Inquire of God: my sermon on 1 Kings 22

On Sunday 8 November I preached at Gemeente van Christus, our church in The Hague. The sermon was called Inquire of God, on 1 Kings 22, and it ran about 27 minutes. This is the message, written up for anyone who wasn't in the room.

So many voices

We all come with questions that nobody can answer for us. And we hear so many voices: the news, the internet, the people around us, the voice in our own head at three o'clock in the morning. We wonder which voice to believe, and whether God is saying anything at all.

1 Kings 22 is about a day when two kings had to inquire of God. One of them did not really want the answer. One of them nearly lost his life. And one man stood up and said, "I can tell you only what the LORD tells me."

The text

"But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, 'First seek the counsel of the LORD.' So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, 'Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?' 'Go,' they answered, 'for the Lord will give it into the king's hand.'" (1 Kings 22:5-6)

Ahab is king of Israel, in the north, and he is not a good king. Jehoshaphat is king of Judah, in the south, and he loves God. Ahab wants to take back Ramoth Gilead and asks Jehoshaphat to fight beside him. Jehoshaphat says yes, but first, let us ask God.

The story teaches three things about inquiring of God.

1. Ask first

Notice the word first. Not after the plan is made. Not when everything else has failed. First.

Ahab calls four hundred prophets. The two kings sit on their thrones at the city gate, and the prophets shout in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah, has made himself iron horns. Four hundred voices, all saying the same thing: go, you will win. Exactly what the king wanted to hear.

But Jehoshaphat is not comfortable. He asks, "Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?" And Ahab gives one of the most honest answers in the Bible: "There is still one… but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad."

Ahab did not hate Micaiah because Micaiah lied. He hated him because Micaiah told the truth.

Inquiring of God does not mean collecting voices that agree with you. You can find four hundred voices to tell you anything. It means going to him, and only him, and saying: "Lord, what do you say?", and being ready to hear it.

If you are afraid of what he might say: Ahab got a hard word because his mind was already made up. If you come to God tired, with your hands open, he has already told us what he says: "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak" (Isaiah 40:29). "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). That is not bad news.

Four hundred voices. One voice of the LORD. Ask him first.

2. Look up

On the way in, a messenger tells Micaiah to agree with the others. He answers, "As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me."

And then he tells the truth: "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd." Ahab will die in this battle. Micaiah goes further: he has seen the LORD sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven around him. Everyone at the gate is looking at two kings on two thrones. Micaiah is looking higher.

It costs him. Zedekiah slaps him across the face. Ahab orders him to prison on bread and water. Micaiah answers with one quiet sentence: "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me."

The Bible never tells us he got out of that prison. Nothing about his situation changed. But he was steady, because his strength did not come from his situation. It came from having stood before the LORD and heard him speak. Once you have heard God speak, four hundred voices sound very small.

Hebrews 11:27 says the same of Moses: "he persevered because he saw him who is invisible." Looking up is not wishful thinking. It is faith that has seen who God is, and holds on when everything around you says otherwise.

Many of us wait for our circumstances to change before we feel strong. Micaiah found strength while nothing had changed. Paul learned it too: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Wherever you are this week, the LORD is still on his throne.

3. Cry out

The two kings hear the word of the LORD, and go to war anyway. Ahab is afraid, so he disguises himself as an ordinary soldier and sends Jehoshaphat in wearing the royal robes. The enemy has one order: fight only the king of Israel. Every chariot turns on Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat is the good king. He said "first seek the counsel of the LORD." He heard the answer, and he went anyway. Now he is surrounded.

And the Bible says: "Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him" (2 Chronicles 18:31).

He was not rescued because he got everything right. He got it wrong. He was rescued because he cried out. A cry is enough. "Lord, help me" is a real prayer, and God hears it.

Ahab, in his disguise, is hit by an arrow drawn "at random", and the word Micaiah spoke comes true exactly. When God speaks, his word stands. So when he says "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5), that word will stand too.

Many of us wear a disguise as well: "I'm fine. Everything is fine." Ahab's disguise could not save him. Yours will not help you either. God's people are meant to carry one another.

This week

• Inquire of God. Before you ask anyone else, ask him. Open his word every day, even for five minutes, and say: "Lord, what do you say?"
• Take off the disguise. If you are struggling, tell one person. If you are doing well, think of one person who isn't, and go and sit with them.

Think of Micaiah in his cell, with his bread and water. Nothing around him had changed. But he had seen the LORD on his throne, and that was enough.

How I prepared

I wrote the sermon as a full manuscript, timed section by section, built around three short lines the room could say back: Ask first. Look up. Cry out. I put it on a pulpit reader page with a clock and set it up for my e-ink tablet, and made 20 slides to go with it.