And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one suggested this, and another that. And the LORD saidThis phrase introduces the divine council scene, a concept found in several Old Testament passages where God is depicted as consulting with heavenly beings. The Hebrew word for "LORD" here is "YHWH," the covenant name of God, emphasizing His sovereignty and authority. This scene underscores God's ultimate control over the affairs of nations and kings, reminding us of His omnipotence and the fulfillment of His divine purposes. Who will entice
The Hebrew word for "entice" is "patah," which can mean to persuade or deceive. This word choice highlights the moral complexity of the situation, as God permits a spirit to influence Ahab's decision-making. It raises questions about divine justice and human responsibility, illustrating that while God allows certain actions, He remains just and righteous in His overarching plan. Ahab
Ahab was the king of Israel, known for his idolatry and opposition to the prophets of God. His reign is marked by significant moral and spiritual decline, largely influenced by his marriage to Jezebel. Ahab's character serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of turning away from God and the consequences of aligning with ungodly influences. to march up and fall
The phrase "march up and fall" indicates a military campaign that will end in defeat. The Hebrew word for "fall" is "naphal," often used in the context of battle. This prophetic declaration foreshadows Ahab's demise, serving as a reminder of the certainty of God's word and the inevitable downfall of those who oppose His will. at Ramoth-gilead
Ramoth-gilead was a strategically important city east of the Jordan River, often contested between Israel and Aram (Syria). Its mention here situates the narrative in a real historical and geographical context, emphasizing the tangible consequences of Ahab's decisions. The city's significance in the region underscores the broader political and military tensions of the time. And one suggested this, and another that
This part of the verse depicts a scene of deliberation among the heavenly beings, illustrating the diversity of means by which God's purposes can be accomplished. It reflects the biblical theme of divine sovereignty working through various agents, both willing and unwitting, to fulfill His plans. This diversity of suggestions also highlights the freedom within God's created order, where even spiritual beings participate in the unfolding of history. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORDThe sovereign God who is orchestrating the events and seeking a way to bring about His judgment on Ahab. 2. AhabThe king of Israel, known for his idolatry and wickedness, who is being enticed to go to battle at Ramoth-gilead. 3. Ramoth-gileadA city of refuge in the territory of Gad, east of the Jordan River, which was a strategic location and the site of the impending battle. 4. Heavenly CouncilThe assembly of spiritual beings before the LORD, where the discussion of Ahab's fate takes place. 5. ProphetsThe false prophets who later encourage Ahab to go to battle, contrasting with Micaiah, the true prophet of God. Teaching Points God's SovereigntyGod is in control of all events, including the rise and fall of kings. He uses various means to accomplish His purposes, even those that seem mysterious to us. The Reality of Spiritual WarfareThe passage reminds us of the unseen spiritual realm and the influence it can have on earthly events. Believers should be aware of this reality and rely on God's wisdom and protection. The Consequences of SinAhab's impending downfall is a direct result of his persistent sin and rebellion against God. This serves as a warning about the serious consequences of turning away from God. Discernment in LeadershipAhab's reliance on false prophets rather than seeking God's true word through Micaiah highlights the importance of discernment and seeking God's truth in decision-making. God's Justice and MercyWhile God is just in bringing judgment on Ahab, His actions are also a call to repentance for others. God's justice is always balanced with His mercy. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the concept of God's sovereignty in 1 Kings 22:20 challenge or comfort you in your current circumstances? 2. In what ways can believers today be more aware of the spiritual warfare described in this passage and Ephesians 6:12? 3. Reflect on a time when you faced consequences for a decision. How does Ahab's account inform your understanding of the relationship between sin and its consequences? 4. How can we develop discernment to recognize true guidance from God, as opposed to false counsel, in our lives? 5. Considering God's justice and mercy, how can we balance these attributes in our interactions with others, especially when addressing wrongdoing? Connections to Other Scriptures Job 1:6-12Similar to the heavenly council in 1 Kings 22, where God allows Satan to test Job, showing God's sovereignty and the presence of spiritual beings in His court. 2 Chronicles 18:18-22A parallel account of the same event, providing additional details and emphasizing the role of the lying spirit. Isaiah 6:8The call of Isaiah, where God asks, "Whom shall I send?" showing God's initiative in His plans and the involvement of His servants. Ephesians 6:12Highlights the spiritual warfare and the reality of spiritual forces, relevant to understanding the heavenly council's role. People Ahab, Ahaziah, Amon, Aram, Asa, Azubah, Chenaanah, David, Geber, Imlah, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jeroboam, Joash, Micah, Micaiah, Nebat, Ophir, Shilhi, Sodomites, Syrians, Tarshish, Tharshish, ZedekiahPlaces Edom, Ezion-geber, Jerusalem, Ophir, Ramoth-gilead, Samaria, Syria, TarshishTopics Ahab, Attacking, Death, Entice, Fall, Gilead, Manner, Persuade, Ramoth, Ramothgilead, Ramoth-gilead, Saying, Suggested, Thus, TrickedDictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 22:1-28 7774 prophets, false 1 Kings 22:1-38 8131 guidance, results 1 Kings 22:10-28 1469 visions 1 Kings 22:12-23 8129 guidance, examples 1 Kings 22:15-28 7712 convincing 1 Kings 22:17-38 6708 predestination 1 Kings 22:19-20 1355 providence 1 Kings 22:19-22 4170 host of heaven 1 Kings 22:19-23 6241 seduction 1 Kings 22:20-22 4195 spirits Library Unpossessed Possessions
'And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?'--1 KINGS xxii. 3. This city of Ramoth in Gilead was an important fortified place on the eastern side of the Jordan, and had, many years before the date of our text, been captured by its northern neighbours in the kingdom of Syria. A treaty had subsequently been concluded and broken a war followed thereafter, in which Ben-hadad, King of Syria, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureAhab and Micaiah
'And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him? 8. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.'--1 KINGS xxii. 7,8. An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to Samaria …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles).
1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis. Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line. Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7 Use to be Made of the Doctrine of Providence.
Sections. 1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII Of Councils and their Authority.
1. The true nature of Councils. 2. Whence the authority of Councils is derived. What meant by assembling in the name of Christ. 3. Objection, that no truth remains in the Church if it be not in Pastors and Councils. Answer, showing by passages from the Old Testament that Pastors were often devoid of the spirit of knowledge and truth. 4. Passages from the New Testament showing that our times were to be subject to the same evil. This confirmed by the example of almost all ages. 5. All not Pastors who …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, which are Quoted, or Incidentally Illustrated, in the Institutes.
TO THE AUTHORS QUOTED IN THE INSTITUTES PREFATORY ADDRESS TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH, FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, HIS SOVEREIGN; [1] JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST. [2] Sire,--When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God Tit. 2:06 Thoughts for Young Men
WHEN St. Paul wrote his Epistle to Titus about his duty as a minister, he mentioned young men as a class requiring peculiar attention. After speaking of aged men and aged women, and young women, he adds this pithy advice, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded" (Tit. 2:6). I am going to follow the Apostle's advice. I propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men. I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times General Principles of Interpretation. 1 Since the Bible Addresses Men in Human Language...
CHAPTER XXXIV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 1. Since the Bible addresses men in human language, and according to human modes of thinking and speaking, the interpreter's first work is to ascertain the meaning of the terms employed. Here he must proceed as in the case of other writings, seeking by the aid of grammars, lexicons, cognate languages, ancient versions, ancient interpreters, and whatever other outward helps are available, to gain a thorough knowledge of the language employed by …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life The Figurative Language of Scripture.
1. When the psalmist says: "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Psa. 84:11), he means that God is to all his creatures the source of life and blessedness, and their almighty protector; but this meaning he conveys under the figure of a sun and a shield. When, again, the apostle James says that Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day (Acts 15:21), he signifies the writings of Moses under the figure of his name. In these examples the figure lies in particular words. But it may be embodied …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links 1 Kings 22:20 NIV1 Kings 22:20 NLT1 Kings 22:20 ESV1 Kings 22:20 NASB1 Kings 22:20 KJV
1 Kings 22:20 Commentaries
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