There is a fantastic account of the time Ahab, king of the Northern Kingdom, constructed an alliance with Jehoshaphat, king of the Southern Kingdom and enticed him to go to war together against a northern neighbor in 1 Kings 22. Jehoshaphat agrees but wants to hear from the Lord first, so he requests that Ahab bring in those who speak in the name of the Lord.
Needless to say these 400 cats that Ahab brings in are “yes” men to the evil Ahab and quite surely enjoy the power they have gained in the king’s court. In like fashion of power-hungry “yes” type people, they tell Ahab what he wants to hear. These guys support him and stand by him in any undertaking.
Jehoshaphat, for reasons 1 Kings 22 does not tell us, requests if there was another prophet of the Lord they could hear from. I presume this is because, being from David’s line and used to a little more push back from Aaron’s boys, he recognizes some problems (I may be way wrong there).
Now, Ahab has this one contrary prophet who does not tell him “yes” and seems to not be intoxicated by being in the circle with the king. This man’s name is Micaiah.
Ahab relays to Jehoshaphat that there is no love lost with ole Micaiah because he only speaks evil of Ahab’s plans and policies and lifestyle.
While they are summoning Micaiah, Zedekiah (perhaps the leader of these 400 “prophets”), makes these horns of iron, and I’m presuming he put them on his head, and played like a bull pushing something around and declared that the Lord was saying this plan of theirs was his plan and that they would succeed like a bull would succeed in pushing something around. Nice show put on my the prophet of the Lord. I’m sure it got him props for being showy, loud and one that made for good theatre for folks. I’ll bet his funding was tremendous.
Micaiah was briefed as to what the prophets were saying and encouraged to say the same. So, Micaiah, half-heartedly tried to agree with the prophets’ message. In a twist here, ole Ahab, who knows Micaiah never speaks good for him, just heard good words from Micaiah, and likely recognizes the half-hearted nature of his words and tells him to speak the “truth”. So, Micaiah prophesies that this campaign will not work, bad things will happen, Ahab is wrong and these prophets are speaking lies sent from the Lord to bring about Ahab’s demise as promised from the Lord. Boom!
Ole Zedekiah does not take to kindly to Micaiah’s insinuation that they are all lying prophets and hits Micaiah in the mouth. Micaiah gets imprisoned and well…Ahab gets killed, Jehoshaphat barely escapes and the short-term alliance of Israel gets routed. Micaiah was right and Zedekiah was wrong.
When the recent news broke about certain prominent SBC pastors in the Dallas, TX area criticizing Dr. Moore of the ERLC ( ERLC ) and threatening to defund the ERLC for speaking out against the Donald’s numerous problems that Christians need to be aware of and careful about supporting, I instantly thought of this account in 1 Kings 22.
It seems that some Christian leaders have become enamored with being in the counsel of the president to the point they forget their job is to be the Lord’s ambassadors of truth not agents of garnering support for the president (now labeled “king” by the RNC Trump like Jesus, a King / GOP Christmas Message ). For some reason “prominent” pastors have begun to think they need to be the counsel to supposed certain leaders they choose based on some standard that I’ve failed to find in Scripture. They do this while rejecting a Micaiah like voice that refused to succumb to the Zedekiah like calls for Christian support for the questionable morality of much of what the President Elect has been and done and will continue to be and do.
I didn’t vote for the Donald or Hillary. I voted for a third-party for reasons not to be dealt with here. But what I want Christians to see is that the calling of pastors for a man and our own organization (the ERLC is the SBC wing that is given to deal with ethical and religious liberty issues) to lose his job or the org’s funding because he questioned the man they are supporting is akin to Zedekiah smacking Micaiah for telling the truth.
Pastor, Christian, leader, whoever follows Jesus, be better than that and don’t give people like that your ear or support. Support the Dr. Moore kind of people who refuse to hop in bed with political powers. Those people loose the prophetic voice given by God to hold accountable whoever is in office.
Here is a good take by Jonathan Merritt Marginalizing Dr. Moore Is A Grave Mistake
May we find ourselves with a biblical, kingdom mindset, viewpoint and stand with those who have likewise and not be found as patsies of power.
Micaiah reminds me of someone now. Let’s make sure we stand with Micaiah not Zedekiah.
(I recognize that many will say that the prominent folk supporting the President Elect are standing with God because the PE is God’s man and Dr. Moore is standing in God’s way. I’d simply point those sincere people to the questionable ethics of our PE and leave it at that.)
Theology in the Dirt 