Elijah and Elisha for Today

The Death of Ahab or The Lying Spirit

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

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Genre: Sermon Series

Lesson: 10 of 16

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[Rushdoony] Let us turn now to I Kings 22, I Kings 22. We come to the death of Ahab, a particularly dramatic episode and in sharp contrast to the death soon to come of another man, Elijah. Both die, or leave this world, in the context of a chariot, but how differently. First Kings 22.

“And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.2 And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.3 And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? 4 And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramothgilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.

5 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

7 And Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him? 8 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire 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.

9 Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.10 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.11 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. 12 And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand.

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.” Sounds like a lot of laymen of our time.

“14 And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. 15 So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead 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.

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

Now let us continue with verse 29 – 38.

“29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.

30 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.

31 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.

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.

33 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.

34 And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.

35 And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot.

36 And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.

37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

38 And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the Lord which he spake.”

Ahab had called Benhadad his brother, had spared his life against God’s orders, and Benhadad had not lived up to the treaty. Three years had passed and he had not yet returned to Ramoth and Gilead. At that time Jehosephat, king of Judah, visited in Israel. We do not know the occasion, it was possibly the marriage of his son Jeroham to Ahab’s daughter because in II Chronicles 21 verse 6 we are told that they were married. Whether it was that occasion or something else that brought him there, he was there. Now treaties and marriages are very much alike. A treaty with any foreign power creates a partnership so that the two must be one in faith and life; and marriage is a form of a treaty. It creates the same kind of alliance of faith and life. And so no Jehoshaphat, a Godly man, was in alliance with Ahab. Ahab used the occasion to ask that as an ally Jehoshaphat join him in a war against Syria. Jehoshaphat, being now in alliance as well as having a marital relationship to Ahab’s house through his son was required to say “I am as thou art; my people as thy people, my people as Thy horses.” Now that’s the implications of an alliance.

“But” Jehoshaphat said, “Before we go into battle let us ask a prophet of the Lord for a word from the Lord.” The false prophets all said; “Go up for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.” We are told later on in the chapter by Micaiah that God had sent a lying spirit into these false prophets. Why did they lie? Why did they leave themselves open to a lying spirit? Why did they defend their lie when it meant the death of their king and the hopes of the nation, why?

What is a lie? It is something spoken, it is the word of a man. Let’s stop for a moment and explore briefly a subject that someday if I have the time I want to write at least a chapter about; the theology of lies, the theology of lies. Lies deal with words. Now the Bible has a great deal to say about words. God word is the creating, the electing word. God spake and it was done. God said “let there be light” and there was light. God pronounced six creative words and all creation came into being. Now the father of lies declared to Eve “ye shall be as God, knowing or determining for yourself what constitutes good and evil. If you say adultery is good, it is good. If you say theft is good, it is good. Your word will be the ordaining, the created word. You will speak the word and it should be done and all of creation will conform to your word, for ye shall be as God.” Man the sinner believes in his own word. He seeks to make his word flesh, to give it reality. He readily believes in magic where his word is concerned.

A friend of mine who is a very, very successful and well to do man had two uncles who had just retired visit him and his father. They were both men of very, very modest means with a very limited amount of money to live on. This was ten years ago and my friend gave them some very sound council about where to put their money. And they laughed at him and patted him on the back and said “Little Burch, {?} the baby of the family trying to teach us economics, why we knew all about it before you were ever born.” When what they put their trust in proved to be fallacious and his council right, what was their word to him? “It’s people like you who make the economy take the direction you do by saying the things you do.” In other words it was the word of men like their nephew that had created the situation. You see men believe because of their father, in the power of positive thinking “say the word and it shall be done.” Think positively, and you’ll catch more fish. Now Norman Vincent Peal actually said that. “I’m okay, you’re okay, man shall prevail.” Or one which I saw on a church bulletin out in front “Have faith in faith.” Have faith in faith, in the power of your word, in the power of your belief, in the power of your act.

And so what were these false prophets declaring? “Go, go in confidence, think positively and we’ll hold a good thought for you.” And so “Micaiah don’t you break the spell, speak a good word to the king.” Now of course that’s exactly the rational of witchcraft, it is the belief in the creative word of man. Fundamental to all witchcraft is the faith, which you have in Masonic ritual, as “my will is, so must it be. I speak the creative word” so says the father of lies, and so say all his children.

But Micaiah spoke the word of God “all Israel shall be scattered like sheep, the king shall die.” And so they went into battle and Ahab demonstrated what a good ally he was for he said to 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. “You be the sucker, get out there and let them know you’re the king so that they can shoot at you, and I’ll disguise myself.” But you see Ahab was trying to disguise himself from the Lord God almighty and no man can do that. Thy Syrians never knew which man was Ahab but one man, just firing so that nobody would think he wasn’t taking part in the battle, shot an arrow that mortally wounded Ahab.

Now we can say this for Ahab at this point, he had the charioteer draw him over to the sidelines and he propped himself up there, even though he was dying, to go on issuing orders so that no one would know how seriously ill he was. So we have to give Ahab credit for that. And then the prophesy is fulfilled, he died. The dogs licked his wounds and we are told by some scholars that they washed the blood off his chariot and apparently off his body at a pool of Samaria where the prostitutes of Samaria bathed; quite a comedown for the king –whereas a different kind of chariot and a different kind of situation surrounded Elijah and his last hour in earth.

But Ahab’s life had been a life of blasphemy and blasphemy marked his last day. Because the prophets he had called for were going to give that blasphemy which he wanted, and which was basic to his life. And yet it was Zedekiah the false prophet who accused Micaiah of blasphemy. It was later the Sanhedrin that accused our Lord of blasphemy. It was Ananias the high priest who accused Paul of blasphemy. Blasphemy against whom? Why against man and his word, their theology was transparent. Speak no word against the king; speak only good concerning the king. Thou shalt not take the name of the king in vain; Thou shalt not speak of judgment upon the king. His last day marked by blasphemy, sitting there while Zedekiah strikes at the prophet of God, and while he himself speaks of the prophet as one who speaks only evil, only evil. And this charge is still made against the faithful word of God. But their word is an evil word, a troubling word, a disturbing word. Men do not want to be disturbed, they want to be pampered. Speak a good word to the congregation. Let’s have none of this preaching which will upset people, or remind them of their sins or trouble their conscious. Ahab spent his life with a foot in both camps using the name of the Lord but worshipping to all practical attempt his own will, he was a Laodicean to the core, one whom the Lord always spews out of His mouth, and Israel was a Laodicean nation. Taking the name of the Lord, full of prophets of the Lord who were Laodicean, hundreds of them, but unwilling to declare a word of the living God.

This was the destruction of Israel, will it be our destruction today?

I was very, very deeply moved this past week as I read the third volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn Gulag Archipelago the story of the slave labor camps and the life therein. And a section is given to a very, very dramatic episode. He says that though these prisoners were in the camps by the tens of thousands it was difficult for any man to speak to any other man, to have any fellowship. Why? Because the camp was filled deliberately with thieves and informers; the thieves were give a privileged status in the camp and were not punished as others were because by their constant stealing of what little any man had, down to a crust of bread, they made any kind of community between one prisoner and another impossible. Whom could you trust? And by having informers throughout the camp they made it impossible for anyone to speak or for any community to exist, but at one point they made all the rules so severe that the thieves lost heart and the informers also, and the thieves in discouragement quite stealing, and the informers quite talking, and what happened? Suddenly everyone was talking to anyone else, suddenly there was community and the whole camp blazed with revolt and for 40 days those unarmed men commanded that slave labor camp. The Soviet Government never allowed itself to make that kind of mistake again. Divide the people, create dissension by having informers, liar, thieves in their midst who will disrupt the unity and make communion impossible. This is why the streets of the Soviet Union are the most silent streets in the world. People do not talk as they walk down the street, how do you know who may be listening? And parents do not talk to their children, nor husband and wife share intimate things with one another because any knowledge anyone else has of how you feel or think is dangerous to you and dangerous to them.

What does this do when we transfer this same situation into churches? Where you have a lying spirit there amongst people who want their will and who will not submit to the authority of the word, nor be a part of the fellowship in Jesus Christ. It takes only one or two in a congregation to do what was done in the slave labor camps. And it’s being done all the time across the country. And so churches that should be strong and a power and moving against the powers of darkness that are overwhelming our country are continually beset by problems in coping with the lying spirit in their own midst, with the dissension that is created, and we need to recognize that until Christians recognize the authority of the word and its command upon them, until they cease being Laodicean, lukewarm and therefore without commitment, halfway in favor of the truth and halfway in favor of the lie. The church will be weak in ineffectual and the life of the faith will be a faltering and a flickering light.

All of you know the problem that it takes only a few with a lying spirit, a lukewarm spirit, a foot in both camps, to create within a church. It was that spirit that brought disaster from beginning to end to the history of Israel. It was that Spirit that made of Ahab who in his death showed that he had courage, and faced with the inevitable he stood like a man in his chariot, but he died under the judgment of God and the dogs licked his blood.

How shall the church of Jesus Christ go in our day? Will it be like Ahab’s Israel and like Ahab? Ready in crisis to humble himself before the Lord and to pray, but not for his salvation, but just so “it doesn’t happen in my time.” What is the word concerning the Israel of God in our day? You as member and you as pastors, how will your churches answer God at that point? Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee for this Thy word and we beseech Thee our Father to cleanse us of all murmuring, of all lukewarmness, of a lying spirit, of rebelliousness, so that we be not Laodiceans but warriors and knights of grace for Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

[Moderator] Let’s open our hymnals and we’ll stand together and sing hymn number 185 and then brother Driswol {?} will come and bring us the second message.