One Year Bible Monday June 20th "Ahab Dies and Jehoshaphat Rules" "Paul Tries To Teach the Jews How Jesus is the Fulfillment of the Prophets"
Jehoshaphat and Ahab
Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, and Ahab was the king of Israel. Ahab approached Jehoshaphat asking him to join him to reclaim Ramoth-Gilead from the Syrians. Jehoshaphat suggests they consult a prophet, which was the right thing to do. Oddly, Ahab consults 400 prophets, which sounds eerily similar the 450 prophets of Baal. And, of course, they all tell him to go to war. Jehoshaphat senses something is up and asks if there is a "prophet of the Lord". Makes me wonder if the other 400 are really not prophets at all.
"When Ahab gathered the prophets, they were not faithful prophets of the LORD. These were prophets happy to please their kings, and to tell them what they wanted to hear. Jehoshaphat still wanted to hear from a prophet of Yahweh, the LORD." - Guzik
There is however one more prophet, but here is what Jehoshaphat says of him.
There is one more man who could consult the Lord for us, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything but trouble for me! His name is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
Despite Ahab's opposition, Jehoshaphat asks to bring him in.
Micaiah Prophesies against Ahab
But true to form Micaiah has anything but a positive word for Ahab. When Micaiah arrives all of the other prophets are proclaiming certain victory saying things like,
1 One of them, Zedekiah son of Kenaanah, made some iron horns and proclaimed, “This is what the Lord says: With these horns you will gore the Arameans to death!”
Importantly when Micaiah arrives on the scene, he asks the important question any prophet should ask when he says, "Let me inquire of the Lord first".
At first Micaiah tells Ahab he will have victory, but Ahab knows better and asks Micaiah to tell him the truth. Micaiah shares what he has seen from the Lord, which is that the sheep will be scattered and the sheep will be without a shepherd (Ahab). In his vision he saw the angels going out and deceving the prophets into telling Ahab these lies, because if they did Ahab would be killed.
At this point Micaiah is arrested by a furious King Ahab and put into prison. Micaiah's last words are,
“If you return safely, it will mean that the Lord has not spoken through me!” Then he added to those standing around, “Everyone mark my words!”
The Death of Ahab
Both kings went out into battle. Ahab told Jehoshaphat that he would disguise himself and Jehoshaphat was to wear the royal robes. Meanwhile the King of Aram instructed his men to only kill the King of Israel. But the plan failed when the men realized Jehoshaphat was not the king of Israel. But then a random arrow was shot and hit Ahab in a chink in his armor. He was wounded badly. They propped Ahab up in his chariot, but eventually the blood drained out and he died.
Jehoshaphat Rules in Judah
Jehoshaphat was a good king following in the footsteps of his Father, Asa, but he did not tear down the temple shrines. It reminds me of being a Christian and allowing just a LITTLE bit of sin in your life is NOT a good idea. Jehoshaphat made peace with the King of Israel but resisted agreeing to all of his demands. Overall Jehoshaphat was a decent king.
Ahaziah Rules in Israel
Ahaziah was the son of Ahab and the apple did not fall far from the tree. He served the gods of Baal like his father and invoked the Lord's wrath. Because of this he reigned for only 2 years!
As we know Paul had a brilliant mind and being a student of the Old Testament he was able to translate the gospel from the Old to the New Testament. He gave the Jews in the synagogue and the God fearing Gentiles a way to connect the stories in the Old Testament with the Good News of Christ.
It starts with God choosing a people for himself. The chosen people grew in numbers in Egypt and God sustained them in the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. He brought them into the Promised Land, as they conquered 7 different Canaanite nations. God gave them judges until the time of Samuel, and then Samuel anointed the first king in Israel, King Saul. God replaced him with a man after his own heart, King David. And it was through David's descendants that God promised to bring a Messiah.
The promise arrived and was announced by John the Baptist, who called upon the Jews to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. Though the people thought John might be the Messiah, he told them that he was not worthy to untie the Messiah's sandals.
And when Jesus came, they did not recognize him just as the prophets had predicted. They found no reason to condemn him, but they did it anyways. When they fulfilled the prophecies by rejecting him and crucifying him on a tree, they took him off the cross and put him in a tomb. But God would not let his holy one rot or see the pit, but He raised him from the dead like was said in Psalm 2. Then Jesus appeared to many witnesses for 40 days.
And now Paul was there to preach it to them. Like their ancestors, they could either believe it or reject it. Importantly in Jesus there was forgiveness of sin, and he did everything that the Law could not do.
We should not miss an emphasis on events in Paul’s preaching here; it is so evident that it can be missed. He focused on things that actually happened, not on philosophy or even theology. “Christianity is not just a philosophy or a set of ethics, though it involves these things. Essentially Christianity is a proclamation of facts that concern what God has done.” (Boice)
Others note similarities between Paul’s sermon here and the sermon of Stephen in Acts 7. That was a sermon that Paul heard when he still hated the name of Jesus. Perhaps the sermon of the first martyr of the church still rang in the ears of the man who presided over his execution.
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