The Bad News Bearer

Don’t you hate getting bad news? You know the kind I mean; like when the doctor comes back into the examination room with the test results and tells you that your days as a connoisseur of fine doughnuts are over. No one likes to hear that what he really likes doing is wrong. Not only does the news itself leave a bad taste in our mouths but the bearer of that news often becomes enemy number one. How many times has someone started off a conversation with the phrase, “Now don’t shoot the messenger.” I hear that and automatically my jaw clinches in anticipation of what I know will be less than pleasing news.

In First Kings 22, we find Ahab, king of Israel, asking Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to help retake a city that the Syrians had previously taken from Israel. Jehoshaphat is willing but wants to inquire of the Lord first. Even after Ahab has his prophets come and speak good of the impending battle, Jehoshaphat asks if there are no other prophets. Ahab says, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil” (1 Kgs. 22:8). Ahab hated Micaiah for never prophesying anything good about him, even though Micaiah only spoke that which God instructed him. When Micaiah was warned to go along with what all the others prophesied, he said, “As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak” (1 Kgs. 22:14).

No one today has the gift of prophecy or the direct communication with God that others do not have. The only way we know what we are told is true is if we, like the Bereaians, search the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things are so (Acts 17:11). We should remember that Jesus said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). Likewise, a parent chastens a child, not out of spite but out of love, so that the child will learn from his mistakes and cease making them. So the next time we are rebuked for wrong doing, maybe we should examine ourselves and the situation before condemning the messenger. For in condemning the messenger, we condemn the message, and a condemnation of God’s message will result in a consequence far greater than merely getting our feelings hurt.