Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 2 Chronicles 18:1-17 - Discerning False and Real Prophecy
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning, friends and faithful listeners, and welcome
- 0:06Speaker 1: to the Bible Explained podcast. Today we're going to be
- 0:09Speaker 1: talking about a really interesting topic how to decipher real
- 0:12Speaker 1: prophecy and fake prophecy. Should we listen to profits now
- 0:16Speaker 1: or should we completely ignore them? We're going to talk
- 0:19Speaker 1: about all of these topics today on the podcast. Stay
- 0:22Speaker 1: tuned so I hope you all had a great weekend
- 0:31Speaker 1: and a fantastic New Year's Day as well. But, faithful listeners,
- 0:35Speaker 1: before we get into today's episode, do me a solid
- 0:38Speaker 1: by listening to a quick word from one of our sponsors.
- 0:43Speaker 1: And now let's get into the episode. Let's go ahead
- 0:46Speaker 1: and read Second Chronicles eighteen one through seventeen. Grab your
- 0:50Speaker 1: cup of coffee, and let's go ahead and read this together. Now.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Johasha Fat had riches and honor and abundance, and he
- 0:57Speaker 1: allied himself with Ahab. Some years he went down to
- 1:01Speaker 1: Ahab to Samaria. Ahab killed sheep and cattle for him
- 1:05Speaker 1: in abundance and for the people who are with him,
- 1:07Speaker 1: and moved him to go up with him to Ramath Gilead. Ahab,
- 1:10Speaker 1: king of Israel, said to Jehashafat, king of Judah, will
- 1:13Speaker 1: you go up with me to Ramath Gilead. He answered him,
- 1:16Speaker 1: I am as you are, and my people as your people.
- 1:20Speaker 1: We will be with you in the war. Jehoshaphat said
- 1:23Speaker 1: to the King of Israel, please inquire first for Yahwei's word.
- 1:26Speaker 1: Then the King of Israel gathered the prophets together four
- 1:29Speaker 1: hundred men, and said to them, shall we go to
- 1:31Speaker 1: Ramath Giliad to battle? Or shall I forbear? They said,
- 1:34Speaker 1: go up, for God will deliver it into the hand
- 1:37Speaker 1: of the king. But Jehashapat said, isn't there here a
- 1:40Speaker 1: prophet of Yahweh? Besides that we may inquire of him?
- 1:43Speaker 1: There is yet to one man by whom we may
- 1:45Speaker 1: inquire of Yahweh. But I hate him, for he never
- 1:48Speaker 1: prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. He is Makaiah,
- 1:52Speaker 1: the son of Imlah. Jehashafat said, don't let the king
- 1:55Speaker 1: say so. Then the King of Israel called an officer
- 1:58Speaker 1: and said, get Makaiah, the son of Imla quickly. Now
- 2:01Speaker 1: the King of Israel and Jehashavat, the King of Judah,
- 2:03Speaker 1: each sat on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and
- 2:06Speaker 1: they were sitting in an open place at the entrance
- 2:08Speaker 1: of the Gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were
- 2:11Speaker 1: prophesying before them. Zedekiah, the son of Chennanah, made himself
- 2:14Speaker 1: horns of iron and said, Yahwei says, with these, you
- 2:17Speaker 1: shall push the Syrians until they are consumed. All the
- 2:20Speaker 1: prophesied prophesied so, saying, go up to Ramagilead and prosper,
- 2:24Speaker 1: for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.
- 2:28Speaker 1: The messenger who went to call Makaiah spoke to him, saying, behold,
- 2:32Speaker 1: the words of the prophets declare good to the king
- 2:34Speaker 1: with one mouth, let your word. Therefore, please be like
- 2:36Speaker 1: theirs and speak good. Makiah said, as Yahweh lives, I
- 2:40Speaker 1: will say what my God says. When he came to
- 2:43Speaker 1: the king, the king said to him, Makaiah, shall we
- 2:46Speaker 1: go up to ramit Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?
- 2:49Speaker 1: He said, go up and prosper. They shall be delivered
- 2:52Speaker 1: into your hand. The king said to him, how many
- 2:55Speaker 1: times shall I adjure you that you speak to me
- 2:57Speaker 1: nothing but the truth In Yahwei's name. He said, I
- 3:01Speaker 1: saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that
- 3:04Speaker 1: have no shepherd Yahways said, these have no master. Let
- 3:08Speaker 1: them each return to his house in peace. The King
- 3:11Speaker 1: of Israel said to Jehashifat, didn't I tell you that
- 3:14Speaker 1: he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. So
- 3:19Speaker 1: the counterpart to this story we just read is found
- 3:21Speaker 1: in First Kings twenty two. So we have discussed this
- 3:24Speaker 1: story in the past before, but it's always good to
- 3:27Speaker 1: go back over these things because you know, sometimes you forget,
- 3:30Speaker 1: like even me, I had to refresh myself on who
- 3:32Speaker 1: Makaiah the prophet was, and you know who Jehoshafat was.
- 3:36Speaker 1: Because we don't often hear these names in scripture. We
- 3:39Speaker 1: might hear of King Ahab because he was a really
- 3:41Speaker 1: nasty king. In fact, First King's Chapter twenty one, twenty five,
- 3:47Speaker 1: and twenty six says this about Ahab. There was no
- 3:50Speaker 1: one like Ahab who sold himself to do that which
- 3:53Speaker 1: was evil in Yahway's sight, whom Jezebel, his wife stirred up.
- 3:57Speaker 1: He did very abominably in following idle, according to all
- 4:01Speaker 1: that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the
- 4:04Speaker 1: children of Israel. So, yeah, Ahab was a nasty guy
- 4:07Speaker 1: and he was the king of Israel at this time.
- 4:10Speaker 1: Now Jehashafat was the king of Judah. Don't forget, Israel
- 4:14Speaker 1: had gone through a civil war and split up into
- 4:16Speaker 1: two separate nations at this point. So Israel the northern
- 4:20Speaker 1: part had King Ahab over it, and then Judah the
- 4:23Speaker 1: southern part, had King Jehashafat over it. And as we
- 4:27Speaker 1: discussed on the podcast last week, jehasha Fat was actually
- 4:30Speaker 1: a really good king in a lot of different ways.
- 4:33Speaker 1: He truly did love Yahweh. He took away a lot
- 4:36Speaker 1: of the high places and a lot of the ashra idols,
- 4:39Speaker 1: and tried to get rid of the Ashra cult in
- 4:41Speaker 1: general in Judah. He also sent the Leevites out into
- 4:46Speaker 1: the land of Judah, which was something that was biblical,
- 4:48Speaker 1: something that God wanted the Levites to do from the beginning,
- 4:51Speaker 1: but it was never happening because none of the kings
- 4:53Speaker 1: had ever commanded the Levites to do it. So Jehashafat,
- 4:58Speaker 1: in his own way, was deaf a good king for Judah,
- 5:02Speaker 1: whereas Ahab up north was like the opposite of Jehashapat.
- 5:06Speaker 1: He was a terrible king across the board. In fact,
- 5:09Speaker 1: while Ahab was the king. This terrible famine happened in
- 5:13Speaker 1: Israel because of Ahab's sin and also the sin of
- 5:16Speaker 1: his wife Jezebel. And meanwhile, Jehashapat down south isn't being
- 5:21Speaker 1: touched by this famine at all and is building wealth
- 5:24Speaker 1: in Judah. Here's what it says in our passage for today,
- 5:27Speaker 1: starting in verse one, Now, Jehashafat had riches and honor
- 5:30Speaker 1: in abundance. He had riches and honor in abundance. That
- 5:34Speaker 1: is how good of a king he was. And then
- 5:38Speaker 1: right after this in the same verse, and he allied
- 5:41Speaker 1: himself with Ahab. Oh, why did he do that? You know,
- 5:46Speaker 1: like there was no reason really for Jehashafat to ally
- 5:53Speaker 1: himself with Ahab. In fact, in the previous chapter we
- 5:56Speaker 1: actually see that Jehashafat was a initially warring with Ahab.
- 6:02Speaker 1: In Second Chronicles seventeen, verse one, it says Jehashafat strengthened
- 6:06Speaker 1: himself against Israel. He placed forces in all the fortified
- 6:10Speaker 1: cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of
- 6:13Speaker 1: Judah and the cities of Ephriam, which Asa his father
- 6:16Speaker 1: had taken. So yes, initially Ahab and Jehashaphat did not
- 6:21Speaker 1: get along. Israel and Judah did not get along. But
- 6:25Speaker 1: for some reason, Jehashaphat, to his detriment, thought it was
- 6:29Speaker 1: necessary to ally himself to Israel and to King Ahab.
- 6:35Speaker 1: But this ended up not being a good move for
- 6:37Speaker 1: him for many reasons. And he may have thought it
- 6:40Speaker 1: was a good move because maybe he was thinking, you know,
- 6:42Speaker 1: Israel and Judah used to be one nation, were all
- 6:46Speaker 1: brothers and sisters with each other, so why not ally
- 6:49Speaker 1: Judah and Israel together. Sounds like a good idea, But
- 6:53Speaker 1: the fact was the reason God split those two nations
- 6:57Speaker 1: to begin with was because of the sin of Solomon.
- 7:01Speaker 1: God does not want us to be allied with sin.
- 7:05Speaker 1: And Ahab was the worst out of all of the
- 7:09Speaker 1: kings of Israel. It says Ahab was the worst. He
- 7:13Speaker 1: introduced all of the Idol worship into Israel. He killed people.
- 7:18Speaker 1: There were prophets and Yahweh worshippers that were being murdered
- 7:21Speaker 1: for their faith. It said that the prophets had to
- 7:24Speaker 1: go hide themselves in caves with no food at all.
- 7:29Speaker 1: That is how bad things were under King Ahab and
- 7:32Speaker 1: under his wife Jezebel, and jehas allies himself with King
- 7:37Speaker 1: Ahab for whatever reason, even if it was initially good intentions.
- 7:43Speaker 1: You know, the old saying goes, the road to Hell
- 7:45Speaker 1: is paved with good intentions. So anyway, jahasha Fat for
- 7:50Speaker 1: some reason thought it was necessary to ally with Israel.
- 7:53Speaker 1: And it says after some years in verse two, he
- 7:56Speaker 1: went down to Ahab to Samaria. Ahab killed sheep and
- 8:00Speaker 1: cattle for him in abundance and for the people who
- 8:02Speaker 1: are with him, and moved him to go up with
- 8:04Speaker 1: him to Ramoth Gilead. Okay, So Jehashafat goes to Samaria,
- 8:10Speaker 1: which was the capital city of Israel, to visit King
- 8:14Speaker 1: Ahab after several years had passed of this treaty that
- 8:18Speaker 1: they had together, and it says Ahab prepares this huge
- 8:22Speaker 1: feast for Jehashaphat and all the people that were with him,
- 8:25Speaker 1: and during this feast he's like, hey, Jehashafat, you know
- 8:29Speaker 1: these Syrians are really bugging me, so let's go to
- 8:32Speaker 1: war against them. You know, I kind of want to
- 8:34Speaker 1: get rid of these guys. Will you help me in
- 8:37Speaker 1: this war? And so Jehashaphat answered him, I am as
- 8:41Speaker 1: you are, and my people as your people, we will
- 8:44Speaker 1: be with you in the war now once again. The
- 8:47Speaker 1: counterpart to this story is found in First Kings twenty two,
- 8:51Speaker 1: and it does give a little bit more information about
- 8:54Speaker 1: the Syrians and how for three years the Syrians and
- 8:57Speaker 1: the Israelites had peace. And so Jashafat probably thought, you know,
- 9:02Speaker 1: my father Asa lost his chance to defeat the Syrians,
- 9:08Speaker 1: and so maybe this is my chance to finally defeat
- 9:13Speaker 1: this threat that is literally at our doorstep, that is
- 9:16Speaker 1: right next door. Maybe this is the time for Israel
- 9:19Speaker 1: and Judah to finally come together as one nation and
- 9:22Speaker 1: defeat the Syrians once and for all. But he does
- 9:25Speaker 1: ask aheab Let's inquire of Yahweh first, because Jehoshafat was
- 9:29Speaker 1: a Yahweh worshiper. So it says in verse five of
- 9:32Speaker 1: our passage for today, the King of Israel gathered the
- 9:36Speaker 1: prophets together four hundred men, and said to them, shall
- 9:38Speaker 1: we go to Ramagiliad to battle? Or shall I forbear?
- 9:42Speaker 1: And they said, go up, for God will deliver it
- 9:44Speaker 1: into the hand of the king. All right, So four
- 9:48Speaker 1: hundred prophets get together, and Jehashafat and Aheb are sitting
- 9:53Speaker 1: there on their various thrones, in their various robes, listening
- 9:57Speaker 1: to all of these prophets, and not a single one
- 10:00Speaker 1: of them says anything bad. And it could also be
- 10:04Speaker 1: that the majority of these prophets were not prophets of
- 10:07Speaker 1: Yahweh but prophets of whatever Idol Ahab was worshiping at
- 10:12Speaker 1: the time, whether it was prophets of bail or prophets
- 10:15Speaker 1: of Astrah, molik kemish, who knows, who knows what these
- 10:21Speaker 1: these guys were. And not a single one of them
- 10:24Speaker 1: is speaking truth. And Jehoshaphat kind of catches onto this,
- 10:28Speaker 1: and so he leans over to Ahab and he's like,
- 10:31Speaker 1: isn't there a prophet of Yahweh here that we may
- 10:35Speaker 1: inquire of him? And so the King of Israel says, Jehoshaphat, well,
- 10:40Speaker 1: there is this one guy. His name is Makaiah. But
- 10:44Speaker 1: I hate him. It's literally verbatim. I hate him for
- 10:48Speaker 1: he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. He
- 10:52Speaker 1: is Makaiah, the son of Imlah. And Jehashapat's like, don't
- 10:56Speaker 1: let the king say so. He's like, don't don't say
- 10:59Speaker 1: you hate a prophet of Yahweh. That's not good. That's
- 11:02Speaker 1: definitely not healthy. And so Ahab finally calls Makaiah out.
- 11:07Speaker 1: It says, the King of Israel called an officer and said,
- 11:09Speaker 1: get Makaiah, the son of Imma, quickly. And if you
- 11:12Speaker 1: read through First Kings, you actually find out that Ahab
- 11:15Speaker 1: had imprisoned Makayah. And I really like Makaiah, even though
- 11:19Speaker 1: he's not mentioned a lot in scripture. I like him
- 11:22Speaker 1: because he was unafraid to get beat up for the truth.
- 11:26Speaker 1: And so it says in verse nine, now the King
- 11:28Speaker 1: of Israel and Jehashafat, the King of Judah, each sat
- 11:31Speaker 1: on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and they were
- 11:34Speaker 1: sitting in an open place at the entrance of the
- 11:36Speaker 1: gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. Zedekiah,
- 11:41Speaker 1: the son of Chenana, made himself horns of iron and said,
- 11:44Speaker 1: Yahweh says, with these, you shall push the Syrians until
- 11:48Speaker 1: they are consumed. So this guy, this Zedekiah, the son
- 11:53Speaker 1: of Chanana, which I love that scripture mentions his name,
- 11:56Speaker 1: because that's just like shaming him for the rest of
- 11:59Speaker 1: his life, Like, oh, yeah, Zedekiah, the false prophet. This
- 12:03Speaker 1: guy Zedekiah did claim to be a prophet of Yahweh.
- 12:07Speaker 1: It says that he made himself horns of iron and said,
- 12:11Speaker 1: Yahweh says, with these, you shall push the Syrians until
- 12:14Speaker 1: they are consumed. So Zedekiah he was not inspired. Obviously
- 12:19Speaker 1: his prophecies did not come true, as we're going to
- 12:21Speaker 1: find out. But yet he sounds a lot like a prophet,
- 12:25Speaker 1: and he's even doing something that feels prophetic, right, you know,
- 12:29Speaker 1: because whenever we see the stories of the prophets in
- 12:31Speaker 1: the Old Testament, they often have like imagery that they
- 12:34Speaker 1: use or some sort of like actual object. For example, Jeremiah,
- 12:41Speaker 1: the famous prophet, went around wearing a yoke for one
- 12:46Speaker 1: of his prophecies. So the prophets would use objects to
- 12:50Speaker 1: get their point across. And so Zedekiah is just copying
- 12:53Speaker 1: what he heard other prophets do, and he's making himself
- 12:57Speaker 1: look like a real prophet. But he was a charlatan.
- 13:01Speaker 1: And man, that's the thing. Nowadays, we got to be
- 13:03Speaker 1: really really careful of these prophets because they can really
- 13:07Speaker 1: make themselves sound like prophets, make themselves look like a prophet,
- 13:13Speaker 1: imitate real prophets, but they're not inspired. At all. They're
- 13:16Speaker 1: just really good actors. In some cases they might be
- 13:19Speaker 1: very charming, but in the end they're nothing but Charlatan's.
- 13:22Speaker 1: There is only one way to tell if a prophet
- 13:25Speaker 1: is a true prophet. His prophecy has to come true
- 13:29Speaker 1: and together he can never deny the name of God
- 13:34Speaker 1: or what Scripture has to say. If he does those
- 13:38Speaker 1: two things together, he is a true prophet. If he
- 13:41Speaker 1: does only one of those things, like say, he gives
- 13:44Speaker 1: this prophecy and it comes true, but he denies parts
- 13:47Speaker 1: of Scripture, or he denies who God is, that guy
- 13:51Speaker 1: is not a real prophet. He is a faker, and
- 13:54Speaker 1: it's either coincidence that his prophecy came true or he's
- 14:00Speaker 1: not working with God's power but a different type of power.
- 14:04Speaker 1: We do know, based upon biblical stories, that Satan does
- 14:08Speaker 1: have some power to predict the future. There is actually
- 14:12Speaker 1: a story in the Book of Acts where this young girl,
- 14:16Speaker 1: a slave girl, had a demon inside of her, and
- 14:20Speaker 1: this demon gave her the ability to predict fortunes and
- 14:26Speaker 1: she became a very famous fortune teller in Paul's day
- 14:31Speaker 1: because of this demon inside her. So Satan does have
- 14:34Speaker 1: some power, and he can often influence these prophets to
- 14:39Speaker 1: predict something that may or may not come true. But
- 14:42Speaker 1: just because it does come true, it does not necessarily
- 14:46Speaker 1: mean that prophet is always of God. They also have
- 14:50Speaker 1: to be a Yahweh worshiper and cannot deny what scripture says.
- 14:55Speaker 1: And the other way to tell if somebody is a
- 14:57Speaker 1: false prophet or not is if their prophecy doesn't come
- 14:59Speaker 1: true at all. Like even if they believe in Yahweh
- 15:03Speaker 1: and they claim Yahweh's name and they say, God, it
- 15:07Speaker 1: gave me this vision of the future, and here's what's
- 15:10Speaker 1: going to happen. If that prophecy does not come true,
- 15:13Speaker 1: that guy is not a real prophet. He is a
- 15:15Speaker 1: false prophet. So you can always tell a false prophet
- 15:19Speaker 1: or a true prophet if they meet those two requirements.
- 15:23Speaker 1: They have to be a true Yahweh follower and they
- 15:26Speaker 1: have to have their prophecy come true. This guy, Zadekiah
- 15:30Speaker 1: in verse ten was not a true prophet. He was
- 15:33Speaker 1: a false prophet. He claimed the name of God, but
- 15:37Speaker 1: his prophecies did not come true, as we are going
- 15:40Speaker 1: to find out. But all these other prophets who are
- 15:43Speaker 1: with Zedekiah said the same thing. They said to the kings,
- 15:48Speaker 1: go up to ram with Gilead and prosper Verse eleven,
- 15:51Speaker 1: for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king. Now,
- 15:56Speaker 1: why do you think these prophets were saying all this
- 16:00Speaker 1: to butter the kings up. They wanted to just give
- 16:03Speaker 1: King Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. He clearly wanted
- 16:07Speaker 1: to go out to battle. So they're gonna say, yeah, yeah,
- 16:09Speaker 1: go out to battle. Everything will be fine. It'll probably
- 16:12Speaker 1: be fine. In fact, God told me it's gonna be fine,
- 16:15Speaker 1: so it'll be fine probably. And all the prophets are
- 16:19Speaker 1: in agreement with this. Not a single one of those
- 16:22Speaker 1: four hundred men said anything different, except for Machiah, who
- 16:27Speaker 1: comes into the picture in verse twelve. The messenger who
- 16:30Speaker 1: went to call Makaiah spoke to him saying, behold, the
- 16:33Speaker 1: words of the prophets declare good to the king with
- 16:36Speaker 1: one mouth, let your word. Therefore, please be like one
- 16:39Speaker 1: of theirs and speak good. And I imagine this messenger
- 16:43Speaker 1: honestly had Macaiah's best interest in heart when he said this,
- 16:48Speaker 1: because I'm sure that this messenger knew that Macaiah rarely
- 16:54Speaker 1: spoke positive things to Ahab and often spoke negatively to
- 16:59Speaker 1: Ahab because you know, Ahab was a bad king and
- 17:02Speaker 1: those truly were the prophecies against Ahab, and Makiah would
- 17:07Speaker 1: tell Ahab, you gotta stop, like turn away from your
- 17:10Speaker 1: wickedness or this will happen. And then you know, Ahab
- 17:13Speaker 1: ended up just hating Makiah because of that. But this
- 17:17Speaker 1: messenger is like Makaiah, just say good things, you know,
- 17:20Speaker 1: get yourself out of trouble for once in your life.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Don't make the king angry. It's not good for anybody
- 17:25Speaker 1: if the king's angry. And so Machiah says to the messenger,
- 17:29Speaker 1: as Yahweh lives, I will say what my God says.
- 17:33Speaker 1: So he gets to the king in verse fourteen, and
- 17:36Speaker 1: the king asks him, Makiah, shall we go to Ramath
- 17:39Speaker 1: Gilead to battle or shall I forbear? And he says,
- 17:43Speaker 1: go up and prosper. They shall be delivered into your hand.
- 17:49Speaker 1: And of course, Makaiah he's definitely speaking very sarcastically here,
- 17:56Speaker 1: you know he is, because Ahab gets angry. In the
- 17:59Speaker 1: next verse he says, how many times shall I adjure
- 18:02Speaker 1: you that you speak to me nothing but the truth?
- 18:04Speaker 1: In Yahweh's name. So Machia is being very snarky there.
- 18:09Speaker 1: He was imitating all of these other prophets that Ahab
- 18:12Speaker 1: wanted to hear. But everybody knew that Machia was being snarky.
- 18:16Speaker 1: So Ahab yells at him. He's like, just speak to
- 18:19Speaker 1: me the truth, tell me what you need to say,
- 18:22Speaker 1: Just get it out. And so Macia says, I saw
- 18:27Speaker 1: all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have
- 18:30Speaker 1: no shepherd. You always said, these have no master. Let
- 18:34Speaker 1: them each return to his house in peace. Who that's
- 18:38Speaker 1: a bad prophecy for Ahab because Macaiah literally just said, Ahab,
- 18:42Speaker 1: if you go to battle, you're gonna die. These sheep
- 18:46Speaker 1: that are with you are going to be scattered. They
- 18:49Speaker 1: will not have a master anymore if you go out
- 18:52Speaker 1: to this battle. That's what he says. And so Ahab
- 18:57Speaker 1: here's how he responds. He turns to Jehoshaphat and he says,
- 19:02Speaker 1: didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good
- 19:05Speaker 1: concerning me, but evil. You'd think that if you heard
- 19:11Speaker 1: somebody prophesy that to you, that you would like take
- 19:15Speaker 1: note of that and be like, hmm, maybe I shouldn't
- 19:18Speaker 1: go out to battle because this guy says I'm going
- 19:21Speaker 1: to die in battle, and that might not be a
- 19:24Speaker 1: good thing. But no, Ahab is so stubborn and so
- 19:28Speaker 1: fully turned off to Yahwei's real word that he can't
- 19:34Speaker 1: even believe that Makiah might be saying something true. And
- 19:39Speaker 1: I'm sure this was very difficult even for Makia to
- 19:42Speaker 1: say that Ahab is going to die if he goes
- 19:45Speaker 1: out to battle. But that was the truth, that was
- 19:49Speaker 1: Yahweh's word, and so Makiah truly held nothing back. He
- 19:53Speaker 1: told that messenger, I'm not going to hold anything back.
- 19:56Speaker 1: What God tells me to say, I'm going to say it.
- 19:58Speaker 1: And Makaiah certainly did that. But Ahab is so stubborn
- 20:02Speaker 1: and so staunchly against Yahweh that he can't listen to
- 20:07Speaker 1: a warning that will protect his own life. Now, to
- 20:14Speaker 1: end the episode, I'd like to talk some more about prophecy,
- 20:17Speaker 1: but before I do, please listen to this word from
- 20:20Speaker 1: one of our sponsors. To close out the episode, I
- 20:24Speaker 1: want to say one final thing about profits real quick. Yes,
- 20:28Speaker 1: there's a lot of false prophets out there. As we
- 20:30Speaker 1: just talked about a lot of people claiming to believe
- 20:33Speaker 1: in God and claiming to be a prophet. But they're
- 20:36Speaker 1: just making stuff up for clout or fame or whatever,
- 20:41Speaker 1: or money. But the ones who truly are profits, we
- 20:44Speaker 1: need to listen to them. First Thessalonians five nineteen through
- 20:48Speaker 1: twenty one says this, do not quench the spirit, do
- 20:52Speaker 1: not despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to
- 20:57Speaker 1: what is good. And then if you turn to First
- 20:59Speaker 1: John four one through three, here's what it says, beloved,
- 21:03Speaker 1: don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they
- 21:07Speaker 1: are of God, because many false prophets have gone out
- 21:10Speaker 1: into the world. By this, you know the spirit of God.
- 21:13Speaker 1: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in
- 21:16Speaker 1: the flesh is of God. And every spirit who doesn't
- 21:18Speaker 1: confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
- 21:21Speaker 1: not of God, and is the spirit of the Antichrist,
- 21:24Speaker 1: of whom you've heard that it comes now. It is
- 21:27Speaker 1: in the world already. So that is what we're supposed
- 21:30Speaker 1: to do with prophecies. We're not supposed to hate every
- 21:33Speaker 1: single person that claims to be a prophet, because there
- 21:36Speaker 1: are real prophets out there. That is one of the
- 21:39Speaker 1: spiritual gifts that God gives. But there's probably more fake
- 21:43Speaker 1: prophets out there than real prophets, because prophecy is an
- 21:46Speaker 1: easy thing to fake. Quite honestly, you can just make
- 21:49Speaker 1: up a story about something God told you, and nobody
- 21:52Speaker 1: can really say if it's the truth or not unless
- 21:57Speaker 1: it doesn't come true in the end. But unt till
- 22:00Speaker 1: that time comes, you can fake a lot and pretend
- 22:04Speaker 1: a lot, like a lot of things that God has
- 22:06Speaker 1: told you. So that's why First John four and First
- 22:09Speaker 1: Thessalonians five tells us to test these prophecies and these spirits.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Test them and see which ones are good and which
- 22:18Speaker 1: ones are evil, which ones are of the Antichrist. So
- 22:21Speaker 1: don't be like Ahab believing false prophecies and ignoring the
- 22:25Speaker 1: good prophets, even if the good prophets are not telling
- 22:29Speaker 1: you something you want to hear, because a lot of times,
- 22:33Speaker 1: that's the reason why prophecy exists in the first place,
- 22:36Speaker 1: is to warn us of something bad that is going
- 22:38Speaker 1: to happen and to help us turn away from that
- 22:41Speaker 1: bad thing that will happen. Prophecy is for our benefit,
- 22:45Speaker 1: even if it doesn't sound good in the moment. Don't
- 22:48Speaker 1: be like Ahab ignoring the true prophets and clinging to
- 22:53Speaker 1: something that sounds good but it's just fake prophecy. Well,
- 23:00Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode about profits
- 23:04Speaker 1: and about King Ahab and King Jehashafat. We'll finish up
- 23:08Speaker 1: this passage of scripture on Wednesday and talk more about
- 23:10Speaker 1: Macaiah's prophecy and how Ahab and King Jehashafat end up
- 23:15Speaker 1: handling this whole situation. So I hope you guys tune
- 23:18Speaker 1: in then at six am or whenever you choose to
- 23:20Speaker 1: wake up and listen. Now. Of course, tomorrow we're going
- 23:22Speaker 1: to be finishing up the Book of First Timothy, which
- 23:25Speaker 1: is super duper exciting. So I hope to see you
- 23:28Speaker 1: guys tomorrow as we close out First Timothy and end
- 23:31Speaker 1: another book in the New Testament. Faithful listeners, as always,
- 23:35Speaker 1: happy listening and God bless. I just want to take
- 23:43Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
- 23:45Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
- 23:49Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens
- 23:51Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
- 23:54Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study parenting, and more.