Outnumbered II

 Ahab wanted Jehoshaphat on board. He needed his army, and in an attempt to placate him, Ahab admitted there was one other that they could summon to inquire of the Lord, but as far as he was concerned, he was persona non grata. It’s not because he was not accurate in his words from the Lord, or that he didn’t hear from God, but that he never prophesied good of him, but evil.

1 Kings 22:8, “So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”’

The only metric as to whether a word is from the Lord or not is whether it’s true. Your feelings don’t enter into the equation; how it makes you feel or if it rebukes ought not to be the litmus test of whether it is received or not, but we are good at scapegoating others by looking down on the messenger tasked with delivering the message.

The only reason Ahab hated Micaiah was that he did not prophesy good things about him. It didn’t matter that what Micaiah prophesied was true and from the Lord; it made Ahab feel bad. Therefore, he concluded that he was justified in his hatred of him.

If God had never spoken to Ahab or warned him of the error of his ways, it would have been one thing. Some three years prior, however, God had spoken to him through Elijah, exposing the depth of his depravity, and he repented in sackcloth and ash. This time was different. This time, when God warned him through Micaiah, he hardened his heart and hated the messenger instead of repenting.

It’s not that God had not spoken to Ahab over the course of the prior three years. Given his visceral hatred of Micaiah, there were likely interactions between the two that weren’t full of levity and mirth. It’s that he refused to hear the word of the Lord because it contradicted his aspirations and his vision of himself and challenged his way of life in uncomfortable ways. He had the opportunity to repent; he just chose not to avail himself of it this time.

If we were to zoom out and consider the choices and decisions of nations rather than one solitary man, we would likely conclude that the similarities between Ahab and his reaction to being called to repentance and America’s response, specifically the church, are undeniable.

It’s not as though God has not warned repeatedly and through various servants. It’s not as though God has not pleaded with the church to come to repentance and pursue righteousness; it’s that the church ignored His warnings and vilified the messengers tasked with delivering them to the point that they were shunned and dismissed offhand.

We don’t need your negativity, no sir. We have our prophets who only see good things in store. We have hundreds upon hundreds of individuals all telling us the same thing. We will prosper, we will shine, we will grow, and we will take possession of the land. Who are you to come along and be akin to a fly in the ointment? Nobody likes a wet blanket.

The numbers bear out that our prophets are right anyway. Look at the metrics and the pie charts. Our year-over-year growth in attendance and giving is astounding. Yet here you are telling us that unless we course correct and return to the purity of the Word, unless we desire to walk godly in Christ Jesus and not exponential growth, we will be brought to ruin? Surely you are mistaken!

We sidle up to the prophecy smorgasbord, strap on a bib, and pick and choose the ones most flattering to our flesh, most permissive of our compromises, and most optimistic about our futures. We gorge ourselves as though it were our last meal, and then long after it’s settled, we tell ourselves we can’t believe it wasn’t prophecy. Really? You couldn’t tell? She was talking about pet dinosaurs and body part rooms in heaven. That didn’t set off any alarms?

I am what some might label a buffet connoisseur. I’ve gotten heartburn at every kind of buffet you could think of, from breakfast to lunch, to dinner, to Asian to Italian, to International, Mediterranean, to the odd seafood and pizza buffet, but I’ve always known to keep away from steak that jiggles, pink chicken, and translucent mystery meats. Take a minute and give it the sniff test. If it smells off, don’t put it in your mouth. If you ignore your sense of smell and put it in your mouth anyway, and it tastes bad, spit it out. Don’t swallow it, then cross your fingers, hoping you’ll dodge food poisoning. If something seems off or doesn’t seem right, and especially if it’s not Biblical, don’t ignore it just because it sounds good.  

We often overlook the difficulty in delivering a hard message to an individual, a congregation, or a nation. When you tell people what they want to hear, you’ll likely be praised and revered as being a messenger of the Lord Himself. When you tell people what they need to hear, especially if what they need to hear is a warning of impending judgment, then you will likely be hated as Micaiah was for no other reason than delivering a message you were tasked with delivering.

There is an explicit and implicit deterrent in remaining true to the word and the message of God. You know that you are likely to lose friends, supporters, speaking gigs, and invitations to bigger platforms if you remain faithful in delivering the message as it was delivered to you, without attempting to sugarcoat it or dilute it in any way, and you must be willing to pay the price. You will likely always be in the minority because whenever a message of repentance or righteousness is whispered aloud, a hundred or more voices are always trying to drown it out.

Ahab didn’t hate Micaiah because of who he was as a person, because of his hygiene, because he didn’t know which fork to use for the salad, or how he dressed. He hated Micaiah because every time he was called upon to inquire of the Lord, what the Lord spoke offended Ahab and made him angry. He couldn’t come out and say he hated God, but that is what his reaction to the man of God implied. He hated God for not seeing it his way, for not allowing him to do as he willed, and for rebuking him every step of the way.

There’s a deeper lesson here, one worth pondering because no man who claims to love God but hates His Word, direction, and correction truly loves God. They may be using God and the servants thereof as a means to an end, to achieve some goal, or amass fortunes they otherwise would not have succeeded in massing, but loving God to the point of surrendering their all to Him, they are far from it. One cannot be a man or woman of God without submitting to His authority. I can’t phrase it any simpler than that, and by that metric, many claim to be something they are not.  

In our modern age, there is a tendency to replicate Ahab’s actions via what I’ve termed prophet hunting or prophecy hunting. It begins with someone reading something in the Bible that their flesh prickles against. Whether it’s a certain practice, lifestyle, or edict that would crucify the flesh if so adhered to, they go in search of a word from the Lord that would countermand the Word, not realizing that God will not contradict Himself or His Word, in order to appease one’s predilections. They go from one individual to another, dismissing every word they receive until they find that one that will allow them to continue living as they were, and finally, bear witness and declare the individual a true man of God because they confirmed their bias or gave them license to practice things the Bible does not. This is how false prophets prosper. This is why they have adherents, followers, and devotees. Because what they hear is not from God but from their own bellies, and what they speak are not words of life but of death.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.