“And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah 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.”
It’s so cool how the Bible is always relevant to everyday life.
In 2 Chronicles 18, there is a story about the wicked King Ahab of Israel. He decides to go conquer the king of Syria, so he rallies 400 prophets to “seek the Lord” and ask whether he was will be successful in battle. Yes, yes, they all assure him. Yes, you will surely be successful! Go into battle, and God will give you the victory!
But there’s one prophet who stands alone. Micaiah tells King Ahab that if he goes into battle, he will die, and Israel will be scattered.
King Ahab scoffs at him. He says, basically, “Why do you have to be such a Debbie Downer? Why can’t you be positive and make my life easy, like everyone else? Why can’t you just be agreeable?”
You see, King Ahab really did not want to hear or discern what God was saying to him. That is why he consulted 400 false prophets, so that they could tell him exactly what he wanted to hear. He wanted God to bless his plans, rather than listening and discerning what God wanted him to do.
And don’t we do this all the time?
Instead of going to God’s Word for answers, I find myself consulting approximately 400 other people in my life. “Should I do this, or that? Am I being too much of this, or not enough of that?”
While there’s nothing wrong with getting wise counsel — the Bible actually commands us to do that (see Proverbs and wisdom literature) — there is something wrong when we look to other people to tell us who we are. The truth of God’s word says that if you are in Christ, your life is hidden with him! What an amazing promise. We don’t need to seek out the opinions of everybody we know. We can rest in Him, believe His promises, and walk in obedience to His word by faith.
Romans 8:16-17 says:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
A whole book could be written about this verse, but what I want to point out is that for those of us who are in Christ, we are fellow heirs with Jesus. We have received every spiritual blessing through Jesus Christ, and we are God’s adopted children! However, it’s interesting to note the rest of the verse: “…provided we suffer with him.” I think we are tempted, like King Ahab, to take the easy route; the people-pleasing route; to go along our comfortable way and choose the path of least resistance. And sometimes, maybe that works. But more often, I think we’re called to do the hard things. Obedience can be hard. Especially when it goes against something that YOU really want to do. Especially when it goes against what EVERYONE ELSE is telling you to do.
So what happened to King Ahab? I guess he did believe the one true prophet, at least a little bit, because when he went into battle, he disguised himself to look like a regular soldier instead of a king. (It’s funny how we think we can outrun God, isn’t it?)
But Micaiah, the one true prophet who went against the 400 false prophets, was right. The enemy, the king of Syria, won the battle, and a “stray arrow” pierced King Ahab between his armor. King Ahab died, and the Israelites were defeated. Because he listened to the false prophets, and because he went against the true Word of God, King Ahab paid the price with his life.
We can’t outrun God, and we can’t outrun His will for our lives. But I take great heart in knowing that as an adopted daughter of the King, I am an heiress to a fortune much, much greater than anything I can imagine. And I have something much more valuable than “horns of iron” to fight my everyday battles. I have the Holy Spirit of God in me, and the Word of God to guide me!
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15