1 Kings 22
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.
We can use Ahab as symbolic of all that is worldly, whereas Jehoshaphat symbolises that which is godly – he was a man of God, and sought to please the Lord. However, strangely, when Ahab asked him to go with him to battle, he answered that they are “completely one”. Unfortunately, Jehoshaphat compromised with a wicked man and the consequences were terrible. Compromise with the world will always bear bad fruit.
The Bible records that Ahab was a wicked man, more than all his predecessors. He took Jezebel as his wife; she was the daughter of the king of the Zidonians, the main center of Baal worship. She changed everything in Israel and introduced Baal-worship. King Ahab built an altar for Baal in Samaria. Jezebel had all the prophets of God killed. When Naboth did not want to give his vineyard to Ahab, his wife counselled him and he had Naboth murdered.
God sees everything we do, whether in private or together with others. In Noah’s day, as the people increased, so did the wickedness, but God was fully aware of their deeds; until He commanded Noah to build the ark, and He destroyed all on the earth. So too, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, where God saw their evil deeds, until it reached heaven, and God destroyed them.
Do you really think that God is not aware of what you are up to? When a child of God gets into any type of relationship with this sinful world, he will go backwards spiritually. There are consequences for compromising with the things of the world.
On the other hand, David rejoices in the Psalm 139, that God knows him through and through, and that “there is not a word in my tongue, but You know it altogether…’. In other words, he delighted in the awareness that God saw him and everything about him.
Moses, when he became mature, chose to identify with the children of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures and riches of Egypt for a time. He had numerous temptations, and as a prince could enjoy it to the full, but he chose the ways of God.
In our text we read that Ahab called together his false prophets and they encouraged him to go to battle. However, Jehoshaphat sensed that they were lying prophets and asked whether there was not a prophet of the Lord. There was a single man of God and he was pitted against a huge majority.
So too, you need to stand as a Christian, even if you’re the only one, for the time will come when they will ask you for your opinion, when they are at a loss and all other counsel fails, e.g. when Daniel was called to interpret the dream of the king of Babylon after his seers had failed.
When Micaiah was called, the messenger urged him to join his voice with the other false prophets. However, he replied that he would speak only what God told him. He then spoke God’s Word without fear – that Ahab would die in war, should he go to war. He was in dire danger of being killed right there, for Ahab, Jezebel (most probably), and the 400 Baal prophets were present. However, he spoke the truth without fear, and was sent to jail for it.
Be the salt of the earth, hallow and sanctify God’s Name, and stand for the Lord in any situation you might find yourself. Compromising with the world, as in the case of Jehoshaphat only brings about bad consequences.