Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.
Ahab's four hundred prophets had with one voice urged going up to battle at Ramoth-gilead and promised that God would give victory there, but Jehoshaphat refused to trust those false prophets of Samaria and firmly insisted that another, true prophet of the Lord be heard before he would join the war. The summons came in that setting, after Jehoshaphat's insistence following the unanimous counsel for battle. The campaign at stake was an attempt to retake Ramoth, one of the old cities of refuge, from the Syrians by force.
Ahab then reluctantly named Micaiah the son of Imlah as the one man through whom they could inquire of the Lord, admitting that he hated and disliked him because he spoke against him and foretold calamity and evil rather than good. At the command recorded in the verse he ordered an officer to bring Micaiah in haste. Micaiah, placed under solemn oath to tell nothing but what is true in the name of the Lord, then delivered the message the kings needed to hear.
His warning pictured all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd, and directed every man to return to his house in peace, showing that Heaven did not favor the project. Yet Ahab was determined on his course, and Jehoshaphat, having rashly promised solidarity and to be with him in the war, was reluctant to withdraw, so both went up to Ramoth-gilead. There Ahab was shot and died at eventide, and a proclamation went through the host sending every man to his own city and country, fulfilling the prophet's word. Ahab's hostility toward Micaiah and rejection of his warning shows how people whose lives oppose truth resist the messenger who exposes their wrongdoing.
Ahab's four hundred prophets had with one voice urged going up to battle at Ramoth-gilead and promised that God would give victory there, but Jehoshaphat refused to trust those false prophets of Samaria and firmly insisted that another, true prophet of the Lord be heard before he would join the war. The summons came in that setting, after Jehoshaphat's insistence following the unanimous counsel for battle. The campaign at stake was an attempt to retake Ramoth, one of the old cities of refuge, from the Syrians by force.
Ahab then reluctantly named Micaiah the son of Imlah as the one man through whom they could inquire of the Lord, admitting that he hated and disliked him because he spoke against him and foretold calamity and evil rather than good. At the command recorded in the verse he ordered an officer to bring Micaiah in haste. Micaiah, placed under solemn oath to tell nothing but what is true in the name of the Lord, then delivered the message the kings needed to hear.
His warning pictured all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd, and directed every man to return to his house in peace, showing that Heaven did not favor the project. Yet Ahab was determined on his course, and Jehoshaphat, having rashly promised solidarity and to be with him in the war, was reluctant to withdraw, so both went up to Ramoth-gilead. There Ahab was shot and died at eventide, and a proclamation went through the host sending every man to his own city and country, fulfilling the prophet's word. Ahab's hostility toward Micaiah and rejection of his warning shows how people whose lives oppose truth resist the messenger who exposes their wrongdoing.