DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- SAYING WHAT GOD SAYS

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – SAYING WHAT GOD SAYS

"Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, 'Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Therefore please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.' And Micaiah said, 'As the LORD lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak." (II Chronicles 18:12-13).

In our Gleanings from I Kings 22, we learned about this incident with Jehoshaphat and Ahab. In that meditation, the emphasis was on Ahab who said of Micaiah, "I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." People don't like to hear things that they don't want to hear. So they pick and choose their "prophets" or preachers based on whether they speak good things to them or not.

As we consider this again in II Chronicles, our focus is the prophet. He was under pressure to speak something that would please the king. "Don't say anything that the king will disagree with." There were 400 prophets who succumbed to this advice and spoke only a positive message that would make Ahab happy.

But Micaiah stood against the crowd and against the pressure of the king to speak only what God wanted the king to hear. It was not a popular message but it was truth. He was committed to only saying what God said, regardless of the consequences. When he did not please the king, he was struck in the face, and the king sentenced him to prison. Speaking God's truth can be costly.

As a former pastor, I understand the pressures to speak pleasing sermons that make the listeners happy. It is not easy to preach about sin, judgment, and hell. It is tempting to avoid speaking about what God's word says about divorce, abortion, homosexuality, envy, jealousy, and pornography because many in a congregation are guilty of these sins and don't want to be confronted with God's truth. So the Pastor is tempted to conform the message to the people so he won't offend them.

But God calls the prophet to speak what God says, even if it means rejection and attack. May God grant our prophets the backbone to speak all of God's word, and not just what is pleasing. "All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the people of God may be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (II Timothy 3:16). The prophet of God must not yield to the temptation to dilute God's word or be selective when speaking God's message in order to be popular or acceptable.

Love, Dad