1 Kings 22:19-28
"19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another.21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
24 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?” 25 And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” 26 And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” 28 And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”"
This weird vision of Micaiah's is very frightening in its implications. Before we instinctively react against the idea of God being responsible for the lying spirit that deceived Ahab into going to his doom at Ramoth Gilead, we should turn to Romans 1, where Paul teaches - as a distinctive part of the Christian revelation - that God sometimes gives evil men over to a reprobate mind. This is the real key to the understanding of this passage. It is also true that ly- ing spirits are the minions of Satan, but even Satan is in the control of God and his spirits must work in obedience to the divine will. This is confirmed to us in the opening chapters of Job, where Satan appears before God in heaven and is given permission to tempt Job, but for- bidden to go further than God allows. In this case, Ahab had repeatedly gone against God and in the passage of the years had steadily hardened his heart against the good until God judicially and in righteous anger hardened his heart, and confirmed it in the tragic course of evil which he had chosen for himself.
Micaiah suffered inevitably for uttering such a prophecy, and was imprisoned, with the bread and water of affliction for his fare. Those who stand faithful to God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation are very likely to suffer for it, but there is a hidden sweetness in their prison fare. 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me' said our Lord, and those who follow in His footsteps will not lack for divine nourishment. Them that honour God He will surely honour.