1 Against 400

2nd Chronicles 18

Have you ever felt like the odd person out. Maybe it is with your friends and you have refused to do something that everyone else is doing? Maybe it is that you pray for your food before you eat it and everyone looks at you with their heads crooked. 

In this chapter we read about Micaiah who was a prophet of the Lord and he was in a harder place to not compromise than we have ever been in.

The Call

Jehoshapht of the southern kingdom made an alliance with Ahab the king of the northern kingdom. Ahab wanted to go to battle against the Syrians and Jehoshaphat was like cool but let’s also ask the Lord if we should do that. Ahab grabs all the prophets that he likes and has them prophecy about going to balle. All 400 of these men were telling them it was ok to go to battle, it looks good, God is on their side. 

Jehoshaphat gets that something is not quite right so he asked king Ahab if there were any other prophets. Ahab said, “Yeah, but it is one I do not like.” Why do you not like him,” Jehoshaphat asked? Ahab responded with, “He never says anything good about me.” It was Micaiah, he was a prophet who said whatever God told him to say. He never compromised on those things but he spoke truth about Ahab and all of it was bad for Ahab. 

The king calls for Micaiah to come and they ask this prophet what does God say about us going to battle against the Syrians? Micaiah responds with, “Go to battle, it will be fine.” I wonder if he had a smirk on his face or said it while laughing, but either way the king knew he was lying. In verse 15, Ahab said, “Why are you lying to me, speak the truth.” So Micaiah does and tells them that it will not be good for Israel and it will not be good for the king. Ahab will die in this battle. 

When you think about this chapter, the king does not listen to Micaiah advice nor does Jehoshaphat. They both do it anyway. There were 400 so called prophets who told them to go and 1 that said no. The truth is that God wanted Ahab to go because of his hard heart, God knew Ahab would not listen to Micaiah. In verse 13 Micaiah answered and said, “Whatever God says, I will say.” Could you say that? God you stand strong even if 400 people said something was ok to do and you said no it is wrong because the Bible says it is wrong? Would you be able to stand up against everyone even if they started to call you names and laugh at you? We are called to be a light to this world and there are more than 400 people that would laugh or make fun of what the Bible says. God gave us the Bible to communicate who He is to this world. We are called to show that. May we be able to finish strong like Paul said in 2nd Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Stand strong for your strength is in the Lord!