Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?”
One of Ahab's four hundred prophets answers a message from God with his fist. The blow raises a lasting question. How do you tell a man who speaks by the Spirit of God from one who only claims to?
The man who threw the punch
Zedekiah was not a bystander. He led the four hundred. Before Micaiah arrived, he had already acted out his message with a prop.
Leslie M. GrantWe are told also that one false prophet had made horns of iron to back up his false message that Ahab would gore the Syrians until they were destroyed (v.11). All the prophets were agreed in telling Ahab that the Lord would deliver Ramoth into Ahab's hand. But Jehoshaphat knew that these prophets were only Ahab's "yes men," with no authority to speak for the Lord at all.
Violence as self-exposure
The slap was meant to settle who had the Spirit. It settled it — but not the way Zedekiah intended.
H. L. RossierZedekiah had played the leading role in this scene. He made himself horns of iron and said to the king: "With these you shall push the Syrians, until you have destroyed them" (v. 11). Now this same Zedekiah strikes Micaiah on the cheek and says: "How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?" (v. 24). He claims the Holy Spirit's direction and uses violence to prove it, but in doing so he proves what spirit is driving him. He too would come under judgment when he would "go from chamber to chamber to hide" himself (v. 25).
The question inside the taunt
Zedekiah's words are an argument, not just an insult. He assumes the Spirit spoke through him. So, he says, the Spirit could not have spoken to Micaiah. King Jehoshaphat stood there and watched it happen.
Leslie M. GrantWhat did Jehoshaphat think when Zedekiah spoke with contempt to Micaiah and even struck him on the cheek? Zedekiah claimed that he himself had spoken by the Spirit of the Lord, so how could the Spirit have spoken to Micaiah? (v.23). Such was the contemptible wickedness of a false prophet.
(Note: the original printing of this comment says "Hezekiah"; the king with Ahab was Jehoshaphat.)
What was moving the four hundred
Micaiah had already told the room what he saw. Zedekiah's confidence had a source, and it was not the one he named.
H. L. RossierHe points out the satanic lying spirit that has taken hold of all the prophets to make Ahab go up to Ramoth. Jehovah had said: "Who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?" (v. 20). 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.
Micaiah's answer
The struck prophet does not strike back. He keeps prophesying. He names the day when Zedekiah will get his answer.
Leslie M. GrantMicaiah did not respond in anger to this injustice. He faithfully prophesied, "Indeed you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide" (v.25). Zedekiah would certainly remember these words when this prophecy was fulfilled. He would then be convinced of his own folly, whether he would repent or not.
Why this scene still matters
A room with four hundred confident voices and one lone dissenter is not just ancient history. The battle settled who had told the truth, and commentators read the scene as a live warning about competing claims to speak for God.
Morrish Bible DictionaryAhab disguised himself, but an arrow wounded him and he died. Ahab's four hundred prophets, and Jehovah's one prophet are an instance of the conflict of spirits, which the Christian is now called upon to test.
And the numbers in that room were not an accident of one bad day:
The Christian's FriendOne must not believe every spirit; and, as we have often noticed, the false prophets are always more popular than the true ones. There were many prophets of Baal in the time of Elijah, and many are now gone out into the world.
Summary
- Claim. Zedekiah claimed the Spirit of the Lord for himself — the loudest voice in the room, with iron horns to prove it.
- Proof. He hit the man who contradicted him to prove the claim. Instead he showed which spirit was driving him.
- Source. A lying spirit stood behind his confidence. The demonic spirits Ahab had worshipped became the instruments of his own ruin.
- Answer. Micaiah did not hit back. He named the day when Zedekiah would hide in an inner room and get his answer.
- Test. Four hundred against one is a conflict of spirits. The popular voice was the false one. So test what claims to come from God; do not count heads.