Lord, I want to be such a pastor.

“Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, ‘Behold, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. So please let your word be like one of them and speak favorably.’  But Micaiah said, ‘As the LORD lives, what my God says, that I will speak.’” (2 Chronicles 18:12-13)

           I heard the honest confession of a believer who wanted to hear a sermon of comfort and a positive sermon, even for at least one hour of worship on a Sunday, living in a world that is so difficult.  So, a pastor says that he preaches ‘safe sermons’ (a sermon that he can preach and he doesn’t have to preach).  But another believer says that ‘safe sermon’ is dangerous.  The reason is because the safe sermon is a sermon that the church members can nod moderately while listening to it, but it disappears from their heads as soon as they leave the church building, and it doesn’t cause any anguish or conflict within them.  That's why they say that the pastor should preach ‘a dangerous sermon,’ a sermon that clearly reveals what is true and what is false rather than a sermon that will never change any soul.  It is as if the people who listen to Jesus are extremely divided and angry and want to kill him, or whether his words change their entire lives.  What do you think?

                According to the context of 2 Chronicles 18:12-1, before Jehoshaphat king of Judea and Ahab king of Israel went together to fight against Ramoth Gilead (vv. 1-3), King Jehoshaphat asked King Ahab to ask him what the word of the Lord was (v. 4).  Then King Ahab gathered 400 prophets and asked them, “Shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” (v. 5).  Then the 400 prophets said to the two kings, “Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king” (v. 5).  And among these 400 prophets, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went so far as to say, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are consumed’” (v. 10).  At that time, many prophets prophesied likewise, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead and succeed, for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king” (v. 11).  In a word, these 400 prophets all spoke favorably to the king (v. 12).  Then Jehoshaphat, king of Judea, asked, “Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?” (v. 6)  Ahab, king of Israel, who heard this said to King Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah” (v. 7).  Who likes a man who always tells him bad things?  Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat, king of Judea, wanted to hear the prophecy of the prophet Micaiah (v. 7).  So Ahab king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlas at once” (v. 8).  The official, who had received the command, went to Micaiah and said, “Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably” (v. 12).  How tempting is this?  If the prophet Micaiah had listened to the official and, like the other 400 prophets, had spoken good words to King Ahab, he would not need to suffer (v. 26).  He would not need to be put in prison if he prayed to God, ‘God, I am going to lie just once.  I am sorry,” and spoke kindly to King Ahab, in order to escape the crisis (v. 26).  And he would not have had to be slapped by Zedekiah (v. 23), nor would he have been bullied by the other 400 prophets.  But the prophet Micaiah didn’t.  He spoke what the LORD spoke of disaster against the king Ahab (v. 22).  The word of the disaster was that “the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of” the King Ahab (v. 22), spoke favorably to King Ahab, and eventually enticed King Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his dead there (v. 19).  God's prophet Micaiah said, “only what my God says” (v. 13).  Whose prophecy was really fulfilled?  Was it the prophecy of 400 prophets or the prophecy of one prophet Micaiah?  King Ahab of Israel went up to Ramoth Gilead (v. 28) and fought the army of the king of Syria, and died (v. 34), just as the prophet Micaiah had prophesied.  Who is the true prophet of God?  Are the 400 prophets who spoke favorably to King Ahab?  Or, the prophet Micaiah, who prophesied “always bad” in King Ahab’s point of view (v. 7), and who spoke “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says” (v. 13)?

We, the pastors, should pray to God like this: 'God, make me a pastor like the prophet Micaiah.'  We must be a pastor who says what God is saying to us through the Scripture.  Even if there are some believers who listen to our sermons who live in a world that is too difficult and want to hear a sermon of comfort or a positive sermon, even for at least an hour of worship on a Sunday, we should only preach the word of God as truth (Lk. 20:21).  If the word of God proclaimed comforts us, it will comfort us; if it is a word that rebukes us, it will rebuke us.  What is important is not comfort or rebuke, but the word of God itself.  Therefore, as Christians who love and adore the word of God, we must humbly accept it, whether it is positive or negative, good or bad (from our point of view as listeners).  And we must become those who hear the word with a noble and good heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience (Lk, 8:15). I earnestly hope and pray that the Lord will raise us up as pastors like the prophet Micaiah.