About this time the LORD commanded a prophet to say to a friend, “Hit me!” But the friend refused, and the prophet told him, “You disobeyed the LORD, and as soon as you walk away, a lion will kill you.” The friend left, and suddenly a lion killed him.

The prophet found someone else and said, “Hit me!” So this man beat him up.

The prophet left and put a bandage over his face to disguise himself. Then he went and stood beside the road, waiting for Ahab to pass by.

When Ahab went by, the prophet shouted, “Your Majesty, right in the heat of battle, someone brought a prisoner to me and told me to guard him. He said if the prisoner got away, I would either be killed or forced to pay seventy-five pounds of silver. But I got busy doing other things, and the prisoner escaped.”

Ahab answered, “You will be punished just as you have said.”

The man quickly tore the bandage off his face, and Ahab saw that he was one of the prophets. The prophet said, “The LORD told you to kill Benhadad, but you let him go. Now you will die in his place, and your people will die in place of his people.”

Ahab went back to Samaria, angry and depressed. (1 Kings 20:35-43)

What God asks people to do doesn’t always make obvious sense. But who do you trust more? Yourself or God? Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram and he had led an army against Israel. Ahab’s victory over the invader could have been utter and complete: not only was Ben-Hadad’s army destroyed, the king was in Ahab’s hand. But instead, Ahab freed the captured king and made a peace treaty with him.

So God sent a prophet to bring a message of judgment against Ahab. And once again, the prophet’s job was not an easy one. Rather than simply giving him words to say, God turned the prophet into a prop to illustrate the message. Worse, when his friend refused to injure him, he had to pronounce a death sentence against him. Sometimes God’s judgments seem very harsh.

Most people would not want to hurt a friend; one can understand his reluctance to strike a prophet. But God had demanded it, and the friend had known that it was a command from God. The law is quite clear: anyone who sins defiantly is blaspheming God and must be cut off from his people (see Numbers 15:30-31). The refusal of the friend to abide by the word of God is what led to his death, because he knew better.

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