1 Kings 22:1-18
Listening to the Truth

For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?"

So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?"

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD."

So the king of Israel brought together the prophets--about four hundred men--and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah."

"The king should not say that," Jehoshaphat replied.

So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, "Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once."

Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, "This is what the LORD says: 'With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.' "

All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. "Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious," they said, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, "Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably."

But Micaiah said, "As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me."

When he arrived, the king asked him, "Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Attack and be victorious," he answered, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

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 answered, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.' "

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

New International Version

This is a story of two kings, both of whom wanted to hear the word of God. In the tumultuous era from the end of King Solomon's reign until Judah was conquered by Babylon, that desire to listen to God makes both King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah relatively "good" kings. King Ahab even had 400 prophets of God as his advisors!

However, King Jehoshaphat was open to whatever God wanted to say, while King Ahab was willing to accept only what he wanted to hear. In the battle recorded in the latter part of chapter 22, that difference in attitude was literally the difference between life and death for Ahab. It was King Jehoshaphat's searching attitude that cause him to question the false adulations of the 400 prophets. It was King Ahab's arrogant attitude that caused him to dismiss Micaiah as nothing more than a trouble-maker.

We see judgment errors similar to those made by King Ahab all around us. We witness powerful organizational leaders who surround themselves with advisors preferred for their homogeneous opinions. We hear convoluted explanations from sages that seek to convince us that what we think we know is not really what we know. We might even shrug along with our friends when the ways of the "real world" conflict with what we know to be right.

The sad tale of King Ahab teaches us critical lessons about how we work with others, how we gather information, and how we relate to God.

King Ahab succumbed to the allure of surrounding himself with "yes men". Leaders feel honored when their decisions have the support of esteemed consultants, but weaker leaders "stack the deck" by selecting the advisors with harmonious opinions over those with stronger expertise but differing views. One of the fundamental imperatives of a strong leader is that the leader encourages and listens to opposing viewpoints and unfavorable assessments. A strong leader uses contrary ideas to improve his team; a weak leader stifles and ignore contrary ideas, and his team stagnates.

Even if we are not formal leaders, we have the opportunity to practice these same inclusive principles in the information we receive. We have an unprecedented number of dedicated news channels available in our broadband television infrastructures compared to the few television and radio broadcast networks of several decades ago. We have a seemingly unlimited number of information sources on the internet, including a vast array of amateur publishers, compared to the oligarchy of printed news publishers of the twentieth century. For the first time in the history of our planet, we must be selective in what news we receive, for there is far more news reported to us in a day than we can possibly absorb. The same is true in "soft" news, in editorial commentary, even in devotional reading. A lack of time forces us to exclude most of the information available to us. If we choose only to read and listen to ideas that exactly match our own, we will fossilize our ideas and stifle our growth. Especially in our spiritual lives, we need the challenge of hearing different ways of thinking, we need to explain to ourselves why we believe what we believe, and we need to listen with an open mind for the unexpected call from God to follow a different path.

If we, like King Ahab, successfully filter out all dissenting opinions and information sources, we are liable to make the same blasphemous decisions as King Ahab when he dismissed God's messages. We cannot treat others with an arrogant attitude but "turn off" that arrogance when we pray to God. This truth about arrogance is related to Jesus' teaching that what we do "to the least of these" is what we do to God. We can be certain that we will not like every message that God sends to us, but God knows best--and we do not. We can be certain that God will allow us to experience situations that are uncomfortable, painful, even frightening, if doing so can strengthen our faith and make us more useful followers of Christ. We can be certain that each of us will fail God and fall into sin, and the Good Shepherd will come find us and lead us back into the fold. Will we follow the Good Shepherd home? Will we, like King Ahab, stubbornly ignore God when God doesn't tell us what we want to hear?