Be Careful Who You Get Your Advice From! 1 Chronicles 18

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This is a great story about good leadership and bad leadership. King Ahab the king of the Israel and King Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah. King Ahab a long history with prophets who call out his evil practices starting with Elijah, who predicts a drought for King Ahab's sins. He also worshipped Baal. 

Meanwhile King Jehoshaphat was generally a good king, but his alliance with King Ahab distorted his judgment.  Ahab asked him to attack Ramoth-Gilead with him, which was a leftover city from Syria that the king of Syria never gave to Ahab. Jehosphaphat wisely asks, 

"Then Jehoshaphat added, “But first let’s find out what the Lord says.” 18:4

So Ahab invites 400 prophets to give him advice. The only problem is they are not prophets of the Lord, or at least they are not true to what the Lord asks them to say. True to form, all of the prophets tell Ahab to go invade and he will be victorious. They were all what we would call "yes men". 

But Jehoshophat realizes something is up so he says, 

 “Is there not also a prophet of the Lord here? We should ask him the same question.”

But this one true prophet is a man Ahab despises, because he is not afraid to tell Ahab the truth. He says, 

“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.”

Ahab's messenger tells Micaiah that all of the other prophets are telling Ahab he will have victory, and he better follow suit. But Micaiah is a true man of God and a true prophet. He remarks, 

“As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what my God says.”

So when Micaiah shows up, he sarcastically tells Ahab to go to war and he will have victory. But Ahab knows better than this and demands Micaiah tell the truth. Micaiah tells the story of a vision he has from the Lord, where an angel put a lying spirit in each of Ahab's prophets. 

At the end of the day, Ahah doesn't listen to Micaiah, the true prophet, and gets killed in battle. However, Jehoshaphat called out to the Lord, and his life was spared by the Lord. 

So what can we learn from this story?

1. Ahab surrounded himself with "yes" men. Do you do the same? Do you have anybody that will speak truth into your life? Some of the most important people in my life were not afraid to call me out on something I was doing that was not of God. 

2. Just because someone says they have a "word from the Lord", doesn't necessarily mean it is from the Lord. You need to test this word against the Word of God, and also use discernment which is given to you by the Holy Spirit. Is this person trustworthy? Has God used them before in this capacity? Who else would vouch for them?

If you don't have someone who will speak the truth in love to you, pray for the Lord to bring this person into your life. 

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