Useful Bible Studies > 1 Kings Commentary > chapter 22
At Carmel, Elijah stood alone for the true God against 450 prophets of the false god Baal. Now Micaiah alone had spoken for the true God, against 400 prophets who spoke lies.
A prophet is a person whom people consider to be holy in his religion. All these prophets claimed to have power in the spirit world, typically including the power to speak messages from God. However, only one man on each occasion was truly serving God. Therefore, only Elijah and Micaiah were actually speaking the truth.
Probably all the prophets who opposed Micaiah were very angry with him. One of them, Zedekiah, expressed the anger that they all felt. He was the man who acted his message from the spirit world in verse 11.
Zedekiah hit Micaiah across his face. He considered Micaiah’s behaviour to be shameful. If God really had sent a lying spirit, then Micaiah’s words were lies too. Or, Zedekiah had as much right as Micaiah to claim that his words came from God’s Holy Spirit. Such was the meaning of Zedekiah’s words.
Micaiah did not hit him back. He did not even try to answer Zedekiah. Instead, Micaiah added a further message from God, this time to Zedekiah personally. The time would come – perhaps after the battle – when Zedekiah would have to hide in a secret room. Probably, Zedekiah had to do this to save his own life. On that day, Zedekiah would know that God had spoken the truth to Micaiah.
Next part: Ahab sends Micaiah to prison (1 Kings 22:26-28)
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