Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 18:23-27

Alright, well my Pexil book has died, so I do not have the ability to look up verses very quickly like I normally do with my computer. But let's turn to 2 Chronicles 18 for a passage. Beginning in verse 23.

Micaiah’s Prophecy and Zedekiah’s Challenge

Then Zedekiah the son of Chanaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.

And the king of Israel said, Seize Micaiah and take him back to Ammon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in prison and feed him with meager rations of bread and water until I return in peace.

And Micaiah said, If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, Hear all you peoples. Amen. Alright, verse 23. Then Zedekiah the son of Chanaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek.

Alright, so why did Zedekiah strike Micaiah on the cheek? Well, he's offended by his prophecy because Zedekiah is a prophet that's saying that Ahab will succeed in battle. Micaiah is saying that he will fail.

And so just implicitly, this true teaching makes it known that he's a false teacher. That is offensive for him to hear. And also the whole story about the lying spirit going out is something that he is very offended by.

And Zedekiah is acting as sort of a representative among the prophets. You know, we've seen him speak before. It seems that he is probably exhibiting the attitude that all the false prophets here have, all 400 of them.

Suffering and the Goodness of Waiting for the Lord

How does this relate to the preceding context? Yeah, this preceding context had Zedekiah speaking for the prophets. And then why does Lamentation say that this is good? So let's go ahead and read Lamentation.

And by this, obviously something specific is meant. Lamentation 3, beginning in verse 25. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, the soul to those who seek him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

It is good for a man that he beareth the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is late on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes and let him be filled with insults.

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he does not afflict from the heart or grieve the children of men.

The answer is that God will not cast off forever. The Lord is good to those who wait for him. So those who wait for him will experience good in return. It is a good exchange to experience suffering in this life for the cause of Christ and then to receive the reward.

It's better to do that than to never have suffered at all even. It's not just that it's an even reward that God will make sure it's all made up for equally. The suggestion is that it is something better than would be otherwise even to suffer for the Lord.

Yeah, Jesus himself struck on the cheek, raised up above the heavens. We likewise have similar promises given to us. Verse 23b, and said, which way went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak to you? Okay, what does it mean for the Spirit of the Lord to go from Zedekiah?

What does it mean that he has spoken to Micaiah? What is the point of this question? For the Spirit to go from Zedekiah to Micaiah is for Zedekiah to cease to have prophetic utterance and Micaiah to have it instead.

And the point of the question is just that he is expressing skepticism regarding Micaiah's claim. You know, he is a prophet. So, he is a prophet. So, why should he have lost the Spirit? All right, verse 24, and Micaiah said, behold, you shall see on that day when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.

The Inner Chamber and Ahab’s Coming Defeat

All right, let's read this parallel passage in 1 Kings 20 verse 30. 1 Kings 20 verse 30. Yeah, okay, I'll start earlier than that. Well, no, let's, yeah, let's. And the rest fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell upon 27 ,000 men who were left.

Then Hadad also fled and entered an inner chamber in the city, etc. Okay, so, well, we can read this whole large passage. But yeah, the Syrians, Ben-Hadad being the king of the Syrians, had, when he was defeated, went into an inner chamber.

So, Ahab defeated Ben-Hadad, and Ben-Hadad went and hid in an inner chamber. So, when Micaiah says this, you'll see when you go into an inner chamber. But there's a couple of things going on. First, a prophet is a seer, someone who's supposed to be capable of seeing.

He's saying, you can't see, you're not a real seer, but you will know then when the same thing that happened to Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, happens to you for having attacked Syria. Okay, so that was the fate that landed on Syria before, but now it's going to be the fate that Syria is dealing out to the people of Israel.

Ahab’s Orders to Imprison Micaiah

All right, 25. And the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and carry him back to Ammon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son. Why does the king of Israel want Micaiah to be taken to Ammon?

Because he wants him to be under the authority of the governor. Why does he want him taken to Joash? Because Joash will keep him in prison until Ahab returns. And why does he refer to himself as the king when speaking of Joash?

Because it is a formal position. He is the king's son. So he is serving as governor. Obviously, if you got a king going away to war, you need someone in charge. And meantime, so the king's son is the one who does it.

Verse 26a, and say, thus says the king, put this fellow in prison and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction. Why does the king have Micaiah put in prison? So that he can punish him when he returns from battle.

What is the bread of affliction, the water of affliction? Well, it's just meager rations, you know, just as part of his punishment. And then why does he want him fed this way to punish him? And maybe even to tell him that he deserves what he is prophesying against them.

Because he's basically prophesying they'll be defeated. What happens to people who are defeated? Well, they have to eat the bread of affliction because they're surrounded by armies, etc. And so it could be him making a more poignant statement about the punishment that Micaiah deserves.

But in general, it's to punish him. Yes. Yeah, that's a good point. It probably is that also. But yeah, he wants to restrain him is a big deal. But then also to be able to punish him later. Yeah. Okay.

All right, verse 26b, until I return in peace. And Micaiah said, if you return at all in peace, Jehovah has not spoken by me. To return in peace is to have victory in the battle. And Micaiah will remain in prison until then because Ahab is going to give him judgment later.

And then why has the Lord not spoken by Micaiah if Ahab returns in peace? Because he's going to die. That is the prophecy is that he's going to die. And all the people are going to be like sheep without a shepherd because they have no king over them.

Micaiah’s Public Challenge to Israel and Judah

Verse 27b, and he said, here you peoples, all of you. So he is further committing himself to his statements by repeating all this and saying it for everyone. Like this is something he's saying in the presence of all of them so they could all hold him accountable for it.

And when he says all peoples, that is plural. So he's talking to both Israel and Judah. Now, because I don't have my computer, I don't have my diff up, but I am curious what, if 1 Kings renders that differently at all.

1 Kings 22, 28. No, it still says all you peoples, at least in the ESV. Okay, yeah. And of course, the emphasis of this passage is primarily on Judah and their response. So yeah, all peoples is letting them know there's a problem.

It's also interesting that later on in Acts 4, it speaks of the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, basically suggesting that Israel has, even though it's just Judah at that point, has basically become like nations that would need to be addressed as other Gentiles.

It kind of reminds me of that too. Okay, reflection questions we have here are, what religious rebukes do the people of God face? What civil rebukes do the people of God face? What should Christians do in order to remain bold in the face of compromised office bearers?

Remaining Bold When Facing Rebukes

So yeah, several interesting things here. You have rebukes from prophets. You have rebukes from a king. And you have the fact that, yeah, both of these are operating differently than they should. Yeah, from people ostensibly within.

So the idea is he gets rebuked by prophets. He gets rebuked by a king. How do you deal with that? Yeah. Any thoughts? Yeah, I mean a lot. I think that one of the primary things is just to grow in your confidence of the truth.

And you have to know what things are going to reinforce. Confidence, right? There's the word of God, of course. There's time spent in prayer. There's brothers who can stand by you. Now, part of the problem is when you're facing this situation, the people who would most reinforce you aren't there.

So you have to, yeah, you have to make sure you shore up all your foundations so that you can handle those things. Yes. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. And that's definitely something I faced where I know I can be arrogant just like anyone else, but sometimes just because I'm confident, it will be seen as arrogance because it's a confidence that others feel like, well, because they don't have it, you know, therefore I shouldn't have it, which is not really how that works.

But yeah, if you, you should be open to correction. You're going to receive correction differently from different people. You should be willing to receive it even from those who are under you. Of course, you have a special obligation to heed it from people who are above you.

You know, you can do the Martin Luther thing where, you know, you'll humbly say, I will recant if you can demonstrate from scripture and reason. There's nothing wrong with doing that. You should be able to do that.

But yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people do. They're operating based on other things that give them confidence. And so they're not really, they're not really correctable. They're wise in their own eyes.

Yes. Sure. You may have. I don't know the quote. Yeah. Yeah. Being willing to evaluate all those things is good. Yeah. I'm not sure what else to say on that. Okay. Any other thoughts? Any other questions?

I feel like this is one of the better reflection questions that I've had. So it's a shame if we just stop here. Do you have something Kyrie? No. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I wrote all this. Yeah. I wrote the book.

Yeah. Okay. So. Yeah. Well, let's, let's step back and answer the questions. What religious rebukes do the people of God face? Just to answer that. Yeah. You're going to face different things that people can be, can face would be maybe being kept out of positions where you would be able to do more ministry or be able to, yeah, maybe there's, for example, someone who would be equipped to preach, but is kept out of that because he preaches too true, truthfully or boldly.

So that, that could be one. There are just, you all ever heard of the notion of a struggle session, right? There's struggle sessions. Yeah. Basically where you're just kind of, you have a big sit down with a bunch of the people in charge where basically they try to make you feel really bad about everything to get you to, to get you to make an apology.

Right. Yeah. The, the idea is to, to have one of, I mean, the idea is to get to the truth and show you that you're, you're error. But a lot of times it's not really based on truth or falseness, right?

It's the truth of the matter is assumed. And so it's just, it becomes more emotional manipulation than anything else. Civil rebukes, well, clearly people go to jail for the faith. Uh, yeah, there's all kinds of, all kinds of things that can happen there.

Can lose their property. All right. Anything else? All right. We'll, we'll just stop there and let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, uh, thank you again for your word. I pray that you would grant us boldness, that we would be a bold people.

I pray that you would give us boldness, even through, um, the, uh, our time in prayer together. Jesus name. Amen.