Below is 1 Kings 22. I will write some observations after the passage. Please take the time to read the whole chapter here.

Observation 1: King Jehoshaphat shows discernment.  Jehoshaphat asks if they could inquire of the Lord for the battle. Ahab calls four hundred prophets to prophesy. The prophets start saying ‘Thus says the Lord” and then put words in God’s mouth about the success of Ahab should he attack Ramoth-Gilead. Jehoshaphat then asks if there was a true prophet they could inquire. Jehoshaphat knew the four hundred prophets were spewing nonsense and were not really hearing from God.

Observation 2: King Ahab knew the difference. Ahab called the four hundred prophets. Why did he keep them around? Because they always spoke things he wanted to hear. Plain and simple. Ahab knew Micaiah was a true prophet but because Micaiah did not speak well of Ahab. Remember, Ahab was married to Jezebel and they also had a corral of priests of Baal whom Elijah dispatched on Mount Carmel. Ahab told Jehoshaphat that he kept Micaiah in prison because he spoke well of Ahab.

Observations 3: Micaiah mocks the false prophets. When Micaiah is called before the two kings, the guard warns him to prophesy positively for the king because all the other prophets did. When asked Micaiah mocked the four hundred false prophets by prophesying as they did. Promising victory. As noted in observation 2, Ahab knows a true prophet and rebukes Micaiah for not being truthful.

Observation 4: Micaiah prophesies a true prophecy. Micaiah prophesies a vision of heaven with God (IMO probably Jesus) asking His angels how to entice Ahab to go fight the king of Aram so that he will be killed in battle. Micaiah says that God sent a lying spirit into the four hundred false prophets. He tells Ahab that the false prophets are lying to him, that he will believe the false prophets, and that Ahab will go into battle with the king of Aram.

Observation 5: The arrogance of the false prophet Zedekiah. Like all false teachers, Zedekiah is arrogant. He believes the blather he is spewing forth is from God, probably simply because he is employed as a prophet by King Ahab. He is being paid to pretend to speak for God, even mimicking the speech pattern of one who is a true prophet.He, like the wolves who stand at the pulpits today, get angry at the true man of God, Micaiah, and strikes him. Micaiah prophesies his death for striking and God avenges Micaiah.

Observation 6: Micaiah knows he is a true prophet. Micaiah knows he is a true prophet of God and the words he has spoken will come to pass. Ahab orders Micaiah be brought back to his prison cell until he returns. Micaiah tells Ahab plainly that if Ahab does return then God has not spoken through him. Micaiah then calls attention to his words to all his listeners and bear witness that it will come to pass.

Observation 7: God protects His own and fulfills His Word: Ahab, enticed by the false prophecy of the false prophets, and Jehoshaphat go fight the king of Aram. Ahab is dressed as a common soldier while he asks Jehoshaphat to wear his king’s armor. Jehoshaphat is pressed by the army of Aram but once they recognize Jehoshaphat is not Ahab, the army of Aram turn away from Jehoshaphat. Then the author describes what would appear to be a random event of an archer shooting an arrow randomly into the battle fray, but nothing is random with God and the arrow finds a crease in Ahab’s armor. Ahab would eventually die from this wound, just as God had prophesied through Micaiah. Ahab died because he was a wicked man who did evil constantly, especially worshipping false gods like Baal.

I write this because what is happening in the church today is not much different. I believe this a biblical example of what is going on today. What passes for churches today are filled with false prophets, what the New Testament call wolves. They are tickling the ears of those who fill their auditoriums with false promises from God without addressing the real issue those people need solved: their sin. They are leading them into hell. Matthew 7:13-23 explains that those who are leading the people down the “broad way to destruction” are not outside the church but are false prophets within the church.

These wolves need to be purged from the midst of the church. Jesus rebukes several churches in Revelation because they have not purged false teachers from their churches. Paul rebukes the Corinthians for tolerating a man who was sleeping with his stepmother, and also the Galatians for tolerating the Judaizers. Mockery and anger are tools that can be used to expose them for who they are: wolves fleecing the sheep with false promises of God and empty platitudes. They are living large off the tithes of the people while the people are puzzled as to why they are not as financially and spiritually successful as the false teachers appear to be.