Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. The Lord asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else, until a spirit stepped forward, approached the Lord, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked. The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all of Ahab’s prophets tell lies.’ The Lord said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’”
Fascinating. I believe we only see here and in the book of Revelation a vision of what goes on in heaven.
Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the Lord’s spirit leave me and speak to you?”
“You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.
This from the guy with the horns (1 Kings 22:11) doubling down to his own peril.
Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead. Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.
The king of Syria had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel. So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But when he cried out, they realized that he was not the king of Israel, and they stopped their attack. By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor. “I’m wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn around and pull out of the battle!”
While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. The blood from his wound ran down and covered the bottom of the chariot, and at evening he died.
Ahab was so clever. He lined up all the circumstances in his favor! But in the end, God’s will is always done (Isaiah 55:10-11).
Everything else that King Ahab did, including an account of his palace decorated with ivory and of all the cities he built, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.
…Jehoshaphat… ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. …Like his father Asa before him, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord…
What a contrast. Everything else that King Ahab did – to what end? May I always do what is right in your eyes, Lord. May what I do endure (Psalm 90:17; 1 Corinthiens 3:8-14).