Although we saw Ahab humbled, his humility was long-lived. He soon decided to continue the war against the Arameans and allied himself with godly King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Jehoshaphat requested that before they go to war that they need to consult the Lord. Unfortunately the prophets that Ahab had in his court were all toadies and lackeys who only proclaimed what the King wanted to hear. Consequently, they could not recognize the word of the Lord even if they heard it. Micaiah was not of that group and he came and spoke the Lord’s will. The strange thing is that Ahab knew that this prophecy was what would happen yet he and Jehoshaphat chose to do what they intended and ignored the Lord’s warning. In fact, they did not need to consult God because they had already made up their minds to do what they wanted.
Christians know very well how to consult the Lord when it comes time for making choices and decisions. We pray and we wait and, more often than not, we use our God-given wisdom to weigh the options and make a good choice. Some choices are harder than others. Sometimes we would rather take action that differs from what we know to be the will of God. At such times we are really following the leaning or example of the world which has convinced us that it has the best way. In turn we convince ourselves that because we want what we want so strongly that it can’t be wrong: it must be God’s will. But we have only fooled ourselves into taking action that He does not sanction or approve. As we have seen in Kings so far, the Lord holds everyone accountable for their sins even if they were done in ignorance or with good intentions.
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