The Gravity of Dual Prophetic Warnings
There is a very interesting interaction in the Holy Bible in which two different prophets give a warning from God to the same person! I found this personally fascinating, and it speaks to God’s love for us, His created likeness and image.
It also indicates that our God finds certain situations with respect to His people serious enough to send reminders/warnings to those who offend. Dual prophetic warnings are rare in the biblical narrative, and the fact that they exist at all warns us to listen and react to the Lord’s warnings the first time.
King Ahab Ignored Two Prophets’ Warnings
One of the more wicked kings in the Bible, Ahab, received prophetic warnings from both Elijah and afterward another prophet named Micaiah. As our Bible students remember, Ahab was married to probably the most wicked woman in the Bible – Jezebel. Essentially, Ahab rejected worshipping the God of Israel and replaced Him with the idol worship of Baal.
This ticked the Lord off something awful, and Elijah was given a word to speak to this king and his evil wife. Elijah confronted Ahab after they had a man named Naboth murdered to steal his property, which was an orchard of sorts.
This first warning was that God would bring disaster upon Ahab’s house, and he would have no more descendants (1 Kin. 21). We have to remember that in ancient biblical times, having a lineage was critically important for both personal and religious reasons.
Later in his reign, Ahab sought the counsel of the prophet Micaiah on whether he should (or not) join forces with Judah to attack a neighboring nation.
Micaiah warned Ahab against this venture, but Ahab, being tricked by a false prophet, followed through anyhow. This led Ahab to his end, and having no more descendants, he vanished from existence totally (1 Kin. 22:19-23).
King Zedekiah Openly Defied Two Warnings
By the time Zedekiah came to the throne of Israel, God was fed up, and the Babylonian exile was next. In the most literal sense, this king would be the final straw prior to the Babylonian exile. Our Lord is merciful, and His patience is supernatural, but let us not be confused, His patience will become exhausted, and the consequences are eternally dire!
The first prophetic warning to the king came from the well-known, and my personal favorite, Jeremiah (Jer. 27:12-15). I understand what scripture says about “favoritism,” Saints, so pray for me. However, no other prophet, whether Old or New Testament, demonstrates such a struggle with their anointing as does this emotional voice for the Lord. It is like he possesses the heart of a pastor and the anointing of a prophet.
Zedekiah’s warning was even rarer than the other three featured in this article because God sent two of the major prophets with a warning – Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jeremiah basically told Zedekiah that Israel was going into captivity, and he should not resist.
Echoing this command from God was the prophet Ezekiel, who went further and used symbolic acts to press home the point of seriousness the Lord was communicating in Ezekiel’s prophecy (Ezek. 12). Of course, the king ignored God, as we so often do, and the rest is biblical history.
King Jeroboam Refused to Heed Wise Counsel
As a consequence of the refusal to heed wise counsel from the last Old Testament King of united Israel, the nation was split into two (Israel and Judah). The king of the northern kingdom (Israel) was a man named Jeroboam, who quickly turned to idolatry, which was quite surprising as he had personally been chosen by God to lead.
I am not suggesting surprising to God, only to me within a finite, much less eternal, view! However, the king received two warnings from two different prophets about his idolatry (1 Kin. 13:1-3). As is evident, Jeroboam ignored both warnings, continued in sin, his son was killed, and things ended as foretold.
King Amaziah's Sin Was His End
Amaziah began his reign as a faithful king to the people and a servant of the Lord, but through the process of time, he fell victim to the enemy and disobeyed. What led to his downfall?
King Amaziah of Judah is another example of a ruler who was warned by God through two different prophets. Amaziah began his reign with a measure of faithfulness to God, but pride led to his downfall. This is how it always begins when God entrusts us, His people, with something precious such as leading His people. We start the Christian journey faithfully, and then sin creeps in, which affects our obedience and original faithfulness.
King Amaziah was warned by a prophet of the same name concerning his worship of false idol gods whom he knew were not real (2 Chron. 25:14-16). The first warning came with an opportunity to repent from this evil, yet the king did not.
A second prophetic warning, coming through another true prophet of God, was given to the king as well (2 Chron. 25:17-19). Yet this was more of a judgment because it seems the king’s fate was sealed because God knew what he would do prior.
Unfortunately, Amaziah, refusing to heed God’s warning, and having been warned twice and refused, ended up dead, completing the end of this sorry episode in the history of Israel.
When God Loves Us Enough to Repeat Himself
All four kings, Ahab, Zedekiah, Jeroboam, and Amaziah, received what no other leader in scripture did – two warnings from two different prophets concerning the same issue. The Bible says God does not change and is the same forever, and it could be argued, truthfully, that the Lord gives you and me many more warnings than these kings received, through the Holy Ghost, and on the same issues, and we ignore them as well – at least I do!
Although no other article you will read reveals this little-known biblical fact, it is important to meditate on the significance of these events and how they impact our lives. It is also a serious thing to refuse to heed one warning from someone the Lord has put in authority over us. Around the year 2002, my niece was killed in a car accident while riding to a major university in Kansas.
She was always an obedient child, and her mother, my sister-in-law, warned her not to get into a car with this guy she liked because he was bad news. She refused, even after her mother told her she had a bad feeling about the whole venture. A little while later, my niece was dead and killed on the same highway her father had died on some years prior. Two warnings from God are a gift because we may not have as many.
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