The king of Judah, king Jehoshaphat, was a good king who listened to the Lord.

 

He went down to see the king of Israel, king Ahab, who was a bad king and bowed down to the bad ones.

While they were talking, the king of Israel said to the king of Judah, Will you go with me to fight and take back the land that the king of Syria took from us?

 

 

The king of Judah said, First let’s ask the Lord if we should do this.

 

So the king of Israel brought in men who spoke words from the bad ones (they pretend to be telling God’s words).

 

 

 

These 400 men told the two kings, The Lord says, Go, the Lord will make you win the battle.

 

 

But the king of Judah knew these men weren’t speaking for the Lord so he said, Get me a prophet who really speaks for the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

The king of Israel said, There is one man, Micaiah, but he never says anything good about me, he only says bad things.

 

They called Micaiah and he came in before the two kings sitting there in their royal robes.

They asked him to ask the Lord if they should go to the battle and he answered, I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep that have no shepherd. Let them all go home in peace.

 

 

 

 

This meant that the king of Israel, king Ahab, would be killed in the battle.

 

 

 

The king said, See, didn’t I tell you he never says anything good about me?

 

Then Micaiah said more, he said, I saw the Lord sitting on His throne with all the hosts of heaven gathered around Him.

 

 

 

The Lord on His throne said to those gathered around Him, Who will convince Ahab to go to battle against Syria that I may destroy him?

A spirit came out and said, I will go and convince king Ahab to go to battle. The Lord asked, How will you do it? The spirit said, I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of his men who say they are telling him Your words.

 

 

The king put Micaiah in prison for these words and went to battle anyway.

But king Ahab was scared of the words Micaiah had said so he said to king Jehoshaphat, You wear your king’s clothes, but I will wear soldier’s clothes so the enemies won’t know that I’m king.

They went out to battle and the enemies were looking only for the king. When they saw Jehoshaphat’s royal robes they went after him, but God protected him by showing them he wasn’t king Ahab.

 

A soldier  shot an arrow and accidentally hit king Ahab, though he didn’t know it was the king.

And king Ahab died like the Lord had said. The arrow killed him and he died in his chariot and they took him back home and washed the blood out of his chariot right where he had killed Naboth to take his vineyard.

 

The Lord paid back king Ahab for the bad that he did to Naboth, in letting his wife Jezebel have Naboth killed and taking his vineyard.