You can find this week’s Scripture passage at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+22%3A1-28&version=NRSV

V.
All these prophets (“about 400”) have a hold on my attention. I just keep “looking” at them and “listening” to them. Is that what King Ahab did?

I Kings 22:5-6, 10-12

But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred of them, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” They said, “Go up; for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron, and he said, “Thus says the Lord: With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.” All the prophets were prophesying the same and saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

VI.
Who are they?

When King Jehoshaphat tells Ahab to “Inquire first for a word of the Lord” these are the ones Ahab “gathered.”

Had they demonstrated they were The Lord’s spokesman before this?

Were they just close enough to the King geographically to be called together or were they close enough to the King politically and culturally to be called together?

Did they have a “history” of always taking the King’s side?

Were they other “prophets” the King did not gather here?

Micaiah was not in this group.

Were there other prophets like Micaiah who the King knew he did not want to hear from?

VII.
And how did these prophets think of themselves?

Did they “inquire … for a word from the Lord”? Or might they have enjoyed the King’s favor so much they were inclined to see things as the King saw things?

Might they have been “faithful” to The Lord in other situations but with about 400 speaking as one voice was it “too much” to say a different word to the King? It can be very hard for one or two voices to stand out in such a crowd which seems so sure of what is right.

Who were they?

What was their priority? From whom did they “Inquire first for a word from ….”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}