What Happens When You Ignore God’s Warnings? | 1Kings 20-22

If you’re a visitor with us here at Piqua Baptist, we pick books of the Bible and work our way through them a little bit at a time. For a little while now, we have been in the book of Kings, the Old Testament book of Kings. If you’re not familiar with it, grab one of the black Bibles from a chair underneath in front of you — you’ll find our reading today, 1 Kings 20–22, beginning on page 302 of the church Bible.

We’re going to be considering chapters 20 through 22, so we have a lot of material, a lot of ground to cover. We’re going to work our way carefully through this text, and it’s going to take us forty-five minutes or so. So settle in — my teenagers would say, “Lock in, lock in, get ready.” We’re going to work our way through a few chapters of God’s Word this morning.

Here’s the central claim I’ll be drawing out of these three chapters: our gracious God warns us of the dangers of sin, calls us to heed those warnings, and to flee to Christ for mercy. I’ll be making the case today that the warnings of God in Scripture regarding sin in general, and our sin in particular, are an act of God’s grace, for our good — that we would heed those warnings and flee to Christ for mercy.

1 Kings 20, beginning at verse 1 — I’ll read down to verse 6 to begin, then pray, and we’ll work our way through.

This is the word of the Lord. Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together. Thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and closed in on Samaria and fought against it. And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.” And the king of Israel answered, “As you say, my lord, O king, I am yours, and all that I have.” The messengers came again and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: I sent to you, saying, ‘Deliver to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children.’ Nevertheless I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house and the houses of your servants and lay hands on whatever pleases you and take it away.”

Let’s pray.

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. The one who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And so, Lord, we ask for mercy this morning, as Your people prone to sow to the flesh, that You would stop us, spare us, and grant us grace that we might sow only to the Spirit and reap only eternal life. For the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Amen.

The Warnings We Ignore

In January of 1986, I was in the third grade, Mrs. Canapki’s class, and the entire elementary school was gathered in the gymnasium to watch a live broadcast of the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. It would be the first time a teacher would go to space. I don’t remember the launch. I do remember seeing the space shuttle disappear behind an explosion, which we thought was normal. But as the broadcast continued, the broadcasters told us that was not normal. We watched a little longer and saw chunks of metal falling from the sky. The teachers didn’t quite know what to do — I don’t remember their faces, but they just ushered us back into our classrooms, and we went about our day. They knew what we didn’t know, but would later learn: we had witnessed a disaster. All seven crew members, including the schoolteacher, had lost their lives that morning.

The night before the Challenger disaster, some engineers sent a warning to NASA advising them to postpone the launch. They were concerned about the weather. There were certain O-rings — rubber gaskets designed to seal a joint, keeping the extremely hot gas inside the rocket from escaping — and they couldn’t guarantee those O-rings would work safely below 53°F. That January morning, it was forecast to be 29°F. NASA challenged that recommendation; the engineers couldn’t prove conclusively that the O-rings were unsafe at that temperature, and they eventually reversed their position. The flight went forward.

After the Challenger disaster, President Ronald Reagan commissioned an investigation — the Rogers Commission — and sure enough, it was discovered that the O-rings had failed. Gas had escaped, damaged the fuel tank, and caused an explosion. Truly a tragedy.

The book of Kings is like the Rogers Commission investigating a different kind of disaster. Kings tells the story of how the people of God were ultimately exiled from the land of Canaan. 1 Kings 20–22 is part of that investigation, seeking to answer the question: how did we get here? Were there warnings along the way? And what can we learn? These three chapters are something of a microcosm of the whole book — meaning, what happens here happens everywhere.

You remember the setting, don’t you? It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been in Kings, so let me remind you: we’re in the Promised Land, or what’s left of it. God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt and into the land of Canaan. In the land, Israel was meant to keep God’s law; God would bless them for keeping it, and the surrounding nations would see that blessing, be drawn near, and learn that Yahweh was the one true God. But Israel failed to keep the law. Her kings were meant to be models of faithfulness to God’s law, to lead Israel to follow their Creator — but Israel’s kings failed as well. Arguments over who was in charge split the nation into two kingdoms: Israel in the north with her king, Judah in the south with hers.

Here in chapter 20, we’re in the middle of the story of King Ahab, a king in the north. He is the quintessential bad king — he gets a lot of press in the book of Kings. He is a worshiper of a demon god called Baal, and the Lord sent His servant, the prophet Elijah, to warn Ahab to repent of these sins, which he did not. And Yahweh offers Ahab several more warnings in our passage this morning.

I. Chapter 20 — Grace Ignored

Here’s our first one. The king of Syria, Ben-hadad, has risen up with a coalition of thirty-two other pagan kings, and he demands Ahab’s gold and silver, his wives and children. And, as we just read, the spineless coward Ahab agrees to these demands — says, in effect, “What’s mine is yours.” But what’s his is not his to give away. God gave Israel the land. God brought in the gold and the silver. Those women, those children, belong to the Lord. Ahab has no right to use them as shields for his own protection.

So Ben-hadad ups the ante: “Not only am I going to take your silver and gold — I’m going to send my servants tomorrow, and whatever they can put their hands on becomes ours.” A perfect picture of what sin does — you compromise a little, and it comes back for more, and more, and more.

So this coward king finds himself in a pickle, and in verses 7–12, Ahab calls his advisers together and tells them what he did, and they advise, wisely, that the king find a backbone and tell the Syrians to pound dirt. The two kings, Ahab and Ben-hadad, exchange trash talk — Ahab’s really bad at it, but it works — and Ben-hadad calls for war.

Let’s pick up reading in verse 13.

And behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” And Ahab said, “By whom?” He said, “Thus says the Lord, By the servants of the governors of the districts.” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” He answered, “You.” Then he mustered the servants of the governors of the districts, and they were 232. And after them he mustered all the people of Israel, 7,000.

And they went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the booths, he and the thirty-two kings who helped him. The servants of the governors of the districts went out first. And Ben-hadad sent out scouts, and they reported to him, “Men are coming out from Samaria.” He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive. Or if they have come out for war, take them alive.” So these went out of the city, the servants of the governors and the army that followed them. And each struck down his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them, but Ben-hadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and struck the Syrians with a great blow.

A prophet comes and promises victory — Yahweh offering Ahab another chance to see there is one true God and the gods of the nations are nothing. He says, “I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” In other words, the Lord is saying, “I’ll prove Myself to you, Ahab — send your least experienced soldiers into the fiercest part of the battle, and I will win the war miraculously.” Which is what happens. Israel wins the day. The Syrian king narrowly escapes, but there was a great victory, and it was visible proof that Yahweh is the one true God.

The prophet returns later and tells Ahab this isn’t over — the Syrians will come back in the spring. They think Yahweh is just a god of the hills: “He does really good in the hills, but let’s meet them in the plains — we’ll have the advantage there, more people, chariots.” But the Syrians are about to find out that the rule and reign of Yahweh has no jurisdiction — He’s no hillside deity. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and all peoples and all kings and all governments are under His authority. The Lord will grant victory to Israel in the plains as He did in the hills. The prophet comes to Ahab and says the same thing again, in verse 28: “I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” It’s almost the same thing he said earlier, except this time the word “you” is plural — the Lord is saying all of you will know that I am the Lord. Israel will know, and the pagan nations will know, that I am the Lord.

The people of Israel are described in this text as two little flocks of goats — and yet they strike down 100,000 Syrians in a single day. All of this meant to show Ahab, again, that Yahweh is God. All of this meant to show the Syrians, again, that Yahweh is God.

Once again, Ben-hadad survives the battle. He flees and hides in a city. His advisers come to him and say, “We know these kings of Israel — we know they’re merciful and compassionate men. So if you dress yourself in sackcloth, to show you’ve been humbled and sorrowful, and present yourself to the king, he will have mercy on you, and you may live.” Which is what they do. Ben-hadad, the wicked king of Syria, is delivered into the hands of Ahab. And guess what Ahab does? The spineless coward spares the wicked man’s life. He says, “Wait, Ben-hadad’s alive still? He’s my brother.” What? Rather than devoting the wicked king to destruction, as the Lord had commanded, Ahab goes into business with him and lets him go free.

And so the Lord — how many times is this now? — sends a prophet to the king with a warning: these are the consequences of disobeying the voice of the Lord. And the king has another chance to repent. Let’s pick up reading in verse 35.

And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the Lord, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down. Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him—struck him and wounded him. So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” Then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. And he said to him, “Thus says the Lord, Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.” And the king of Israel went to his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria.

Sometimes the Bible’s just strange. The prophet asks a guy to punch him in the face, and the guy says, “No, I’m not going to do that.” And the prophet goes, “Well, the Lord told me to tell you to.” And he says, “I’m still not going to do that.” So the prophet says, “Well, because you didn’t listen to the Lord, a lion’s going to eat you.” And a lion ate him. But he finds another guy, and that guy says, “Sure, I’ll hit you,” and hits him — because this prophet has to play the part. So he puts a bandage over his wounded eye, disguising himself as a soldier fresh off the battlefield. And as the king is passing by, he calls out: “King, I need your counsel. When I was in battle, someone came to me, placed the enemy into my hands, and said, ‘Guard this man with your life — if you lose him, it’s your life for his life, or you’ll have to pay a fine you don’t have.’ But I got busy, lost track of him, and he escaped. What should happen to me?” And the king says, “Well, you’ve said it yourself — it’s your life for his, or pay the fine.” Then the prophet takes off his disguise and speaks for God: “You’re the man — because you let Ben-hadad walk, whom I devoted to destruction, it is your life for his life, and your people for his.”

How long do you think it’s going to take for these kings to recognize that when a prophet comes and tells you a story, it’s not what you think — it’s about you. It’s always about you. Well, maybe I should state the obvious: 1 Kings 20 is a story told by a prophet to you. And I wonder — is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning, “You’re the man”? Have you been like Ahab? Has God shown you grace over and over and over, and you’ve just ignored Him? Have you made compromise with some evil in your life? Friend, do you call “brother” what the Lord has devoted to destruction? Have you entered into a trade agreement with worldliness? Whatever the Lord is bringing to your mind at this moment, friend — don’t ignore it. It is a warning, and we should not ignore the Lord’s warnings, for they are nothing but God’s grace to us.

God gave grace to Ahab, giving him two victories, and Ahab refused those warnings. He made peace with the very evil God had commanded Israel’s kings to eradicate. There were many warnings. Ahab ignored them all, and it will lead to his undoing.

II. Chapter 21 — Justice Perverted

Chapter 21, verse 1.

Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.'” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

All right, let’s clear the air again — sometimes the Bible’s a little weird. You have these two chapters, chapter 20 and chapter 22, both featuring these massive geopolitical stories — political intrigue, nations warring against nations, epic battles — and in the middle, you have a king who wants to plant a vegetable garden. We have to remember that the Bible was not written to us, though it was written for us. So we should expect there’s more going on than it first appears.

This is not simply about an exchange of real estate and King Ahab growing potatoes near his house. Naboth’s vineyard is this man’s ancestral inheritance. What you need to know is that when Yahweh brought Israel into the Promised Land, He divided the land between His people — each family was assigned a plot. The Lord established laws in Israel to ensure that land would stay with the family to which it was assigned, and even if you needed to sell your land, after a certain number of years it would return to your family in the Year of Jubilee. So Ahab demanding that Naboth sell his family’s inheritance is no small thing — it is a disregard of God’s holy Word.

Naboth knows the Bible. He knows Numbers 36: “The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” That’s what Naboth is saying: “This is my father’s land. It stays in my family. My God gave it to me. You can’t force it away.”

But King Ahab didn’t care — God’s Word is just in the way of what he wants. He wants a vegetable garden. And even that fact — there’s more going on here than it seems. That phrase, “vegetable garden,” appears only one other place in the Bible: Deuteronomy 11. You don’t have to turn there, we’ve got it on the screen. God, speaking to His people, tells them: “For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it by foot, like a vegetable garden. But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.”

So Ahab wanting to turn this vineyard into a vegetable garden is more than an agricultural decision — it’s a theological decision. In Canaan, God’s people had to trust the Lord to provide rain in order to grow a crop; in Egypt, they had the Nile, irrigation by foot. And throughout the Old Testament, Israel is identified as God’s vineyard. So by turning a vineyard into a vegetable garden, Ahab — whether he knew it or not — is turning God’s people back to Egypt.

But Naboth refuses, like a good Israelite. And the king sulks like a baby — he pouts, he’s vexed and sullen, lies in his bed, hiding his face, refusing to eat. This king is pitiful — his army just won two battles, he lives in a palace, he has servants at his beck and call — and yet here he is, on his couch, sulking like a baby because he can’t grow vegetables. But this is what envy and greed do, don’t they? It makes us so small. It makes us forget what we have. It strips us of the pleasure of enjoying what God has already provided. It makes us discontent with all of God’s blessings at our disposal — all we care about, all we want to see, is what’s on the other side. And for this reason, Paul told us to guard ourselves from all forms of covetousness. 1 Timothy 6: “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare.” Paul goes on: “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” And that is just what we see next.

Never fear, weepy King Ahab — Jezebel’s here. She’ll get you what you want. Look at verse 7 again: “And Jezebel his wife said to him, ‘Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.'”

The phrasing of verse 7 is very important — we’ve heard these words before. “Arise and eat” — wasn’t that what the Lord said to Elijah in the wilderness? “I will give you the land” — that’s God’s phrase. God spoke the same thing to Abraham: “I will give you the land.” God said the same thing to Israel. God said the same thing to Joshua. Jezebel is putting herself in the place of God — besides the fact that she’s a new incarnation of Eve in the garden, taking the lead, breaking God’s word, giving some to her passive husband who is with her.

Well, Jezebel gets to her wicked work. She drafts a letter in Ahab’s name and orchestrates a smear campaign against the righteous Naboth. She calls for a fast, makes Naboth be put forward so everyone can see him, and has two worthless men lie that he cursed the king and cursed God. The people do what Jezebel, through Ahab, commanded, and they take Naboth outside and stone him to death. Now Naboth is out of the way, God’s word is set aside, and Jezebel hands the vineyard over to her wimpy husband. The plan worked flawlessly — no one is the wiser. No more sullen king; he’s a happy boy — he’s got his green beans, his herbs, his sweet watermelon.

And then there comes a knock on the door. Sire, there’s someone here to see you. Old Elijah the Tishbite is back — renewed, rejuvenated, and no longer afraid of Ahab and his serpentine wife. Chapter 21, verse 17.

And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Have you killed and also taken possession?’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.'” Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin.” And of Jezebel the Lord also said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.” Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.

These are the first words Ahab and Elijah have exchanged in quite a long while, and they open like this: “Have you found me, O my enemy?” Elijah is the prophet of God, but haters of God are going to hate on the people of God. Elijah tells the king, “I have found you.” Rest assured, brothers and sisters — try as you might, your sins will find you out. And this is because your God loves you too much to let your sin rot your soul.

Judgment is pronounced. No one will escape — all of Ahab’s family will fall under God’s judgment. As the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, so the dogs will lick the blood of Ahab and Jezebel.

I just want you to see: this is another warning to the king. I’ve lost count — how many are we up to now? It’s grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Anyone feel like, “When is this guy going to finally get what’s coming to him? How long will the Lord put up with his folly and nonsense?” If this section of Scripture is rubbing you the wrong way, it’s supposed to. You’re supposed to wonder how many chances this fool of a king is going to get. And you’re supposed to wonder — can the same thing be said of me? How many chances is this fool going to get?

Well, it seems to me though that grace did something. If you look forward down to verse 27, Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, fasts, lies in sackcloth, and goes about dejectedly. The Lord Himself says he humbled himself. And so the Lord shows Ahab mercy, gives him more time, delays his judgment. But was Ahab’s repentance genuine? It looks like it on the outside — he has all the signs that someone is sorry and repentant. But time will always tell, won’t it?

If you get some time this afternoon, can I encourage you to read 2 Corinthians chapter 7? There’s a section where the Apostle Paul fleshes out this concept — he draws a contrast between what he calls worldly sorrow and godly repentance. On the outside, they look the same; on the inside, they’re completely different. True repentance is God-focused; worldly sorrow is self-focused. True repentance hates the sin; worldly sorrow hates the consequence of the sin. True repentance creates real, lasting change — reconciliation with God and others; worldly sorrow produces hardly any change at all, and no desire for reconciliation.

Time reveals that King Ahab did not change. His actions here have more to do with escaping God’s judgment than being reconciled to God — he hated the consequences of his sin more than he hated his sin itself. Notice: he did not restore the vineyard to Naboth’s family, nor did he tear down the altars to Baal. Next we will see Ahab back to his old ways.

III. Chapter 22 — Truth Rejected

A few more minutes. 1 Kings chapter 22, verse 1.

For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.”

So here’s what’s going on: Ahab’s doing fine — him and Ben-hadad have got their deal going, their trade agreement, everything’s cool between them. But Ahab remembers there’s a section of Israel, that God gave to Israel, still under the control of Syria, and he wants it back — but he doesn’t want to deal with Ben-hadad all by himself. So he asks for help from Jehoshaphat, king of the southern kingdom: “Will you help me if we go into battle against him and get our stuff back?” And Jehoshaphat agrees. But before they rush into battle, at least Jehoshaphat has the presence of mind to say, “Well, maybe we should talk to God about this first.”

Verse 6.

Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”

It’s one of my favorite verses in this whole section.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”

So Ahab brings all his prophet buddies together — they’re in the courtroom doing their dance — and they say, “You’re all good, king, victory is guaranteed, this is a guaranteed win.” And I don’t know what it was, but Jehoshaphat looks out over this prophet circus and thinks, “Is there anyone else? There’s four hundred guys here — is there anyone else we can ask?” All four hundred are saying the same thing, but Jehoshaphat’s like, “I don’t know, there’s something fishy here.” And Ahab’s like, “Well, I’ve got this other guy named Micaiah, but I hate that guy — he only says bad things about me.”

So they call Micaiah, and they tell him, “All right, buddy, listen — you’re being called up, but here’s the thing: we’ve already heard from four hundred guys, and they’ve given us a good report. Now don’t you do the thing you always do and give us a bad report. Okay? Just go with the flow.”

Look at verse 14 — I love this guy. He says, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” Amen. All of us need some friends like Micaiah, willing to say the thing that’s right to say, even if it hurts our feelings.

So they bring Micaiah in — it’s a hilarious scene. The prophet circus is going on, and there’s one guy with iron horns, acting out what’s going to happen — Ahab’s going to gore out the Syrians. And they turn to Micaiah and say, “Okay, Micaiah, what do you say?” And Micaiah’s like, “Yeah, no, looks good to me — I mean, horn guy seems real convincing, go ahead, you’re going to do great.” But for some reason, Ahab senses the sarcasm and says, “Micaiah, tell us what you really think.” Verse 17.

And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd.”

Who’s the shepherd? Ahab’s the shepherd. The people are scattered, and there’s no shepherd. You hear what he’s saying: “I saw the people scattered on the mountains as sheep who have no shepherd.”

And the Lord said, “These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.”

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you so — I told you he always has bad stuff to say about me.” So Micaiah goes on to tell Ahab what’s happening. There are four hundred false prophets saying one thing, and one true prophet saying another. Where have we been? We’ve seen this before. Ahab’s been here before, hasn’t he — back on Carmel? 450 prophets of Baal and Elijah the Tishbite. Here we have 400 false prophets with a lying spirit, and one guy telling the truth. Ahab has been here before. What is this? Another warning. This guy is asleep in his bed, there’s a fire in the house, and God is shaking him by the shoulders time after time, and he won’t wake up.

Even though the Lord tells him through Micaiah what He is doing — putting a lying spirit in these men — Ahab still rejects the truth, still listens to lies, and goes to battle. He tells Micaiah, “I’ll deal with you,” and has him arrested. And Micaiah — I just love this guy — says, “If you survive this battle, then I’m the false prophet.”

Ahab disguises himself as a regular soldier — it’s funny, he tells Jehoshaphat, “You dress up like a king, I’ll just dress up like a regular guy, and we’ll both go into battle.” What a dummy. He goes into battle dressed like a regular guy, and the Bible says an unnamed soldier draws his bow back and shoots at random. When there’s a sovereign God in heaven, nothing is random. That random arrow flies and lands in the one vulnerable place in Ahab’s armor. They rush him off the battle, put him in his chariot, prop him up so he can watch the rest of his army fight, and his blood drains out and is licked up by the dogs. The word of the Lord is fulfilled.

Conclusion

Do you see what these three chapters are telling us? Ahab is repeatedly warned, repeatedly given opportunities to repent. Repeatedly he chooses to ignore God’s Word, and his sin catches up to him. The Lord’s arrow always finds its mark.

Well, the lessons for our lives are easily drawn. The people to whom this book was written — the Jews stuck in exile, their own version of the Rogers Commission, trying to figure out “why are we here” — they see in Ahab their own history. The Lord sent them warning after warning, which they ignored. And the lesson is the same to us today, friends. Is a fire alarm going off in your life, and you’ve just kept ignoring it? This text is a mercy-laden warning, calling all sinners to repent.

Whereas we have been like Ahab, the Lord Jesus has been like Naboth. Both are caretakers of their father’s vineyard. Both had false charges leveled against them. Both were killed at the hands of evil men. But there’s a big difference: where Naboth’s blood calls for justice, the blood of Christ calls for mercy. Where Ahab’s sin fell on his own head, Christian — your sin has fallen on the head of Christ.

NASA had their warnings. They could have delayed the launch, and disaster would have been averted — but they had no way of knowing for certain whether their engineers were right. We, however, have absolute certainty that these warnings are valid and true. So PBC, follow God’s faithful, merciful warnings to your knees. Make no compromise with sin or worldliness. Turn to Jesus Christ today, because there’s more mercy in Him than there is sin in you. And by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sinners receive mercy and grace and unmerited forgiveness from God on high.

Jesus Christ was the king that Ahab wasn’t. He doesn’t murder and steal inheritance from God’s people — Jesus was murdered to restore God’s inheritance to His people. It’s all yours in Christ. Turn to Him today, and rest in His work. Amen.

Father, we thank You for this lesson, this teaching, and these warnings. We pray that You would write these truths upon our hearts, that we would not be forgetful and ignorant, that we would not ignore Your warnings as Ahab did, but that we would heed them, take them seriously, fall on our knees, and find mercy and grace. Amen.