Beware of False Prophets

Beware of False Prophets

by Wayne Dailey
Senior Pastor, Bethel Revival Center
43 Norwood St.
Everett, MA 02149

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I Kings 22:6
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

In this message we want to look at some prophecies that are made-up lies, where the prophets are not sincere nor true.

Here we find Ahab gathering 400 prophets to tell him whether or not he should go to battle. This wasn't a matter of God speaking through His prophets to direct King Ahab. It was a matter of 400 false prophets who claimed to have a gift they did not have, yet were out there prophesying as though they possessed the true gift of God. They believed they had the gift of prophecy, but it was only in their imagination. Their fruit and their works would prove they were false.

When King Jehoshaphat heard the prophecy of these four hundred, he questioned it. They didn't impress him at all to believe they were truly of God.

I Kings 22:7
And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might inquire of him?

Jehoshaphat realized there was someone in Israel who was a true prophet of God. He asked Ahab concerning this.

I Kings 22:8
And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire 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.

This one prophet, Micaiah, was hated of Ahab because he never spoke good to him. If this doesn't tell you something is wrong here, nothing will. Understand this: The prophet didn't speak good to Ahab because there was nothing good to speak. The fruits of Ahab's life wouldn't merit praise, wouldn't merit God saying anything good to him.

So, why should God encourage Ahab through His prophet concerning this battle?

Notice that Ahab had plenty of false prophets around: four hundred of them. They all prophesied good things to Ahab. They could be called "rubber stamp prophets": Whatever Ahab wanted them to say, they would stamp it as being, "Thus saith the Lord." They were committed to tell him to go up to Ramoth-gilead for God would deliver it into his hand.

Is the Majority Always Right?

Do we need to learn something from this account?

Sometimes it's good to look for that child of God whom everyone else hates, that one whom everyone else is running down. Let's look for that person and listen to what they have to say. Of course, it depends on who the "everyone else" is that can't speak good of them.

In this account there were Ahab and his crew. They weren't impressed with Micaiah. Why? Because he had nothing good to say to Ahab.

I Kings 22:9,10
Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. 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.

Have you ever been to a "prophecy party" where everyone seems to have a prophecy to give?

Well, I want you to look at this and realize that sometimes you have to discern that everyone who declares the name of the Lord is not necessarily speaking the truth. Here we have 400 men who show you this, with not one of them speaking the truth. They were all in this realm where they boasted of a gift they didn't have. But the king likes their "gift," because they always spoke good things to him, speaking just what he wanted to hear.

While everyone waited for the prophet Micaiah to come, these 400 continued to prophesy:

I Kings 22:11,12
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. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the king's hand.

This sounds like there will be a great victory. It sounded good to Ahab. That was exactly what he wanted to hear, when he asked whether or not he should go against the Syrians.

There are two things a lying spirit does: He will tell you a lie, and then he will work on you to believe it. He will work to convince you that his lie is actually true, that it will bless and prosper you.

But Ahab certainly didn't want to hear what would come next. He's already mad at Micaiah for what he's prophesied to him in the past.

I Kings 22:13
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.

This was how these 400 operated. When the king sent for them to give him a prophecy, they all prophesied good things to him. So the messenger that was sent to get Micaiah told him to prophesy to the king like these other prophets did.

Qualities of a True Prophet

I Kings 22:14
And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.

He wasn't going to soft-peddle and speak any lies. He was only going to speak what the Lord spoke to him to speak. Deep in his heart, he's already heard from the Lord. He hadn't even gone to Ahab yet, but he's already heard from the Lord. God already spoke to him. He's already been visited of the Lord. God has prepared his heart for this very time.

We've got to be careful that we don't let somebody pull the wool over our eyes and try to influence us to speak things that are not right.

If we have a gift, we want it to be real, we want it to be of God. Everyone who has a false gift will give an account to God for declaring "thus saith the Lord" when He hadn't called them and He hadn't sent them.

So, Micaiah was only going to speak what the Lord gave him to speak.

I Kings 22:15
So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead 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.

"That's what you want to hear, isn't it? I told you what you wanted me to tell you. Is that all you want?"

The king knows very well that Micaiah wasn't telling him the truth. They've had encounters in the past, and the king knew Micaiah wouldn't give a prophecy like this.

I Kings 22:16
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?

A Love for the Truth

Isn't this what the king should want? to only be told that which is true in the name of the Lord? He should want somebody who would only tell him the truth.

And you and I should always be in this place in our lives where we have a deep appreciation for the truth. We should want to hear the truth, even when it hurts.

"No matter what, tell me the truth. No matter what it may cost me, tell me the truth. I only want to know the truth."

Down in our hearts we should have a deep love for the truth. One of the big problems down at the end of the age is spelled out in II Thessalonians 2 where people will have no love for the truth. They won't want to hear the truth, neither want to do the truth. At the end, when all is said and done, God will send strong delusions on people who have no love for the truth.

We should recognize that truth comes from God. The devil won't tell us the truth, and neither will his followers tell us the truth.

I Kings 22:17
And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.

Now, Ahab is not dumb that he can't figure this out. He knew what the prophet was telling him.

I Kings 22:18
And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?

He knew what it meant when Micaiah said he saw all Israel scattered, as sheep with no shepherd! He knew it meant a vacancy in the king's office, no ruler over God's people.

Yes, Ahab knew exactly what those words meant. Those words weren't saying anything good to him: "If you want to go, go. But, if you do, this is what will happen to you."

Lying Spirits

I Kings 22:19,20
And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left. And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.

Micaiah had seen a vision from the Lord. He saw the host of heaven gathered at the throne of the Lord. The Lord asked them who would go to persuade Ahab to go.

We have to examine this and try to gain an understanding here.

I Kings 22:21,22
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.

Do you understand this? Does God want Ahab to be persuaded to go? You have to understand that when someone has led a wicked and evil life, such as Ahab lived, a lot of things may befall them along the way.

No doubt this happened to Ahab time and again, where lying spirits would come and speak through the mouths of his prophets, lying to him and deceiving him.

In this account, we want to find out what Ahab is going to do with what is being told him by the false prophets and with what is told him by Micaiah, who only told him the truth.

Is Ahab going to change his focus after Micaiah speaks to him from the Lord, or is he going to go by what he wants to do? If he listens to Micaiah, he won't go and he will save his life.

This account is dealing with someone who is not worthy of a good word from the Lord. His life has not added up to any good. Why should God speak encouraging words to him when he's done all this evil? My, he and his wife, Jezebel, had just turned the whole nation to Baal.

In light of this, we should understand, as we read on, that the Lord has let this happen to bring Ahab to his end.

Understand, now, there are things in the Old Testament that are different than what we know under grace in the New Testament. We don't want to be in that realm where we're ever questioning God in the way He does things.

First of all, you're questioning His written Word. If you don't understand what you read there, it's best not to judge God. If it's something He wants you to understand, He'll give you the understanding. But if not, just trust Him and accept what's written in His Word.

I Kings 22:23
Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Here is something God has written in His Word in telling us about what happened to Ahab. What we read here was His judgment about to unfold. One thing we can understand is that God's message through His prophet was spelling Ahab's doom.

A lying spirit spoke through each of these 400 false prophets. But there was one prophet in the kingdom who didn't go along with that program. He would speak nothing but the truth.

I Kings 22:24,25
But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.

In other words, "You're going to be ashamed in that day that you told all those lies to your master."

I Kings 22:26,27
And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.

How much more would you have hear to be convinced that Ahab didn't believe Micaiah's message, but believed the lies of the four hundred? It's amazing, isn't it?

This is something that is good for us to learn from. If you're living and walking with God in His ways, and your life is above sin and reproach, you could expect to hear good from the Lord.

As a general rule, the Lord can be so silent. But I don't take His silence to always mean He doesn't have anything to say, neither do I take His silence to mean He isn't going to speak. Sometimes, I would take His silence to say that I'm doing what He has told me to do, and I'll just keep on doing it until He tells me something different. When He wants me to do something else, He'll let me know.

Don't look at silence to mean that God is not there, or that He doesn't speak any more, or that He has nothing to say. Know that when the time comes, when the need arises, you can rest assured He'll speak to you: in His way, and in His time.

Micaiah is being persecuted here for telling the truth. You find the true prophet being mistreated, while all the liars are having a heyday. They can brag about the great thing they have done in convincing the king that they spoke good to him.

I Kings 22:28
And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you.

The king now is thoroughly convinced he can go to fight at Ramoth-gilead.

Separation

And King Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, had come up to Israel just to visit Ahab, but now he was going out to battle too. What was he doing, going to fellowship with wicked Ahab? Why was he associating with him? We find this account of Jehoshaphat joining with Ahab in II Chronicles 18. There we are told that he was rebuked by the Lord through Jehu the prophet for helping Ahab:

II Chronicles 19:1-3
And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.

In the realm of separation, God wants us to separate ourselves unto Him. We have to take separation as a serious matter.

Just like in Jehoshaphat's life, he shouldn't have gone up to visit with Ahab. It was to his hurt. There was a battle to be fought, and Ahab asked if he would join him in the fight.

This is another issue: The word of the Lord has been spoken to Ahab through Micaiah, and Ahab had him cast into prison because of what he had prophesied — and Jehoshaphat heard what the Lord had to say! Wouldn't it have been a wise thing for him to say he had changed his mind and to return to Judah?

Sometimes we make commitments even when we know it's not what we should do. Jehoshaphat had committed himself to go up to the battle with Ahab. Now the truth is out — he heard what the Lord had to say to Ahab — and what was he to do now?

I Kings 22:29
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

If it's wrong for Ahab to go up there, how much more is it wrong for Jehoshaphat to go with him?

Sometimes, if you're not careful, someone you are too quick to run with is going to get you into one of the worst traps you ever found yourself caught in.

King Jehoshaphat is going to get into a trap that could take his life.

We should take to heart the warning that there are some things we shouldn't do, or we may find ourselves caught in a trap.

I Kings 22:30,31
And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.

The King of Syria had one thought in his mind: get rid of King Ahab. We heard the judgment against him, and here we see everything is stacked against him. The Syrian army had already been told not to fight with anyone else but King Ahab.

I Kings 22:32
And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out.

You see how sly Ahab really was. How sly! "You put your robe on and go out to battle, and I'll leave mine off and go to battle."

Everyone will be chasing the man in the robe because they were told to fight only with the king.

Jehoshaphat is set up in a death trap. He'd better cry out to God before it's too late. There's no use of looking to the left nor to the right, no use of looking for someone else to come to his rescue. He needs God's help. Here's a good man in a bad situation. Here's a good man led into a trap. What's happening to him? What went wrong?

We think, sometimes, we can do anything, we can go anywhere, we can get involved with anybody we want to get involved with. But we should be watchful. We should watch what we do, watch where we go, watch who we get involved with. We should watch who we run with, watch who we take up fellowship with.

Yes, we should be watchful. We should be careful. If we're not careful, we could find ourselves being led into a trap, brought into a snare. We can be deceived if we're not watchful. There's a lot of things that can happen, a lot of things that could be a great temptation to us.

We have to bear in our minds that King Jehoshaphat found himself in this place, taking up fellowship with King Ahab and finding himself led into a trap, finding out he had been deceived.

So this is where Jehoshaphat finds himself. He's out there in the heat of the battle, and all of the soldiers of Syria are going to turn to look after him.

Who is perfect? Jehoshaphat certainly wasn't perfect in joining himself with Ahab. But he's there. No doubt his intentions were right. He was seeking peace with Ahab, rather than having war against him. So he sought peace.

One would look and say that was the right thing to do, that Jehoshaphat was just seeking to keep peace. He wasn't wanting to fight against Ahab. But we have to look at this more closely to see that it goes beyond merely trying to be a peacemaker.

I Kings 22:32,33
And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.

See how close Jehoshaphat had been to death? God showed him mercy and delivered him just in time. When the Syrians realized he wasn't Ahab, they turned away from pursuing him.

But do you see the snare Ahab had led him into? Thank God for His goodness. He will deliver a righteous man in the day of trouble, though he may have erred in his judgments as to what he should do. If he will see the error of his way and cry out to the Lord in his trouble, God will be there to help.

Seek God's Will and Way

As the children of God, we have to stop and see what the Lord would have us to do.

Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

If we insist on always doing things our way, without consulting the Lord, can we always have the assurance that He will get us out of it if we find ourselves in a snare? Can we always count that we won't find ourselves trapped? Can we always count that we won't get tempted and drawn into sin?

We know we must be kept by the power of God, but we also should know that we are to walk with God day by day. We should be careful what we do, always wanting to do only those things that are pleasing in His sight.