Useful Bible Studies > 1 Kings Commentary > chapter 22

Ahab sends Micaiah to prison

1 Kings 22:26-28

Ahab did not believe Micaiah’s words. We may ask, however, what he did not believe.

Clearly, Ahab understood that Micaiah was a prophet (holy man) of the true God (verses 7-8). Ahab also knew that Micaiah spoke the truth about his messages from God (verse 16). Ahab knew clearly that God’s judgment was against him – he realised that he would die as a punishment for his evil deeds (20:42; 21:17-27).

However, Ahab still did not believe that he would not return safely from Ramoth-Gilead (22:30). So it seems that Ahab chose to believe lies instead of the truth. He had seen the power of the true God, and the complete weakness of his false gods (18:20-39). He had seen that success in battle depended on God alone, and not on the size of his army (20:1-30). However, the lie pleased him, and he hated the truth. He even explained that attitude in 1 Kings 22:8.

So Ahab sent Micaiah to prison, as if Micaiah had done something wrong. Actually, Micaiah had only done what Ahab had ordered him to do: Micaiah spoke the truth about what God had shown him (22:18). Ahab had even insisted that Micaiah must make a serious promise to do that.

To make Micaiah suffer more, Ahab ordered that he would only receive his essential food and water. We do not know what Ahab intended to do to Micaiah on his return. Perhaps he intended to kill Micaiah; or perhaps he intended to free him. However, of course, Ahab would not return alive from the battle. The Bible does not tell us what happened after that to Micaiah. However, Micaiah hardly seemed to care about that. He had served God loyally in an extremely difficult situation. He always realised that Ahab would not reward him for that. Rather, Micaiah’s reward must come from God, and not from any person.

Next part: Jehoshaphat goes with Ahab to fight for Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22:29-30)

Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.