I Kings 22:14 And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.
Some people are readily acknowledged as good people. They are honest, faithful, and believe in something that is true. Some people are just bad actors. They do the wrong thing all the time it seems. Sometimes we contrast good people and bad people. However, sometimes there is no contrast, practically speaking, between someone we consider “good” and someone we would deem “bad,” who acts poorly or immorally.
First Kings 22 gives us such an example. There is a good king, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, which is part of the divided kingdom of Israel, and there was a king who was wicked by every metric, Ahab. Yet, the Bible talks about an alliance these two kings made. When Ahab wished Jehoshaphat to be part of his army to help him with a specific battle, Jehoshaphat replied, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.” However, he did say, “Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day.” In other words, he wanted to make sure that God was for the battle they were about to enter. That was a good ethic.
So, King Ahab enquired of all these prophets who were basically on his payroll, who didn’t tell Ahab what he needed to hear but told him what he wanted to hear. Apparently, Jehoshaphat kind of sensed this, so he essentially asked, “Is there not anyone else of whom we can ask counsel?” Ahab replied, “There is yet one man, Micaiah…by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him: for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”
Let’s be clear. This is an evil man speaking about good and evil. When Ahab says that Micaiah did not prophesy good concerning him, but evil, he didn’t mean that in a moral sense. He meant that Micaiah actually told Ahab what God had said, not what Ahab wanted to hear. It was unfavorable, unpleasant.
So, you have Jehoshaphat, a good king, and you have Ahab, a bad king. The fact is, as you read this story, the account does not call out a contrast between these two. You know, your virtues do not matter when you are pliable. When I say “pliable,” I mean “yielding readily to the other.”
We need two qualities that bolster virtue. First, we need courage. When Micaiah gave God’s Word to these two kings, one a bad king and one a good king, Micaiah said, “As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.” That is the center of this story. As Sir Winston Churchill said, and many others through history in different words, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
You need courage to bolster virtue. What good is my virtue in a vacuum? Maybe I’m not involved in pornography, but I know people who are and I’m not helping them. Maybe I don’t use profanity, but I know people who do and I’m not helping them. Maybe I’m not lying, but I know people who do and I’m not helping them. My virtues don’t matter when I’m pliable. I need courage.
Courage is not an absence of fear. It doesn’t mean being crazy. Some people have no fear, but it is because they have no sense. Courage is not an absence of conflict. What good is my virtue if it is untested? Untested virtue is not worth much. This courage is an acknowledgement of the presence of God. Micaiah said, “As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me.” He was aware of God’s presence and God’s Word. That is what gave him courage.
The second quality that bolsters virtue is conviction. In Micaiah’s reply there is obvious conviction. Whatever God says, that was what Micaiah was going to say. The question is always, “What does God say?” Does conviction, being convinced something is true, give me courage? How can I have courage if I am not convinced something is true? Or, do I have conviction because I have the courage to know the truth. It is kind of like asking, “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” I don’t know. There are things that I don’t know that I would know if I had the courage to honestly own up to it. On the other hand, when I know things to be true, it does give me courage. So, I think they are connected.
We are all connected. There is this idea that there are only several degrees of separation between you and everyone else in this world. For instance, I have a friend from the Bahamas. He is working on a doctorate in a country in Africa, and he would go to school with people who would know people on the continent and elsewhere. So, in just three steps I am connected by a friend to people the world over. We are all connected. None of us live or die to ourselves, and as believers we are part of the body of Christ.
Yet, relationships tend to be stronger than convictions. You think about this Jehoshaphat and this wicked king Ahab. There was a pagan king who had a wicked daughter named Jezebel. She married Ahab, the leader of God’s people. Ahab then basically paid so-called prophets of God to tell him what he wanted to hear. Therefore, you come to Jehoshaphat, a good king, who was in league with a bad king. There is a connection from a pagan king all the way to Jehoshaphat. Who you know is important, but what you know and what you believe are important too.
Nothing worth believing is cheap, without cost, or impractical. Ignorance is not bliss. I’m responsible for what I do, what I do not do, and what I should know. Today, here is a good king and a bad king with no contrast between them. My virtues don’t matter when I’m pliable. What I need today in order to do the right thing is courage and conviction of the truth.