So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you." So you seeThis phrase serves as a call to attention, urging the listener to recognize the gravity of the situation. In the Hebrew text, the equivalent phrase often implies a revelation or unveiling of truth. It is a moment of clarity where the divine will is being made evident to the audience, emphasizing the importance of understanding God's sovereignty and the unfolding of His plans. the LORD
The term "LORD" in the Hebrew text is "YHWH," the sacred and personal name of God, which signifies His eternal presence and covenantal faithfulness. This name is a reminder of God's ultimate authority and His active role in the affairs of humanity. It underscores the belief that God is not distant but intimately involved in guiding and directing the course of history according to His divine purposes. has put
The Hebrew verb used here conveys the idea of placing or setting something in position. It indicates God's active involvement in orchestrating events, even those that involve human agents. This action reflects the theological concept of God's providence, where He uses various means to accomplish His will, sometimes in ways that are beyond human understanding. a lying spirit
This phrase introduces a complex theological concept. In the Hebrew context, "spirit" (ruach) can refer to a breath, wind, or spirit, often denoting an influence or force. The "lying spirit" suggests a divine allowance for deception to fulfill a greater purpose. It raises questions about the nature of truth and deception in God's plan, reminding believers of the need for discernment and reliance on God's wisdom. in the mouths of all these prophets of yours
The phrase highlights the collective nature of the deception, involving multiple prophets. It suggests a widespread influence, indicating that the false message was not isolated but pervasive. This serves as a warning about the dangers of false prophecy and the importance of testing the spirits, as advised in 1 John 4:1, to ensure alignment with God's truth. and the LORD has pronounced
The repetition of "the LORD" emphasizes His authority and the certainty of His declarations. The verb "pronounced" conveys a formal and authoritative decree, underscoring the inevitability of God's judgment. It reflects the biblical theme that God's word is powerful and accomplishes what it is sent to do, as seen in Isaiah 55:11. disaster against you
The term "disaster" in Hebrew often refers to calamity or evil, not in a moral sense but as a consequence of judgment. It signifies the serious repercussions of disobedience and rebellion against God. This phrase serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of turning away from God's commands and the importance of repentance and obedience to avoid divine judgment. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The sovereign God of Israel, who is actively involved in the events of history and the lives of His people. 2. AhabThe King of Israel, known for his idolatry and opposition to the prophets of Yahweh. He is the primary subject of the prophecy of disaster. 3. JehoshaphatThe King of Judah, who allies with Ahab for a military campaign but seeks the counsel of a true prophet of Yahweh. 4. MicaiahA prophet of Yahweh who delivers the true message from God, contrasting with the false prophets. 5. The Lying SpiritA spirit permitted by God to deceive Ahab's prophets, illustrating God's sovereignty even over deceit. Teaching Points God's Sovereignty Over AllGod is in control of all events, including those involving deception and judgment. Believers can trust in His ultimate plan and justice. The Danger of Rejecting TruthAhab's rejection of God's truth through Micaiah led to his downfall. We must be diligent in seeking and accepting God's truth in our lives. Discernment in Spiritual MattersJehoshaphat's desire for a true prophet's word highlights the importance of discernment. Believers should seek God's guidance and wisdom in all decisions. The Consequences of SinAhab's idolatry and rebellion against God resulted in disaster. Sin has real consequences, and repentance is essential for restoration. The Role of Prophets and God's WordMicaiah's faithfulness to God's message, despite opposition, underscores the importance of proclaiming God's truth boldly and faithfully. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the account of the lying spirit in 1 Kings 22:23 challenge or affirm your understanding of God's sovereignty? 2. In what ways can we ensure that we are discerning the true voice of God in our lives, similar to Jehoshaphat's search for a true prophet? 3. Reflect on a time when rejecting God's truth led to negative consequences in your life. How can this passage encourage you to seek God's guidance more earnestly? 4. How does the account of Ahab and Micaiah illustrate the importance of standing firm in God's truth, even when it is unpopular or opposed? 5. Considering the connections to other scriptures, how does the theme of God's control over spiritual deception inform your understanding of spiritual warfare today? Connections to Other Scriptures 2 Chronicles 18This chapter parallels the events of 1 Kings 22, providing additional context and details about the alliance between Ahab and Jehoshaphat and the role of Micaiah. Job 1-2These chapters illustrate God's sovereignty over spiritual beings, including those who intend harm, similar to the lying spirit in 1 Kings 22:23. Jeremiah 14:14This verse speaks of false prophets who deliver messages not from God, paralleling the false prophets in Ahab's court. 2 Thessalonians 2:11This New Testament passage discusses God sending a strong delusion to those who reject the truth, similar to the lying spirit sent to Ahab's prophets. People Ahab, Ahaziah, Amon, Aram, Asa, Azubah, Chenaanah, David, Geber, Imlah, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jeroboam, Joash, Micah, Micaiah, Nebat, Ophir, Shilhi, Sodomites, Syrians, Tarshish, Tharshish, ZedekiahPlaces Edom, Ezion-geber, Jerusalem, Ophir, Ramoth-gilead, Samaria, Syria, TarshishTopics Behold, Deceit, Deceiving, Decreed, Disaster, Evil, Falsehood, Lying, Mouth, Mouths, Proclaimed, Prophets, Spirit, Spoken, YoursDictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 22:23 8738 evil, victory over 1 Kings 22:1-28 7774 prophets, false 1 Kings 22:1-38 8131 guidance, results 1 Kings 22:10-28 1469 visions 1 Kings 22:12-23 8129 guidance, examples 1 Kings 22:15-28 7712 convincing 1 Kings 22:17-38 6708 predestination 1 Kings 22:19-23 6241 seduction 1 Kings 22:21-23 4132 demons, malevolence Library Unpossessed Possessions
'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?'--1 KINGS xxii. 3. This city of Ramoth in Gilead was an important fortified place on the eastern side of the Jordan, and had, many years before the date of our text, been captured by its northern neighbours in the kingdom of Syria. A treaty had subsequently been concluded and broken a war followed thereafter, in which Ben-hadad, King of Syria, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureAhab and Micaiah
'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.'--1 KINGS xxii. 7,8. An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to Samaria …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles).
1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis. Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line. Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7 Use to be Made of the Doctrine of Providence.
Sections. 1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII Of Councils and their Authority.
1. The true nature of Councils. 2. Whence the authority of Councils is derived. What meant by assembling in the name of Christ. 3. Objection, that no truth remains in the Church if it be not in Pastors and Councils. Answer, showing by passages from the Old Testament that Pastors were often devoid of the spirit of knowledge and truth. 4. Passages from the New Testament showing that our times were to be subject to the same evil. This confirmed by the example of almost all ages. 5. All not Pastors who …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, which are Quoted, or Incidentally Illustrated, in the Institutes.
TO THE AUTHORS QUOTED IN THE INSTITUTES PREFATORY ADDRESS TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH, FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, HIS SOVEREIGN; [1] JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST. [2] Sire,--When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God Tit. 2:06 Thoughts for Young Men
WHEN St. Paul wrote his Epistle to Titus about his duty as a minister, he mentioned young men as a class requiring peculiar attention. After speaking of aged men and aged women, and young women, he adds this pithy advice, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded" (Tit. 2:6). I am going to follow the Apostle's advice. I propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men. I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times General Principles of Interpretation. 1 Since the Bible Addresses Men in Human Language...
CHAPTER XXXIV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 1. Since the Bible addresses men in human language, and according to human modes of thinking and speaking, the interpreter's first work is to ascertain the meaning of the terms employed. Here he must proceed as in the case of other writings, seeking by the aid of grammars, lexicons, cognate languages, ancient versions, ancient interpreters, and whatever other outward helps are available, to gain a thorough knowledge of the language employed by …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life The Figurative Language of Scripture.
1. When the psalmist says: "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Psa. 84:11), he means that God is to all his creatures the source of life and blessedness, and their almighty protector; but this meaning he conveys under the figure of a sun and a shield. When, again, the apostle James says that Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day (Acts 15:21), he signifies the writings of Moses under the figure of his name. In these examples the figure lies in particular words. But it may be embodied …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links 1 Kings 22:23 NIV1 Kings 22:23 NLT1 Kings 22:23 ESV1 Kings 22:23 NASB1 Kings 22:23 KJV
1 Kings 22:23 Commentaries
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