Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #15 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to be reading Revelation 11:10:

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

In our last study we began to look at prophets and their prophecy, as God is referring to “two prophets” and we know the prophecy of the two prophets is the testimony of the Bible within the churches during the nearly two thousand years of the church age.  That prophecy was a source of “torment” to the people of the world.  They that dwell upon the earth rejoice and make merry and send gifts.  Why?   It is “because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”

Is it a torment to the people of the earth to hear that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives?  No – that is not a torment.  Is it a torment to hear that Jesus died for everyone and all sins are taken care of?  That is not a torment.  Actually, since false prophets are Satan’s emissaries of the kingdom of darkness, we find that they come with “good news.”  They come speaking very nice and kind and gentle and loving things: “My god would never destroy people.  My god would never choose certain ones, but not everyone.  It is not fair.”  Men devise their own gods out of their own thinking and they develop doctrines that are palatable and appeasing and non-offensive to the natural mind.  For example, God would not destroy children because in the view of the world children are innocent, so doctrines are developed where there is an “age of accountability.” A child that dies at age two, or age five or age seven, is saved and in heaven (even if they were not a Christian child or gave any evidence of salvation) because the child had not reached the “age of accountability.”  This is another doctrine that has been developed to please people and to flatter and to comfort them and soothe their minds.  These doctrines are wrong.  They are false and they are lies, but this is the nature of the teaching of a false prophet. 

Again, “to prophesy” is to declare the Word of God because the entire Bible is prophecy.  When we declare what the Bible says, we are prophesying.  Even today, after the Bible has been completed, God still uses that figure of His people – when they declare the Word of God, they are prophesying.  This is why He says that in the latter days, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”  He does not mean that there will continue to be prophets after the manner of Jeremiah or Isaiah, but it means that even after the Bible is completed, it will still be proclaimed and, therefore, proclaiming the Bible is prophesying.  There was prophesying in the days when the Bible was being complied and it was of a different nature; those prophets waited to receive a dream or a vision or a tongue where God communicated with them supernaturally and then they were moved to declare it, to write it down, or to speak it to a scribe that would right it down, and so forth.  God is not bringing that kind of revelation any longer and his people are not prophesying in that way, since the Bible is now completed, but there is prophesying in the sense of speaking forth the Word of God, the Bible.

In our last study we were looking at 1 Kings 22, where there were two kings, Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahab of Israel, who came together as allies to fight a common enemy.  It was customary for prophets to seek God to see if God had a message concerning the battle.  So the king of Israel had four hundred prophets gathered together.  It says in 1 Kings 22:5-7:

And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of JEHOVAH to day. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH besides, that we might enquire of him?

Now Jehoshaphat was a true believer, but Ahab was not.  So Jehoshaphat had “an ear” for truth, just like every true believer.  God says of His people, “My sheep hear my voice.”  Jehoshaphat was one of His elect and he heard four hundred prophets that prophesied good concerning the upcoming battle, saying, “Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king,” but notice Jehoshaphat’s response:

And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH besides, that we might enquire of him?

Why did Jehoshaphat say that?  It was because something did not “ring true.”  Something was wrong.  Yes, there was tremendous agreement among these prophets and every prophet that King Ahab could dig up and gather together was in complete agreement.  There were probably old prophets and young prophets and middle-age prophets.  There were probably some that spoke with booming voices and with tremendous authority.  Everything was pointing to a confirmation from God; they were all certain and they all spoke the same thing.  Yet something troubled Jehoshaphat and he asked, “Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH?”  It could have been that these other prophets were prophets of Baal.  We do not know, but Jehoshaphat wants to hear from a prophet of JEHOVAH and King Ahab responds, in 1Kings 22:8:

And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of JEHOVAH: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

Jehoshaphat would have been shocked at hearing that a prophet of JEHOVAH was hated by King Ahab.  A prophet of JEHOVAH would be one that speaks the Word of God and whatever His prophet speaks is the Word of God.  How could he say that he hated him? 

Now King Jehoshaphat is in deep trouble himself, as he had gotten into alliance with someone he should not have been in alliance with, because God warns in the Bible about there being no communion between “light and darkness” and that if two are not agreed, they should not walk together.  Yet, Jehoshaphat is doing something very unwise, but even in his lack of wisdom, he is still a child of God and he still has that “ear” that God gives to His people; He still wants to hear the truth from the true prophet of the Lord and he does not receive the Word of God as something to be hated.  Notice that King Ahab said, “I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”  Now we can see why it is that these four hundred prophets were approved of Ahab; they are acceptable to him and they are brought into the presence of the king and given a platform where they can speak: “Yes, you prophets.  Prophesy.  I want to hear whatever God has said to you.”  Ahab allows them to speak because he knows what they are going to say.  He has heard them before.  They speak what the king wants to hear and they speak in unison.  They are patriots.  They are individuals that are not going to “rock the boat,” to use a phrase.  They are all going to say the same thing. 

We see this in the churches today and in entire denominations.  Denominations will have their professors speak their particular denominational stance; they teach that denomination’s doctrines.  After all, it was the Presbyterians, or the Reformed Episcopalians, that hired them and they are of that denomination.  They have made it to a high position of authority within that denomination.  They know the denominational positions very well and teach the seminary students the Bible, but along with the position of their church.  “If you want to be a minister within our church, you must accept these positions.”  So the seminary students are brought through the “learning mill” and they comes out with their Master of Divinity degrees and they are set up in the churches and, for the most part, they teach only what that church teaches and they speak with “one voice.”  The only problem is that in the confessions, creeds and denominational positions, there are errors and no one dares to correct them.  No one speaks the Words of JEHOVAH, but they speak of things that have already been pre-approved by the seminary and it is monitored by the “higher ups” and they must hold to their church’s doctrines on baptism and salvation, and so forth.

So, basically, these four hundred prophets in 1Kings are all of the same “denomination” and they all speak the same thing and King Ahab trusts them.  He does not trust this prophet Micaiah.  Micaiah does not “tow the party line.”  He does not say things that are within the limits that are established in Israel and he dares to say things that are not good, even in regard to the king.  He dares to say things that are “evil” concerning the king.

Let us keep reading in 1Kings 22:9-12:

Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith JEHVOAH, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for JEHOVAH shall deliver it into the king's hand.

As I mentioned earlier, it is very patriotic when a nation is at war with another nation for people to say, “We are going to win.  We are going to win the battle.  We are going to win the war.  We support the king and we support this effort by our army.”  You know, it is patriotic when it comes to the United States or Russia or China (or whatever nation) to support the war effort or to support the troops or to support the government’s position.  The difference is that when it comes to the Word of God and to what God is truly declaring, there cannot be any “patriotism” involved; there cannot be any effort to please the government, the king, the armies or the generals or anyone, except God.  It is an absolute necessity for the true prophets of the Lord, whether they be prophets of old or prophets today, to have in their minds that what they will say will only be what God says they can say – they will go no further and say no less.  They will only say what God demands they say; this is what a messenger does; this is what an ambassador does.  This is what a true prophet is: he is someone that speaks the Word of the Lord with the mindset that he will only say what God has said. 

These four hundred prophets went beyond that boundary.   They had taken into consideration the point of view of the king.  They had taken into consideration what it might sound like to others if they were to say that the battle would be lost or the king would not prosper.  They take into consideration how it will be received by the people; the people may not like them any longer; the people may be displeased at what they say.  So there is pressure applied to the prophets to speak “good.”  We are not speculating about that, because when we read further we will see that this comes into view.  It says in 1Kings 22:13:

And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.

Do you see how they are trying to apply influence to Micaiah, the prophet of JEHOVAH: “Why do you have to be the oddball?  Why do you have to be different?  Why do you not say what the other prophets are saying?  There are four hundred of them and only one of you and the majority is always right.”  That is a very erroneous understanding, especially in our democracy where we have votes to elect people and where the majority rules.  We have come to think that if the majority votes on something and they determine, for instance, that “gay marriage is a good thing,” then it becomes a good thing because the majority rules.  Or, if they take a poll and 51% of the people say that abortion is a good thing and only 49% think it is wrong, then the majority rules.  This allows laws to be enacted to support the ruling, but we should not think, in any way, that a majority is what determines what is “right and wrong” or that a majority is what determines what is morally “good and evil.”  This is never the case.  The determination of “right and wrong” and “good and evil” is made by one and that One is God.  God determines what is good or evil when He gives us His Word and He says, “Thou shall not covet,” or “Thou shalt not kill.”  When God says anything it is His Law of right and wrong.  When God says that a man and a woman are joined together by Him in marriage, then that is a limitation of marriage – it is for a man and a woman.  When God says that homosexuality is an abomination, this is how it is.  It does not matter if 99.9% or 100% of people says, “Homosexuality is a good thing.  We have finally seen the light.”  It is still wrong.  It is still sinful.  It is still evil because God says it is.  That is how we understand “good and evil” and “right and wrong.”  We look for God’s position and not the position of most men.  Actually, we will find that the position of “most men” is normally wrong and is not trustworthy in any way.  If most people speak well of something, it is a warning flag that something is wrong.

Here, the messenger sent to Micaiah is trying to reason with this unreasonable prophet.  He is trying to say he is stubborn and prideful.  He will not humble himself and join the rest of the prophets and speak with them.  He is stubborn and proud and rebellious.  The messenger is probably thinking, “No wonder the king hates him and I do not like him either.”  He is trying to convince Micaiah: “This time – just this time – speak as one of them.  Speak ‘good’ and then we can all go to battle with confidence.  We will go up to Ramothgilead and will win the battle.  We will win the war.  Are you not a patriot?  Are you not a Jew?  Look, we have Israel and Judah coming together.  This is a wonderful thing that we have our two nations joining together in battle.  How can you say anything against it?” 

It goes on to say in 1Kings 22:14:

And Micaiah said, As JEHOVAH liveth, what JEHOVAH saith unto me, that will I speak.

There it is.  What else can a true prophet of the Lord do?  Again, I do not want us to lose sight of this: God’s people are prophets; remember how God speaks of the elect, spiritually, as “prophets, priests and kings.”  We carry out the role of a prophet when we speak forth the Word of God and the true believer is bound by what the Bible says.  Micaiah’s response applies to all of God’s people today.  It is a short response, but it perfectly sums it up: “As JEHOVAH liveth, what JEHOVAH saith unto me, that will I speak.”  A true believer today says, “As the Lord lives, what the Bible says, that will I speak.”  We will not speak more.  We will not speak less, but we will speak what the Bible says and this is what many people will hate.  They hated Micaiah because he spoke the true Word of God. 

Basically, it is as though he was speaking what the Bible said in his day.  The things God told him are now part of the Bible.  These things are not pleasing to the ears of men.  When people hear a message that is difficult and hard to hear, like a message of judgment on the churches or on the world, or a message that says that God has ended salvation for the churches during the twenty three years of the Great Tribulation period and now He has ended salvation for the world, and then they say, “Oh, that is awful.  That is just terrible.  I know that is false prophecy and you are a false prophet because it is just so ugly and awful.”  Then they go on and on about how unmerciful and unloving and unkind it is.  You see, a message of judgment is not something that should signal that it is not from the Lord.  On the other hand, these same people can hear a message that “God loves you” or “God is still saving in the churches and God is still saving in the world, so go up and prosper.”  This is music to their ears and this “brother” or “sister” is a true prophet of God (they think).  They are actually using the wrong criteria. 

We cannot tell, of course, based on what someone says, but we have to go the Bible and see if the Bible supports it or not.  One thing we can know for certain is that a message of judgment or of wrath or of an angry God does follow the pattern of prophets of old.  On the other hand, a message that says, “Oh, God will not give us up to the Babylonians.  God will restore the captives.  God will restore the vessels in short order.  God will not end the church age.  God will not end salvation, but still allow the world to continue.”  All these opposing messages that say, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” also follow a certain pattern. 

Actually, we can understand that there is a “pattern” that a true prophet of the Lord follows and there is a “pattern” that a false prophet follows, and it may not be what you think.  They can actually be reversed and we are going to look at this a little bit more in our next study.  We are going to finish here in 1Kings, chapter 22, and in a few other places, so we know how God moves in His people regarding the things they speak – whether they be true or whether they be false.