THE DEATH OF AHAB
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 22:2. Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel—This visit is accounted for in Chronicles (chap. 1 Kings 18:1): Jehoshaphat came to Israel for the marriage of his son Jehoram to Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah (see 2 Kings 8:18). Ahab entertained with sumptuous hospitality Jehoshaphat and his immense retinue, composed largely of military officers; and then seized the occasion for forming an alliance with the king of Judah against the Syrian king for the recovery of Ramoth-in-Gilead.
1 Kings 22:14. I am as thou art—The Chronicles’ account omits the words “my horses as thy horses,” and gives instead וִעִמְּךָ בַּמִּלְחָמָה, “and I am with thee in the war.”
1 Kings 22:5. Enquire of the Lord—The king of Judah had conscientious misgivings; such, indeed, as were unlikely to trouble the godless Ahab.
1 Kings 22:6. The prophets—The number, “400,” must not mislead. They were not the Astarte prophets again reinstated (1 Kings 18:19; 1 Kings 18:22), but a group of men who continued Jeroboam’s Jehovah-worship (calf worship) in the land, and were probably employed by Ahab for seductive religious purposes, to estrange the nation from the true worship of Jehovah. Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hands of the king Notice: “it” is in italics; omit the word, and the prophets merely affirm that the Lord shall deliver—what? Ramoth or Israel?—into the hands of the king. What king? Ramoth into Jehoshaphat’s (or Ahab’s) hands, or Israel into the king of Syria’s hands? Couched as their prediction is in ambiguous terms they evade the responsibility of failure. Thus did the Delphian oracle reply to Pysrhus: Aio te Æcida, Romanos vincere posse: Ibis redibis nunquam in bello peribis. “I say to thee Pyrrhus the Romans shall overcome; thou shalt go, thou shalt return never in war shalt thou perish;” which may mean, Pyrrhus shall overcome the Romans; that he should return; never in war should he perish; or, the Romans should overcome Pyrrhus, he should return never; in war he should perish. All depended on the punctuation of the sentence. This prophecy is alike equivocal.
1 Kings 22:7. Is there not a prophet of the Lord besides?—Perhaps Jehoshaphat had heard rumours of Elijah, and referred to him.
1 Kings 22:8. Micaiah the son of Imlah—Who was this? Strong probabilities favour the conclusion that he was the nameless prophet of chap. 1 Kings 20:13; 1 Kings 20:35-41. Whether this man or not, Micaiah had incurred the guilty king’s hatred, which is to the honour of the prophet, for Ahab counted every man his “enemy” (1 Kings 21:20) who denounced his iniquitous conduct.
1 Kings 22:9. Hasten hither Macaiah—He was doubtless then in the prison to which he was afterwards carried back (1 Kings 22:27).
1 Kings 22:10. In a void place—בְּגֹּרָן, probably an open threshing-floor.
1 Kings 22:11. Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah—One of the “four hundred” who sought to convince the kings by assuming the symbolic manners of a prophet, probably for the misapplication in the present instance of the grand promise formerly made to Ephraim (Deuteronomy 33:17).
1 Kings 22:15. Go and prosper, &c.—Micaiah repeats the delusive words, as in irony. The angry king sees it to be mockery (1 Kings 22:16); yet he resents with greater indignation the “true” word.
1 Kings 22:19. I saw the Lord sitting on His throne—This is not a parabolic form of speech, but a solemn recital of a prophetic vision.
1 Kings 22:20. Persuade Ahab—Entice.
1 Kings 22:21. A spirit—הָרוּהַ, the spirit; definite art., i.e., the prophetic spirit which moved the prophets to speak (1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 19:20; 1 Samuel 19:23). Jehovah permits this “spirit” (which must not be identified with the Spirit Divine) to use the perverted prophetic gifts of Ahab’s prophets for Ahab’s merited ruin. Ahab would have false prophecy, false prophecy he shall have. God gave him over to believe a lie (Romans 1:28).
1 Kings 22:22. I will be a lying spirit—רוּחַ שָׁקָר—not Satan, assuredly, nor aliquem ex Satanæ familia (as Grot.): for this spirit only assumed falsity for the time, whereas Satan was “a liar from the beginning.”
1 Kings 22:24. Zedekiah … smote Micaiah—Feeling himself, after his ostentatious conduct (1 Kings 22:11), especially insulted. Keil thinks Zedekiah could only have come thus boldly forward “because he was conscious to himself that he had not feigned his oracle.” Possibly so; then this proves how the “spirit” had really moved these men to prophecy falsely unknowingly to themselves. Zedekiah’s insolence called out no rebuke from Ahab, nor Micaiah’s endurance his praise.
1 Kings 22:28. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you—These are the words with which Micah the prophet opens his book (Micah 1:2), and manifestly were interpolated by some scribe who identified Micaiah with Micah.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 22:1-28
THE FAITHFUL PROPHET
1 Kings 22:1. Is indispensable in great emergencies.
1. Is appealed to in times of national difficulty (1 Kings 22:1-7). A coalition had been formed between the kings of Israel and Judah. The common danger to which they were exposed from the growing power of Syria led them to forget for a time their differences, and to combine for mutual protection. War was determined upon to wrest from the hands of Benhadad one of the cities he had failed to give up according to treaty (1 Kings 20:34). The four hundred prophets of Ahab declared unanimously in favour of the war, and assured the allied monarchs of victory. But there was something wanting. The pious Jehoshaphat was suspicious of the four hundred; and, in so grave a crisis, demanded a clearer indication of the Divine will. The faithful prophet was needed. Great national emergencies demand the utmost care and thought of men of piety and intelligence.
2. Is appealed to despite the hatred of those who are compelled against their will to consult him (1 Kings 22:8). Probably it was this Micaiah who uttered against Ahab the oracle referred to in 1 Kings 20:42. “O corrupt heart of self-condemned Ahab! If Micaiah spake true to thee, how was it evil? If others said false, how was it good? And if Micaiah spake from the Lord, why dost thou hate him? This hath wont to be the ancient lot of truth, censure and hatred: censure of the message, hatred of the bearer.” Yet, however much the faithful counsellor is disliked, his services are valued, and often anxiously sought. Cincinnatus was twice called from his farm to the dictatorship of the Roman commonwealth, though the opposing parties would have dispensed with his services if they could.
II. Is favoured with signal opportunities of declaring the will of God (1 Kings 22:9-12). The two kings were seated on their thrones in a conspicuous place, robed in royal vestments, attended by the gaily dressed officers of the court and by the ministering priests, and surrounded by warlike horsemen and infantry. The leading representatives of church and state were assembled together, and the people in great number. It was an opportunity not to be neglected. The faithful, earnest worker will never lack opportunities; and his divinely implanted instincts will teach what are the great opportunities of life, when God can be most honoured.
III. Declares only what is divinely revealed.
1. He spurns all attempts at bribery (1 Kings 22:13-14). The messenger who went for Micaiah seeks to influence him to speak to the same effect as the false prophets, and assured him that by doing so he would win the royal favour. “Those who adore earthly greatness think every man should doat on their idols, and hold no terms too high for their ambitious purchases. Faithful Micaiah scorns the notion: he knows the price of the word, and condemns it. Neither fears nor favours can tempt the holily resolute. They can trample upon dangers or honours with a careless foot; and, whether they be smiled or frowned on by the great, dare not either alter or conceal their errand.”
2. Is not intimidated by the presence of royalty
(1). Ironically exposes and rebukes the false (1 Kings 22:15). Micaiah uttered the same words as the four hundred prophets; but by his manner of voice and look imitated the irony of Elijah at Carmel, as if to suggest to Ahab how misleading and unworthy of Jehovah was such an ambiguous oracle as theirs. This mocking manner, which might be familiar to Micaiah, galls by its contemptuousness: it is a dangerous weapon; should be judiciously used; in some hands it is strikingly effective.
(2). Speaks the truth, though it is unpleasant to royal ears (1 Kings 22:16-18). Micaiah wholly changes his tone, becomes profoundly serious, and relates his vision, the meaning of which Ahab could not possibly mistake, especially as the metaphor of “sheep and shepherd” for king and people was familiar to the Israelites from the prayer of Moses (Numbers 27:17). “He was resolved to speak the naked truth, though he were sure to kiss the stocks for his stiffness.” The man who is inspired to declare the Divine will is raised far above the fear of his fellow-creatures, whether they are robed in silks or in rags.
IV. Is sustained and confirmed in his work by heavenly visions (1 Kings 22:19-23). A vision like this of the ineffable glory of Jehovah was a great favour, and only granted on special occasions and for special ends. It was granted to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1), who immediately supposed he must die, because he had seen the King, the Lord of Hosts; to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:26); to Daniel (1 Kings 7:9); and in Christian times it was allowed to Stephen (Acts 7:56) and John (Revelation 4:2). Thus God prepares His servants for special work by a course of training and discipline in every way suited to bring about its faithful accomplishment—by special arrangements of His providence, and by special and striking displays of His glory. The man who sees the Lord, and gains an insight into heavenly realities, will be filled with indomitable courage and perseverance.
V. Is often called to suffer for his faithfulness (1 Kings 22:24-27). The king to whom his fidelity was disagreeable had cast Micaiah into prison, and the leading spirit of the four hundred prophets, whose falseness and delusion he had exposed, struck the bound and helpless prisoner, unrebuked by the great ones in whose presence the insult and injury were committed. “It was enough for Ahab to punish with the hand: no weapon was for Zedekiah but his tongue; neither could this rude presumption have been well taken, if malice had not made magistracy insensible of this usurpation. Ahab was well content to see that hated mouth beaten by any hand. It is no new condition of God’s faithful messengers to smart for saying truth. Falsehood does not more betray itself in anything than in blows: truth suffers, while error persecutes. None are more ready to boast of the Spirit of God than those that have the least; as in vessels, the full are silent.”
VI. Is not hindered by suffering from proclaiming his message (1 Kings 22:28). Though smitten and dragged back to prison, and threatened with the harshest treatment (1 Kings 22:27), the faithful Micaiah persists in maintaining the truthfulness of his message, and calls upon the people to bear witness to it. How little do we know of suffering compared with what our forefathers endured for the truth. We should be more energetic and earnest than they in making known the will of God. There is danger that immunity from suffering should render us less, rather than more, concerned in upholding and propagating the truth. We prize that most for which we suffer most.
LESSONS:—
1. It is a calamity to a nation when every faithful voice it hushed.
2. The faithful prophet is often alone in his witness-bearing.
3. The faithful are nevertheless sustained by Jehovah, and will be by-and-by acknowledged and rewarded by Him.
THE MAN WHO SAW THE LORD (1 Kings 22:19)
The prophets frown; the king turns pale; the people hiss; while the uncompromising man of God delivers the unwelcome message. He is the master spirit of that great multitude. How are we to account for his commanding power? The text (1 Kings 22:19) is the line that fathoms the mystery, the key which unlocks the secret. “I saw the Lord.” We are no longer astonished at the effect now we know the cause. We think we can understand the man’s behaviour; after such a sight, earth’s poor pomp must have appeared trivial indeed. Faith’s perception of God has ever been the strength of the Church. True—
“Not with our mortal eyes,
Have we beheld the Lord,”
yet, Moses like, the Church “endures,” as seeing Him invisible. Notice—
I. The man who sees the Lord can best understand life’s mysteries.
1. We need not attempt to prove that life has its mysteries. The Psalmist was not the only one who had been perplexed by them (Psalms 73:2-17). Many a good man’s faith has staggered under the burden of mysterious providences. Micaiah was a “man of like passions” to ourselves. It must have sorely tried him to see godless Ahab upon a throne; godless prophets basking in royal favour and popular esteem; whilst he—who, true to his convictions, had trodden the path of duty—was shut up in a dungeon. But God’s presence can transform a dungeon to a palace. The dungeon was heaven’s ante-room. “I saw the Lord”—such a sight would wean his soul from earthly delights, and help him to understand the hollowness of earthly grandeur and pomp.
2. Micaiah also understood the mysteries of the Divine government. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” The imprisoned prophet had seen the moving power—the unseen forces that had acted upon the four hundred prophets. He had heard the evil spirit obtain permission to lure Ahab to his ruin. He knew that the king was given over to believe a delusion and a lie, that his damnation might be more speedy. He alone, of all the crowd, regarded him as a ruined man. While others were feasting their eyes with the trappings of royal pageantry, he saw the fingers writing “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” He understood the unanimity of the prophets. There were four hundred Ayes, to one No; a miserable minority, the people said, and Jehoshaphat thought so too, or he would not have accompanied the doomed expedition. But truth is never in a minority. The man who has God on his side is always with the majority. Such was Moses in Pharaoh’s court; Luther before the Diet at Worms; Whitfield amid the showers of rotten eggs on Kennington Common. Such is the God-fearing young man in the shop or warehouse; who, amid the taunts of ungodly associates, maintains a Christian bearing, and testifies to the Gospel’s worth.
II. The man who sees the Lord can best perform life’s duties.
1. God sometimes calls His people to very unpleasant duties. It is not pleasant to run counter to the wishes of friends by giving our protest against their cherished projects. Yet this was what Micaiah had to do. He knew the consequences of such a course; he would exasperate a king whom he had already offended; he would make his own punishment more severe and intolerable than it had already been; he would become the object of popular hatred and contempt. Yet “none of these things moved him.” God had the first claim. He had seen the Lord, and that sight had changed unpleasant duties into delightful pleasures
2. The sight of the Lord is essential to the possession of qualifications necessary for religious work. ’Tis the basis upon which faith rests. Strong faith is the mainspring of earnest work. Unbelief paralyzes Christian effort. The man who has never seen the Lord is not the man for church work. Colleges cannot give this qualification. Ten minutes beside the burning bush was more useful in preparing Moses for his work, than all the years he had spent in acquiring “all the wisdom of the Egyptian.” It took Gamaliel years to train young Saul to be a bigoted persecutor. It didn’t take five minutes for Christ to change him to a devoted Apostle, and from that hour his life testified the truth of his assertion, that he “looked at the things which are not seen.”
3. A sight of the Lord will cause men to regard worldly interests and personal comforts as secondary matters. The narrative does not give the name of the officer who conducted the prisoner into the royal presence. John Bunyan would call him Worldly Wiseman. The man regarded his prisoner with something akin to pity; his haggard face and bent form moved him to advise him concerning his conduct before the king: “Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.” The man didn’t mean what he said; he meant: “Speak that which is pleasing.” And Micaiah said: “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.” How that reply would annoy the officer, who would regard him as an obstinate and foolish man, whose singular folly merited all the punishment he would get. He would not understand such a man. A word, and his rags would be exchanged for purple and fine linen: from a dungeon to a court; from famine to plenty; from degradation to position and fame. But he would not speak the word; he was no time-server to pander to popular taste. “What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.”
III. The man who sees the Lord can best endure life’s sufferings. The prison is no longer a prison if God is there. God loves to favour His suffering people with manifestations of His presence, whether it be the three young men in the fiery furnace, or Paul in prison, or John on Patmos; all alike shall testify that “He is a very present help in trouble.” It was, probably, when Paul had been beaten so severely by his foes as to be unconscious of all around him, afterwards unable to tell whether he was “in the body or out of the body,” that he was caught up into the third heaven, and heard God say: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” We know it was when they had many stripes laid upon them, after they had been subjected to the rough violence of a brutal mob, and had spent hours with their swollen limbs in the stocks, that “at midnight Paul and Silas sang, and the prisoners heard them.” Such sounds had never before been heard through the gloomy corridors of the prison; groans and curses had been frequently heard there, but joyous Christian song, never. That inner cell was dark—so dark, that though bolts and bars and fetters were felt, they could not be seen; but the apostles saw the Lord that night, and “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” A wild, excited mob is dragging a prisoner along to execution; the most brutal passions are depicted in their countenance; they cannot reserve their insults and cruelty until they reach the spot where the bloody scene is to be enacted; as they drag, they beat and stone him. But mark his face, how calm, how joyous! And when they reach the place, the victim stands until the stones bruise and gash his frame, but the blood cannot wash out the expression of joy from holy Stephen’s face. We can account for that joy: had he not just said: “Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Such a sight enabled him to endure the suffering; and, in an atmosphere charged with the hatred of hell, and amid a storm of death-dealing missiles, he calmly lay down and “fell asleep.” The presence of God is the saints’ solace under suffering. Micaiah saw more splendours in his prison than Ahab in his palace. That cell was illuminated by the ineffable light, and visited by the aristocracy. Rutherford compared his dungeon to the king’s cellar, where all the best wines were kept; and like Micaiah he would sing—
“Thy presence, Lord, can cheer
This dungeon where we dwell;
’Tis heaven itself if Thou art near—
If Thou depart ’tis hell.”
IV. The man who sees the Lord can best wait for life’s rewards. Alas! how many have sacrificed truth and a good conscience for earthly rewards! Micaiah could wait for future rewards. Ahab could not have rewarded him—he had nothing that could have satisfied him. He had seen the Lord, and the light of the Divine presence revealed how valueless earth’s poor tinsel baubles are. Nothing but heaven could satisfy him—
“Had I a glance of Thee, my God,
Kingdoms and men should vanish soon;
Vanish as though I saw them not,
As a dim candle dies at noon.”
We can imagine the same officer taking him back, and, as the jailor pushed him into his dark cell, he would say—“Serve him right!” And then he would tell the jailor about the events of the day, and how foolish the prisoner had behaved in being so blind to his own interests, and then they would talk about what Ahab meant by keeping him until “I come in peace.” Did he mean to restore him to liberty then? They knew better than that. The day of Ahab’s return would be the day of Micaiah’s death. Such would be their rational conclusion. How much or how long he suffered we cannot tell, but we know it was well with him to the last. “Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him.”—Condensed from The Christian Age for 1873.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 22:1-28. King Ahab appears here in the last act of his career, just as we have seen him always hitherto, devoid of religious or moral character. His penitence, which seemed so earnest, and which certainly falls in the period immediately preceding the renewed war with the Syrians, had, as we see from the story before us, borne no fruit. His attitude towards Jehovah and his covenant remained the same. There is not a sign of any change of heart. He is now enraged against Benhadad, whom, after the battle of Aphek, he called his “brother,” and suffered to depart out of weakness and vanity. He summons the chief soldiers to a war against Benhadad, and calls for Jehoshaphat’s aid also, in order to make sure of destroying him. As Jehoshaphat desired, before engaging on the expedition, to hear an oracle of Jehovah in regard to it, Ahab summoned only those in regard to whose declarations he could be sure they would accord with his own wishes; and when Micaiah, being called at the express wish of Jehoshaphat, gives another prophetic declaration, Ahab explains this as the expression of personal malice, as he had once done in regard to Elijah’s declarations (1 Kings 21:20). He allows Zedekiah to insult and abuse Micaiah, and even orders the latter into close confinement. Then, again, he becomes alarmed at the prophet’s words, though before he was passionate and excited; and he goes into battle disguised.—Lange.
1 Kings 22:1-4. National alliances.
1. Are justifiable against a dangerous and powerful enemy.
2. Are always attended with peril where there is want of harmony in religious beliefs.
3. Cannot result in permanent good without the Divine blessing.
1 Kings 22:3. It is a misfortune when great men have a fondness for war. They are not satisfied when they must be still, but seek war without necessity, and imperil their country. Do ye not know that heaven is ours, yet we be still! So should those cry out to their hearers who are charged with the cure of souls, and should encourage them to take the kingdom of heaven by force (Matthew 11:12).—Wurt. Summ.
1 Kings 22:5-12. The delusion of falsehood. I. All the more dangerous when it is the consentaneous declaration of acknowledged religious leaders (1 Kings 22:6; 1 Kings 22:12). II. Never lacks an audacious and ingenious champion (1 Kings 22:11). III. Meanly obsequious in the presence of royal pomp and circumstance (1 Kings 22:10). IV. Fears exposure from the tongue of the faithful (1 Kings 22:8). V. Is ever suspected by the truly good (1 Kings 22:5; 1 Kings 22:7).
1 Kings 22:7. Their number consent; confidence hath easily won credit with Ahab: we do all willingly believe what we wish. Jehoshaphat is not so soon satisfied. These prophets were, it is like, obtruded to him for the true prophets of the true God. The judicious king sees cause to suspect them, and now, perceiving at what altars they served, hates to rest in their testimony. “Is there nowhere a prophet of the Lord besides?” One single prophet speaking from the oracles of God is worth more than four hundred Baalites. Truth may not ever be measured by the poll. It is not number, but weight, that must carry it in a council of prophets. A solid verity in one mouth is worthy to preponderate light falsehood in a thousand.—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 22:10-12. There is nothing that is more sinful and worthy of punishment than to flatter the great, who need to hear the truth. This is more sinful, however, in the clergy than in others. Who is not disgusted by those who fashion their words by popular favour? Yet he who would go on smoothly, easily, and prosperously must do this. Then he will not meet with opposition, nor lose his place at Jezebel’s table, nor his other emoluments. All the four hundred agreed unanimously, and yet their prophecy was false. In matters of Divine truth it matters not how many agree. Here voices ought to be weighed, not counted. The number of the unbelieving or the superstitious was always greater than that of the believers, for men agree in error or falsehood much more easily than in truth. Be not deceived, though thousands may think and say the same thing, and though the greatest and most learned may be amongst them; but cling thou to the word of Him who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.” Unanimity of opinion, even in the largest congregations of theologians, is not always a proof of truth, for a great company may err.—Lange.
1 Kings 22:12-28. Here we see the marks of the true and false prophets. The false teachers say what is popular, so as to enjoy rewards; they rely upon their numbers; they say that they have God’s Word, though they have it not, and claim to be in all things equal to the true teachers; they dispute more with blows and screams than with proofs from the Word of God; they are held in high esteem. On the contrary, true teachers do not speak to please anybody, but they preach fearlessly the truth of God’s Word, letting it strike whom it will, refusing to be turned aside and submitting to persecution.—Wurt. Summ.
1 Kings 22:12. These were fit helves for such a hatchet as Ahab was; fit lettuce for such lips. Itching ears shall have clawing preachers.—Trapp.
1 Kings 22:13-28. The intrepidity of truth. I. Is superior to the influence of bribery (1 Kings 22:13-14). II. Teaches when to use judiciously the weapon of irony (1 Kings 22:15-16). III. Fearlessly declares what is divinely revealed, irrespective of consequences (1 Kings 22:17-18). IV. Is explicit and uncompromising in the exposure of falsehood (1 Kings 22:19-23). V. Refuses to be silent, though threatened and afflicted with severest sufferings (1 Kings 22:24-28).
1 Kings 22:19-23. Heavenly visions. I. Present sublime and elevating revelations of truth. II. Sustain and strengthen the suffering faithful. III. Are intended to guide and instruct in a crisis of national and religious difficulty. IV. Aggravate national ruin when wilfully disregarded.
1 Kings 22:22. The difficulties which attach to this passage are considerable. While, on the one hand, it is hard to suppose that one of the holy angels would undertake to be, and be permitted to be, a “lying spirit,” on the other, it is not what we should have expected, to find Satan, or an evil spirit, included among the host of heaven (1 Kings 22:19), and acting as the minister of God. Still, as Satan appears sometimes to present himself to God among the angels (Job 1:6; Job 2:1), he may have done so on this occasion; and the service which he offered may have been accepted. On the other hand, we scarcely know enough of the Divine government in its action upon evil to say that the holy angels may not sometimes be employed, when God “sends men strong delusion that they should believe a lie” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Finally, it may be doubted whether we ought to take literally, and seek to interpret exactly, each statement of the present narrative. Visions of the invisible world can only be a sort of parables; revelations, not of the truth as it actually is, but of so much of the truth as can be shown through such a medium. The details of a vision, therefore, cannot safely be pressed, any more than the details of a parable. Portions of each must be accommodations to human modes of thought, and may very inadequately express the realities which they are employed to shadow forth to us.—Speaker’s Comm.
1 Kings 22:23. These men called prophets were only pretenders to prophecy, whom the wicked king of Israel had in his pay, and who knew how to suit his humour and flatter his vanity. Micaiah distinctly calls them Ahab’s prophets. The address of Micaiah is not a real representation of anything done in the heavenly world, as if the Almighty were at a loss for expedients, or had any hand in the sins of his creatures. It is a parable, and tells in figurative language the events shortly to take place, and the permission on the part of God for these agents to act. It is a known idiom of the Hebrew language to express things in an imperative and active form which are to be understood only permissively.—T. H. Horne.
1 Kings 22:24-28. Micaiah’s suffering for the truth.
1. He is publicly insulted by Zedekiah, the chief of the prophets (Matthew 5:11).
2. He is thrown into prison by the godless king Ahab (1 Peter 2:19).
3. He is left unprotected by the pious king Jehoshaphat (Matthew 26:56).
1 Kings 22:26-28. Ahab’s conduct towards the witness of the truth. I. It was tyrannical. There is no greater tyranny than to suppress by force the Divine Word and the truth. II. It was foolish. We cannot accomplish anything against the truth (2 Corinthians 13:8). We can put the advocates of it in prison, but not the truth. It cannot be bound in chains, nor starved. It escapes and spreads, and only gains in glory by our attempts to oppress it.—Lange.
1 Kings 22:26. To prison, whence he was fetched, and whereof he might say, as that martyr did to the bishop who reviled and threatened him: Send me back to my frogs and toads, where I may be free to pray for your lordship.
1 Kings 22:27. This is the emphatic clause of Ahab’s speech. Micaiah is to be once more put in prison, but not on the same terms as before. In order to punish him for his uncomplying spirit, he is to be placed upon a poorer and scantier diet than he had been previously allowed; and this is to continue until Ahab returns in peace. Ahab introduces this expression purposely, in order to show his entire disbelief of Micaiah’s prophecy.—Speaker’s Comm.
1 Kings 22:28. The hope of unjust men perisheth (Proverbs 11:7). Julian, for instance, when he went out to war against the Persians, breathed out threatenings against the Christians on his return, which was never. And that French king who promised to see with his eyes a certain female martyr burnt, had, before that time, one of his eyes thrust out at the jousts, of which wound he died.