What My God Saith, That Will I Speak

In this week’s Come, Follow Me reading we learn about a little-known prophet named Micaiah. The manual says this: “The prophet Micaiah must have felt a lot of pressure to predict success for the kings Jehoshaphat and Ahab in their war against Syria. Look for evidence of that pressure in 2 Chronicles 18:1–12. What evidence do you find of Micaiah’s courage and integrity in verses 13–27?” King Ahab of Israel asked King Jehoshaphat of Judah to go up with his people against the Syrians at Ramoth-Gilead, and Jehoshaphat suggested that they ask the Lord. We read that “the king of Israel gathered together of prophets four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for God will deliver it into the king’s hand.” So he asked four hundred so-called prophets, and they all said that they should go to battle and the Lord would deliver their enemy into their hands. But Jehoshaphat seems to have known that these were not true prophets of the Lord, for he said, “Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?” He wanted to hear from a prophet of Jehovah, and Ahab reluctantly admitted, “There is yet one man, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla” (2 Chronicles 18:6-7). In other words, this true prophet said things that Ahab didn’t like and so he didn’t want to consult him, but at Jehoshaphat’s request Micaiah was summoned.

Micaiah indeed had plenty of pressure to speak what Ahab wanted to hear. The messenger who fetched the prophet said this to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent; let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.” There were four hundred prophets who had predicted that Israel would triumph against the Syrians; what would Micaiah say? He declared boldly, “As the Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak.” His first response appears to have been sarcastic and in line with the false prophets, and the king insisted that he speak the truth. So he declared, “I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.” In other words, he was 1 out of hundreds who predicted that the Israelites would not conquer. He was mocked at his words, with one man who “smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?” But Micaiah did not back down, and when the king of Israel said, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I return in peace,” Micaiah replied boldly, “If thou certainly return in peace, then hath not the Lord spoken by me” (2 Chronicles 18:12-13, 23, 26-27). In other words, Micaiah prophesied that Ahab would not return from this battle which Ahab insisted they undertake anyway. The prophet went to prison for his commitment to speaking the words of the Lord.  

It is somewhat comical to me what Ahab did in order to try to avoid the accomplishment of this prophecy against him. Instead of listening and not going to war, “the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and will go to the battle; but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went to the battle” (2 Chronicles 18:29). Obviously he gave some credence to the words of Micaiah, but not enough to cancel the war plans. Instead, he disguised himself, perhaps somehow thinking that this would be enough protection for him to avoid the fulfillment of Micaiah’s prophecy that he would die. He rationalized a sort of halfway response to the prophecy of Micaiah, thinking that would allow him to obtain a victory. But as prophesied, Ahab died, and Micaiah’s words through the Lord were fulfilled. His story is a reminder that we should not seek to rationalize our actions when a prophet speaks. We should instead cling to the invitations of the Lord’s mouthpiece and hold fast to this invitation and promise of the Lord in our dispensation about His prophet: “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them…. For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 21:4, 6).