Godly king Jehoshaphat has foolishly allied himself with wicked king Ahab. Belatedly, he wants a word from the Lord. At his request Micaiah is brought before the kings to prophesy about the outcome of their war with the Syrians. Ahab’s false prophets had prophesied a successful campaign, but Jehoshaphat suspects them, and so Micaiah is brought before them. Even Ahab recognizes the difference between Micaiah and the rest. Micaiah has no mind to sacrifice faithfulness for popularity, nor to forbear declaring ‘the whole counsel of God’; cf. Acts 20. 20-27. The prophet’s message is one of doom for Ahab. Note here that God does not hinder those from being deceived who wish to be deceived. When Micaiah told Ahab the full and bitter truth, Ahab defies it by imprisoning Micaiah for telling it, and by continuing in the forbidden expedition. Yet, Ahab shows that he cannot trust Micaiah’s words to be falsehood by going in disguise into battle. Micaiah’s picture of Israel, as ‘sheep without a shepherd’, haunts him; at any rate he will avoid his predestined fate by disguising himself and not being the obvious target for the Syrian archers. He professes Micaiah’s message to be delivered out of animosity to himself, and he will not listen to it. He insults and imprisons the prophet and disobeys the drift of the message, yet at the same time he acts as though he suspects after all that the message might be true. He is not really after truth, but after what is agreeable to himself. He does not say, ‘I hate Micaiah because he prophesies what is true of me’; cp. v. 8. It did not matter that the message was true. It was of a Christian church that Paul asked the question, ‘Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?’, Gal. 4. 16. Ahab’s disguise failed to accomplish its end; cf. v. 33, ‘at a venture’ or ‘in his simplicity’. Ahab disguises himself in vain. Vain are the wisdom, prudence and foresight of man if he is found working in opposition to the counsels of God. Man proposes, but God disposes, even through a hand which stretches ‘at a venture’. So the word of the Lord by Micaiah the prophet was fulfilled, as was also the word of the Lord by Elijah in regard to Ahab, v. 8; cf. 1 Kgs. 21. 19. O that men would give heed to Thy word!
