Why did God send a lying spirit to King Ahab?

After writing the blog on God hardening pharaoh’s heart, it seems to me the natural next move should be to answer the question did God really send a lying spirit to Ahab? This is troubling to most Christians because the bible tells us God is Truth. Thus, by sending a lying spirit to Ahab a huge contradiction and confusion is created.  Let’s look at a few verses that teach us God is Truth.

• Deuteronomy 32 v 4 “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

• John 14 v 6 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

• Hebrews 6 v 18 “…it is impossible for God to lie.

Yet when we read about king Ahab, whom we are told was one of the worst Kings in Israel’s history, the bible tells us God enlisted lying spirits to seal his doom;

1 Kings 22 v 22-23 “The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So, he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ ²³ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

The principle is the same. God does not change. Study God's character and you will see a pattern which reveals His consistency.  At the risk of becoming unpopular I would say YES God did send a lying spirit to Ahab for the same reason that He "hardened" pharaoh's heart.  When I study the life of Ahab, I see a man who throughout his entire life, surrounds himself with false prophets who tell him what he wants to hear. To answer the question about whether God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or not, we began by asking the question, what was the condition of Pharaoh’s heart prior to God hardening it?  We had to interrogate issues pertaining to the kind of person Pharaoh was long before God succumbed to his desired path of cruelty. By applying the same reasoning, analyzing Ahab’s character before God sent a lying spirit to him, we can conclude that God simply complied with what Ahab had been stubbornly doing all his life.

The Vineyard Scandal. Ahab sullking after Naboth refused to sell it to the King

The Character of Ahab before God sent a lying spirit.

What was the character of Ahab like before God sent a lying spirit to him? Let's start at the beginning;

1 Kings 16 v 30 “Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians and began to serve Baal and worship him".

Notice Ahab did everything that was contrary to God's ways.

1) Ahab defied God's instruction to kill Ben Hadad,1 Kings 20 v 42 The prophet said to him, “This is what the Lord says: Because you have spared the man I said must be destroyed,[a] now you must die in his place, and your people will die instead of his people.”

2) He allowed homosexuality and temple prostitution on his watch

 3) Murdered many of Yahweh's prophets

4) Ahab was ruled by his wife Jezebel who planned the murder of Naboth for his vineyard.

5) Baal worship increased in Israel under Ahab.

6) The final and crucial point and to get full context of what is happening, please read 1 Kings 22 v 1 - 34. Pay specific attention to verses 6;7;8;11;12;14;18;23;26;27. It will be hard to ignore how Ahab's entire life is characterized by disobedience, listening to and believing  the lies of his false prophets.

Notice 1 Kings 22 v 18 “Didn’t I tell you?” the king of Israel exclaimed to Jehoshaphat. “He never prophesies anything but trouble for me.”  When the true prophet tells Ahab the truth, he regards it as "trouble".  Therefore, by sending a lying spirit, God is not promoting lying he is merely permitting it to bring judgment on an evil man who all his life has lived by lies. You live by the sword you die by the sword, see Matthew 26 v 52. This means that our actions and choices have natural consequences. You live by lies you will die by your lies.

Examine Psalms 18 v 25 – 27 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud." 

God gives you over to what it is you have freely chosen to rule you. Paul confirms this in the book of Thessalonians;

2 Thessalonians 2 v 10-11 “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

The verse explains that God sends a powerful delusion upon those who refuse to believe the truth and take pleasure in unrighteousness, causing them to believe falsehoods and be condemned. The purpose of this delusion is judgment and condemnation for those who have preferred unrighteousness over truth. 

Conclusion

God is neither commending lying nor is He promoting it. Rather, He is using it to accomplish His purposes. Ultimately, all the evil in the world is turned on its head by God to produce good.

Genesis 50 v 20 “ "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today". This verse comes from the story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers but was later able to provide for his family and save many lives during a famine.