Do you reject or receive truth? The question may be met with an obvious affirmative: “Of course I receive the truth! I’m a Christian. Jesus is the Truth, and I love him and his Word.” Very well and very good. At times, however, our ways do not conform to our words. At times our lives mirror the world. In this and the next article, I contrast two ways of relating to the truth: rejecting or receiving the truth.
The most wicked king in Israel was Ahab. His wickedness wreaked havoc in the kingdom. His sin found him out, as all sin one day will find us all out (Numbers 32:23). That is, God got to him. The man wasn’t untouchable. The Lord sent a prophet to confront his reign of terror. You can read the whole thing in 1 Kings 22, but here’s the upshot.
The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, came to Ahab, and the latter said, “Let’s join forces to take back Ramoth-Gilead from the Syrians.” Jehoshaphat agreed, and for a brief moment in time, the hitherto divided kingdoms, Judah and Israel, aligned. King Jehoshaphat first wanted to inquire of the Lord to see if their mutual military pursuit would end up in victory or defeat. And so, Ahab gathered all his prophets, 400 men, and they all encouraged him, “Go up, for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king” (v. 6). The conclusion sounds rather certain. 400 yeses and 0 nos. A slam dunk, as they say. However, Jehoshaphat, who was wise to ask the LORD, was also wise to be suspicious at the unanimous consent of Ahab’s “prophets.” He wondered whether all these men told the truth or merely told Ahab what he wanted to hear. He asked if there was another man to ask. Ahab’s response is telling, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil” (v. 8). There it is: the window to Ahab’s heart. The heart that defenestrated truth out of his kingdom.
Ahab, though wicked, was no idiot (but he was a fool: Psalm 14). You can tell that he knew his 400 prophets were hundreds of confirmation bias, hundreds of “yes men.” He knew that there was one man in his kingdom who had the truth, but he hated this man. His heart hated the truth so much that he even sent the one and only truth-teller to prison until after the battle.
Ahab’s response to the truth is instructive for us all. We may be born again (may it be so!), but too often we act like Ahab. We may not be kings of the earth, but we act like kings when no harmful but truthful word is spoken to us without our retaliation. The reality, as we’ll see in the next article, is that the word isn’t actually harmful but helpful, if truthful.
Sick hearts hate the truth. Truth be told, even saints can be sick in the heart. We have not fully arrived. When truth is spoken, however hard it may be, however it may clash against our convictions, or however it may smash our sensibilities—if it is true, we must not reject it. When Ahab rejected the truth, he rejected the man who brought the truth. When he rejected the true prophet, he rejected the One who sent the true prophet.
Our Lord issues a strong warning to the world through his disciples. In Luke 10, he sent out 72 disciples to preach the message of repentance. Knowing that some hearers may shoot the messenger, Jesus comforts them, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). To hear God’s messenger is to hear Christ. To reject God’s messenger is to reject Christ. To reject the Son is to reject the Father.
How do you respond to the truth? When you read the Bible, do you have any “problem passages”? Do you balk and say, “This cannot be. How else can I understand this?” Are you quick to condemn the conviction, “That’s not my God! I could never worship a God like that!”? When the Son, who is the Truth, shows you the Word of his Father, which is truth, by the Spirit of Truth, do you reject it? Like Ahab, you may think it’s harmful and an “evil word” to your heart, but the real harm lies in rejecting the Word of Truth, even God himself.
Rev. Dr. Michael Mock is the Pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Fresno, CA and an ACBC-certified Biblical Counselor. He’s the author of Hey, Dad, Why Do We…?: Kids Ask the Greatest Questions, Old Testament Introduction and Workbook, New Testament Introduction and Workbook, Comfort from Corinthians: A Devotional Walkthrough of 2nd Corinthians for Sinful and Struggling Saints, and A Confessional Marriage: Marriage Based on the Firm Foundation and a Faithful Confession. You can find his books here: Amazon.com: Dr. Michael D. Mock: books, biography, latest update.