Imprisoned Conscience
A. Maclaren, D. D. 1 Kings 22:27 And say, Thus said the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction… Do we not all know that honest friends have sometimes fallen out of favour, perhaps with ourselves, because they have persistently kept telling us what our consciences and common sense knew to be true, that if we go on that road we shall be suffocated in a bog? A man makes up his mind to a course of conduct. He has a shrewd suspicion that his honest friend will condemn, and that the condemnation will be right. What does he do, therefore? He never tells his friend, and if, by chance, that friend may say what was expected of him, he gets angry with his adviser and goes his road. I suppose we all know what it is to treat our consciences in the style in which Ahab treated Micaiah. We do not listen to them because we know what they will say before they have said it. And we call ourselves sensible people! Martin Luther once said: "It is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience." But Ahab puts Micaiah in prison, and we shut up our consciences in a dungeon, and put a gag in their mouths, and a muffler over the gag, that we may hear them say no word, because we know what we are doing, and we are doggedly determined to do, is wrong. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. WEB: Say, 'Thus says the king, "Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace."'"