1 Kings 22:22

Jehovah sat on His throne, surrounded by the host of heaven. His patience with Ahab was now exhausted. He called for a volunteer who would make the doomed man willing to go to war to his own ruin. After much discussion, a spirit proposed to go down and put a lie in the mouths of all the king's prophets. "Go out, and do so," said the great God. No words can say how solemn this is. Israel's war with Syria was arranged in the spirit world, as many a war has been since.

He points out the satanic lying spirit that has taken hold of all the prophets to make Ahab go up to Ramoth. The Lord had said, "Who will entice Ahab so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?" This was the judgment of God, prepared beforehand against Ahab. It was an indirect judgment: the demonic spirits he had worshipped became the instruments of their victim's doom.

This may seem a strange situation, but it shows that the Lord allows evil spirits to do their evil work of lying, so that ungodly people will be deceived. In the same way, 2 Thessalonians 2 shows the folly of those deceived by the strong delusion. The Lord sends it through the antichrist, because people refuse to believe the truth of God. So, because Ahab had refused God's Word, he would accept the falsehood of Satan's prophets.

Satan is a creature, so God can and does use him to carry out His wise purposes in His dealings with men. God permitted a lying spirit to lure Ahab on to his death at Ramoth-gilead. A messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh, buffeted Paul, so that he would not become proud. Paul could deliver a man to Satan, so that he might learn not to blaspheme.

The Lord's prophet now sets before them his vision of a scene in heaven. He sees the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets, luring him to his death. But this is more than Ahab can bear. He orders at once that they throw Micaiah into prison. There he is to live on the bread and water of affliction until the king returns from his campaign in peace. And Micaiah said, "If you return at all in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me."

They were now pretending to speak by the Spirit of God. In fact a lying spirit that served their own interests had taken hold of them. One can wear the uniform of a prophet of the Lord and be lying. How often this has been so in every age, and how much more so today.

Ahab disguised himself, but an arrow wounded him and he died. Ahab's four hundred prophets and the Lord's one prophet are an instance of the conflict of spirits. The Christian is now called upon to test that conflict.