1 Kings 22:20-22
How will you entice Ahab?
"And
the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at
Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. 21"Then a
spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice
him.’ 22"And the Lord said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out
and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He
said, ‘You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so,’"
(1 Kings 22:20-22).
Open
theists like so say that God was ignorant of how the spirit would go an
entice Ahab. But this is not necessarily so since God could simply
have been asking this spirit so that it would publically
say what it would do. God as King in His spiritual kingdom
requires of His subjects obedience. God, like a king, inquires.
In this case, it was not so that God could learn, but that the truth of
the spirits intends is made public.
Contextually, Micaiah is relating to Jehoshaphat a
vision and it is in this vision that God asks the spirit what it will
do. This is not necessarily literal as if God had to learn
something.
Are there examples of where God knows something yet
asks a question as though He didn't know? Most definitely yes.
In John 18:3-5 it says,
"Judas then, having
received the Roman cohort, and officers from the chief priests and
the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming
upon Him, went forth, and *said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5They
answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He *said to them, “I am He.”
The
text clearly states that Jesus knew all things. Therefore, Jesus
knew exactly who they were coming for, yet He asks them "Whom do you
seek?" IF we are to be consistent and interpret this verse as an
open theist would, we would have to state that Jesus didn't know who
they came for. But, of course, this does not work since we can
plainly see that Jesus knew all things.
Conclusion
-
1 Kings 22:20-22 is the
declaration of a vision and so, it need not be taken literally.
-
We see that Jesus, who
knew all things, asked a question He knew the answer to in
John 18:3-5. Therefore,
1 Kings 22:20-22 similarly is
where God asked a question He already knew the answer to as well.
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