Seeking His Counsel

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

SEEKING HIS COUNSEL

1 Kings 22:1-8

22:1 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?" 4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." 5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD." 6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets — about four hundred men — and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?" "Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand." 7 But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?" 8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah." "The king should not say that," Jehoshaphat replied.

NIV

Considering the outcome of this alliance against the king of Aram and the ensuing battle, we wonder how it is possible that there are four hundred prophets who would actually be prophets of the LORD. There is this one truth from the mouth of Jehoshaphat that bears our attention. When he went down to visit Ahab, the king of Israel, Ahab was the one who brought up Ramoth Gilead. However, before going to war, Jehoshaphat wanted to first seek the counsel of the LORD. There is no way that four hundred men were all prophets of the LORD. From what we know, God usually uses one man to be His prophet, who will declare the word of the LORD as it is spoken to him. These four hundred remind us of the prophets of Baal that Elijah, under the power of God, showed who the LORD was. Jehoshaphat was wise to the false prophets, and asked if there was not one prophet of the LORD here whom we could inquire of. That is the truth we need to focus on. Before going to war, Jehoshaphat wanted to know if he had the consent of the LORD or not. He knew his success depended on the favor or the will of the LORD. Ahab, on the other hand, did not want to hear from the one true prophet of the LORD because he never told him what he wanted to hear. The question before us is the same. How much do we really want to know what the Lord has to say about what we are supposed to do, and not to do? Before we make any choice about anything, we should first seek the counsel of the Lord. The Lord always spoke to his people throughout the Old Testament, and we believe he might have been silent for about four hundred years before the time of Jesus. When he determined the time for Jesus to come to earth in the form of man, God was no longer silent. When Jesus was finished with this work, dying on the cross, being buried for three days, then resurrected, before he ascended some days later, he told his disciples to wait for the Spirit. This is the same Spirit who lives within. We have all we need to be able to inquire of the LORD before we do anything. Sometimes it seems that we believers just move ahead and do things just because we think they are good, or because they are what we have always done. Have we ever inquired of the Lord as to what we should be doing? Have we ever inquired of the Lord if we should stop something we are doing? Every aspect of our lives, both personally and corporately, should be connected directly due to our seeking the counsel of the Lord. We can make all sorts of plans, devise a plethora of formulas that are supposed to bring us success, but if we are not inquiring of the Lord, we could be doomed to failure. Before we attempt anything, let us seek the counsel of our Lord. Let us seek the counsel of our Lord for affirmation of what we are doing, or if we are to cease. That is the one truth we can live by, seeking the counsel of the Lord.