Zedekiah, The False Prophet With Fake Iron Horns Series

Introduction: This second message is about Zedekiah, probably one of the worst false prophets ever. He lived during the days of Ahab and Jehoshaphat but caused a great deal of grief for many people in both Israel and Judah. His “visual aids” didn’t help, either!

The setting for this “prophecy” took place in Samaria when Jehoshaphat came to visit Ahab (one wonders why). Full disclosure; Sermon Central has previously accepted my sermon on the joint campaign between Israel and Judah to recapture Ramoth-Gilead called “The Battle and The Banquet (this message is not a copy-paste of that previous submission)”. In this message, my goal is to focus one Zedekiah and his utterly false prophecy.

1 Zedekiah and the 400 false prophets

Text: 2 Chronicles 18:1-11, KJV: 1 Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab. 2 And after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead. 3 And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go with me to Ramothgilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war.

4 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. 5 Therefore the king of Israel gathered together of prophets four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall we go to Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for God will deliver it into the king's hand. 6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might inquire of him? 7 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, by whom we may inquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

8 And the king of Israel called for one of his officers, and said, Fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imla. 9 And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah sat either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes, and they sat in a void place at the entering in of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. 10 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the LORD, With these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed. 11 And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

According to the website quora.com (https://www.quora.com/Who-originally-said-%E2%80%9CThe-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend%E2%80%9D), the saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” has been around for many years. That sentiment and saying would have been just as true at the time of this incident.

Most of us recall that the united kingdom of Israel split into the Ten Tribes in the North, keeping the name “Israel”, and the Two Tribes in the south, known as Judah, after Rehoboam, son of Solomon, became king. Rehoboam committed one of history’s greatest blunders and doomed the nation into generations of wars between children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The story of how this happened is in 1 Kings 11-12.

But now, there seems to be “peace in our time”, as Neville Chamberlain once said in 1938. That peace seemed to be taking place because of intermarriage between the two royal families, Jehoshaphat’s son taking Ahab (and Jezebel’s) daughter as his wife. This later proved to be another disaster in the making—just read 2 Kings 10 and 11!

And another reason for this peace was that these two kingdoms had a common enemy, Syria (Aram, in some other translations). The Ten Tribes had been in conflict with Syria several times before but there had been a three-year “peace” or, truce, between Israel and Syria (2 Kings 22:1). There was a problem, however, and that was because Syria still had control over a city of Israel called Ramothgilead (some place a hyphen or dash after “Ramoth”). Now, Israel, the Ten Tribes, wanted that city back from the Syrians.

Wouldn’t you believe it, here comes the king of Judah, probably with a good number of fellow southerners, so to speak, arriving at Samaria, Ahab’s capital. If there was any other business they discussed, we don’t know about it, but we do have a good record of one particular topic.

Ramoth-Gilead.

The text describes how Ahab provided a feast for Jehoshaphat and his staff (let’s call them that), preparing a goodly amount of sheep (mutton) and oxen (beef, and plenty of it, I’m sure). Paraphrasing Dr. Vance Havner’s message, “The Four-Hundred-and-First Prophet”, a banquet like this was one way to get a Jehoshaphat to join up with you.