Useful Bible Studies > 1 Kings Commentary > chapter 22
Next, God showed Micaiah what was happening in heaven. The events on earth were the result of what was happening in heaven.
For a long time, God had shown great patience towards Ahab, the evil king who ruled northern and central Israel. He had given Ahab many opportunities to turn to him. However, that time for patience had now ended. Ahab must now appear in front of God’s great court to receive God’s judgment. Therefore, Ahab must die in the battle for Ramoth-Gilead. That was God’s decision about him.
Like a great king on earth, God too called a great meeting in heaven. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss how to carry out God’s decision about Ahab. As Ahab had done, God too asked a question. God’s question was who would persuade Ahab to go to fight against Ramoth-Gilead. Clearly someone needed to persuade him, in order for him to die there.
This was a difficult question. God never does anything evil; clearly therefore, he would not speak lies to Ahab. In the same way the angels, God’s special servants in heaven, never carry out any evil acts. God and his angels only use the truth in order to persuade someone to do something.
Of course, Ahab might convince himself to go, by means of his own lies or evil ideas. However, Ahab had insisted to Micaiah that he only wanted Micaiah to speak the truth (verse 16). That truth from God would normally convince Ahab that his wrong ideas were false. That had happened in the past (21:27). However, it could not happen this time, because God’s patience with Ahab had ended. Ahab had to die in the battle at Ramoth-Gilead.
Next part: The lie that would convince Ahab to fight and to die (1 Kings 22:21-22)
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