1 Kings 22: Micaiah said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, these have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace.
Micaiah prophesies of Israel’s defeat at Ramoth-gilead, and of Ahab’s death. Ahab was the shpeherd of Israel, and his death leaves Israel shepherdless, wandering, scattered on the hills with no shepherd to gather them and bring them home. But, strangely, Micaiah says that these masterless men, these shepherdless sheep, will return home in peace.
This is a powerful indictment of Ahab’s reign. A king is supposed to be a bringer of peace. A king protects his people from enemies, so that there are no foreign wars. A king provides justice in the land, so that internal struggles and conflicts do not destroy the harmony of the kingdom. Such a king is celebrated in Psalm 72: “Give the king thy judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s son. He shall judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness . . . . In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures.”
This is not Ahab’s legacy. By devoting himself to idols, and selling himself to sin, he has been a cause of struggle and conflict within his land, preying on the weaker Naboth. And he has made the boundaries of Israel porous, so that the Arameans can attack and threaten Samaria. Ahab is not a bringer of peace. The only thing that will bring peace is his death.
Yet, it is precisely here that Ahab most clearly displays the strange logic of God’s reign, the strange methods of God’s politics. Shepherd Ahab, whose death scatters the sheep, foreshadows another shepherd-king, one of whom the prophet Zechariah speaks: “Smith the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered,” a prophecy that, according to the gospels, is fulfilled in Jesus’ arrest and the disciples’ scattered. Ahab’s death scatters the sheep yet brings peace because Ahab was a troubler of Israel. But there is another Shepherd whose death brings peace because He is the healer of Israel.
This is the death we commemorate and celebrate at this table. We are the scattered sheep, who have been regathered by the Crucified but now Risen Shepherd. We are at peace, with God and with one another, because our Shepherd was struck.
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