When Life Slaps You Down

1 Kings 22 1/26/25 a.m.

When Life Slaps you Down

There’s kind of a new sport now. It’s called Power Slapping. Pull it up on Youtube and you can watch it. NOT NOW!!! Put your phones away, you can watch it later when you get home. It’s kind of like boxing but more organized. Two men or two women stand facing each other and one will hold on to a stick with their hands down. The other will open hand slap them, as hard as they can.

There are all kinds of rules like you can’t lift your feet and take a step when you’re the SLAPPER and you can’t slap them in the ear, mouth or nose. You can’t just use the HEEL of the hand. Your hand has to flatly slap the other person’s cheek. If you’re the one being slapped you can’t dodge it. You have to take it. And if you aren’t knocked out then you get the chance to slap the other person. If you fall down and don’t get up before the ten count then you lose. If no one is counted out then it goes five rounds and the judges score it on different things and a winner is declared. So come on up here Brother Donald Lewis and we’re gonna demonstrate it. JUST KIDDING!!! So now here’s what I really think. I think it’s kind of STUPID but no more than PRIZE FIGHTING and UFC fights.

This morning we’re going to look at 1 Kings 22. King Ahab, of the Northern Nation of Israel, wants to go and take back Ramoth Gilead from the Syrians.

And so King Jehoshaphat, from the Southern Nation of Judah, is there visiting and King Ahab asks him if he will go with him to fight against the Syrians. Now here’s something kind of important. King Jehoshaphat was a GOOD KING who feared God and kept His commandments.

Ahab, the king of Israel, was one of the most wicked kings that Israel had ever seen. Maybe, just maybe, King Jehoshaphat should pick his friends a little better.

Anyway, BEFORE King Jehoshaphat agrees to go, he asks King Ahab to ENQUIRE of the Lord. Verse 5 of Chapter 22.

“And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord to day.”

He basically says, “I want to know what God thinks!!!”

Can I take a little side road for a minute here. Before you do anything in your life, whether it be MINOR or MAJOR, you better know what God thinks about it.

And so Ahab gets some of his trusted partner Prophets to tell Jehoshaphat that everything is gonna be alright. They should definitely go up and retake Ramoth Gilead from the Syrians. But Old Jehoshaphat says hang on a second. Is there a REAL PROPHET of God that we can ask? And that’s where we’re going to start reading. So if you would turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 22, we’ll start reading at Verse 8 and read through Verse 24.

“And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

9 Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.

10 And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.

11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them.

12 And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand.

13 And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.

14 And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.

15 So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

16 And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?