Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For Today?

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  Scripture:

  
  2 Chronicles 18:12-17
  "The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, 'Look, the words of the prophets with one accord are favourable to the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.' But Micaiah said, 'As the Lord lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak.'
  When he had come to the king, the king said to him, 'Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?' He answered, 'Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand.' But the king said to him, 'How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?' Then Micaiah said, 'I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd; and the LORD said, 'These have no master; let each one go home in peace.' The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything favourable about me, but only disaster?'
  

  Observation:

  
  What a bizarre story! We have a prophet who swears he will only speak what he hears from the LORD who goes on to utter a false prophecy in the next verse. We have a the foolish King Ahab who forces the lying prophet (Micaiah) to tell the truth, not apparently so he can take heed of it, but simply so his assessment of Micaiah's character would not be proven wrong in front of King Jehoshaphat.
  
  It seems that King Jehoshaphat's role is central to the meaning being communicated through the story. His counterpart, King Ahab, is primed for war and has surrounded himself with no shortage of prophets and advisors who will tell him just what he wants to hear. We get the sense that Ahab is pretty used to getting what he wants.  
  Jehoshaphat finds himself in a tight spot: since he is bound to Ahab through blood alliance, he cannot easily refuse Ahab's request to join in the ill-conceived proposed concflict. His response, in faith, is to seek out a prophet who is more focused on breathing a word from God then upon giving Ahab what he wants.
• In Micaiah is found such a prophet, and still, he is ignored as both kings go off to war. In the end though, it seems that Ahab's scorn for God's plan leads to his doom, while Jehoshaphat's attempt to honour God's plan (even though he ends up participating in an endeavour not according to God's plan) is his salvation.

• Application:

  
  I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that most reading this post understand from hard experience that God's plans are notoriously difficult to discern. In the passage above, Micaiah looks like an idiot until later events unfold to reveal him to be a faithful prophet. Ahab has a clear sense of purpose for his kingship, but this purpose is eventually revealed to be more about his own folly than any desire to follow God. Jehoshaphat has an inner sense that what he is being pressured to do is not what God would want. He imperfectly attends to that inner call, actually giving in to the peer pressure, only to be protected and delivered by God anyway.
  

  
  

  I love that last part. I love it, because I need it to be true.

  
  

  I want to hear, but my ears are dull. 

  
  

  I squint to see, but my eyes are dim. 

  
  

  Thankfully, God does not require my perfection. 

  
  

  Instead, God uses our faithfulness - our willingness to 

  
  

  slow down and seek Him out in every situation - to direct 

  
  

  our meandering paths to his good ends.

  
  Today I am thankful for the opportunity to stop and listen, and then to listen again in the presence of a faithful band of fellow followers.
  
  So, what do you think? What do you hear God saying to us in 2 Chronicles 18?
  

  Prayer: 

  (From the Moravian Daily Texts for February 12, 2015)
  Great Truth, we never see you directly but we know you are there. Deep down, we feel your power and presence. Help us to share that understanding with those for whom the trials of the world cause their faith in you to falter. Amen.