1 Kings 13:23-24

He saddled for him the ass But it is observable, he does not accompany him: his guilty conscience making him fear to be involved in the same judgment with him. A lion met him by the way, and slew him There was a wood not far from Bethel, out of which the two she-bears came, mentioned 2 Kings 2:24; and, it is not unlikely, that out of the same wood came the lion that slew this prophet. His carcass was cast in the way His dead body fell to the ground, and lay in the place where the soul left it. The lion also stood by the carcass Which plainly showed that he was sent by God to execute only what God had threatened, and not to move one step beyond that commission, otherwise, agreeable to his nature and fierceness, he would certainly have devoured the carcass and torn the ass. “Some have thought,” says Dr. Dodd, “that this prophet's was a small offence to have met with so severe a punishment: but the true state of the case is this: the prophet from Judah had sufficient evidence of the truth of his own revelation; had sufficient cause to suspect some corrupt ends in the prophet who came to recall him; and had sufficient reason to expect, an interposition of the same power that gave him the injunction to repeal it; and, therefore, his crime was an easy credulity, a complying with an offer merely to gratify a petulant appetite, which he knew was repugnant to a divine command. It argued a great levity, if not infidelity, of his own revelation, to listen to the pretended one of another man.” It must be acknowledged, however, to be strange, that the lying prophet should escape, while he, who, notwithstanding this error, was truly a man of God, is so severely punished. But judgment must begin at the house of God: God must correct his own children first. And there is a judgment to come, when these things shall be called over again, and when those who sinned most and suffered least in this world, will receive according to their works. This punishment of the prophet was a very striking admonition to Jeroboam of what he might expect, since God spared not a less guilty offender. And we may all learn from God's severity, in this instance, 1st, Not to suffer our faith to be perverted by any suggestions made against a revelation of uncontested divine authority; and, 2d, Always to pay a strict regard and obedience to all the known commands of God.