Sunday Sermonette: God the deceiver

(Ch. 22 is the last of 1 Kings, but as I have noted before the division of the book in two is arbitrary and is not in the Tanakh.) The plot here is a bit complicated and it ' s more than a bit weird so I ' ll state it clearly.  God finally gets around to killing Ahab because Ahab because Ahab spared the life of Benhadad (1 Kings 20). So god hatches an elaborate plot. For unspecified reasons, God knows that if Israel and Judah attack Syria, the Syrians will concentrate on killing Ahab and leave the rest of the army alone.. Why the Syrians will do this is not explained. So Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, comes to visit and they talk about attacking Syria. They get 400 prophets to come and give advice, all of whom say to go for it. But Jehoshaphat wants a second, or rather 401st opinion,  so Ahab reluctantly sends for Michaiah, whose prophecies Ahab never likes. Michaiah says that he saw God on his throne, surrounded by his innumerable servants. God wanted somebody to persuade Ahab to attack the Syrian king Ramothgilead, and a " spirit " came forward to say he could make the prophets lie. Evidently God couldn ' t do it himself. So the 400 prophets are lying but, according to Michaiah, if the Israelites attack Israel will be left leaderless and they ' ll all go home. Ahab says " bullshit " and sends Michaiah off to be imprisoned on bread and water. Then they attack. The Syrians identify Jehoshaphat and they leave him alone, because they only want to kill Ahab, which th...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs