I hate that guy!

So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat,"There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say such things!" – 1 Kings 22v8

Israel and Judah had an unusual relationship. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes they were at war, and sometimes they just co-existed.

At this time Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came to Ahab, king of Israel, to acquire his alliance to take Ramoth of Gilead. They seemed to have the right motivation, ‘Lets see what God has to say about it.’

Ahab called together 400 of his prophets and asked them – ‘Go ahead and take it. God will give it to you.’

Jehoshaphat was not satisfied. ‘Okay, but is there a prophet of Jehovah that we can ask?’

Ahab did not like that question – ‘Well, there is Micaiah, but I hare him because he only gives me bad news!’

Now, that may be a bit extreme, but how often do people hate the messenger because of His message? He didn’t hate anything about Micaiah personally, as far as we know, he hated what he said.

Anyone who treats the gospel seriously is going to face Micaiah like moments in his life. Jesus even tells us in advance that His message is going to cause offence.

Nobody likes to hear that they are a sinner. No one likes to hear that they are bound for hell unless they turn to Christ.

People are going to hate our message. Chances are that they are going to hate us as well. Our only proper response is to mix our message with the love of Christ.

Don’t be shocked when people turn away from us. We have an advantage over Micaiah. Whereas all he had for Ahab was bad news, we have the good news of Christ to go with the bad news of an eternity without Him.