In 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicle 18 we find a very interesting and fascinating story that can shed some light on the silence of a prophet. The godly king Jehoshaphat had become very rich and successful, and he made a marriage alliance with the ungodly king Ahab. Once Jehoshaphat was visiting Ahab, he was celebrated with a feast, a huge barbeque, with all the lamb and beef one could eat. But Ahab had a hidden agenda, he wanted Jehoshaphat’s support in attacking Ramoth Gilead. When Ahab brought it into the open, Jehoshaphat agreed to join forces with him. But only on one condition; that before they did anything, they should ask God for guidance. He said, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.”

But Jehoshaphat dragged his feet. Obviously, the prophecies of the four hundred prophets didn’t convince him. “Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him?” he asked.

The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, “As a matter of fact, there is another. There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good to me, only doom, doom, doom, – Micaiah son of Imlah.”

“You shouldn’t talk about a prophet like that!” said Jehoshaphat.

Anyway, Ahab sent one his men to get Micaiah. Meanwhile, all the other prophets where staging a prophecy-performance. One of them, Zedekiah, had even made a set of iron horns, and brandishing them, called out, “Thus says the Lord! With these horns you’ll gore the Syrians, until there’s nothing left of them!” All the prophets chimed in, “Yes! Go for Ramoth Gilead! An easy victory! God’s gift to the king!”

The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him that the words of the prophets were uniformly favourable to the king and his proposed war, and he urged him, “Let your words be like one of them.” Micaiah, however, quietly told him that he would only say what God gave him to say.

With Micaiah before him, the king asked him, “Do we attack Ramoth Gilead? Or do we hold back?”

“Go ahead,” he said, “an easy victory! God’s gift to the king!” The irony in the way he said it was so obvious that the king said, “Not so fast! How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?”

“All right,” said Micaiah, “since you insist I will tell you of what the Lord has told me through a vision.” Then he described the defeat of Israel as he had seen it in a vision from the Lord. He finished saying: “God has filled the mouth of your puppet prophets with seductive lies. God has pronounced your doom!”

Just then Zedekiah, one of the other prophets, came up and slapped Micaiah in the face saying, “Since when did the Spirit of the Lord leave me and take up with you?”

Micaiah answered, “You’ll know soon enough; you’ll know it when you’re frantically and futilely looking for a place to hide!

Ahab had heard enough: “Get Micaiah out of here! Lock him up in jail; keep him on bread and water until I’m back in one piece.”

Micaiah calmly said, “If you ever get back in one piece, I’m no prophet of the Lord.”

So the Ahab and Jehosaphat went ahead and attacked Ramoth Gilead. Their armies were defeated and the king of Israel died that evening, just as the prophet said.

Lessons to be learned from this story

1. It is a good thing to inquire of the Lord by appealing to the prophets in time of crisis and before major decisions are being made. However, we need to approach the right prophets.

2. In this story we find two kinds of prophets: 1. Prophets of smooth speech, and 2. Prophets of truth which are also prophets of the Lord.

                                           I.      Prophets of smooth speech are making a certain fear of God serve the selfish end of worldly men.

                                        II.      There is a great demand for smooth-speaking prophets

                                      III.      However much smooth-speaking prophecies may abound, we can never get away entirely from the intermingled voice of the truth

3. When the king summoned the prophets there was one prophet missing. He chose to stay away and not get involved. He chose to be silent. I wonder why?

4. Was it because he didn’t want to be identified with the rest of the prophets? Was he proud or was he afraid of being different? Or did he know that the king wouldn’t listen to his word? Or was there another reason?

5. Micaiah shows him self to be a true disciple of Elijah in the defiant irony of the tone in which he takes up and mocks the utterance of the other prophets, so bitterly as at once to show Ahab his scorn of them and him. But his messaged is clothed in metaphor and symbolic vision, unlike the stern directness of the style of Elijah.

6. Even when a prophet of the Lord chooses to be silent, he will eventually be called forward to bring the Word of the Lord. The silence of a prophet of the Lord is only temporarily, it will normally never last long.

7. All kind of prophets may prophecy, but only the prophet of the Lord brings the Word of the Lord. A word of prophecy is not necessarily the Word of the Lord into a situation.

8. Popular prophets prophecy what they perceive that the people want to hear, while a prophet of the Lord only speaks what the Lord says.

9. Popular prophets are bringing forth word according to the desire of men, but the prophet who comes from the council of the Lord only speaks the verdicts of Heaven.

10. There are at least four types of human response or reaction to a true prophetic Word of the Lord:

                                           I.      Those who seek the truth. The prophet Micaiah believed in its existence, prayed for its teaching, and determined to follow its leading.

                                        II.      Those who oppose the truth. The men-pleasing prophets assumed to have the truth. They denied the claims of the prophet of the Lord, as well as ridiculing and opposing him. “None is so slow to believe in a Divine Spirit as those accustomed to speak divine words, but in whose hearts is no Divine life.”

                                      III.      Those who believe the truth yet disobey the Word of the Lord. Jehoshaphat believed the prophet Micaiah, mildly defended his character, yet would not withdraw from Ahab. As a result he nearly lost his life!

                                     IV.      Those who are alarmed at the prophetic Word of the Lord. Ahab was roused in his conscience, but he was afraid of its results, and tried to escape by human strategy – in giving his robe to Jehoshaphat.

Then Ahab called together all the prophets. Four hundred prophets gathered together in front of the king who asked if he should attack Ramoth Gilead or hold back. “Go for it,” they said. “God will hand it over to the king.”