1 Kings 22:5-9
"5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.”"
So Jehoshaphat has already begun to be uneasy about the situation! (5) As well he might. But it is rather late to be seeking the Lord's will after you have committed yourself to your desired course of action. The subsequent happenings should certainly have made him pause to think, but apparently they did not, for he continued in the unfortunate alliance with Ahab even into battle against the Syrians, to his peril and discomfiture. The fact is, when we are set upon going in a particular direction, our minds are usually blinded to any kind of spiritual intimations that might show us to be wrong, and with sublime (self) confidence we assume that all is well.
However, the mind of the Lord was to be enquired about, and in spite of the unanimous verdict of Ahab's prophets, who prophesied just what was expected of them, that Ahab should be victorious, Jehoshaphat had doubts about this display of the 'yes-men', and asked if there was no prophet of the Lord to be consulted. Micaiah was mentioned by Ahab, but with manifest disfavour and disapproval. There is a transparent ingenuousness about the King's comment on the prophet that speaks volumes, and which made him say what most men hide in the secret of their hearts - 'I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil' (8). There are many who would never face up to the real reason why they hate the servants of God - they must needs concoct excuses in real or imagined faults in their character or conduct. We should certainly realise that these are but excuses; the reason for the hatred is that their word has condemned them. And that, it seems, can never be forgiven.