26/05/2017 - A TOUCH OF THE SPIRIT

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Also Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.” 2 Chronicles 18:4

No sooner had Jehoshaphat said yes to Ahab, no doubt God gave the King of Judah a heavy heart, to feel that something was wrong. Since he was already won over by the enemy, Jehoshaphat struggled between obeying the divine touch and going with Ahab’s proposal. So Ahab sent for his prophets in Samaria, about 400 – so that they should prophesy concerning the wisdom of going or not to war in Ramoth-Gilead. The reply was affirmative because according to them, God would grant them victory. (v.5)

On seeing that sight, the Lord showed Jehoshaphat that those were not his men, but the enemy’s. The Most High was disgusted with the attitude of the deceivers that prophesied from the devil. Nothing proved that they came from the true God. In face of this, Jehoshaphat asked the King of Israel if there was not a prophet from God. Ahab said that there was one that never prophesied good prophecies for him.

The King of Judah then felt one more touch from heaven, because he disproved the affirmation of the Samaritan king and the Lord’s prophet was brought into the presence of both of them (v 7,8). Since Ahab wanted only to hear good things and not the truth, Micaiah spoke to the 400 false prophets saying that Ahab could go and would be victorious. In that spectacle of deceptions, the King of Israel warned Micaiah to say what was good for him, but the prophet said that he could only speak what God revealed to Him.

If Jehoshaphat the King of Judah had been correctly well in the presence of the Lord, he wouldn’t even have had to call Micaiah to tell Ahab that he would not go with him to war, since the Most High was not involved in the confusion in Israel. Who knows, he might have touched Ahab’s heart to repent and return to God and desist from his malignant ways? But since he was thrown to the devil he probably would not change his mind. In truth, Jehoshaphat didn’t reflect or consider this.

Micaiah delivered what Ahab wanted to hear; but Ahab knew that this was a lie and swore him to say only the truth (v.15). Then and there Jehoshaphat should have taken his troops and left. After all, he had been shown that God was not with the King of Israel. So then Micaiah gave the future in detail. As a fool, Ahab showed to have no fear in God and unexplainably Jehoshaphat remained at his side.

It is impossible to understand why the King of Judah accepted to go to battle by Ahab’s side. Jehoshaphat, who was a faithful servant of the Lord and disciplined his own life according to God, was wrong when he gave his word to the wicked one. If he had remembered the advice of Solomon, his ancestor (Proverbs 11:15 – He who is surety for a stranger will suffer,

But one who hates being surety is secure), he would have excused himself from the situation and returned home.

Jehoshaphat had asked permission to consult the Lord’s prophet, but even so did not heed God’s message; otherwise, he would have declined Ahab’s proposal. Even witnessing Ahab’s order to imprison Micaiah he did nothing to free that man of God. Sin blinds!

In Christ, with Love,

R. R. Soares