his lips, bccau~e he would he.ve it known he is Jehoshaphe.t, e.nd not Ahab I All this was dangerou8ly close steering for the conscience; it brouaht upon him the distinct reproof and very forcibly expressed condemnation of the se~r Hanani, so soon e.s ever he ree.ched Jeruse.lem; and all was occa.sioned by his being dre.aged on step by step in e. wrong course from the position, originally a false one, ~ which 'he had placed himself. II. AHAB. Things are very near their end for Ahab. The view is that of a man using up to the best advantage the last of his wits, which he had of long time trusted to his disadvantage, which long time had led him wrong, and were now rapidly going to lead_ him to the fatal end. We notice: 1. How he prepared the way by lavish entertamment of the King of Judah and his retinue, in order to utilize the opportunity to persuade him, apparently, to pass his word" to go up to Re.moth-Gilead," but cer- tainly to pass an opinion favourable to doing so. 2. How immediately he acceded to the :propogal of Jehoshaphat th_at the Lord should be inquired of, but as immediately repaired to and Rummoned "his" own "prophets" (ver. 21). 3. How the force of circumstances extracted from him a faithful statement of the true state of his feelings towards the true prophet (ver. 7). 4. How the "officer," or "messenger," sent to bring Micaiah quickly, did his endeavour, no ;doubt at the instigation of Ahab, to pervert (vers. 12, 13) the testimony which Micaiah should give, but vainly. 5. How certainly he detected the consequent sarcasm, the veiled compliance of Micaiah (vers. 14, 15), and the rather drew out more fully all the thing as it was from Micaiah, but as he did not want to have it, or to have it uttered I 6. How the wicked action of one of his false prophets suited him exactly (vers. 23-25), and bridged the way both to satisfy his own resentment and to put a fair face on the position in the presence of Jehoshaphat. He was, perhaps, trembling all the whilo lest Jehoshaphat, hearing and seeing all, should have summoned up the moral courage to have done just the thing which he ought to have done, and withdrawn altogether from the enterprise, or from all association with Ahab in it! 7. Lastly, how Ahab entered the battle-field, ill at ease, dishonouring himself by disguising himself, and with too sure a presage of what was in store for him; and the prophecy of Elijah found its fulfilment (1 Kings xxi. 19). III. THE FALSE PROPHETS. These, wherever found, are the prophets who seek to please man; who would divine, a task only too easy, what man wishes them to say. In this case they are emphatically called, on the highest authority (vers. 21, 22), ..&hab's prophets, not those of the Lord. Unfaithfulness in the professed teaching of religion never does anything better than lets through those who accept it. The anger and intemperateness of that one of the false prophets who had been most demonstrative, most dramatic ( vers. 10, 23), a.re much to be noticed-noticed as marking, as measuring the personal feeling and, iu a word, the very temper which should be most utterly absent from the true messenger of God, of his truth, and his will. !V. Tm: ONE BLAMELESS, BEAUTIFUL, AND EVEN TYPICAL FIGURE OF THE TRUE PROPm:T. He was already, it appears, a marked man, and, had it been possible, marIced down by King Ahab. We notice : 1. When all pressure was put on him, and he knew very well what it meant, that he asserted the inviolability of his duty-abso- lute fidelity to his instructions! 2. We must notice the deep knowledge imparted to him of human nature; how to touch it at its root; how to gain effectively its ear under the most favourable circumstances; how, in the presence of such, even to enlarge its own opportunity for exposition of the truth (vers. 14--22). The parable, as we may call it, of the sheep on the mountains without a shepherd, and the vision of the council of heaven, or in heaven, which had been vouchsafed to Micaiah,-what tales they tell to all those who now are listening to him ! One against not fewer than four hundred and two! The plainness, the point, the forcibleness, and the fearlessness of his utter- ance are all the perfection of the true prophet. For us, too, this passage most instruc- tively illustrates the method, or one of the methods, by which prophot and seer of old saw and then announced the real revelations of heaven to earth. 3. But the perfec- tion of the true prophet is yet more intrinsically present in the forbearingness, the Jmiient suffering, the not returning railing for railing, "the fellowship of sufferings" with the One Prophet; as Micaiah was "smitten on the cheek," as he was" thrust i1,to prison," as he was " fed with the bread aud water of affliction," as ho uttered no prcooking word nor murmured, because of the consequencos to himself, of his faithful on. xvm. 1-34.] THE SECOND BOOK OF 'l'llE CHRONICLES. 219
ministry. The day that was fateful and fatal to the wicked king Ahab, who now filled up the measure of his iniquity; that was dismay, confusion, exposure, to four hundred folso proph~ts; that, ali\s I tarnished even the history and character of Jehoshaphat-was the day in which the blameless Micaiah "shone forth as the sun in the firmament of heaven."