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This explains the otherwise strange fact that his emphatic warning remained so
entirely unheeded. It was, as we imagine, during the interval while Micaiah was
being brought from his prison, that the leader of the false prophets indulged in a
symbolical action. We can scarcely be mistaken in supposing that when Zedekiah
rushed forward holding against his forehead two pointed pieces of iron, and
exclaiming: "With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until they be consumed," he
referred to the Divine promise by Moses in regard to Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:17).
"His horns, the horns of buffaloes: with them shall he push down the nations."
Here was the kingdom of Ephraim - the son of Joseph - and Ahab was the
representative of that promise which was now about to have its fulfillment. Deeply
interesting as this reference is, as showing the mixture of Old Testament religion and
acknowledgment of God which, as we have seen, was combined in these prophets
with that which was false, and opposed to Jehovah, it is also instructive as implying
that the Book of Deuteronomy was not only existent at the time this history was
originally recorded, but that its sayings - specially so far as they referred to Israel -
must have thoroughly permeated the people.
If, as seems likely, the object of Zedekiah's symbolic action had been to impress on
all present the certainty of his prediction, the arrival of Micaiah speedily changed the
aspect of things. On the way, the official charged with bringing him from the prison
had told Micaiah of the unanimous prediction of success by the four hundred
prophets, and asked him to confirm it. We do not wonder at the emphatic reply which
this elicited. If the prophetic office was to fulfill its Divine object, or, indeed, to be
continued in Israel, it was needful to state distinctly that the prophet would, without
fear or favor, simply deliver the message of Jehovah. And this, rather than irony,
seems to have been also the reason why, in answer to Ahab's inquiry, Micaiah at first
spoke in the same terms as the false prophets. Such a mechanical outward conformity
to them could not have been misunderstood. It meant that Ahab did not really wish to
have a message from Jehovah; that he had chosen his own path and his own guides in
it. Ahab evidently understood him so, and, rendered bold by the scene which had
been enacted, and by the apparent unwillingness, or, it might be, inability of Micaiah
to interpose, he adjured him to speak only the truth in the name of Jehovah. Thus
challenged, Micaiah could no longer hesitate. Indeed, after his first apparent
confirmation of what the prophets had declared, as it were in chorus, his message
would come with the more startling effect. We may also mark that it affords us yet
further insight into the nature and origin of prophecy. When Micaiah said: "I saw all
Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; and Jehovah said,
These have no masters, let them return every man to his house in peace," - the words
(^)