He Never Tells Me Anything I Want to Hear

Passage: 1 Kings 22:1-28

This story would be comedic if it didn’t have such a grim outcome. If you’ve followed the accounts of King Ahab of Israel, you know that he and God aren’t exactly close. Ahab addresses Elijah, the man of God, as the “troubler of Israel.” Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, have systematically replaced every element of God-worship with monuments and prophets of Baal, the idol-god of Israel’s enemies. Ahab has gone out of his way, it seems, to alienate himself from the one true God.

It is therefore almost laughable when Jehoshaphat King of Judah, asks Ahab to consult a prophet before the two of them go to war against a common enemy. Here’s the gist of the conversation:

Jehoshaphat: Let’s go to war.

Ahab: Sounds good. I got my men and my chariots. I’m good to go.

Jehoshaphat: Wait a minute! Shouldn’t we seek the counsel of the LORD?

Ahab: Alright. Let me call my prophets. Prophets?

Prophets: “Go for it, man!”

Jehoshaphat: Don’t you have any real prophets?

Ahab: Well, there is this one guy. But I hate him because he never tells me anything I want to hear.

Jehoshaphat: Don’t say that.

Ahab: You asked for it. Bring me Micaiah!

Servant to Micaiah: Okay, this is your big break. The rest of the prophets are telling the king he’s gonna win. Just go along with it.

Ahab to Micaiah: Well, whadya have to say for yourself?

Micaiah: Attack and be victorious, oh king (yawn).

Ahab: How many times do I have to make you swear to tell me only God’s honest truth?

Micaiah: God says, “Your troops will be scattered and you will die a horrible death at their hands.”

Ahab to Jehoshaphat: See? I told you he never tells me what I want to hear!

The sad part is that Ahab decides to hear what he wants to hear. He goes to war. His army is routed. He takes an arrow to the chest and bleeds to death in his chariot, watching as the enemy decimates his army. Like it or not, God’s got Ahab’s final word.

We don’t always like what God has to say to us. We find ways of reading God’s Word selectively. We’re even more selective in the way we respond to those entrusted with teaching God’s Word. It’s easy to disregard God’s message on the basis of the messenger. But we circumnavigate God’s Word at our peril. A doctor’s caution to stop smoking or lose weight might fall on unreceptive ears, but it’s a message intended to save your life. So it is with the Word of God. God may very well tell you stuff you don’t want to hear, but he does so with the intent of saving your life. Listen.