We will now turn to the man of God who came to curse the altar, and we shall be able to discover what we are to understand by the word of the Lord coming unto this or that man, saying. And here I call on the reader to keep in mind, that in many places in the Bible, when any thing unfortunate occurred to Jehovah's chosen people, such as the Lord raised up such and such enemies, and also that such misfortunes were from the Lord: also, again, _an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul_;--all such passages, and many others, mean no more than that the Lord permitted such events to take place. In this sense, we may say that it was from the Lord that Andrew Jackson destroyed a great part of the English army; but no man is foolish enough to suppose that the Lord had directly any thing to do in the defence of New Orleans. Again, it is repeated in hundreds of places in the Bible, that _the word of the Lord came to this or that person, saying._ Now, apply this interpretation to "the word of the Lord came unto Moses," and all that can be made of it is, that Moses ascribed every order he gave of his to the people, as coming from the Lord. It is in several places recorded that the word of the Lord came to one prophet of Judah, and then this said word was taken away from the first person, and turned over to another prophet who belonged to Israel; and in 1 Kings xxii., 24, it is recorded, that one prophet smote another on the face, and said, "Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" Nothing can be more clear, than that the whole of the Lord's interference is out of the question.
After Israel and Judah were divided, they continued as two separate governments, with each a King for a leader. Sometimes they fought against each other, calling in other Kings to assist them; at other times, they were united and fought together to oppose the common enemy, their heathen neighbors. In a war with the Syrians, when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and Ahab, King of Israel, united their armies against the Syrians, and being on the eve of battle, an inquiry was made of the Lord's prophets, as to what success they would have? Ahab, the King of Israel, called his prophets, four hundred in number, and, on being consulted as to the result of a battle, they one and all said, go fight, for the Lord will deliver your enemies into your hands. Jehoshaphat, being more cautious, said, is there not another prophet of whom we may inquire of the Lord? And the King of Israel (Ahab) said, there is; but I do not like him, because he always foretells something to my disadvantage. Then Micaiah, a prophet of the kingdom of Judah, was called, and he foretold that the event of a battle would be favorable to these kings; but that Ahab would be slain. One of Ahab's prophets then became enraged, and smote Micaiah on the face, and sneeringly asked him, "_Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee?_"