Do I Actually Listen to What Others Say? (1 Kings & 2 Chronicles)
Do you only listen to advice that agrees with you? Ahab’s story warns us ignoring truth can cost more than we’re willing to pay.
1 Kings 20 - 22; 2 Chronicles 18 - 19
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
How well do you listen to advice?
In 1 Kings 20-22 and 2 Chronicles 18-19, we see this stark contrast between Ahab and Jehoshaphat. They were contemporaries and ruled as kings at the same time. Ahab was the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Jehoshaphat was the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. Their reigns overlapped, and they even formed a political alliance through marriage; Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, married Athaliah, Ahab's daughter.
This alliance is most famously documented in the First Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles, where they collaborated in a military campaign against the Arameans at Ramoth-Gilead. This partnership, however, was fraught with religious and ethical tension, as Jehoshaphat, a king who generally sought to follow Yahweh, was allied with Ahab, who promoted the worship of Baal alongside his wife Jezebel.
1 Kings 21 highlights the extent of Ahab and Jezebel’s corruption when they put a man named Naboth to death so they could steal his vineyard. Verses 25-26 say, 25 “There was no one like Ahab, who devoted himself to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight, because his wife Jezebel incited him. 26 He committed the most detestable acts by following idols as the Amorites had, whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.”
Contrast this with Jehoshaphat, where 2 Chronicles 20:32 says, “He walked in the ways of Asa his father; he did not turn away from it but did what was right in the Lord’s sight.” Yes, he made mistakes, but his love for God was genuine. In 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18, we see these two kings cross paths in an attempt to take Ramoth-Gilead from the Arameans. 2 Chronicles 18:5-7 says,
5 So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, four hundred men, and asked them, “Should we go to Ramoth-gilead for war or should I refrain?”
They replied, “March up, and God will hand it over to the king.”
6 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here anymore? Let’s ask him.”
7 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man who can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
As Raymond Dillard notes, “The appearance of Micaiah before Ahab and Jehoshaphat is the only extended prophetic narrative in Chronicles.”[1] The breakdown of this exchange is almost comical. First, a messenger goes to Micaiah and says, “Look, the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.” Seeing he has no choice when the king asks for his “advice” and that, like Elijah on Mount Carmel, he’s outnumbered 400 to 1, Micaiah responds to Ahab: “March up and succeed, for they will be handed over to you.” Notice that Micaiah doesn’t invoke the name Yahweh, and Ahab quickly realizes he’s not telling him what he really thinks.
Ahab then forces him to speak, and when Micaiah obliges and says Israel will lose the battle, Ahab orders Miaiah to be imprisoned and fed only a little bread and water until Ahab returns safely. To which Micaiah replies in Verse 27, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Through his actions, Ahab showed himself to be a fool. He surrounded himself with people who told him what he wanted to hear, and when they deviated, he put them in prison.
