"The Guided Missile"

“The Guided Missile”

INTRODUCTION:

Do you really want to know God’s will? A lot of people DON’T. WHY? BECAUSE … it might NOT be YOUR WILL. THEN … that becomes a problem. We have to choose between:

o Doing what we KNOW is the will of God … BUT … what we DON’T REALLY WANT to do.

o OR … deliberately going against what we KNOW is God’s will.

The RESULT … we tend to NOT seek God’s will. We think that ignorance is bliss. We think that it’s better to just live our life the best we can, and not get God too involved in our life. It’s SAFER that way. We won’t have to put ourselves in the dilemma of deliberately disobeying what we know is the will of God.

In our story today, we see such a case. It’s found in 1 Kings Chapter 22. We find 3 central characters: Ahab, the King of Israel … Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah … and Micaiah, the Prophet of God.

This morning, I want to tell this story from the eyes of Micaiah, the Prophet of God. You can follow along in 1 Kings Chapter 22, if you like.

“My name is Micaiah. I am a Prophet of God, and I live in the land of Israel. You probably have never heard of me, because I’m not as famous as Elijah, or Elisha. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in King Ahab’s prison. He doesn’t like me very much!

King Ahab is the King of Israel, but he is a very vile and wicked man. You’ve probably heard of him, if you’ve read your Bible at all. He is married to wicked Queen Jezebel. She’s the one responsible for bringing the worship of Baal into our kingdom. When she married King Ahab, she was the daughter of the King of Tyre & Sidon. Her father was also a priest in the worship of Baal.

Queen Jezebel has a very strong hold over her husband, King Ahab. She brought 450 prophets of Baal into the palace … and at the same time began killing the Prophets of God. She’s the one who ordered the death of the Prophet Elijah, when he showed up her false prophets at Mt. Carmel. She’s the one who had Naboth killed, when he wouldn’t give King Ahab his vineyard. Jezebel holds a very strong influence over her husband, King Ahab.

On the other hand, King Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, is a Godly King. He ordered all the altars of Baal to be torn down, and even ordered that the Word of God be proclaimed throughout all his kingdom. He’s a good man, and a Godly man, whose heart seeks after the things of God.

Unfortunately, his oldest son, Jehoram, married the daughter of King Ahab and Jezebel. As soon as I heard about it, I knew that it would mean trouble for King Jehoshaphat. Their marriage united the 2 kingdoms, but it would prove to only bring problems for King Jehoshaphat. Your Bible teaches you in the New Testament not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, doesn’t it?

One day, King Jehoshaphat came up to Samaria to visit King Ahab. King Ahab was always looking to see how he could take advantage of people, and he was always looking out for #1.

They were out on the veranda one day, and King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Do you realize that the King of Syria has occupied my city of Ramoth-Giliad? I sure could use your help in getting it back. I’d like for you to join me in rescuing this part of my nation. After all … we’re family!”

Well, King Jehoshaphat didn’t want any hard feelings between them, so he agreed to go along with the plan. I wish I had been there, when they were discussing it, but I wasn’t. I would have warned King Jehoshaphat that he was making a league with the Devil. Your Bible in the New Testament tells you that Satan is like a roaring lion, going around seeking whom he may devour, doesn’t it? King Ahab was just a pawn of the Devil … and Satan tried to use Ahab to snare King Jehoshaphat.

Since King Jehoshaphat was a Godly man, he told King Ahab that he ought to first seek God’s will to make sure this was the right thing to do. King Ahab already had his mind made up, but he decided to go along with Jehoshaphat. After all, he didn’t want to appear to be too much of a heathen in front of this Godly King.

King Ahab called together 400 of his prophets. Let me remind you, that these were prophets of Baal. King Ahab had them in his palace and used them for his advisors. But, they were merely puppets, who told King Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. They were treated very good by King Ahab, and they knew that, if they wanted to keep their jobs, they had better say whatever the King wanted them to say. They knew which side their brad was buttered on. AND … they ate from the King’s table!