heathens. Many of them may have believed in the true God. But they
were cheats and liars, and so they had given place to the devil, the
father of lies: and now he had taken possession of them in spite of
themselves, and they lied to Ahab, and told him that he would
prosper in the battle at Ramoth-Gilead. It was a dangerous thing
for them to say; for if he had been defeated, and returned
disappointed, his rage would have most probably fallen on them for
deceiving them. And as in those Eastern countries kings do whatever
they like without laws or parliaments, Ahab would have most likely
put them all to a miserable death on the spot. But however
dangerous it might be for them to lie, they could not help lying. A
spirit of lies had seized them, and they who began by lying, because
it paid them, now could not help doing so whether it paid them or
not.

But the good king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, had no faith in these
flattering villains. He asked whether there was not another prophet
of the Lord to inquire of? Ahab told him that there was one,
Micaiah the son of Imlah, but that he hated him, because he only
prophesied evil of him. What a thorough picture of a hardened
sinner--a man who has become a slave to his own lusts, till he cares
nothing for a thing being true, provided only it is pleasant! Thus
the wilful sinner, like Ahab, becomes both fool and coward, afraid
to look at things as they are; and when God's judgments stare him in
the face, the wretched man shuts his eyes tight, and swears that the
evil is not there, just because he does not choose to see it.

But the evil was there, ready for Ahab, and it found him. When he
forced Micaiah to speak, Micaiah told him the whole truth. He told
him a vision, or dream, which he had seen. "Hear thou therefore the