Who was Micaiah in the Bible?

We are not, however, shut up to Balaam's history for illustrations of it, valuable as they are because he was an unwilling instrument for David, as we have seen, is just as clear and definite about it: "His word was upon my tongue." But other testimonies there are to the same effect, as Micaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, a prophet in the days of Ahab, and well known to the king, appears but once in the page of history, viz., when sent for by Ahab, at the instance of King Jehoshaphat, that they might learn from him the mind of the Lord about their contemplated joint expedition to Ramoth-gilead. Urged by the messenger sent to summon him to speak that which was good — i.e., well-pleasing to Ahab — the faithful servant of Jehovah replied, "As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that will I speak." Ushered into the presence of the two kings, he delivered his message, and his farewell words to Ahab betokened his consciousness of having been the mouthpiece of God: "If thou return at all in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me" (1 Kings 22:14, 28). Ahab did not return in peace, for the Lord had spoken by Micaiah.

Were this the only instance that could be quoted in the whole of the Old Testament in support of verbal inspiration, the inference might not have seemed so conclusive. But, taken in conjunction with that which we have read of Balaam and of David, one can be at no loss to understand what Micaiah meant to convey when he affirmed that the Lord spoke by him, nor what he intended the king to believe when he said, "Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord" (ver. 19). He spoke in words taught him by God. It was God's word to which he gave utterance, and not merely Micaiah's impression of something which had been revealed to him. He was a prophet of the Lord. Ahab knew that. No doubt existed in the king's mind that Micaiah could tell him what was true in the name of the Lord (ver. 16). And the sequel shows that the prophet did. What spirit it was that animated the false prophets, he fearlessly told him. And what he predicted came to pass. In language clear and definite, admitting of but one construction, he announced the king's death, if he went to battle at Ramoth-gilead. And Ahab had a consciousness that Micaiah was right, and his prophets wrong. He went into battle, but disguised, and fell. Probably he thought by that device he should yet return in peace. He went into battle, and was mortally wounded. God's word by the prophet failed not, for he was a prophet of God, and his utterance was inspired; and just as David could say, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me," so Micaiah could affirm that the Lord spoke by him. Between them in that there was no difference. Both were prophets. Both were equally inspired.

Son of Imla. When Ahab was joined by Jehoshaphat, and all Ahab's prophets foretold his success against Ramoth-gilead, Jehoshaphat asked if there was not yet another prophet of Jehovah of whom they could inquire. Then Micaiah was sent for, though Ahab said that he hated him, for he always prophesied evil unto him. At first Micaiah said, "Go ye up, and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand." The way in which this was said apparently convinced Ahab that it was spoken in irony, for he said, "How many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord?" Micaiah at once said that he saw all Israel scattered, having no shepherd. Jehovah said they had no master.

Then he relates that he had seen, probably in a vision, Jehovah sitting on His throne, and asking who would persuade Ahab to go to Ramoth-gilead and fall there. A spirit volunteered to accomplish it by being a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets. This had come to pass. Zedekiah, one of Ahab's prophets, struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" Micaiah replied, "Behold, thou shalt see on that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself." Ahab disguised himself, but was wounded by an arrow and 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 try. 1 Kings 22:8-28; 2 Chr. 18:7-27.

a) The Two Prophets bearing the Name of Micah (or Micaiah)

Already 1 Kings 22:8ff (and 2 Chron. 18) mentions a prophet by the name of Micaiah who laboured at king Ahab's time in Israel. He warned Ahab and Jehoshaphat against the war with Syria but he was not taken seriously. It is very striking that the last words of this prophet Micaiah literally correspond with the first words of Micah the Morasthite "Hear, all ye people" ( hebr . schim'u ' ammim kullam; compare 1 Kings 22:28; 2 Chron. 18:27 with Micah 1:2). The second prophet Micah thus starts where the first ended.

There is a very strong confirmation of it in a scene that is described in the first Book of Kings, and I only refer to that to confirm it, namely, where it speaks (1 Kings 22) of Micaiah, the man that the wicked king could not endure because he never had a good thing to say to him. That is, Micaiah was not a flatterer. Kings do not like any but flatterers as a rule, and this prophet greatly vexed the wicked king. And alas! the good king Jehoshaphat failed in that very thing that we are apt to fail in now. Fellowship between light and darkness! Fellowship between the right people and the wrong! Fellowship with that which is utterly opposed to God, in a kind of amiable way that does not give us any very great trouble! We like the easy path, we do not like the strait path, we do not like the path that requires faith, and it is to our own loss. Well, in this case, Micaiah, when he is brought to the point, speaks of a similar scene to what you have here. There God puts the question: "Who will go and deceive Ahab?" — that was the idolatrous king of Israel, "Who will deceive him?" — the one Jehoshaphat made his friendship with, to his own sorrow and to the dishonour of the Lord, and with no good to Ahab, for he fell; he was not won a single inch into that which pleased God. The good conduct of Jehoshaphat in no way did good to Ahab, but on the contrary Ahab drew Jehoshaphat into what was unworthy of God and of a child of God. The evil spirit said that he would go and deceive Ahab. He wrought, no doubt, by Ahab's false prophets.

It is necessary for us to know the circumstances mentioned in this chapter, as they are of grave importance. Let us consider in it especially the characters of Jehoshaphat and Micaiah. This last was separated from Ahab and apostate Israel; he entered into God's thoughts and was declaring to Ahab and Israel the judgments which were ready to come upon them. Read verses 16-23. In verse 26 we see the consequences of his fidelity: Ahab and Israel are his enemies, and he is put into the place of affliction. Jehoshaphat's circumstances were very different; he was a child of God as well as Micaiah, but he was rich and great, and had made alliance with one of God's enemies - with Ahab. Ahab knew him to be a child of God, and, in order to tranquillise his conscience, caused sheep and oxen to be killed for him in abundance. It mattered not to Ahab what he did if he succeeded in persuading Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-Gilead. But Jehoshaphat's conscience was not satisfied by the sacrifice of all these sheep and oxen; and he said to the king of Israel, "Inquire, I pray thee at the word of Jehovah to-day." Ahab then assembled the four hundred and fifty prophets who cried, "Peace, peace," although God's judgment was ready to break over him and apostate Israel; but the words of these false prophets did not satisfy Jehoshaphat's conscience any more than the sacrifices. Thus it is ever so when the child of God is found in the midst of evil of any kind: although four hundred and fifty prophets and the whole world would seek to satisfy his conscience, they could not attain this end. See what is said of false prophets in Ezekiel 13:1-16.

But the king of Israel was satisfied with what the lying prophets said; and, as God punished Pharaoh by giving him up to a delusion, He did the same to Ahab. And the same thing will happen to many others at the end of this dispensation; men will preach "peace, peace," and judgment will break forth upon them (Rev. 16:14; 2 Thess. 2:7-13). Here is a solemn truth. This is why we ought first to be very grateful because the Lord has revealed Himself to us; then we ought to take care not to become like Jehoshaphat who "joined affinity with Ahab." How good the Lord was to put it into the king of Judah's heart to seek counsel of a prophet of Jehovah! It was a means by which he might have been instructed about the judgments which were going to happen, and have been able to warn his people. But alliance with evil blinds to such a degree, that Jehoshaphat did not discern that Micaiah was a true prophet of Jehovah; and he did not believe his word, but went in spite of it all up to the battle in which Ahab was to meet with the judgment of God. Oh may we be separated from evil in order to be capable of judging all things and to hold fast that which is truth!

Wicked King Ahab, as we might well expect, had no love for Elijah or any other of Jehovah's faithful prophets. "Troubler of Israel," "Mine enemy," he calls Elijah. "I hate him," he frankly says of Micah the son of Imlah. Through Elijah's prayers rain and dew had ceased for 3½ years in Israel. Nor did Elijah hesitate to rebuke Ahab and pronounce God's judgment upon him. Micah the son of Imlah was cut out of the same material. Though he was told that "the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent," and counseled to fall in line with them, he flatly refused. "As Jehovah liveth, even what Jehovah shall say to me, that will I speak," he resolutely replied.

Turning now to 1 Kings 22:14-23. Ahab — Israel's wicked and wilful king — was disposed to go to war with Syria for the recovery of Ramoth-Gilead. His misguided ally, Jehoshaphat King of Judah (pious, but weak) wished to know what Jehovah might have to say about the undertaking. In due course faithful Micaiah was brought out of prison, and in few words he described a scene in the heavenlies. Jehovah was seated on His throne surrounded by the host of heaven. His patience with Ahab being now exhausted, He called for a volunteer who would dispose the doomed man to go to war to his undoing. After much discussion, a spirit proposed to go down and put a lie in the mouths of all the King's prophets. "Go forth, and do so," said the great God. No words can adequately set forth the solemnity of this. Israel's war with Syria was thus arranged in the spirit world, as many a war since. Blinded by Satan, Ahab paid no heed to what he heard. God's faithful witness was sent back to prison, and the king rode forth to his death.

To make that which he is going to proclaim even more solemn, Micah at first speaks just like the four hundred prophets: "Go up, and prosper; for Jehovah will give it into the hand of the king" (v. 15). "How many times," replies Ahab, "shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but truth in the name of Jehovah?" (v. 16). We see here what conscience is, even a hardened one. It speaks within the heart, telling Ahab: What Micah is saying cannot be the expression of his opinion! And even though Ahab is seeking after a lie, his conscience forces him to want the truth. He will not follow it nor obey it, but the uneasiness produced by his conscience allows him no rest until he hears, knows, and sees it, like a murderer who despite himself is drawn back to the scene of his crime. Then these harrowing words reverberate in his ears: "I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace" (v. 17).

The prophet does not stop there. He points out the satanic lying spirit that has gotten hold of all the prophets in order to cause Ahab to go up to Ramoth. Jehovah had said: "Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?" (v. 20). This was the judgment of God, prepared beforehand against Ahab, an indirect judgment by which the demonic spirits he had worshipped became the instruments for their victim's doom.

Zedekiah, who had played the leading role in this scene, making himself horns of iron and saying to the king: "With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have exterminated them" (v. 11) — this Zedekiah smites Micah on the cheek and says: "Where now went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak to thee?" (v. 24). He claims the Holy Spirit's direction and makes use of violence to prove this, but he thus proves what spirit is urging him on. He too would come under judgment when he would "go from chamber to chamber to hide" himself (v. 25).

Micah, like so many prophets and faithful servants of the Lord, is thrown into prison, cruelly persecuted for the truth which he had proclaimed (vv. 27, 28). But his testimony spreads, in that way becoming public, just as later that of Paul. He has the honour of speaking the mind of God as to the future to all: "Hearken, O peoples, all of you!" (v. 28).

"And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel." In the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah (now linked to the house of Ahab by the marriage of his son and heir-apparent to the throne, to Athaliah, Ahab's daughter) came down on a friendly visit to the Israelitish capital. Ahab saw in the presence of so powerful an ally a splendid opportunity to use him to the extension of his kingdom. So he says to his servants, "Know ye not that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?" Ramoth-gilead was an important fortress, directly east of Samaria, and about twenty miles back from the Jordan. It was occupied during Solomon's magnificent reign by Ben-Geber, one of his twelve commissariat officers (1 Kings 4:13). Ben-hadad I. had taken it from Omri, according to Josephus (Ant. viii., 15 § 4). On Ahab's proposing to jointly recover this place to their family (now one, alas), Jehoshaphat at once acceded, saying, "I am as thou art," etc. (See JEHOSHAPHAT.) The four hundred court prophets all declared the success of the expedition a foregone conclusion. "Go up," they said, unanimously; "for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." (2 Chron. 18:5 has "God," instead of "the Lord," as here: see Author's Introduction.) Ahab's ally did not appear entirely satisfied with such offhand, emphatic prophecies of good fortune; he had evidently some misgivings of conscience, and was suspicious of this crowd of state-paid "peace-and-safety" preachers. So he cautiously asked if there was not another of Jehovah's prophets within call, of whom they might further inquire. "There is yet one man," answered Ahab, "Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." And the good-natured king of Judah, ever willing to put the best construction possible on others' deeds, or words, replied, "Let not the king say so." "Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah," Ahab commanded his officer; and the unpopular prophet was unceremoniously brought into the presence of the consulting kings. The two ill-matched kings sat each on his throne, arrayed in his robes of state, in an open space at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. Before them were gathered all the pseudo-prophets, prophesying their lies before their royal master and his uneasy confederate. One of the deceivers, striving after dramatic effect, had made iron horns, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them." "Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper," they all with one voice said: "for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand."

Now Jehovah's prophet is brought, and in ironical agreement with what the time-serving four hundred had been saying, he also says, "Go, and prosper!" Ahab was quick to understand his irony, and adjured him (put him under oath) in Jehovah's name, to tell him nothing but that which was true. "And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master let them return every man to his house in peace." "Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?" said Ahab to Jehoshaphat, on hearing this solemn announcement. Jehovah's prophet now sets before them his vision of a scene in heaven: the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets to allure him to his death. But this is more than Ahab can bear, and he orders at once that Micaiah be thrust into prison, and to be fed with the bread and water of affliction, till he returned from his expedition in peace. "And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Harken, O people, every one of you."

When the prophet Jeremiah was in danger of being put to death for his faithful testimony, certain of the elders rose up and said, "Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, King of Judah; and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest" (Jer. 26:18). This is the testimony of the book of Jeremiah to Micah, who prophesied under the reign of Hezekiah, as well as Jotham and Ahaz. The first verse of the book of Micah gives us this information. While Jonah was a Galilean, Micah was a Judean. He came from Moresheth-Gath, which distinguishes him from another prophet of the same name, Micah the son of Imlah. (See 1 Kings 22:8; Micaiah is the same as Micah.) The name Micah means "who is like the LORD?"