Hello and Welcome!

I have always enjoyed the lesson about Micaiah.

The Courageous Prophet

Who Told the Truth!

Helping our students develop good character

is key in helping them in their everyday life

and especially to be pleasing to the Lord.

Honesty is one thing that is exactly like the character of God.

Titus 1:2.

Lesson Text: 1 Kings 22:1-40; 2 Chronicles 18:1-34

Extra Bible Verses:

What does it mean to tell the truth?

To tell exactly what happened.

What does it mean to tell a lie?

To change the story or not tell exactly how something happened.

Our lesson is about a Prophet who had the courage to tell the truth.

Prophet - A prophet is someone who boldly spoke God's messages to God's people.
They could tell what would happen in the future.

Today our lesson is from the Old Testament - 1 Kings 22

Use Globe and Labeled Maps - United and Divided Kingdoms.

This is the land where the Israelites lived.

Our Bible lesson takes place during the Mosaic age when the Israelites followed the Old Testament Law in the time of the Minor Kings (show on timeline), when the Kingdom of Israel Had divided and had become 2 Kingdoms known as the:

Northern Kingdom - Israel
Southern Kingdom - Judah

Sometimes these Kingdoms would be at war with other nations around them.

(Map) - Locate Aram/Syria.

Aram/Syria was one of the nation that had made war against the nation of Israel and had taken over the area of Ramoth-Gilead, (black arrow on map).

Vs.1- It had been 3 years since Israel and Aram had been at war.

Vs. 2- It was during this 3rd year that Jehoshaphat the good King of Judah,
went down to visit Ahab the Bad King of Israel.*
(The King of Judah had riches and honor in abundance,
and had allied himself by marriage with King Ahab)

King Ahab did not like to listen to God very well
and that is what made him a bad King.

Listening to God is VERY important!

(Some dialog between the Kings)

The Kings had just gotten done eating and talked as they wore their royal roes
and sat on their thrones at the entance of the gate of Samaria,
2 Chronicle

s 18:2.**

King Ahab said to his servants,
"Do you know that Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us
and we are doing nothing to take it back from the King of Syria?

Then King Ahab of Israel asked King Jehoshaphat of Judah

if he would go into battle with him

at Ramoth-Gilead against the King of Syria.

King Jehoshaphat said, Yes!

"I am as you are.
My People as your people, my horses as your horses.
But first, please, ask the Lord if this is a good thing."

Who remembers what a prophet is?
Someone who boldly spoke God's messages to God's people.

The prophets could tell the Kings if going into battle

would be a good thing or not.

Today we listen to God by reading His Words in the Bible.

We think about what He said, (head)

We feel like obeying what He said, (heart)

and then we do what He wants, (hand).

So King Ahab called his prophets together.
There were about 400 of them!
They were bad prophets.
They knew that King Ahab REALLY wanted to fight.
They also knew that Ahab didn't care what God wanted or thought.
Ahab really didn't want to do what was right!

The prophets ended up saying "Go fight!"

Just to please King Ahab.

Now King Jehoshaphat WASN'T convinced that these were
prophets of God and that God wanted them to go into battle.
He asked, "Do you have any prophets of the Lord here that we may ask?

King Ahab said,
"I have one, but I don't like him. His name is Micaiah.
He always tells me bad messages from God,
but I will send for him,"

A messenger was sent to find Micaiah the Prophet
and when he found him he said,
"Hey Micaiah, the 400 other prophets said
that if Kin Ahab fights he will win.
I think you should tell the King the same thing."

But Micaiah answered,

"I will only tell him the truth about what God tells me."

When Micaiah arrived he saw

the two Kings and 400 prophets.

King Ahab asked him if they should go fight

with the nation of Aram/Syria.

Micaiah knew what the King WANTED to hear

so he ended up telling a lie like the other prophets saying,

"Go fight, you will win," (say in a depressed tone.)
Micaiah must have felt bad when he lied.
Telling the truth makes us feel so much better inside,

But then Ahab must have realized he was not telling the truth

and told Micaiah to tell the truth.

So Micaiah tells the truth

and again the King is disappointed

with Micaiah's (The Lord's) news.

But it WAS the truth!

Micaiah said,

" I saw the people wandering around like lost sheep without a shepherd.

God said, "They have no leader. Send these people home."

The message meant that something bad would happen to King Ahab

if he went to war. He would no longer be able to lead his soldiers.

(He would die.)

King Ahab said, "I told you so!

This one prophet tells me nothing good about myself."

Ahab is not thinking about how the message is really from God,

He just thinks Micaiah doesn't like him.

But it was the truth.

It WAS God's message and King Ahab had asked for the truth,

but did not want to believe it.

Micaiah told Ahab that all the other prophets had lied. ***

When one of the prophets named Zedekiah

heard what Micaiah said about them,

he became so angry he struck Micaiah on the cheek.

After learning what Micaiah said,

he did not want to put up with being

told his words were no to be trusted or good enough.

Then King Ahab ordered the prophet Micaiah to be put in prison.

But WAIT MICAIAH TOLD THE TRUTH!

King Ahab fed Micaiah with only bread and water to eat until

Ahab returned from battle in peace.

So the Kings are going to go out and fight.

But Micaiah said, "If you return from battle,

then I did not tell you the truth about God's message.

The truth was, that Ahab would not return.

He would die in battle.

King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat took their armies into battle.

(Show Ramoth-Gilead again)

Ahab didn't want the enemy to know that he was the King,

so he disguised himself and took off his royal robes

and put on a soldiers uniform.

But he told King Jehoshaphat to stay in his royal robes.

The King of Aram/Syria told his army to only fight King Ahab,

so when they saw King Jehoshaphat still wearing his robes

they thought that he was King Ahab and chased him!

Well, soon they found out he wasn't King Ahab

and left him alone.

Then a soldier shot an arrow in the air without aiming it at anyone.

The arrow came down and found it's target,

for it hit King Ahab in the crack of hit armor.

King Ahab died from the wound.

(For more about King Ahab's death see 1 Kings 22:34-38)

The Army came home just like Micaiah the prophet had said,

"Like sheep without a shepherd."

Their King was not with them anymore.

God saw the kind of man King Ahab really was.

God did send him a warning but he did not want to listen.

He just wanted to do what he wanted.

King Ahab should have listened to Micaiah

when he warned him about God's true message!!

Questions:

Did Micaiah do the right thing by telling the truth?
Yes, he did.

But sometimes,
those who are honest end up being hurt like Micaiah.

Was Micaiah pleasing to God?

Yes! Very much!

Who else in the Bible did nothing wrong, and was hurt?
Jesus.

God always wants us to tell the truth no matter what.

What might tempt or make someone want to lie?
- Being afraid of someone's anger.
- Being embarrassed to tell the truth.
- Afraid we might hurt someone's feelings.
- Knowing someone doesn't want to hear the truth.

We should always feel sad after telling a lie
because it is going against what God wants.

Let's fight against lying with these Bible verses!
Colossians 3:9-10
1 John 2:21
John 8:44

*Teacher note:

#1 Jehoshaphat's son was married to Ahab's daughter,

so a visit may not have been out of the ordinary,

2 Chronicles 18:1; 2 Kings 8:16-18.

#2 From Judah to Israel is going downhill

so that is why Jehoshaphat went "down" to Israel.

**Teacher note:

Kings in the Orient had Portable thrones.

*** Teacher note:
God was really behind the prophet's lies.
He had put a deceiving spirit in their mouths.
But in any case they lied.
1 Kings 22:19-20

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