Let us turn to this portion that
we've just read, the 18th chapter, in the second book of Chronicles.
And I want to center your thoughts around words that we find in
verse 13, the words of the prophet Micah. And Micah said, as the
Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak." And
Micah said, as the Lord liveth, takes an oath upon his lips,
swears in the name of the Lord, even what my God saith, that
will I speak. And so I want us to consider
something of the ministry of this man, this not very well-known
figure that we find mentioned here in the Old Testament Scriptures.
He was a prophet and we gather from the words that we've just
read that he was very much a faithful servant of the Lord God. Remember how Peter tells us that
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God."
And surely this is one of those holy men who spake only as he
was moved by God's Spirit. He makes a prophecy concerning
wicked Ahab that he will die. We have the words of the prophet
here in verse 16, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains
as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have
no master. Let them return therefore every man to his house in peace. Their master, their shepherd,
was the king Ahab, and he was to die. Now, initially, it's
interesting, he certainly speaks in a rather ironic fashion when
he is first summoned to the presence of the king of Israel. In verse
14, when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Mykaia,
shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?
And he said, Go ye up and prosper. and they shall be delivered into
your hand." He falls in with what had been said previously
by those 400 false prophets. Remember how one of them, Zedekiah,
the son of Canananar, had made horns of iron and said, Thus
saith the Lord, with these I shall push Syria until they be consumed. How these false prophets had
spoken of success in the battle, and Micaiah, the faithful servant,
falls in behind them, as it were, speaks these rather ironic words. But Ahab knew as we see in verse
15, how many times shall I adjure thee that they say nothing but
the truth to me in the name of the Lord. And then he speaks,
and he speaks his faithful words of prophecy that the Syrians
are going to overwhelm both Ahab and Jehoshaphat, both the people
of Israel and the people of Judah. the battle is going to go against
them. And all that he says was fulfilled,
as we see at the end of the chapter. The interesting thing is that
it's only in this chapter that we read of Micaiah. Well, it's not quite true. We
do have another record of these events in the 22nd chapter of
the first book of Kings. So, we have a two-fold record,
and surely that carries some weight. We know that there are
no idle words in Holy Scripture when God repeats a matter. it
must therefore be something of significance and something well
worth our consideration. In his goodness and his mercy
he has not given us one gospel, he has given us a fourfold gospel,
the account of the birth and the life, the ministry, the death,
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It's recorded on those
four occasions at the beginning of the New Testament. And so
What we have before us tonight concerning this man is surely
of some significance. It's not just mentioned once,
that would be enough, but it's mentioned twice here in the Old
Testament Scriptures. And as we consider something
of his ministry, I want just to observe two things concerning
those who are the true servants of the Lord. We see that they
are few. They are few, they are far between,
but at the same time we also observe their faithfulness. First
of all then, the fewness. Thinking again of the words of
Christ in the New Testament when he speaks of his coming again,
when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? Faith, the Lord says, is such
a scarce thing. hard to be found. And here we
see with regards to this man, he was a faithful servant of
God, but there were 400 false prophets who were really set
against him. There at verse 5, the King of
Israel gathered together of prophets, 400 men. Oh, what a contrast
when we come to verse 7. when he says, when Ahab says
to Joshua that there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of
the Lord, but I hate him. This one man then sets against
the 400. We can think again of the ministry
of another of the prophets, the great prophet Elijah. And there,
of course, in 1 Kings 18, we see him at Carmel opposed by
450 of the prophets of Baal. One faithful servant, one true
servant of the Lord. And we see time and again how
in his ministry Repeatedly Jeremiah has to expose the false teaching
of those who were not the true servants of God, those who were
false prophets. They wanted constantly to be
speaking peace to Israel when there was no peace at all. In Jeremiah 14 and verse 13 following, Then said I, Our Lord God, behold,
the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither
shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this
place. Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies
in my name. I sent them not, neither have
I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto
you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the
deceit of their heart. Constantly, these faithful servants
of God, these true prophets of the Lord, find themselves surrounded
by those who are speaking smooth words and saying pleasant things
unto the people. Again, in the New Testament,
how the Lord gives that warning, many false prophets shall arise
and shall deceive many. How necessary it is that we look
to the Lord for that spirit of true discernment that we might
judge righteous God judgment concerning the servants of the
Lord and increasingly increasingly it will be the case as the last
days come perilous times are to come and in some ways do we
not live in such a time as that when Paul writing at the end
of his ministry in those epistles that he addresses to Timothy
speaks of those last days there in the first epistle to Timothy. In chapter 4, the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,
speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with
a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from
meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth." Well, he speaks repeatedly
to Timothy of these perilous times. Again, in that second
Epistle and Chapter 3, this know also that in the last days perilous
times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good, and so
the catalogue goes on and on. And then again In the fourth
chapter, he says, the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine, but after their own last they shall heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears. And so we could repeat the text
that warn of those days. And how we should be such as
desire then to know that true spirit of discernment. We are
to try the spirits. because many false prophets are
gone out into the world. They are few. The true servants
of the Lord. And we see it here in the ministry
of my Kaaba. There are other things that we
should observe with regards to these true servants of God. They
are an afflicted people. They are an afflicted people.
Notice the consequence of this man's faithfulness. He speaks
the words of the Lord to King Ahab, verse 25, Then the king
of Israel said, Take him, I carry him back to Ammon, the governor
of the city, and to Joas the king's son, and say, Thus saith
the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with
bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I
return in peace. Oh, he's taken back from whence
he came. He's not given any respect or regard by King Ahab. And he goes back to affliction. There's a spiritual significance
in that that's to be meted out to this man. Feed him with bread
of affliction and with water of affliction. He says, stale,
coarse bread. stagnant water but as I say not
just in a natural sense there's a spiritual significance in the
way he is to be treated and we see it so clearly when we come
to the New Testament and the ministry of the Apostle. Again,
so many times in the various Pauline epistles we see how the
Apostle speaks of those things that were constantly coming upon
him as he sought faithfully to execute his ministry. In 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 7 he says we have this treasure in earthen vessel Speaking of his own ministry,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair.
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."
And what is Paul? He's speaking of himself and
his ministry, but he is a pattern also, remember. He is a typical
character. He's a pattern of them which
should believe. He's a type of the true child
of God, the true believer. And God has said, I will leave
in the midst an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. And this is Micaiah, how this
man is so sorely afflicted. And yet, oh, the Lord takes care
of such characters as these, these poor and afflicted souls.
Again, Paul, writing in the epistle to the Romans, says, for thy
sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep,
to the slaughter. But God, in His mercy, He takes
account of these persecuted characters. Thus saith the Lord my God, feed
the flock of slaughter. Oh, the Lord is mindful of His
children. Look at the language of the Prophet
Isaiah. Though the Lord give you the
bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not
thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine
eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walking in it when you
turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. The Lord
is mindful. of his poor and his afflicted
people. Though they be but few, fear
not, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom." But with regards to this man Michael
and his ministry, besides one being afflicted, we see him also
as a man who is convinced of the truth how he speaks with
such certainty. Here in the words of our text,
as the Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak. And how faithful he is in the
words that he addresses to the king. The king imagined that
he would return in peace when he gave that instruction. in
verse 26. But Micah answers him, Thou certainly
return in peace, and hath not the Lord spoken by me? And he
said, hearken all ye people. He is sure of his ministry. He is a man who speaks then with
much conviction. Very different to those false
prophets. Remember in the verses 18, following
he speaks of what he saw, that vision that he had. Hear the
word of the Lord, I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and
all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his
left, and then that lying spirit. Verse 22, Behold the Lord hath
put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the
Lord hath spoken evil against thee." Oh, that lying spirit. That is the ministry of the false
prophets. They are instruments in the hands
of Satan. The Lord says, when he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father
of it. There in Genesis 3 we see him
as that one who contradicts the Word of God. And how, alas, Adam
and Eve sooner believe the lie of the devil than the truth of
God. How he questions the Word of
God, hath God said? And then he contradicts it, ye
shall not surely die. Oh, he is that one who is the
father of lies. But here we see the prophet Micaiah
as a man who will only speak the word of the Lord, as the
Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak." He's
a convictionist. He's a dogmatist. He's unashamed. He will declare the truth as
God has revealed it to him. The faithful servant of God. And we see it in the New Testament.
the language of the Apostle there in that opening chapter of the
2nd Epistle to the Corinthians. He says, For the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me,
and Silvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea and nigh, but in
him was yea. for all the promises of God in
him are yea and amen to the glory of God by us." Oh, this is Paul,
just of the same spirit as Micaiah. What he ministered, what he declared,
he was persuaded was truly the work of God. He writes, to the
Galatians. For do I now persuade men, O
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ," he says. This is the burden of
his ministry then. Again, look at what he says writing
to the Thessalonians. He says, as we were allowed of
God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not
as pleasing men, but gods which trieth our hearts. This is the
spirit of Micaiah then. He is that one who seeks to be
faithful in all his ministry. As the Lord's servants are few,
so they are marked by this spirit of faithfulness. And when they
come to the end of their days, what does the Lord say? Well
done, good and faithful servants. Or we live in a success-orientated
world. There are those who would want
that the Lord would say at the end, well done, good and successful
servant. But he doesn't say that. It's
faithfulness that is first, faithfulness that is foremost. And the strange
thing is that the way in which the Lord is dealing with this
man Micaiah, when he is sent back by wicked Ahab and the instruction
is given as to the way in which he is to be treated. Put this
fellow in the prison and feed him with bread of affliction
and with water of affliction. Oh, it's these experiences that
will put metal into the man's ministry and make him one who
is ever more faithful in his dealings. He's faithful to God.
But he's not only a man who is faithful to the Lord his God,
he is also faithful to men. We have the complaint that was
made by Ahab when he acknowledges that he is the one man who is
the Lord's prophet in verse 7. Yet there is one man by whom
we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him. for he never prophesied
good unto me, but always evil. The same is Micaiah the son of
Imla." He was a faithful servant of
the Lord. And remember the Mark of Jeremiah's
ministry, how he is told there in chapter 15, if they take forth
the precious from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth." That discriminating,
that separating aspect to the ministry of Jeremiah, not prophesying
smooth things, not saying, peace, peace, when there was no peace.
No, he says, of those false prophets they have healed the hurt of
the daughter of my people slightly. Saying, peace, peace, when there
was no peace. and their dealings, they were
not faithful dealings, they didn't probe the wounds, and the people
therefore suffered as they embraced that false prophecy. It's interesting
how, at the very outset, with Jeremiah, he is told something
of the nature of that ministry that he was to exercise, and
there was a negative aspect to it. as well as that that we might
say was positive in the very first chapter of the book. Verse 10 says, God, I have set
thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to root
out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and
to plant. there is that negative, there
are four negatives but of course it doesn't finish with negatives
there are those positives, those two positives at the end of the
text but how these things must come together there's there's
that negative aspect but then also that positive aspect and
isn't that really the the ministry of the gospel? it's sinned and
salvation. It's not enough just to speak
of sin and leave the matter there. There must also be that declaration
of the cure to sin. That is why Paul's ministry,
though it was a discriminating ministry, was very much a Christ-centered
ministry. That was a great burden of the
apostles' life, really, to make known Christ. We preach Christ.
and Him crucified. I determine not to know anything
among you, He says. Save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But when the Lord speaks of the
coming of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit
and what is all prophecy, what is all preaching without the
Holy Spirit, how vital that ministry is. But see how the Lord speaks
of the Spirit's coming there in John 16, and we have those
two aspects again. There's the negative, when He
has come, says the Lord, verse 8, He will reprove the world
or convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because
the Prince of this world is judged. That work of conviction. that
preaching of the awful reality of sin. But then there's that
other aspect of the Spirit's ministry. As the Lord continues,
verse 13, Now be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me. for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you." That's Christ's
exalting aspect then of the ministry. The faithful servant of the Lord,
he will rightly divide that word of truth. He will speak of sin,
yes, but he will also desire to speak of salvation. All must ultimately center in
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this
man, this Old Testament prophet that we know very little of,
and yet here we have this record concerning his faithful dealings
with such a wicked king as Ahab was. Micah said, As the Lord
liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak. Oh, the Lord grant that we might
be those then who have that spirit of discernment to try the spirits. and ever to recognize that spirit
that ultimately will only exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as it abases
the sinner. May the Lord be pleased to bless
this word to us. Now let us, before we come to
prayer, sing God's praise in the hymn 453, and the tune is
Rockingham. 398, where two or three, with sweet
accord, obedient to their Sovereign Lord, meet to recount His acts
of grace and offer solemn prayer and praise. There, says the Saviour,
will I be amid this little company, to them unveil my smiling face
and shed my glories round the place. 453.