Articles
Do You Really Want To Know?
Do You Really Want To Know? (1)
Greg King
Ahab is described in the scriptures as the worst king that ever ruled over God’s people. Jehoshaphat the king of Judah goes to visit king Ahab. Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to help him reclaim Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians. Jehoshaphat agrees to combine forces but before fully committing to battle, he tells Ahab to inquire of the Lord first. Jehoshaphat’s desire was to ask God about their decision. Ahab gathers a bunch of prophets, about 400 prophets, and asks them if they should go to battle against Ramoth-gilead or not. All the prophets say, “Yes, go ahead! The Lord will give the king victory” (1 Kings 22:6). With this Ahab seems satisfied. But Jehoshaphat is not. He asks Ahab, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we may ask?” (1 Kings 22:7) Ahab has a bunch of “yes” men as his “prophets” who will say whatever King Ahab wants to hear. King Jehoshaphat recognizes this and asks for a true prophet of the Lord to ask about this decision. Ahab says that he only has one prophet of the Lord they can ask. His name is Micaiah, but I hate him because he never prophesies good for him, but only disaster. (1 Kings 22:8)
Do we really want to know what God has to say? Do we really want to know his will? Or do we just want to hear what we want to hear? I fear that many people just want to hear what they want to hear, and they can find a “church” to tell them what they want to hear. People want to do what they want to do and think that they are doing the will of the Lord. Ahab has no interest in finding out what God has to say. He was going to go up to battle without consulting the Lord. When Ahab was asked to consult the Lord, he brings in his 400 false prophets who tell him everything he wants to hear.
He had previously decided to never call for Micaiah because Micaiah never tells Ahab what he wants to hear. How often we can have the same attitude! We should want to hear the word of the Lord no matter what. No matter how difficult or how painful the word of the Lord is, we must want to know what God has to say.
