2 Chronicles 18:9-27 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

Micaiah, the son of Imla-an Old Testament hero.

I. THE COURAGE HE DISPLAYED . ( 2 Chronicles 18:9-13 .) He delivered Jehovah's message under circumstances that might and probably would have intimidated him had he not been a hero.

1 . Before two kings to whom that message was unacceptable. The scene was calculated to steal away Micaiah's fortitude, could anything have done so. In an open space or threshing-floor, at the entering in of the gate of Samaria, Ahab and Jehoshaphat, arrayed in royal robes, sat each. upon.his throne. Immediately encircling them were the four hundred prophets; while each, king was attended by his army (Josephus 'Ant' 8.15. 3.) Ordinarily, "there is such a divinty doth hedge a king , " that Micaiah might have been excused had he trembled when ushered into the presence of two such royal personages, decked out with the trappings of lofty station, waited on by bowing courtiers, and escorted by battalions of warriors; much more when one of them was Ahab, whose displeaure he had already felt, and the might of whose arm he had lately experienced; most of all when he knew or suspected that his words could not be acceptable to the kingly auditors on whose ears they were about to fall. Yet Micaiah flinched not. Composed as if he stood before peasants, he told out the message Jehovah put into his lips. Compare the attitudes of Hanani before Asa ( 2 Chronicles 16:7 ), of Elijah before Ahab ( 1 Kings 18:18 ; 1 Kings 21:20 ), of Daniel before Belshazzar ( Daniel 5:13 ), of John the Baptist before Herod ( Matthew 14:4 ), of Paul before Felix and Agrippa ( Acts 24:25 ; Acts 26:28 ), of Polycarp before Antoninus, of Luther before the Diet of Worms, of John Knox before the court of Mary.

2 . In the presence of four hundred false prophets whom that message opposed. Had numbers been a test of truth, then was Micaiah wrens, since he stood alone against the united body of the Israelitish prophets. Their answer to Ahab's question was unanimous. Without one dissenting voice they had assured him Jehovah would reward his efforts with victory. Ramoth-Gilead would be delivered into his hand, and the power of Syria crushed. Zedekiah, one of these prophets, playing the clown on the occasion, putting iron horns on his head and butting like an ox, added, "Thus saith the Lord, With these horns thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed; "while all his brother-prophets, applauding his performance, urged the king to "go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper." Micaiah, however, knew that all that was false, and in spite of appearing singular, non-complaisant, obstinate, perverse, would not cry, "Amen!" would not shape his words either to please the king or accord with the fashion of the hour. It mattered nothing to Micaiah that he stood alone—his feet were planted on the rock of truth; or that men might regard him as "odd," "punctilious," "over-scrupulous," provided he was right. Compare Elijah on Mount Carmel before the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, with the four hundred prophets of the grove ( 1 Kings 18:19 ).

3 . Though he knew that message would not improve his own prospects . On the way from prison to the king's presence he had obtained a hint from his conductor what kind of "oracle" would best suit—would most gratify the king and recompense himself. All the state-prophets had observed in what quarter the wind sat, and had prophesied accordingly. They discerned what their royal master wanted, and why should they who ate his bread decline to gratify his whims? With one consent had they declared "good" to Ahab. If he, Micaiah, consulted for "good" to himself he would act upon that hint; taking his cue from the "prophets," he would let his word be as theirs. But Micaiah was too honest to play the knave. Micaiah understood not the art of studying self. Micaiah knew his duty was to speak the word given him by God, without regarding consequences to any, least of all to himself. And he did it!

II. THE ORACLE HE DELIVERED . (Verses 14-22.)

1 . A seeming permission. Micaiah answered Ahab in the words of the false prophets (verse 14), in, irony (Keil, Bertheau), or in reproof of Ahab's hypocrisy (Bahr). Either Micaiah meant the opposite of what he said—that the advice Ahab had received was worthless; or he intended to be understood as declining to give other oracle than that already spoken by the prophets, which was the one Ahab wanted. But in any case Ahab suspected Micaiah's sincerity.

2 . symbolic warning. Adjured to speak the truth, he related to the king a vision he had seen—"all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep without a shepherd;" and a voice he had heard—"These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace." Whether the words of Moses ( Numbers 27:17 ) were in Micaiah's mind when he described his vision or not, the import of the vision and the voice was as patent to Ahab as to him. Ahab was to fall at Ramoth-Gilead; Israel to become like a flock without a shepherd; the campaign to end in failure and shame.

3 . A serious explanation. Accused by Ahab of speaking from a spirit of malignant hatred towards him, Micaiah depicted another vision, which let the king see the real deceivers were his own prophets, not he, Micaiah. The vision, most likely received some time before and not then only for the first time, consisted of a dramatic representation of the Divine government, in which were set forth the following truths:

4 . A solemn denunciation. Without further parley, or veiling of his thoughts in metaphorical speech, he declares that the king had been imposed upon by his prophets, and that Jehovah had spoken evil against him. There are times when God's messengers must deliver God's messages to their hearers with utmost plainness and directness of speech.

III. THE RECOMPENSE HE RECEIVED . (Verses 23-27.)

1 . Insult from the prophets, through their leader Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah.

2 . Punishment from the king. Micaiah was remanded back to his confinement in the city jail. Amen the governor of the city, and Joash the king's son—not necessarily a son of Ahab, but a prince of the blood—as commandants of the prison, were instructed to thrust him back into his old cell, and "feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction;" in modern phrase, to subject him to imprisonment with hard labour, until Ahab should return in peace (verse 26). It was severe upon Micaiah, yet he retracted not. Without a murmur at his hard fate, he cheerfully returned to his cell, only calling the people to observe that if Ahab returned home from the war in peace, he was not a true prophet (verse 27).

Learn:

1 . The nobility of true courage.

2 . The certainty that good men will suffer for their goodness.

3 . The reality of an overruling Providence.

4 . The infallibility of God's Word.—W.