God rarely gives just one warning. Like a railroad crossing, there are lights and signs and barriers and bells.
Imagine a royal guest arriving, and the first thing you ask him is to go to war with you. At least Ahab waited till after supper! Jeroboam, because his son had married Ahab’s daughter, felt compelled to go. As he cringe-worthily described it, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war” (2 Chron 18:3). But, unlike Ahab, Jehoshaphat wasn’t prepared to show up in battle without the Lord. So he asked, “Please inquire for the word of the Lord today” (v 4). Remarkably Ahab seemed to be prepared for this. In fact, he had 400 prophets on the payroll! They were, it turns out, rent-a-prophets who told Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. “‘Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?’ So they said, ‘Go up, for God [Elohim] will deliver it into the king’s hand’” (v 5). But there was something contrived about this, so Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord [ Jehovah] here, that we may inquire of Him?” (v 6). He might have said, “I mean a real prophet, not these yes-men.” As a matter of fact, there was a real prophet in town. “But,” says Ahab, “I hate him, because he never prophesies good concerning me” (v 7). Micaiah (meaning “who is like the Lord”) was summarily brought before the two monarchs as they, “clothed in their robes, sat each on his throne; and they sat at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria” (v 9). They certainly would be threshed that day—Ahab like chaff blown away (see Ps 1:4) and Jehoshaphat like wheat refined. En route, God’s man was told to be positive like all the others, to “speak encouragement” (v 12). But Micaiah was bound, as we are, to tell the truth. “As the Lord lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak” (v 13). It’s showdown time!