What the Lord says I shall speak...

I Kings 22: 13-14 | NASB

“Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I shall speak.”

After Ahab, the king of Israel, had gathered and consulted with about four hundred prophets that were found in Israel and was given an answer that was favorable by all of them Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah asks “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?”  Four hundred men and not one of them was a prophet of the LORD.  Micaiah is spoken of as the “yet one man by whom the LORD may be inquired of.”  Just one.  Why wasn’t he called to begin with?  Because he speaks what the Lord says to him.  Ahab did not like hearing what the Lord had to say.  In the previous chapter we read:

 “Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him. He acted very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the sons of Israel.”

This is why Ahab did not call this one man left, this only prophet of the Lord.  He already knew that the Lord had nothing good to say to him.  He already knew that the Lord had cast judgment on him for his evil ways. 

But to appease Jehoshaphat he calls Micaiah.  Can you image coming before the kings of Israel and Judah to speak what they do not want to hear after four hundred men have already prophesied favorably to them?  How alone he must feel?  Micaiah must have known not only that his answer would be unfavorably met, but also that king Ahab already hated him.  Yet, even when the messengers ask him to speak favorably, he makes this oath that as the Lord lives, what He says is what he will speak.  In spite of the position that he found himself in, the possible fear that he may have felt, the pressure to give a favorable word, this last prophet of the Lord spoke the word of the Lord.  Micaiah swore to do the one thing he had been called to do.  As a prophet of the Lord he was called to speak the words of the Lord and this he would do.  It did not matter to whom he was speaking; he must speak the word of the Lord.

I am reminded of a story I have heard several times.  A man was preaching the gospel in England contrary to the edict of the king and he was called before the king to give an account.  As he walked into the throne room he said to himself “be careful what you say the king is here!”  He thought not even a moment more and said to himself “be careful what you do not say the KING OF KINGS is here!” 

Far too often we forget that we are in the presence of the KING OF KINGS and that we need to echo the words of Micaiah “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I shall speak!” 

God has said much to us; He has spoken to us through His word and in these last days through His Son.

Hebrews 1:1-2a | NASB

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son”

Let us speak all that the Lord has said to us boldly before all men.