“Satan Himself is Transformed into an Angel of Light.”
We cannot conceive Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, saying to another king outside of Israel, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee,” as he so blandly replied to Ahab. No! it is an easier matter to discern evil in its open form and character in the world, and thus unhesitatingly to shun it.
Was not Ahab a king of Israel? Could he not say, “Know ye that Ramoth-Gilead is ours, and we be still?” Is it not our common enemy who has taken Ramoth-Gilead from us? It is here, we repeat, where discernment is needed, for while evil in its true and undisguised character is avoided, evil in its untrue character, so to speak, is often fallen in with. Albeit, Ahab was king of Israel, the people of the Lord, yet for all that he was a very wicked man indeed. It is recorded of him that “he did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.” (1 Kings 16:30-3130And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. 31And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. (1 Kings 16:30‑31).)
Who would suggest that it was a proper thing for Jehoshaphat to have fellowship with such a wicked man even if he were king of Israel, the favored people of God? Could anything be more shocking than to go on with wickedness, because pursued by those who bear the Lord’s name? Far be the thought!
But here it is, alas, that we are so often deceived. Look for a moment at another striking example of how the world in its open form was avoided, while in its disguised form it was fallen into.
The “man of God” was proof against the offers or reward and refreshment of “Jereboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,” but proved vulnerable to the deception of the “old prophet in Bethel.” Doubtless if Jereboam had declared to the man of God that “an angel spake” to him, he would not have been believed, but he believed the prophet, and he an old one, and believed him to his ruin. This, my dear young friends, is a serious matter, yet we need not be discouraged or afraid. If—
“Sin, Satan, Death appear,
To harass and appall,
Yet since the gracious Lord is near,
Backward they go and fall.
Before, behind, around,
They set their fierce array,
To fight and force me from the ground
Along life’s narrow way.
I meet them face to face,
Through Jesus’ conquest blest,
March in the triumph of His grace
Right onward to my rest.
No less a number than four hundred prophets had assured Ahab and Jehoshaphat that it was not only the Lord’s mind that they should go to Ramoth-Gilead, but that He would deliver it into the king’s hand, yet it is not to be wondered at that Jehoshaphat was dissatisfied with their flippant statement, for had not the Lord permitted a lying spirit to put the words into the mouth of these flattering prophets? If it be asked why the Lord put this lying spirit into their mouth, it must be answered by saying that it was done judiciously, and has an analogy to the terrible statement respecting Ephraim, who was “joined to idols,” and meant to go on with them at all costs. “Let him alone.” (Hos. 4:1717Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. (Hosea 4:17).) God could not go with Ahab in his undertakings, however commendable they might appear to be, even if Jehoshaphat would accompany him.
One is led to wonder why King Jehoshaphat did not use means to extricate himself from the mess he had got himself into. Ah, herein lies a grave cause for consideration, which is, that the result of an evil alliance and position is to blind the eyes and to enervate the spiritual energies of the soul., Look what a dragging it took to get Lot out of Sodom! Something of the seductive power of sin must have been known by the poet when he states—
“Vice is a monster of such hideous mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
The bell in the tower which when struck alarmed the young birds, alarms them no longer they build their nests there, they are used to it. O! may our Lord preserve the reader and writer from becoming accustomed to evil! It would appear that there was an abundance of false prophets in Ahab’s time. Not long before the faithful Elijah had caused four hundred and fifty to be put to death. (1 Kings 18:4040And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. (1 Kings 18:40).)
Besides these there were four hundred more “prophets of the groves” which did eat at Jezebel’s table. It is ever so: more false than true. Four hundred false prophets to one true. It is a striking disparity, and tells its own story. Yet, blessed be God! He has His precious piece of gold, where there is so much brass. His faithful Micaiah, as distinguished from the faithless, flattering, time-serving four hundred. Micaiah, of course, must suffer, but he has God with him, is in communion with Him, and it has been asked, “What can compensate for the loss of communion with God?” It might be said that the four hundred prophets all spoke the same thing, they were unanimous. They were, but it was a unanimity with Satan as its author. Their counsel was taken, but it was not the counsel God would have been pleased to give, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me.” (Isa. 30:11Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: (Isaiah 30:1).)
Doubtless it often proves trying to be singular, but if faithfulness to God is the cause of being singular, may we have grace singular to be. Ahab escapes not, notwithstanding his cleverness in disguising himself, “for a certain man draws a bow at a venture (in his simplicity) and smote the King of Israel between the joints of harness... about the going down of the sun, he died.” (2 Chron. 18.)