1 Kings 13:1-34
1 And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
4 And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
5 The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
8 And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:
9 For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
10 So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.
12 And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.
13 And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,
14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am.
15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
16 And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:
17 For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back:
21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,
22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
23 And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
25 And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torna him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.
27 And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.
28 And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor tornb the ass.
29 And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
31 And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:
32 For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
33 After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but madec again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
34 And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
A SOLEMN MESSAGE FROM GOD
(vs.1-10)
God would not leave Jereboam without clear witness to God's abhorrence of the evil that Jereboam had introduced in Israel. The Lord sent a man of God from Judah to Bethel at a time that Jereboam was using his altar to burn incense (v.1). The prophet addressed the altar with a strong voice, "Thus says the Lord, Behold a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you" (v.2). Before Jereboam had time to speak, the man of God told him, "This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out" (v.3).
Jereboam did not like to be so rudely interrupted in his false worship and he stretched out his hand, giving the order to arrest the man of God. But God abruptly intervened, causing the king's hand to immediately wither and become so paralyzed he could not withdraw it (v.4). But not only that. The sign the man of God spoke of the took place before their eyes: the altar was split apart and the ashes poured out (v.5).
Now it was Jereboam's withered hand that most affected him. The hand would not be helped by the arrest of the man of God, and Jereboam knew that he would now be dependent on the kindness of the prophet if he was to be healed. So he asked him to entreat the Lord that his hand might be restored. The man of God did so, and the Lord graciously answered by immediately healing his hand. What a lesson was here for Jereboam, that God is both a God of truth and a God of grace!
Instead of arresting the prophet, Jereboam invited him to his own home to be refreshed and to receive a reward (v.7)! Ungodly men are often ready to give money or other gifts to God, thinking that God can be bribed to be favorable to them while they remain indifferent to the Word of God.
The man of God refused the king's hospitality, telling him that whatever the king would give him, he would not go into Jereboam's house, nor eat or drink in Bethel. The Word of the Lord had commanded him not to eat or drink in that place, and not to return by the same route he had taken into the city (vs.8-9). The Word of God that Jereboam had despised must not be ignored by the prophet. The prophet then left by a different route.
THE MAN OF GOD DECEIVED
(vs.11-34)
An old prophet lived in Bethel, but he did not have the energy of faith to resist the idolatrous worship of Jereboam. His sons told him of the man of God who came from Judah, what he had done and what he had spoken for the Lord to Jereboam (v.11). These things evidently spoke to the old prophet's conscience and he thought he should have some contact with the man of God from Judah. He and his sons followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree (vs.12-14). If seems, now that he had gotten away from Bethel, he thought he could idly savor the experience in which he had been faithful to God. What a mistake! If he had a proper abhorrence of the evil he prophesied against, would he not have wanted to get far from that scene?
What a lesson for us! At a time when we have done something for the Lord, we are in great danger of being deceived by our self-complacency. When David, after many victories, relaxed on his rooftop when his men went to war, he was drawn away by strong temptation and became guilty of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11:1). We today also are warned, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
The old prophet invited the man of God to go home with him for a meal, but the man of God rightly responded that he could not do so, for by the Word of the Lord he must not eat bread or drink water in that place (vs.15-17). The old prophet responded that he also was a prophet and that an angel had spoken to him by the Word of the Lord, telling him to bring the man of God back to his home to eat and drink with him. But this was a deliberate lie (v.18).
Certainly the man of God should not have been deceived by this, for God's Word to him directly was decisive: God would not change His mind. The prophet said an angel had spoken to him, but such second-hand or third-hand messages are not to be compared to the direct Word from God. We too must be careful to cling absolutely to the Word of God, and not be deceived by men who claim to be prophets, as many do today. The man of God accepted the word of the old prophet in preference to the Word of God, and returned with the old prophet to Bethel (v.19).
However, while they were eating, the Lord intervened by giving the old prophet a solemn message for the man of God. He told him, "Thus says the Lord, Because you have disobeyed the Word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, but came back, ate bread and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water, your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers" (vs.20-22).
At least we might expect the old prophet to apologize for lying but there is no mention of this. But after giving his solemn message to the man of God, he saddled the donkey for him, to send him on his way (v.23). He did not go far, for a lion met him on the road and killed him (v.24). Yet the lion did not try to eat the corpse, nor did it touch the donkey, and the donkey did not run away. Both the lion and the donkey remained standing by the corpse. How strange this would appear to all who saw it! Clearly God had one object in view in this incident, that His servant would be taken away in death!
People passing by witnessed this strange sight and reported it in Bethel. When the old prophet heard of it, he realized the victim must be the man of God, and he went to the spot, possibly with his sons (vs.26-28). He took up the corpse and laid it on a donkey. He evidenced unusual courage in the presence of the lion, but the lion did not interfere (v.29). Taking the body back to Bethel, he buried it in a tomb prepared for himself. The old prophet and his sons were apparently the only mourners. Likely any relatives of the man of God would know nothing of what became of him.
The old prophet instructed his sons that when he died they should bury him in the same grave beside the man of God (v.31), for he knew the prophecy of the man of God against the altar of Jereboam would be fulfilled (v.32). God's testimony remained true in spite of the failure of the messenger.
Jereboam's experience with the man of God, and the message he heard, had no lasting effect on him. He continued in his evil course of idolatry and made priests of anyone he desired, to serve Jereboam's interests in the idolatrous high places (v.33). This glaring sin would call down God's solemn judgment in exterminating the house of Jereboam from the face of the earth (v.34). After this Jereboam became known as the king who made Israel sin (ch.14:16).