1
ST
KINGS
Week 35, chapter 22 END of 1
st
Kings

This week we conclude our extensive journey through the book of 1
st
Kings and when we meet next time we will start
the book of 2
nd
Kings. Remember when we do, however, that there is no actual division between these two books; the
divide was artificial and 2
nd
Kings simply continues without delay from 1
st
Kings. That said, there is one aspect of 2
nd
Kings that is noticeably different from 1
st
Kings and it is that 2
nd
Kings focuses mostly on the Kings of Judah, while 1
st
Kings has focused primarily on the Kings of Israel. There is good reason for that and we’ll discuss that when we start
2
nd
Kings.

We finished up the last lesson with one of the few remaining true prophets of Yehoveh that still remained in the
northern kingdom of Israel, being summoned to prophesy before King Achav of Israel and King Y’hoshafat of Judah.
Mikhayahu was brought from his prison cell to the threshing floor just outside the gates of Samaria at the behest of
King Jehoshaphat, who was skeptical of the 400 prophets that King Achav had produced to essentially rubber-stamp
his plan to attack the city of Ramot-Gilead.

Ramot-Gilead was a city located east of the Jordan River and along the critically important trade route known as the
Kings Highway. It was currently in the hands of the king of Syria, and this king had no intentions of turning it over to
the King of Israel. Likely it was King Achav’s goal of acquiring Ramot-Gilead that was the premise for arranging this
state visit of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. By winning this city back in a joint effort, it would be of substantial
economic benefit to both kingdoms. Yet, Y’hoshafat was well aware of just how far away from Yehoveh and into idol
worship that Achav had led his people. So when Jehoshaphat was reluctant to seal the agreement to establish an
expeditionary military force with Achav unless the Lord was consulted first, Achav naturally called upon his willing
group of false prophets who would tell the king anything he wanted to hear.

When Jehoshaphat proved to be unconvinced with the unanimous pronouncements of easy victory by these 400
prophets and their leader, Tzidkyah, Jehoshaphat asked if there wasn’t an old-school prophet of Yehoveh still around
and Achav grudgingly admitted that there was one. But not surprisingly this prophet was imprisoned because the last
thing any dictator wants is for the truth to get out. And King Achav wanted nothing to do with this old-school prophet
of God because all Mikhayahu ever seemed to bring to Achav was a divine message of warning, chastisement and
judgment.

We concluded by discussing that when boiled down to its basic elements, the reality is that King Achav didn’t want to
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hear the real Word of God, he preferred something that sounded like the Word of God but was more in tune with the
political correctness of his era. He wanted a word that was more flexible and accommodating to his preferences and
plans. Unfortunately, modern Believers are living under the same circumstances when today many of our mainstream
churches profess that they are teaching the Word of God, when in fact they are teaching doctrines of men that
purport to reflect the Word of God. And these teachings mostly tell the congregation what they want to hear.

Let’s re-read of portion of 1
st
Kings chapter 22.

RE-READ 1
ST
KINGS CHAPTER 22:13 – end


We have discussed Holy War in the past, and how Holy War is NOT war that is waged by someone who merely thinks
that they have a good pious reason for engaging in such a conflict (such as the Crusades). Rather Holy War is war that
is specifically ordained, or perhaps openly sanctioned, by Yehoveh. I think that while one reason that Y’hoshaphat
King of Judah wanted to inquire of the Lord’s prophets about Achav’s proposal to attack Ramot-Gilead is that it was
typical of kings of that era to want to know in advance what the outcome would be (and this was accomplished by
divination). But another reason is that Jehoshaphat needed to know if this was Holy War or not; the difference
between Holy War and other kinds of war is crucial.

Since the book of 1
st
Kings tends to focus on the wicked and godless kings of the northern kingdom, we can lose sight
of the fact that the kings of Judah (though hardly perfect) still called Yehoveh their God, and maintained the Levite
priesthood and Temple Worship at Solomon’s Temple. The Torah was still their civil law code and to varying degrees
Judah’s kings sought to follow it. Y’hoshafat was seen as a relatively good king, and his actions here indicate that.

Yet one of the questions that scholars openly ask is why a Torah knowledgeable person like King Jehoshaphat would
hear God’s true word from Micaiah that to attack Ramot-Gilead would result in a humiliating loss, but yet he went
ahead and did it anyway? And there is really no strong Scriptural indication that God saw Jehoshaphat’s
participation in the battle as disobedience. Thus it seems to me that what we see here is this: as a result of Micaiah’s
prophetic utterance it became clear to Jehoshaphat that this battle against Ramot-Gilead was NOT Holy War. God
neither ordained nor sanctioned this war. On the other hand, God did not prohibit it; He merely warned that the
outcome would be a serious setback.

CJB
1 Kings 22:17 Then he said, "I saw all Isra'el scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd;
and ADONAI said, 'These men have no leader; let everyone go home in peace.'"

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In fact, the final words of Mikhayahu state that the defeated armies of Israel and Judah will return home in shalom.
You don’t return home in shalom if you have a problem with God. So to be clear: it is not that God is necessarily
against war that is not Holy War. Rather it is that Holy War has an entirely different purpose, and that God is the
actual Warrior Leader of Holy War, and thus Holy War is fought under a different set of rules (called the Law of
Herem) than regular war.

What Jehoshaphat discovered from Mikhayahu is that the battle for Ramot-Gilead was not Holy War and so despite
the warning that the outcome would be a disaster, Jehoshaphat remained hopeful that somehow the joint forces of
Israel and Judah might come out with a victory; and thus the treatment of the all-important spoils of war would be at
Achav’s and Jehoshaphat’s discretion. They could keep the spoils of war, keep the city of Ramot-Gilead intact and use
it for economic benefit, and suffer no consequences from God. Had it been Holy War, the spoils would have become
God’s holy property, and the city would have to have been burned. Entirely different outcomes aren’t they?

But after Mikhayahu had finished prophesying a military loss, King Achav merely insisted that he was only lying
because he had such personal animosity against the king. But then the other shoe fell: starting in verse 19 the old
prophet tells of a vision that is given in parable-like fashion. And he makes it clear that despite Achav’s insistence that
the words spoken against Achav were Micaiah’s, in fact what is being spoken is from Yehoveh. It is indeed a very
strange vision/parable and is set in Heaven with God deciding upon how to deal with this wicked King Achav.

In this parable the Lord is acting like a typical earthly king. He is sitting on His throne surrounded by His royal
council. The term used for those surrounding him is the host of Heaven, or in Hebrew tsava ha’shamayim. In this
context it is speaking of angels. Because the Lord had sentenced Achav to die for his involvement in Navot’s murder
and theft of his ancestral land, the only thing that remained was to decide how and when the king’s death sentence
would be carried out.

So since Achav is considering going on this military excursion the Lord has determined that this will be the time when
the king is to die. So the question asked is, “Who will entice (or lure) Achav to decide upon going to war at Ramot-
Gilead, so that he can die there”. There is a discussion among God and his heavenly hosts and various suggestions are
put forward but finally a spirit (a ruach) volunteered to be the one to entrap the king.

When the Lord asked how the spirit would accomplish this, the ruach said he’d do it by putting a deceiving spirit into
the mouths of those 400 false prophets that were advising King Achav. And the Lord agreed and said, “Go”. So, says
Mikhayahu, that is exactly what has happened.

A parable is a metaphor, wrapped into a story, that creates a good illustration that is designed to be easily
remembered or that helps to reveal a difficult concept. This parable was instantly understood by all involved and it
infuriated the chief of the 400 false prophets, Zedekiah. But before we talk about his reaction let’s look at a couple of
points. First, the deceiving spirit is not to be taken as Satan. This is not a demonic spirit, so God is not sending a
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demon to the false prophets. Rather, because this is a parable the deceiving spirit is a metaphor and it is meant to
personify the spirit of prophecy. Only this spirit of prophecy is the kind that appeals to the yetser ha-rah (the evil
inclination) that is built-in to all humans. And this evil inclination of the false prophets is being intentionally and
divinely energized so that God’s death sentence can be carried out on King Achav.

Second is that it’s almost as if Achav is committing suicide. He is on the one hand unknowingly being lured into this
battle, but on the other he has been specifically and publically warned that if he pursues this course of action it will
result in his death. Yet he chooses to ignore the warning and go to battle. Mikhayahu’s parable could have been
equally applied hundreds of years earlier to the Pharaoh of Egypt who had refused to let God’s people go until his
country was decimated. And even though calamity upon calamity befell Pharaoh, and his own advisors told him NOT
to keep fighting the God of the Hebrews, at times God sent a deceiving spirit to the Pharaoh that hardened his resolve.
But now the Pharaoh hardened his own evil inclination, chased down the fleeing Israelites, and the end result for
Pharaoh was similar to Achav’s.

Thus in this situation, while the evil inclination of King Achav and his lying prophets had been stimulated by a spirit of
deception, Micaiah’s yetser ha-tov (good inclination) was stimulated by a Holy Spirit, and thus he told the truth; he
delivered God’s Word accurately even under severe threat of personal harm or execution.

So in verse 24 Zedekiah, leader of the false prophets, is enraged at being told that he has but pronounced the lies of an
evil deceiving spirit; essentially used as a dupe to draw King Achav to the just sentence of death that the Lord
pronounced upon him back in chapter 20 verse 42. The slap on the face was meant to shame Mikhayahu; such a slap
in public often brought about an ensuing murder because in the honor-shame based society that all of the Middle East
was (and mostly still is), one of the few ways available to get one’s honor back is to the kill the one who shamed them.
Interestingly Zedekiah’s argument was one of belittling and discrediting Micaiah by saying that his own powers of
prophecy were superior. Thus the slap on the cheek was to humiliate and put Micaiah in a position of being seen as an
inferior prophet to Zedekiah.

But Zedekiah’s action was of itself an indictment of his character and indication of his falseness. It shows that indeed
that the source of his words and deeds was his evil inclination. In its plainest sense of these passages Zedekiah was a
deluded charlatan. Mikhayahu’s response was to tell Tzidkiyah that soon he would be running and hiding; meaning
that because prophets who are wrong in their prophesies are killed (this is so even among pagans) and it wouldn’t be
long until that was Zedekiah’s fate.

Both Kings Achav and Y’hoshafat were witnessing all that happened and the infuriated King Achav ordered
Mikhayahu back to his prison cell to be treated severely and to be fed only bread and water and a bare minimum of
that. But the old prophet’s response was to state the truth; to state what the Torah states: if the king comes back alive
(he returns from Ramot-Gilead in shalom like the rest of his men are going to) then it is Mikhayahu who has not heard
from God and is the false prophet.

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Let me rub a bit of salt into a wound that I have opened up on a number of occasions in Torah Class. I want to dwell
on it a little because it is something that runs rampant among modern Christians and it is a matter of spiritual well
being and harmony with God. For some reason a few well-meaning people who become properly enamored with
God’s Word tend to get carried away and think they are now the bearers of God’s divine oracle. Over and over they
make startling pronouncements (sometimes very pleasant and welcome) of coming events, claiming to have special
divine knowledge that has been divulged only to them. They will tell of people who will do certain things, predict
calamities and are quite fond of telling others that the Lord has given them something to tell you. Only when some
time has passed and you look back, the overwhelming majority of these prophesied events and calamities never take
place. But this fact never seems to deter those who consider themselves as prophets; they’ll just keep doing it.

And have you ever noticed that the true prophets of the Bible never seem to have very happy lives? They invariably
become outcasts or die terrible deaths because what God usually has to say through them is not, “Just wanted to tell
you all that you’re doing a swell job…..keep it up!” Rather it is almost always to harshly chastise and warn of the
people’s or the king’s wicked ways and of God’s displeasure with it and what He’s about to do about it. Things
people don’t want to hear; things that people vehemently deny and naturally get exceedingly mad at the messenger.
So I can tell you that I have NO interest in being a prophet and for the life of me don’t know why anyone would want
to be a prophet.

I tell you this not to embarrass or condemn, but rather to caution of the great danger you put yourself in (if this
describes you). Are there true prophets today? Yes, I think there must be (although I’ve never personally met one).
The Biblical definition of a true prophet is one who actually hears from God and thus it is inherently impossible for
them to ever be wrong (whether in substance or in timing). The Biblical definition of a false prophet is well portrayed
in Mikhayahu’s vision/parable that says a spirit of deception is put into the mouth of a false prophet, not an
enlightened word from the Lord. A false prophet is a self-declared prophet, not one who was chosen by the Lord. And
we all are aware that the Biblical penalty for daring to be a false prophet is death. How do we tell the difference
between a true and a false prophet?

Deut. 18:21-22 CJB

21
You may be wondering, 'How are we to know if a word has not been spoken by ADONAI?'

22
When a prophet speaks in the name of ADONAI, and the prediction does not come true- that is, the
word is not fulfilled- then ADONAI did not speak that word. The prophet who said it spoke
presumptuously; you have nothing to fear from him.

Have you ever prophesied a word to someone and claimed that it’s from God? Do you have the courage of conviction
to say, as did Micaiah, that if what you say doesn’t happen then you are NOT a prophet of God? Did your prophecy
come true precisely as you spoke it? If not then you were acting as a false prophet even though that was probably not
your conscious intent. In fact, the Rabbis are near unanimous in saying that the Zedekiah of our story was convinced
in his mind that he WAS a true prophet of God. He didn’t think he was telling a falsehood when he told King Achav
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that he would be victorious in battle, he completely believed it. As the parable says, he believed the lie of a false spirit
and so was, himself, completely taken in. But the Lord doesn’t do that to his true anointed prophets; only to those self-
appointed ones who, no matter their sincere attempt to do good, never had the divine authority of a prophet in the
first place.

Despite all they saw and heard Achav and Y’hoshafat took their armies to Ramot-Gilead and attacked. But Achav, that
double-minded coward, wasn’t completely deaf so he decided that just to hedge his bets he’d wear a disguise when
they began the fighting so that they enemy didn’t know he was Israel’s King. But, he also advised Jehoshaphat to go
ahead and show up in his royal robes! Hard to believe that the King of Judah couldn’t see that he was being set-up as
living decoy by Achav. It seems that the Syrian army had a standing order when they went into battle to make a bee-
line towards the enemy’s King and take all measures necessary to kill him as soon as possible. It was typical in that
era that when the king was killed in the battle the army got scared and scattered. Achav knew of the tactic;
Jehoshaphat knew it. So why Jehoshaphat ever agreed to be a visible target while Achav blended in with the troops is
hard to fathom except that he may have taken Mikhayahu’s prophecy to heart that if any king would be killed that
day, it would be King Achav.


And sure enough verse 32 has the Syrian chariot commanders spot King Y’hoshafat, assume that he was the King of
Israel, and chase after him. No doubt because only a few months earlier they had been allies with Achav and Israel in
a war against Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, the Syrian chariot commanders recognized right away as they closed in
for the kill that the one wearing the royal robes was NOT Achav, so they pulled off and continued their hunt for the
real king of Israel.

But God’s providence is never denied. As Achav was riding around in disguise in his chariot a nameless Syrian soldier
shot an arrow at random towards the crowded battlefield and it struck the only unprotected spot not covered by King
Achav’s armor. He was mortally wounded. The rest of the story is gruesome to be sure. As the king’s life blood
uncontrollably leaked from his body all over the now slippery chariot floor, and as he grew weaker and weaker, his
chariot driver literally tied him up to the front of the chariot so that the Israelite troops could see him and think he
was still able to fight and lead. The driver well understood that if the soldiers knew he was dead or dying, they would
lose their courage and flee towards home.

All battles ended at sundown, because no one could see to fight in the dark. So as night fell, the word spread through
the ranks to run for home; the king was dead. Mikhayahu’s prophecy came true exactly as he foretold it; Zedekiah
and his 400 prophets were outed as the false prophets that they were.

When the Israelites brought his corpse back to Samaria, the king was given a proper burial. But in a sign of the filth
and abomination that God viewed Achav as being, his chariot was cleansed of its blood at the place where the whores
of Israel bathed. The wild dogs came to lick at the king’s gore that had been washed off of the royal chariot. And all
this was also a prophetic fulfillment of Elijah’s prophecy that although Achav was to die and have his body thrown
into Navot’s vineyard, God would be merciful and instead have this happen to Achav’s son (1
st
Kings 21:19 and
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21:29). In other words, Achav would die but he would receive an honorable burial; in some later years his son would
also die but he would not be so fortunate as to have a respectful burial. Instead he would be dumped unceremoniously
into Navot’s former vineyard to be eaten by scavengers.

Verse 39 begins to wrap things up for this era of the Kings and so the last several verses are for housekeeping
purposes to tie up some loose ends. We’re reminded that much more than is recorded here about King Achav is
written down in the long lost Annals of the Kings of Israel. And that his son Achazyah was his successor.

As is typical of the book of Kings, King Jehoshaphat of Judah is now listed and this is so his reign can be put into
synchronization with the reigns of the Kings of Israel. And we find that Jehoshaphat began his reign (or more likely
co-reign with his father Asa) in the 4
th
year of King Achav’s reign. Let me pause to say that it was quite typical for a
king to name his successor some years before he died; and once he did that, there was a sort of co-regency occurring
in which both men were considered as kings. Of course the father was senior and carried the most authority for as
long as he was able. We even saw this with David and Solomon. So when we look at a chart of when it is said that
person became king, and who he took over from, often time the numbers don’t seem to make sense. But that is
because as often as not there was an overlap as a king and his son ruled simultaneously for anywhere from a few
months to a few years.

We are given further information that Y’hoshafat was 35 years old when he assumed the throne and that he ruled for
25 years; he is praised here and in the book of Chronicles as a righteous king. Even so he was only 60 years old when
he died. Not terrible, but not a long life span usually ascribed to a leader who led with great piety. He is given the
accolade that he lived in the manner of his father Asa who followed in the ways of the Lord. He is given one particular
black mark in that he also continued to allow the existence and use of personal bamah, high places, in his kingdom of
Judah. This is referring to shrines and altars of sacrifice. But the reason that this wasn’t considered as too terribly
serious is that these were bamah to worship Yehoveh; these weren’t pagan altars to bow down to pagan gods. Yet,
these were not authorized altars of sacrifice as the Jerusalem Temple was the only place where sacrifice to Yehoveh
was to occur, and the Temple at this time was in full operation. Even so this black mark is balanced out in that he rid
the kingdom of cult prostitutes that his father King Asa had allowed to continue to operate.

We’re also given the information that at the beginning of Jehoshaphat’s reign, there was no king in the neighboring
kingdom of Edom. That is because at this time Edom was a vassal state operating under the authority of Judah, and
King Asa had assigned a prefect or governor over Edom. But at some point Jehoshaphat decided to allow Edom to
have a king (no doubt an Edomite), probably to quell some growing dissatisfaction of the Edomite people of being
ruled by a Judahite. This information is included because it affects what we learn next.

Jehoshaphat had entered into some kind of joint seafaring venture with King Achav’s son Achazyah (obviously some
years after Achav’s death at Ramot-Gilead). The goal was to build and sail some large Tarshish-class ships. This ship
building venture took place in Edom, on the shore of what is called today the Gulf of Aqaba. It is very near the
modern Israeli port city of Eilat. This merely proves that there had been an extended period of peace and alliance
between Achav and Jehoshaphat quite some time before the ill-fated attack of Ramot-Gilead and it continued well
after Achav’s death. But what is missing from this account is that Achazyah was every bit as evil as his parents, and
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God was very unhappy with Y’hoshafat for collaborating with such wicked people (even though they were fellow
Israelites). We find this in 2
nd
Chronicles:

2Chronicles 20:35-37 CJB

35
It was after this that Y'hoshafat joined up with Achazyah king of Isra'el, who was acting very wickedly.

36
He joined together with him to build large ships capable of going to Tarshish; they made the ships in
'Etzyon-Gever.

37
Then Eli'ezer the son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Y'hoshafat: "Because you joined
yourself with Achazyah, ADONAI is wrecking your project." And the ships were wrecked, so that they
couldn't go to Tarshish.

Interestingly, after the Tarshish ships were destroyed Achazyah approached Jehoshaphat for another and different
joint venture involving ships, and it was that Achazyah would supply sailors to help man whatever ships Jehoshaphat
already had before the Tarshish ship disaster. What advantage that might be to Jehoshaphat is not recorded, but what
we do see is that he declined the offer. The Rabbis say that it was because he took to heart the Word from the Lord
that the prophet Eli’ezer had pronounced and knew he should no longer associate economically with the king of the
northern kingdom.

After Y’hoshafat died, his son Y’horam succeeded him.

In another effort at synchronization, we are told that Achazyah (son of Achav) become King of Israel in the 17
th
year
of Jehoshaphat’s reign. But Achazyah was very evil and he ruled only 2 years before his accidental death. He is
described as having lived the way all of the kings of Israel had since Jeroboam; that is they all did what was evil in
God’s eyes. And as the leader of Israel he led his people into sin, and thus God’s anger, by worshipping and serving
Ba’al (his mother’s god).

And so the stage is set for the next round of Kings of Israel and of Judah. But what we’re going to find is that there
will be only a few more kings of Israel before God finally acts on a national basis and allows the king of Assyria to
overrun the northern kingdom and send them into exile all over the Asian continent. It is from this event that will
eventually come the legend of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. However Judah will survive for almost 150 years after Israel
is gone, and so will have a longer continuous list of kings of Judah.

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This ends the book of 1
st
Kings.

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