The death of Ahab

There were three years of peace between Ben-Hadad’s country (Aram) and King Ahab’s (Israel) following their treaty. But then Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, had a meeting with the king of Israel. Ahab said they should take back Ramoth Gilead from Aram. (what caused Ahab’s change of heart from the humility he found at the end of 21?)

He asked Jehoshaphat if he would join him in fighting, and Jehoshaphat agreed. But he recommended that Ahab ask God for guidance.

The King of Israel got all the prophets together–ALL 400 OF THEM–and asked them if he should attack Ramoth Gilead. They said, yes. They assured him that God would hand it over to the king. (Were these God’s prophets from the 7000 still faithful people mentioned to Elijah?)

But Jehoshaphat wasn’t convinced, he asked if there was another prophet of God they could ask (Interesting 400 wasn’t enough.)

Ahab told him yes, but he hated him, it was a prophet named Micaiah (son of Imlah) and Micaiah never gives him good news. Jehoshaphat scolded Ahab, saying he shouldn’t talk about a prophet like that. (Was this the same “Strike me!” prophet? He was a son. Was Imlah a prophet–was he the one who told him about Ben-hadad?)

Ahab sent for Micaiah, son of Imlah.

In the meantime, Ahab and Jehoshaphat were chilling in front of the city gates where the prophets were putting on a “prophecy-performance” for them. Hyping them up and assuring them of victory.

The messenger who had gone to get Micaiah told him to go along with what the other prophets were saying.

But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.” So he wasn’t a yes-man and he didn’t intend to lie.

When he approached Ahab though, and he asked him if he should attack Ramoth Gilead, at first Micaiah said go ahead.

But Ahab was suspicious. He could tell something was off because of the many other times he had made Micaiah promise to tell the truth.

So Micaiah told the truth about his vision. Israel scattered over the hills with no leader, God saying to send them home and let them take care of themselves.–not like what the other prophets were saying.

At that, the king of Israel was like “see?! This is what I mean, always bad news.”

Micaiah continued, saying he saw God on his throne with the angel armies of heaven around him. Plotting how to get Ahab (this is the first time they actually say his name in this chapter) to attack Ramoth Gilead. Different ideas are thrown out, but ultimately a bold angel says they will get the prophets to lie. God agreed to the plan. Micaiah told Ahab, it is a trap and your puppet prophets are idiots who fell for it. (Wouldn’t God be upset with Micaiah for revealing this truth?)

One of the other prophets came up and punched Micaiah for implying that he’d been made a fool and pawn. That Micaiah was a wiser prophet than he.

Micaiah told him that they’d find out soon enough that HIS vision was correct.

Ahab heard enough, he demanded that Micaiah get put in jail and fed only bread and water til after he returned from the battle.

Micaiah vowed that IF Ahab came back, Micaiah himself would not be a prophet of God. And he told the people to remember where they’d heard this prophecy.

So the kings of Israel and Judah continued with the plan to reclaim Ramoth Gilead, but Ahab had Jehoshaphat wear HIS robes so he could be in disguise.

Meanwhile, the King of Aram with his 32 chariot commanders (Ben-Hadad? The same 32 kings from 1 Kings 20?) aimed only to kill the king of Israel, not to bother with anyone else.

When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat in Ahab’s robes, they thought it was him and went after him. But then Jehoshaphat yelled and they could tell it wasn’t the king of Israel, so they let him go.

Miraculously, someone shot an arrow into the crowd without aiming and hit the disguised king of Israel in the vulnerable part of his armor. The king fled.

The fighting continued and he watched from the sidelines, but by evening he had bled out and died. Noticing he had died, everyone decided to abandon camp and go home.

Ahab was buried, the chariot full of his blood was washed out, and the dogs lapped up the blood, like God’s word had said. (What did Ahab do to lose the grace God had been willing to give him in the last chapter??)

And it says, “the rest of Ahab’s life is written up in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.”

(As we saw, Ahab ruled for 22 years) Jehoshaphat became king of Judah during Ahab’s 4th year, and ruled for 25 years. As could be inferred by how he told Ahab not to badmouth prophets, Jehoshaphat pleased God. But his fault was that he didn’t tear down the neighbourhood shrines for false idols.

Jehoshaphat’s life is written about in the The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

There was no King in Edom during Jehoshaphat’s reign, a deputy was in charge.

Jehoshaphat built ships for Ahaziah’s servants–Ahab’s son that replaced him– to go treasure hunting for gold. The ship got wrecked but Jehoshaphat and his servants weren’t there.

When he died, he was buried in the family cemetery in the city of David, his ancestor and was succeeded by Jehoram.

Ahaziah, son of Ahab, only ruled for 2 years. He lived an evil life, just like his parents, even worse than Ahab.