I. UNCONCERNED ABOUT NUMBERS. There may be "four hundred men" on one side (ver. 5), and only one on the other; or see 1 Kings 18:19. The prophet of the Lord may be in a most honourable but most decisive minority, but he must not consider that. "Truth cannot be put to the vote "and carried by a majority. Many a time it has been overwhelmingly outnumbered, and yet ultimately triumphant. We must not count heads when we undertake to speak for the Eternal. "A man with truth on his side can never be in a smaller minority than Almighty God and himself."

II. INACCESSIBLE TO HUMAN BLANDISHMENTS, The messenger that summoned Micaiah and attended him to the king seems to have employed his opportunity in trying to persuade the prophet to give a pleasant and courtly answer (ver. 12). He did not succeed. Many times have men sought to tamper with the ministers of the truth; sometimes they have succeeded. But when they have done so, there has been a lamentable failure. "We seek not yours, but you;" "If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ." These are the sentiments and this is the spirit of the true prophet. No human whisper in the ear as he goes before his audience will make him change one word or tone in the message he delivers from his Master.

III. FEARLESS OF HUMAN AUTHORITY. Micaiah had caused Jehoshaphat to "hate" him (ver. 7); and once again he drew upon him the king's resentment. There were two kings now present, arrayed in royal apparel and seated on thrones (ver. 9); there was much in the position to constrain a deliverance that would answer to their known wishes; but Micaiah was unmoved by fear. He acted as honourably and as heroically as if he had witnessed the example and heard the exhortation of the Lord himself (Luke 12:4, 5). To be condemned of man is a small thing when we are commended and honoured of God. We can afford to incur the hatred even of kings when we rest in the loving favour of our heavenly Father.

IV. UNMOVED BY ILL TREATMENT. Micaiah responded to Zedekiah in a spirit that showed no shade of submission or withdrawal (ver. 23); and when the vexed and passionate king ordered him to be imprisoned and fed with the bread and water of affliction, he still manifested a fearless spirit, totally unmoved by the ill usage he was receiving (ver. 27). The minister of Christ, who is (or should be) the successor of the Hebrew prophet, will not use the language or cherish the spirit of retaliation, but he will be utterly undisturbed in his aim and in his purpose by any unjust or unkind treatment he may receive. Nothing of this kind will move him from his resolve, will turn him from his high and noble task. Acting under the inspiration of God, and conscious that he is "partaking of the afflictions of Christ," the "bread and water of affliction" will be sweet to his taste. In that day he will "rejoice and be exceeding glad" (Matthew 5:10-12).

V. WHOLLY ATTENTIVE TO THE DIVINE VOICE. "Even what my God saith, that will I speak" (ver. 13). So spoke the faithful witness. One greater far than he described himself as "a Man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God" (John 8:40). What has God said to us that we can tell our brethren? What do we learn of Christ and in his service? What do we read in his Word, by a careful, reverent, and intelligent study of it? What sacred lessons have we gleaned, as his holy providence has led and his Divine discipline has taught and trained us? This, nothing else and nothing less, will we carry to the minds of men, to redeem them from sin, to succour them in sorrow, to prepare them for the burden and battle of life, to make them ready for the time of judgment and the long day of eternity. - C.

I. Note THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ONE OBDURATE VOICE, rising clearly above the four hundred unanimous in their approval.

1. That is a voice which we hear again and again in our life; we hear it most loudly at special crises of our career.

2. When one solitary voice flatly contradicts the voice of a multitude, and contradicts it on matters of serious moment — which voice are we to believe? Sometimes the question is practically decided, as in Ahab's case, by the mood with which we come to think of the unsilenced prophet. "I hate him."(1) That tribute of hatred sprang from Ahab's conscience. It is the precise method by which weak and cruel men are wont to confess that not the man, but the message has found them out.(2) Notice also Ahab's device for suppressing an unwelcome truth.

II. THIS NARRATIVE SYMBOLISES MAN'S FREQUENT ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE TRUTH. It is a test case.

1. Young men and women starting in life with abundant promise, amid the acclamation of hosts of friends, you may be irritated by perhaps one grim, dissenting voice, critical, dissatisfied, implacable, which sadly challenges the place in this universe to which general opinion reads your title clear. Be very careful how you treat that voice! It may be the voice of an ignorant, envious, churlish man, but, on the other hand, it may be the voice of one who has pierced to the secret of your inner life, and who, if you would only listen, might spare you an idle journey, might rescue you from misery and shame.

2. Again, there are books or teachers whom we have to deal with, and who sadly irritate us, and we say, like Marguerite to Faust, but often, alas, without her simplicity: "Thou art not a Christian." Let us patiently ask: are we really angry in the name of the Lord of hosts? or, are we angry because these books or voices spoil our own theories, wound our prejudices, smile at our favourite catch-words, wither our ideas of success, and are, in the name of the Truth of God, relentless amid our flatterers? Do they simply offend our self-love, and rebuke our calculated prudence? Let us be careful. These books and voices may be wrong; if so, their's the loss and the penalty. But, very often, conscience would tell us there is a possibility that they are right.

3. There is one solemn application of this incident which has, no doubt, occurred to us already. In every human heart disobedient to Christ, impenitent and unreconciled, there is a voice as of Micaiah the son of Imla; but it is really the voice of the Lord Himself, speaking to that heart, amid all its distractions and its earthly pleasures, the message of evil and not of good. And men may come to chafe so angrily under that patient, ever-haunting warning, and appeal, that finally they may cry: "I hate it, I hate it!" If that be so, remember Ahab's doom.

(T. Rhys Evans.)