Who do you depend on for truth?
Let me begin this article by mentioning two quite recent incidents. As so often happen, several unrelated things will nicely coalesce and result in – you guessed it – another article. Thus this piece. The first episode was simply what I read in my morning Scripture reading, primarily in 1 Kings 22, where the wicked King Ahab gets two different sets of advice.
He wanted to know if he should go to battle against the Syrians, and so he asked a bunch of prophets. Some 400 of them said, ‘Yep, fine, go for it, and you will have a cushy victory’ (my paraphrase). BUT, there was a slight problem: one prophet, Micaiah, a true prophet of God, contradicted what the false prophets had said. (More on this story in a moment.
The second incident from today was this: I just returned from having my eyes checked. It had been four years since I had last tested them, and over time it can be hard to notice whether they are in slow decline or not. Thankfully the optometrist said there was very little change, and my current reading glasses should be just fine. It is always good to know I can still see, and that I do not need to dish out more money to get new glasses.
In both cases one could rely on subjective and unreliable means, or turn to more reliable and objective ones. An optometrist was better placed than I to determine the real condition of my eyes. And a true man of God provided an objective and reliable word of God over against that of the lying prophets.
Before discussing this further, let me briefly mention one aspect of this story that can seem somewhat strange. It is said of the false prophets that a deceiving spirit was sent to them by God (verses 18-23). That can certainly sound troubling to believers today, but I have already penned an entire article on that difficult passage. See here for how we might understand this: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/04/23/difficult-bible-passages-1-kings-2221-24/
But it is this issue of who we will turn to and who we will rely on when it comes to important matters that needs to be further discussed. As to our health, generally speaking you want reliable experts, be they doctors, dentists or what have you, to give you a more accurate picture of your condition. Relying on your own subjective feelings and guesses may not always be that helpful.
And this is certainly the case when we want to know God’s will. While most of us will not be asking God whether we should go out and do battle with a pagan king, and whether we will win or not, we all have plenty of important issues that we want some solid guidance on. In these areas the real Christian will want something more than mere hunches, emotions, or whims. He will want the sure word of God.
But as we find in various Old Testament stories, an evil ruler who is hellbent on doing what he wants instead of what God wants, will readily give ear to false prophets and other ‘yes men’. They will tell the evil king what he wants to hear, instead of what God wants him to hear. As John Davies comments, “Ahab exemplifies all who seek to manipulate the word of God, to screen out what they regard as unpalatable, and to place personal agendas above truth.”
Bear in mind that true prophets are seldom popular. Indeed, we can bank on this reality: If we speak truth to power, if we stand by the word of God even when it is risky and costly to do so, we will likely have to pay the price for this. Recall what happened to Micaiah (verses 26-28):
And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”
Of course when these evil folks run with ungodly counsel and refuse to listen to the living God, their end will be as sad as it will be predicable. What we read in verses 37-39 is certainly hardcore: “So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken.”
So many lessons for us today can be found as we read a chapter like this. Pagan leaders as well as church leaders both need to pay attention here. John Davies goes on to say this:
Civic leaders love to enlist the aid of religion in the furtherance of their agendas. Particularly when the church is in some way beholden to the state (through establishment, tax concessions or other privileges), the temptation for the church to cooperate and go along with state initiatives, toning down its message rather than speaking fearlessly in the name of the living God, can be strong. Even the pressures within the church to achieve a consensus or ‘unity’ at the expense of truth can prove too much for many. Thank God for those who are prepared to stand alone, if need be, and declare what God has revealed.
Yes, the need for church leaders in particular, and all Christians in general, to proclaim the word of the Lord bravely and consistently is always something we dare not shy away from. As Dale Ralph David comments:
Whatever word Yahweh gives a prophet, that is what the prophet must speak. The prophet is not at liberty to massage or shape or bend, let alone pervert, that word. The word of Yahweh is a given and must be passed on as given. The true prophet of God is in bondage to the incoercible word of God. The word of Yahweh is free; The servant of Yahweh is in bondage to it. Ahab cannot comprehend the sovereign freedom of Yahweh’s word.
He is not alone. You are a pastor. Before use sits a nice, romantic, post-modern couple who want you to perform their marriage. One of them, a professing Christian, is a member of the church you serve; The other, you have divined by question and conversation, is not a Christian. You tell the latter so and then inform the couple that Scripture does not allow you to join them in marriage (inferring from 1 Cor. 7:39, for example). But, they say, they were going to attend church here (the suggestion being that now they won’t do so). You realize, don’t you, that the member’s family [also members] will be irate over your refusal? Don’t you know there are other clergy who have no such scruples? While you may have your opinion about what the word of God requires, why do you have to be bound by that? Aren’t a lot of these things open for reinterpretation? On it goes. Men and women still don’t understand that the word of God is not under your control but that, contrariwise, you are in bondage to it. This blows them away. The pressure to compromise the word of God may come at the gate of Samaria – but it repeatedly comes in the pastor’s study. Micaiah would understand, for he knew that the loneliness of Yahweh’s man is the corollary of the freedom of Yahweh’s word.
The point is always the same: Who ya gonna call? Who are you going to rely on? Who are you going to believe? Who is your ultimate authority? Is it God and his word, or a host of slick and clever-sounding religious types that assure you that whatever you want to do is just fine, so go for it? David Lamb puts it this way:
Like Ahab, we are often faced with a choice of who to believe, when we hear contradictory messages, whether it be from a friend, a pastor, or a politician. And like the prophets of 1 Kings 22, we are often in positions where we can choose to speak truth. While it would be nice if it were always easy, speaking the truth is often painful. The truth can be painful to hear because everyone wants to hear optimistic messages (like Ahab). But if you look at the messages of the prophets of Scripture, many of them were pessimistic. Barnes captures the prophetic perspective well: “The default position, if you will, is pessimism; optimists must prove the divine inspiration of their words!” Before they give good news, biblical prophets often give bad news, which should make us suspicious of people who only tell us what we want to hear. We can be like Ahab, listening to advice from multiple sources, then only following the message we want to hear because it seems less painful. But as we see in this story, that approach is foolish. The painful truth in the short run would have saved Ahab’s life in the long run.
The false prophets were a recurring problem in Old Testament times. They are still a problem today – both within and without the church. Those outside the church are many, and simply tuning into any mainstream media outlet will expose you to all sorts of them.
But within the church we also have those who love to tickle the ears of the people telling them what they want instead of what they need to hear. It could involve telling their listeners that they can live a life of luxury, comfort and problem-free living. Or these church leaders will simply go along along with the world’s agendas, refusing to speak out on the important issues of the day, such as the sanctity of life or the importance of biblical marriage and family.
Dangerous and deceptive voices are everywhere to be found. And when you are uncertain about who to believe – about which way to go – then more than ever we need to make God and his revealed truth our true and final port of call.
So who are you gonna call?
[1728 words]
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