Friday, November 14, 2025

Reading 62 | The Bible in 100 Passages

Today's Scripture
1 Kings 22:15–25

When he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” He answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” Then Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep that have no shepherd; and the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each one go home in peace.’” The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything favorable about me, but only disaster?” Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said one thing, and another said another, until a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked him. He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then the Lord said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.’ So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you.” Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up to Micaiah, slapped him on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit of the Lord pass from me to speak to you?” Micaiah replied, “You will find out on that day when you go in to hide in an inner chamber.” (NRSV)

Reflection

In his witty diatribe on tech-challenged Baby Boomers, comedian Ronny Chieng, with a tone of exasperation, wails his admonition: “This world is not for you anymore! Stop making decisions!”

In a way, that was the prophet Micaiah’s message to Ahab: “God is not for you anymore; stop making decisions! Especially about war!”

Except that Micaiah took a roundabout way of saying it. Why?

In part because he was surrounded by a host of false prophets: men willing to say whatever they might to please the king — something Micaiah could not do. If we listen closely, we can hear sarcasm in Micaiah’s first words to Ahab: “Go and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king!” The king hears it. He knows Micaiah is lying. Ahab knows the difference, after all, between prophets false and true.

Micaiah then shifts into the language of the prophet: vision. It portends destruction.

The king won’t hear it. He won’t see it. His decision had been made. He could heed only false prophets.

Consider a different king, in a different time, hearing similar words. When God’s reluctant messenger, Jonah, trudged into Nineveh proclaiming doom, Nineveh’s king wasted no time ordering his subjects to don sackcloth and repent. “Who knows?” said the king, “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish” (Jonah 3:7–9).

In fact, God did relent. The king’s decree saved Nineveh and its inhabitants. But today’s story has sadder endings. Ahab dies, Micaiah is imprisoned for speaking truth to power, and we are left thinking of our own cacophonous world, of how difficult it is to cut through the noise of competing voices. Maybe our time is one of acting on the words of the prophets of old, rather than waiting for prophecy to appear. Maybe our charge is to heed voices such as Isaiah’s, ”to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Prayer

Lord, we yearn for your truth but settle for words that serve our own aims. Too often we think we are Micaiah when we falter as Ahab did. Open our hearts and minds this day so that we might hear your still, small voice over the allure of false prophets. In thy name we pray. Amen.

Written by Sarah Forbes Orwig, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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