was their imagination speaking.

Have you ever thought of that? I thought about that a lot. What kind of line are we gonna see on that day? Totally designated for people who have used God's name to authenticate something, whether it was a sermon or supposed a prophecy or whatever message they claim they're getting. What kind of apologies?

I'm thinking hundreds of years are gonna go by. He says, I've heard what they have said. Those who prophesy lies, lies in my name. They soften their lies. They master lies with my name saying, I have dreamed.

I have dreamed. So false prophets can use the true name of God to convey their ministry or their message. But again, do you know what a false prophet can't do? Scroll down to verse 28. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.

What a strong common with wheat declares the Lord. A false prophet may use God's name, but he cannot speak God's word faithfully. He won't be able to, or else he wouldn't be false. Now notice that doesn't say here that he won't use God's word. A false prophet can take scripture out of context and in fact, that's what they do.

They manipulate and they twist. But Jeremiah is very specific. Who speak my word what? Faithfully. Who divide my word rightly according to the words of Paul.

So it's not even if that person is holding a Bible in their hands or is even quoting scripture. Do they do it faithfully? Do they interpret it the way God intended it to be interpreted? Do they consider the whole counsel of God what God says in his entire word when developing a doctrine? Or do they take one verse here and make a whole thing out of it?

Who speak my word faithfully. So what do you look for? What do people do with God's word, and do they handle it faithfully? And that's what Jehoshaphat realized. They're using God's name, but not speaking faithfully on behalf of this God.

And what that's going to prove is that when people believe that kind of thing, it's absolutely disastrous. And to our surprise, though, Jehoshaphat was so desperate to hear from a true prophet of the Lord, is he gonna listen to what that prophet is going to say? Keep coming to Friday night bible study. Let's pray. Lord, our hearts realize the astounding wisdom of your word.

It never fails to amaze us. It never fails to move us. It never fails to intensify our love for you. Lord, we pray that the things that we've heard in these brief verses would revolutionize our lives. We ask, Lord, that we would trust every command that you have issued in your word, including the command to not be unequally yoked, including every warning that you have prescribed concerning sin.

So Lord, as much as we're praying for you to help us love you, help us hate sin more and more. To step on it when it is in seed form. To squash it when it is yet a spark. To extinguish it, Lord. Because we realize through Ahab and many others of what sin can do when it is tolerated and fed.

Lord, in this place we pray that we would treasure the word of the Lord more than ever. Father, especially in these days of great deception, especially in these days where biblical illiteracy is intensifying, help us, Lord, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, if there is anyone here who has been ignoring you as Ahab has ignored you, where you have spoken to them about a particular thing over and over, where you've even dispensed good to them, though they are not right with you. Lord, let tonight's bible study be the instrument to redirect them once and for all. Lord, we worship you because we believe your word.

As the psalmist said, they believed his words, and they sang joyfully. So lord, at this very time, we wanna respond in that way. Our hearts are swelling with excitement knowing that we are in the truth, that your word has never failed, that it has endured scrutiny throughout history and has stood the test of time. It has defeated every single skeptic, and it will remain forever. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will endure forever.

We give you glory for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and worship the king of kings and the lord of lords.