lying spirit from God? pt. 2

In order to continue with my interpretation of God’s involvement of the lying spirit, it really is important that you read the text below:

5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” 10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” 12 And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” 14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” 15 And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 16 But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” 17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” 18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ 23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”

24 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?” 25 And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” 26 And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” 28 And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

It does appear that God is requesting for someone to go and entice Ahab through a lying spirit. The vast majority of commentaries defend this position and state that God is sovereign over the spirit realms and the affairs of mankind. God did give Satan permission to take Job’s health away but God didn’t initiate this. In I Kings, God is the initiator, or so it seems. God was the initiator with Pharaoh, by hardening his already hardened heart. God is without question sovereign. But to ask a group of spirits in heaven who is going to entice Ahab, just seems a little out of character for God. I would propose that there is another explanation.

First, the prophet said that what he is revealing is something that he saw. So initially, this prophecy is not a direct word from God, but something of a vision. Even though, this doesn’t offer an explanation. Second, when the prophet is told to speak favorably to match the favorable words of the false prophets, he says, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” BUT HE DOESN’T! From the very beginning this prophet does not speak the truth. His speech is obviously sarcastic. You can tell this by the response of the king: “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” It appears that this wasn’t the first time the prophet and king had a conflict. So the prophet begins speaking the truth but the king can’t handle it: “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

Now we come to the controversial section of God looking for an enticing and lying spirit. It would be my view that the prophet is once again resorting to sarcasm. The scene in heaven that he is describing is a means to irritate Ahab and mock his prophets, conveying that they are nothing but puppets on a string, and that they are all liars. It is a fabricated story designed to do nothing more than to irritate both Ahab and the prophets, and that it did. The reaction to his prophecy is first one of rage coming from Zedekiah and unbridled authority from the king. He sends the prophet to prison, possible back to prison.

At last the prophet speaks in a serious tone and says, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

There is a pattern here that might help resolve some of the tension concerning God and the lying spirit. The pattern is found in the prophet Micaiah’s speech to the king:

1. Sarcasm

2. Truth

3. Sarcasm

4. Truth

The story of the enticing and lying spirit is one of sarcasm that follows this alternating pattern of truth. It is designed to both mock sinful king Ahab and bring about confusion so that he will indeed follow the advice of the false prophets, SO THAT EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT THE WORD OF THE LORD IS TRUE INDEED. And only those who heed it, will be spared. God does not need lying spirits to accomplish his will…mankind already does that which is right in their own eyes. The prophet was only making use of sarcasm to both irritate this self-centered selfish king and prove his point that Ahab really didn’t want to hear what he had to say. You can tell that the king heard sarcasm because of their response: first he was slapped in the face, then he was placed in prison and ordered to be fed only meager rations. If Micaiah was being genuine and sincere, there would have been no reason to slap him...he was obviously mocking both the king and his false prophets.

Whenever there is a difficult passage of Scripture that seems to conflict with the nature and character of God, there is an explanation if we are willing to dig deeply. The character of God , his love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, truth, and justice, must always be our guide when interpreting Scripture.