THE PROPHETS: INTRODUCTION Lesson #3
I KINGS 22
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
We are going to study for the next few months, God willing, the Hebrew Prophets.
Q Can you name some of them?
Q Who is your favorite prophet in the Old Testament? Tell us why you choose the prophet you named?
Note: When one reflects upon what a prophet truly is the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, according to the Old Testament, is Moses.
Q Have you ever thought of Moses as a prophet? Why or why not?
An = The Old Testament considers him to be the greatest of the prophets because of their definition of what a prophet is.
Q What is your definition of a prophet?
An = List their definitions and have someone take notes on what is said.
Note: Many think that there is an aspect of predicting the future which is central to defining a prophet. However, in the OT a prophet is not a foreteller but a “forthteller”. Write “forthteller” on the board. Predicting the future is not as important, as telling forth God’s will for people he or she was speaking to. A prophet informs people of God’s intention or what God wants them to know or wants them to do. At times a prophet mentions coming judgment or blessing because God wants them to know why they should listen.
Q Why does God need or send prophets?
An = Because God wants a good relationship with His people and good relationships necessitate good communication. To be sure, God is on a totally different plane than people are but God loves people and wants to communicate with them. He often does so through a prophet who in turn speaks God’s words to the people. I often envision this truth with the symbol of the letter: “L”.
God
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Prophet—————-> the People.
Q What does the prophet forth tell? What is the content of his message?
An = What the prophet speaks about is God’s will.
1) The prophet delivers God’s will in order to instruct and guide the people with God’s Word. 2) The prophet also will declare God’s will to motivate people to change what they are currently doing. God is against what is evil and harmful.
3) At other times God’s prophet tells forth a word from God to the people to encourage or give hope to those who are desperate and discouraged.
Most of all, the prophets are concerned with their peers, with the people of their age than with future generations. If their words get written down or passed on by God’s providence then that is God’s desire to have that happen but to the prophet, he was aware that the message had relevance first to his own age.
Q Can you give me an example of prophesy in the Old Testament that is not a prediction about the future?
An = Any time a person teaches what God tells the person to speak is prophesy. A good example is why Moses teaches the people the Ten Commandments or when God told Moses to go free the Israelites from slavery.
Note: The prophets had a role to perform. One of the key things about their role is that they were not giving their own message. The prophets gave out God’s message. The prophets conveyed God’s message and were teachers of religious as well as moral truths. The prophets called the people to God or called them back to God.
Note: The prophets could, at times, be an unclean vessel or weak. None of them were perfect, even the great Moses. This is because the “gift is greater than the man”. You could give an illustration from your own background here. One prophet was eaten by a lion because he disobeyed, Jeremiah temporarily tried to quit several times because the job was so hard, and even the great Moses was not perfect, he lost his temper, etc.
Note: The later prophets were seldom part of the power structure of their day and society.
Q What does that mean: “they were not part of the power structure”?
An = The prophets usually did not hold power in the church, or government or control the institution to which they were speaking. They were not kings and seldom high priests. Prophets usually came from outside the power system yet they spoke to the powerful. They were not part of the power structure, but they were willing to be involved.
For example, Ahab was a corrupt King of Israel in the ninth century leading his people to worship foreign deities. In addition, King Ahab was a man’s man, effective and powerful as a king, and a strong military leader that guided Israel. Even Assyrian records note the military might of his dynasty.
Ahab had a problem with Syria. The King of Syria had captured a city that Ahab wanted back. Ahab sent envoys to Judah (Southern Kingdom) and requested that Judah’s King, who was a good believer in Yahweh, meet with him.
The two kings met in the city square in Samaria. Asking Jehoshaphat to help him take back the Jewish city from the pagan Syrians, Jehoshaphat responded that they were brothers but added that he wanted first to inquire of the Lord about this. So Ahab brought out “his prophets”, 400 religious men who came and delivered their ecstatic message affirming Ahab and Jehoshaphat’s victory. Jehoshaphat saw all this and asked a very courageous question: “Is there a prophet of the Lord we can consult with?” These 400 prophets had let pagan influences corrupt them and they were on the king’s payroll. (King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel had killed almost all the true prophets of Yahweh by this time.)
There was one true prophet of the Lord that they knew of though and so he was consulted. >>>> Have everyone turn to I Kings 22 and have someone read 22:4-7.
So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.” So the king of Israel brought together the prophets – about four hundred men – and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.” But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”
Ahab wanted to placate the religious sensibilities of Jehoshaphat so answered honestly, but irritably.
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:8-9.
The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied. So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
Q Do American politicians ask advice or insight from honest God fearing Christian leaders who have a record of disagreeing with their policies and morals?
Q Would they allow such men to speak in public in their presence (with the press in attendance)?
Meanwhile, back among, the public assemblance of these two kings a lot of religious activity is going on.
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:10-12
Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”
All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the King’s hand.”
Ahab had promised to hear from Micaiah so he sent for this lone prophet, but sent along words of advice as to what was politically correct.
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:13-14.
The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”
But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.”
Q Does Micaiah see true prophesy as coming from his mind?
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:15-16
When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”
Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”
The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?”
Q Has the narrator put into the mouth of Micaiah sarcastic, ironic words? Why did the narrator do this or why did Micaiah speak such words?
An = Perhaps to help the reader see that the prophet was not a mindless robot who spoke through a microphone speaking words in a monotone. He was aware of what was expected of him and aware that he was no doubt going to pay dearly for speaking the truth.
Note: What will follow is a vision that the prophet was given by God. His answer was indirect, an answer by a word picture. The vision was a well known form of speaking in that culture as was the horns used by the main “paid by the king’s prophet” who what we call sympathetic magic. The horns symbolized and helped cause the expressed prediction or advice given by Zedekiah.
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22: 17-18
Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”
Note: Micaiah will now proceed in earnest with another vision.
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:19-23
Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, “I will entice him.’ “’By what means?’ the Lord asked. “’I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “’You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’
So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”
Q Would this have taken a lot of courage to speak in such a manner all alone before 400 opponents and against a king known for killing Yahweh prophets?
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:24-25
Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?’ he asked. Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”
Q Was Micaiah afraid, what did his answer to Zedekiah mean?
>>>>Have someone read I Kings 22:26-28
The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son and say, ‘This is what the king says, Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’”
Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”
Note: Jehoshaphat was seemingly coerced into going out to do battle. The narrator tells us that the Syrian strategy was to go after King Ahab. They no doubt respected him and knew he was key to the Israelite army’s morale. Ahab went into battle disguised as a common captain. Only Jehoshaphat dressed like a king. Still an arrow shot randomly struck Ahab who died. No further mention is made of Micaiah.
Q Was Micaiah part of the power structure?
An = He was not and perilously he belonged only to God. Usually the prophets’ messages to the power structure were not popular. They had to often deliver their messages at great danger to their own well being. They had to become men of courage. Therefore Jesus said: “Rejoice and be glad if people persecute you because then you are like the prophets”.
Note: Remember a prophet is not a disgruntled person who throws stones from a safe distance at the power structure or speaks only to his little group about his insightful critiques of corruption in the government or the church. We have other names for people like that, but prophet is not one of them.
Q How come the prophet did give messages of victory for Israel and Judah because they were the elect of God and did not the people of God have the best theological knowledge of God? Why would God help pagan?
Q Will God always be on the side of Israel today or on the side of American or Christian nations?
IV. Next Week. Read Jeremiah 1:1-10. Note what God seems to ignore in the dialogue between Himself and the young man Jeremiah.