¹ For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. ² But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. ³ The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?” ⁴ So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” ⁵ But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.” ⁶ So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.” ⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?” ⁸ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied. ⁹ So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.” ¹⁰ Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.¹¹ Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’” ¹² All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” ¹³ The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴ But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.” ¹⁵ When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?” “Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” ¹⁶ The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” ¹⁷ Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’” ¹⁸ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?” ¹⁹ Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. ²⁰ And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that. ²¹ Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ²² “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. “‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ ²³ “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” ²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked. ²⁵ Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.” ²⁶ The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son ²⁷ and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’” ²⁸ Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

–1 Kings 22.1-28 (NIV)

In many Christian circles you will be hard pressed to hear a word about God’s righteous and holy judgment on sinful humanity. That is unfortunate for two reasons. First, when we do not consider God’s judgment our understanding of God is necessarily incomplete. God is not all love (but neither is God all judgment). Second, when we do not understand that we are all under God’s judgment, we will never be open to the wondrous love and grace of God demonstrated on the cross. Instead, when we do not have appropriate godly fear, we will be more tempted to yawn over the cross rather than to fall on our knees in profound and humble thanksgiving for the gift of life and grace offered to us in and through Jesus.

But as today’s story makes clear, God is a God who does indeed judge and who is relentlessly opposed to evil in any form. We see this almost laughably illustrated in the interaction between Jehoshaphat and Ahab, the kings of Judah and Israel respectively. We have already examined Ahab’s character (see here and here) and true to form he is cooking up more mischief again. He wants to turn on his former allies with whom he joined to help repel the Assyrian threat, at least temporarily, and take back from them territory that belongs to Israel. Ahab asks his counterpart, Jehoshaphat, to help him but the latter wants to get God’s approval before agreeing. So Ahab summons his minions who pose as prophets to get a word from the Lord.

And this is where it gets interesting because true prophets are never anyone’s minion. They speak the word of God to God’s people no matter how hard it is for us to hear. That is why Jehoshaphat is suspicious of these “prophetic” sayings and asks Ahab if there are any real prophets still left in Israel (I hope you are chuckling at this because it is so very human on the part of Ahab and his minions–in modern day lingo, this is phenomenon is known as groupthink). Ahab acknowledges that there is a prophet left, Micaiah. But Ahab also tells Jehoshaphat that he hates Micaiah because the latter never has anything good to say about Ahab! Well no duh. It should hardly surprise us that God is not going to have much good to say about the evil a leader of his people is committing, and of course this is where we can see the judgment of God.

But it gets worse for Ahab because the prophet tells him he is going to die and that will be evidence that Micaiah has spoken God’s truth. This is where we start to squirm because as we reflect on our own lives we realize that we are Ahab. Oh, we may not be as egregious in our sins as Ahab was, but any sin separates us from God’s holiness and when we are separated from God’s holiness, death is inevitable. We don’t like to hear that or be reminded of that awful fact but it is true nevertheless. Our wishing the human condition were otherwise will not change it one iota.

Have I succeeded in depressing you thoroughly yet? I hope so because if I have you are now ready to hear what God has done on your behalf. He has come to live among his human creatures as a human himself. He has allowed himself to be hung on a cross and die a terrible death so that we do not have to die and face his God-awful (and perfectly just) punishment. In so doing, God has condemned our sin in the flesh and borne the awful punishment of his judgment on our sins himself so that we do not have to bear the unbearable (cf. Romans 8.1-6).

Some of us don’t like to hear this Good News either because it is an affront to our human pride and our belief that we are able to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But nothing is farther from the truth (cf. 1 Corinthians 1-2). That is the consistent biblical witness and we see it illustrated time and again in stories like today’s and in the stories of our own lives.

As you read and ponder today’s lesson, allow the Spirit to engender in you a real sense godly fear. Not that you should be terrified of God but rather that you realize your sin is a terrible affront to God’s holy Presence and that it will always keep you separated from him, which must end in your death.

But God does not want that for you.

He created you to love and enjoy him forever starting right here and now, and you will best do that by enjoying the fact that he is God and you are not. When, by the Spirit’s help, you start to develop that healthy outlook, you are ready to accept God’s gift of life to you in Christ and you will start to learn what it means to be truly human. When you do, there is no reason for you to fear God’s judgment anymore. Rather you will find yourself in awe, joy, and profound thanksgiving for the great gift of life and redemption you have received by faith in Christ. And yes, you will then start acting like you really believe and mean it.