° Ezek. xiii. 10, 11, 16, 18. with Jer. vi. 14.
P Eph. V. 11. 1 Amos v. 10. -^ Matt. v. 11, 12.
Satan's stratagem to deceive ahab.
1 Kings xxii. 19 — 23. A)id he said, Hear thou therefore the ivord of the Lord: I satv the Lord sitting on his throne, and, all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left, y^nd the Lord said, Who shall j^ersuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead ? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I tvill persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Where- with ? And he said, I tvill go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his p7-ophets. And he said, Thou shall persuade him, and prevail also : go forth, arid do so. Notv therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath sjjoken evil concerning thee.
IN order to have a correct view of Scripture truths, we must consider particularly the style in which the Scriptures are written. They are accommodated to the weak apprehensions of fallen man. Hence in various descriptions of the Deity, he is represented as having eyes and ears and hands, and as deliberating and acting according to circumstances, just as if he were a man like unto us. But we must not therefore conceive of him as a man, but only as ordering his dispensations towards us with unerring wisdom. In like manner he is represented in the text as holding a conference with Satan, and as adopting a plan pro- posed by him for the effecting of purposes originating with himself. But we must not therefore suppose that God did not know how to effect his own purposes without any help from Satan : we must only under- stand that God overruled the devices of that wicked fiend for the accomplishment of his own will.
Indeed the particular representation here given, has an evident reference to what had actually taken place between the two confederate kings. They had put on their royal robes, and seated themselves on thrones in the midst of all their courtiers % in order to receive the counsel of the prophets respecting the projected war: and, agreeably to that, the prophet represents the Deity as enthroned amidst all the heavenly hosts, and holding a counsel with them about the best method of inflicting on Ahab his deserved punishment. It is not intended that we should construe this literally, as if all these questions and answers were really uttered by the different parties in a public assembly; but merely that God determined to make the designs of Ahab the means of his destruction.
There is however one point which may obviously be collected from this account, namely, the power of Satan to deceive men; and it will form a very profitable subject for our present consideration. Let us then inquire into, I. The sources of his power —
a ver. 10.
355.] Satan's stratagem to deceive ahab. 447
Satan has from the beginning been the great de- ceiver of mankind. But whence has he this power to deceive ? We answer,
1. From his having so many other spirits mider his command —
[The flillen angels are many in number, and so numerous, that one single person possessed by devils called himself " Legion," because of the exceeding greatness of the number that dwelt within him. Of these there are different ranks and orders, just as there are of the good angels ; and they are all vmited mider one head, even " Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." Of Ahab's prophets there were four hundred ; and, through the influence of one spirit, they were all possessed by spirits perfectly united with each other for the accomplishment of one end. Now this gives them an immense advantage. Had there been but one, or only a few, we might have hoped to escape their notice, or be visited by them but seldom : but there is reason to believe that they are immensely more nume- rous than the human race, so that there is not a human being that is not infested with them, nor a moment of time when they are not ready to take advantage of us.]