1 Kings 22 · a question people ask
"The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (22:23). How can that be, if God doesn't lie?
Micaiah tells what he saw: "I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left" (22:19). "The LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing, and another said another" (22:20). "A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’" (22:21). "The LORD said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’" (22:22). "Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you" (22:23). In Hebrew entice is patah (tap entice), and lying is sheqer (tap lying). Elsewhere the Bible says, "God is not a man, that he should lie" (Numbers 23:19), and "it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18); James writes, "God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). Christians read the vision in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree on what the chapter says: the LORD asked who would entice Ahab (22:20); a spirit offered, and the LORD said, "Go out and do so" (22:22); and Micaiah told the king all of it to his face (22:19-23), yet "the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead" (22:29). Both read the vision beside Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18 and James 1:13. 1 Samuel 16's question on "an evil spirit from the LORD" (1 Samuel 16:14) and 2 Samuel 24's on who moved David (2 Samuel 24:1) take up questions like this one, and both point to this vision.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A spirit acted, and the LORD allowed it
Those who read it this way take the lie as the spirit's own: "I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets" (22:22). The LORD's part is to allow it and to set its bounds, as in Job, where the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand" (Job 1:12), and later, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life" (Job 2:6). They point too to one census told two ways: "he moved David against them" (2 Samuel 24:1), and "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel" (1 Chronicles 21:1). On this reading, "the LORD has put a lying spirit" (22:23) says that nothing the spirit did was outside the LORD's rule.
1 Kings 22:21-23 · Job 1:12 · Job 2:6 · 2 Samuel 24:1 · 1 Chronicles 21:1
The LORD's judgment at work
Those who read it this way start with 22:23's own words: "the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you" (22:23). They read it as the LORD's judgment on a king who had said of the one prophet who told him the LORD's word, "I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil" (22:8). They point to Ezekiel, where the LORD says, "If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet" (Ezekiel 14:9), and in Hebrew deceived there is the verb of entice here. And they point to Paul, who writes of those who "didn’t receive the love of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:10): "Because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:11). On this reading the lie was the LORD's judgment on the king who hated the one prophet who told him the LORD's word (22:8), and the LORD still had the truth told to him first: "the LORD has spoken evil concerning you" (22:23).
1 Kings 22:23 · 1 Kings 22:8 · Ezekiel 14:9 · 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11
The verses
“So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.”
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?”
“that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.”
“Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.”