I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.-1 Timothy 4:1-5
I think about Ahab and Jehoshaphat often. They were combining Israel and Judah’s forces to go after the Syrian Army, and Ahab had surrounded himself with prophets of Baal who only affirmed his actions. When Jehoshaphat asked if there was a prophet of the Lord among them, Ahab lamented that there was only Micaiah son of Imlah who only prophesied evil against him (read below). All of the prophets of Baal were preaching victory for Ahab and Jehoshaphat, but Micaiah prophesied Ahab’s downfall. I often wonder why Jehoshaphat didn’t leave right then and there. They lost the battle, Ahab died, and Jehoshaphat was chastised by God for his alliance with wicked Ahab.
Why do I say this? Because sometimes, we only want to focus on the promises of God and not the righteousness of God, the justice of God and the Holiness of God. It’s like the movie (and book, I guess, but I’d not read it) Pollyanna: she tells the town’s preacher that her father focused only on preaching the glad texts. While I don’t believe in a preaching style of only hellfire and brimstone as the preacher in that movie was, I also don’t think that we need surround ourselves with preachers who only preach positivity. Jesus was loving, but flipped over tables. Stephen was stoned because he called the Sanhedrin out for stoning Jesus. Peter was persecuted everywhere he went because he refused to back down from preaching the Gospel to the gentiles.
The majority of Scripture has wonderful promises of God, but it also has warnings of God’s wrath for the rebellious. We have to understand that the mercies of God come also with His justice, that His Holiness is part of His goodness, and these are frightening prospects! We can’t coddle people in to heaven, but we can certainly remain impassive enough as they wander toward hell! Time is short. Take up the whole counsel of God! God’s discipline comes with God’s promises. God’s goodness includes His wrath against evil. Let us be bold like Micaiah son of Imlah, standing for God in a world that cries “peace.”
2 Chronicles 18:4-27
And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes. And they were sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 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.”
And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak.” And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” And he answered, “Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The Lord has declared disaster concerning you.”
Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?” And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, Put this fellow in prison and feed him with meager rations of bread and water until I return in peace.’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”
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