Micaiah and Zedekiah before King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat Engraving of painting by Jan van Luyken, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Danger of Ungodly Alliances
King Jehoshaphat, the godly King of Judah, who destroyed the idols Judah had been worshipping, reintroduced the worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem, and later won a famous victory over his enemies - the Moabites and Ammonites - was deceived into giving his permission for his son Jehoram to marry the wicked daughter of the evil King Ahab of Israel. The reason: Jehoshaphat wanted to make an alliance between Judah and Israel to fight the King of Aram.
The Story in 1 Kings 22:1-28 and 2 Chronicles 18:1-27.
King Ahab of Israel has asked King Jehoshaphat of Judah for help to fight the King of Aram. In the painting above the two kings are seated on thrones in the court of King Ahab, who has summoned his four hundred court prophets, including Zedekiah, for their advice. Jehoshaphat asks Ahab if he has asked God’s advice from the prophet Micaiah?
Ahab complains Micaiah always tells him what he doesn’t want to hear!
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?”
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.’”
When he does ask Micaiah for his advice, Micaiah says his court prophets are the victims of a lying spirit sent by God himself to kill Ahab.
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 mean“s?’ 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.”
Ahab is furious at the news, but troubled by the fact he knows that Micaiah speaks the truth.
He decides to try to avoid being detected in the battlefield by wearing Jehoshaphat’s royal robes so the enemy will think he is Jehoshaphat and will not attack him.
But someone fires an arrow at random that hits Ahab in his chariot and he dies later in the evening, thus fulfilling the prophecy given by Micaiah.
Sadly, Jehoshaphat also is deceived into giving his permission for his son Jehoram to marry Ahab's wicked daughter Athaliah, each of whom set about killing their siblings who presented rivalry to their power.