2nd Chronicles 18:22
2nd Chronicles 18:18-22 (see also 2nd Kings 19:25)
Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right and on His left. The Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You are to entice him and prevail also. Go and do so.’ Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, for the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you.”
There is a difference between provoking someone to commit evil vs. bending someone’s evil to achieve a purpose. In the latter, evil is already present. God was willing that Ahab turn and repent. Ahab witnessed the miracles of Elijah. How many kings in Israel got to see that? Ahab was a hardened sinner, and God was putting an end to his reign in Israel.
Arminian, John Wesley, comments: “See the power of Satan! One lying spirit can make four hundred lying prophets. And thus he frequently becomes a murderer by being a liar and destroys men by deceiving them.” (John Wesley’s Commentary on the Bible, p.244)
4-Point Calvinist, Ron Rhodes, comments: “In 2 Chronicles 18:20-21, God does permit the activity of a ‘lying spirit.’ However, what God causes and what He allows are not the same. For example, God allowed Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, but He did not cause it. God allowed Lucifer’s rebellion against Him, but He did not cause it.” (Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses, p.75, emphasis mine)
Micaiah originally, and likely sarcastically, agreed with the other prophets that there would be a glorious victory by going into battle. But when Ahab detected his sarcasm, he said to Micaiah: “How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” (2nd Chronicles 18:15) Then when King Ahab heard the truth, he exclaimed to Jehoshaphat: “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” However, even after having heard the truth, through a prophet of the Lord, King Ahab still went into battle anyway, and of course, was killed by a random arrow that, very likely, was guided by the hand of the Lord. (2nd Chronicles 18:33-34)
After the death of King Ahab, God ordered Jehu to put to death, the rest of King Ahab’s family:
Question: Is God asking demons to tempt King Ahab by speaking lies?
Answer: Two things that we know about God is that He does not tempt anyone to sin, nor does God Himself commit sin. James 1:13 states: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” James 1:17 states: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
