1 Kings 13: 1 – 34
Did you hear that?
13 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! 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.’ ” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.” 4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. 5 The altar also was split apart, 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 Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So, the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. 7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 9 For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel. 11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So, they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” 18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.) 19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. 20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “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, 22 but you 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.’ ” 23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. 26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore, the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.” 27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So, they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. 30 Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.” 33 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. 34 And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.
Our Holy God does not give you one moment in your whole life to hear His voice and see insightful things He wants to teach you, but rather, lots of special moments or opportunities are presented to you throughout your lives. You know the ones? When it feels as if God has spoken to you then, you get to decide, what am I going to do with this insightful truth?
I believe, the bigger issue is whether we notice these opportunities. It is sometimes His voice saying to you, ‘Did you hear that?’ How can we make sure we don’t miss His special moments?
The world we live in is so full of noise! It drowns out His voice to us. The moment the alarm goes off in the morning, the mad dash to get it all done begins! We get up, we get ready, we check e-mail, try to figure out what has to be done for the day, fly out of the house, get to work, work hard all day, go home, flip on the TV and pull out the iPad to get more work done, check Facebook, respond to texts, the list goes on and on! Is it any wonder we are missing the moments God has for us?! There are days when I’m not sure that I brought a very receptive or listening heart. It’s the world that we live in. We’re bombarded by so many things, people trying to talk, everybody who wants your time, texts, Tweets; all the communication!
To cultivate a receptive and listening heart can be as simple as making time to have a devotional life at various times during our busy days! It means developing our own prayer closets where we can turn off all distractions for a few minutes to sit quietly, read an inspirational devotional, take a moment to pray. Getting into this daily habit will start to change the way you look at life. You will start to cultivate a receptive heart and a listening spirit. We must step away from all the craziness and the noise if we want to hear God speak.
I want to point out to you today something our Holy God wants the Israelites to hear. Jeroboam is going to make a statement when he is struck with paralysis after ordering God’s prophet to be arrested for relaying God’s message. He says this in verse 6 “Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So, the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.”
So, can you hear the Lord’s voice, ‘Did you hear that?’ You might say exactly what am I supposed to focus on? Notice the king said to the prophet, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”
Hey, Israel this guy Jeroboam has created these retreat sites and has established a phony worship of Yahweh. When tragedy hits the king, he calls on Yahweh’s prophet and asks him to pray to his God. It should have been obvious to all around that Yahweh was not Jeroboam’s God, so the people should understand that they are being deceived.
What follows in today’s scripture may appear to be strange story with which to commence the reign of Jeroboam, but we must not take it out of context, and in context it is a cameo of the future of Israel. It is a story of contrasts and warnings against disobedience. On the one hand we have the downrightly disobedient Jeroboam who has basically turned away from the true God Yahweh and received ample warning of what YHWH would do unless he repented. On the other, standing out in stark contrast, we have the fearless man of God, who came from Judah in total obedience, only for him also to turn out to be disobedient because he allowed himself to be persuaded by lies to go against YHWH’s word. He was a warning to the godly in Israel that they must stand firmly by the truth, and not be persuaded to waver by smooth tongues. And in the middle, we have the wavering, and backslidden prophet who was unsure of both himself and the current situation. Unwilling to accept the man of God’s genuineness because of his readiness to compromise, he brought about his disobedience by subtlety, only to recognize too late that he was dealing with a true man of God, and that what he had brought was the truth. He was a warning to the compromisers in Israel, who were not happy with what Jeroboam was doing, but were not prepared to do anything about it, and therefore were in danger of also dragging down the true believers. It is thus a story of the unbelieving, the true believer and the doubter, a picture in miniature of the situation in Israel as it fought to cope with the new situation.
Jeroboam appears not only to have appointed his own priests, but also to have exalted himself by taking the position of king-priest, for he offered incense at the altar, thus making himself the center of the cult. But his enjoyment of his new position is going to be somewhat tarnished by the arrival of a man of God from Judah at the very moment when he was offering incense, who, with all eyes upon him, denounced the altar at Bethel as a false altar, declared that it would one day be desecrated by the sacrificing on it of the very priests of the high places whom Jeroboam had appointed, and warned that as a sign that this would be so YHWH would that day tear the altar apart and spill out its ashes.
13 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
As Jeroboam stood at the altar ready to burn incense a man of God from Judah showed up and caught him in his act of sacrilege. That the man of God came from Judah is itself significant. We know, for example that the prophet Ahijah lived at Shiloh, and we will soon discover that there was an old prophet who lived at Bethel. Why then did YHWH not send them to denounce Jeroboam? We can only assume that thereby it was YHWH’s purpose to emphasize that while the countries were operating separately they were to see themselves as still united in YHWH. Judah and Israel were still to be united by the covenant, and Judah therefore had an interest in Israel’s religious purity
2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! 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.’”
Before all the gathered people the man of God denounced the altar ‘by the word of YHWH’. He declared that a king named Josiah would arise in the house of David who would one day sacrifice on that very altar the priests of the high places who burned incense on it and would burn dead men’s bones on it.
It will be noted that he did not attack Jeroboam directly, only by implication. Instead he directly attacked the altar. He could not therefore be accused of insulting the king. Josiah means ‘YHWH has given.’ It was indicating that a future king would be ‘given by YHWH’ who would bring all this about.
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”
The man of God then gave a sign which would take place on ‘the same day’. He declared that that very day the altar would be torn apart and its ashes would pour out onto the ground. The ashes of the genuine altar were looked on as sacred and had normally to be disposed of in a ‘clean place’ (Leviticus 6.10, 11). Thus, the idea here was that these ashes would be defiled, and revealed as ‘common’ and not sacred, by being tossed on the ground, an indication that YHWH had rejected the altar and its contents. The tearing apart of the altar would further indicate that it too was rejected by YHWH. The covenant that it was supposed to represent had been ‘torn up’.
4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.
An infuriated Jeroboam then sought the intruder be arrested, but to his horror, on stretching out it became withered. He also discovered that he could not draw it back again. He realized that he had reached out his hand against the servant of YHWH and had been smitten. In those times a dried up ‘hand’ would be excluding him from any future participation in the priesthood and the cult. He would be disfigured. It would also, of course, mean that he was maimed for life.
5 The altar also was split apart, 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.
Immediately as all watched in horror the altar itself burst open, and its ashes poured out onto the ground, fulfilling the sign given by the man of God. It confirmed to all YHWH’s rejection of the altar.
6 Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So, the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
Meanwhile the king was obsessed with the impairment of his hand. In fear he recognized that this really must be a man of God who was before him, he called on him to have compassion on him and plead his case before YHWH. The man of God responded and entreated YHWH on his behalf, and his arm was restored to what it had been before.
We should note that by this exhibition of His power and anger YHWH was giving Jeroboam an opportunity to repent, but sadly the cry fell on deaf ears. Jeroboam had set himself on a path from which he would not turn aside.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
No doubt very shaken and relieved the king now called on the man of God to come home with him and refresh himself after which he would give him a reward. He was hoping that if the man of God ate with him he would be able to know that he was no longer seen as YHWH’s enemy, and that he was forgiven. The laws of hospitality were such that to eat with someone was to declare goodwill towards them and indicate no evil intentions against them. And this would equally apply in the case of an official representative. Thus, he was seeking to curry the man of God’s favor, and the favor of YHWH Himself.
8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 9 For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’”
The man of God rejected both his offer of food, and of reward. Indeed, he declared, if Jeroboam were to offer him half his house he would not accept his hospitality or eat or drink with him. For YHWH had strictly charged him not to eat or drink, or to return in the same way in which he had come.
This last response was a further indication of YHWH’s firm judgment on the house of Jeroboam, and on Israel, for ‘not returning by the same way’ indicated that this was not a friendly visit. There was to be no peace between them and YHWH. Someone avoided taking the same way back when they suspected possible reprisals. Thus, this was a further act of rejection and an indication of open hostility between Israel and YHWH.
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.
So, the man of God left Bethel and took another way back to Judah, not returning by the way that he had come, thus openly confirming Jeroboam’s rejection by YHWH.
11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
Meanwhile dwelling in Bethel was an old prophet who had served YHWH for many years. When he learned from his sons what the man of God from Judah had done, and the words that he had spoken, he was clearly concerned. He felt that it was his duty as a prophet of Israel to ensure that the man of Judah had been a true prophet.
12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So, they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”
So, he sought the man of God out and invited him home to eat bread with him. But as he had with Jeroboam the man of God refused because YHWH had forbidden him to partake of food and drink in Israel as a sign that He was at odds with Israel.
Unless we see the old prophet as being deliberately malicious through jealousy we can only assume that what happened next was a test that he was making to determine whether the man of God really was a true prophet. His reasoning was probably that if the man was a true man of God he would discern that he was lying to him. Thus, he told the man of God a false story suggesting that YHWH had countermanded His previous command and was now willing for him to partake of food in Israel. When the man of God changed his mind and began to eat with him the old prophet no doubt felt himself satisfied that the man of God was not a true prophet after all.
18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.)
The old prophet then informed the man of God that he too was a prophet of YHWH. And he informed him that an angel had spoken to him ‘by the word of YHWH’ and had told him to bring the man of God back to his house so that he might eat food and drink water. ‘By the word of YHWH appears to be the equivalent of inspiration by the Spirit.
The mention of the angel was probably the old prophet’s way of avoiding putting his lie directly in the mouth of YHWH, and it should possibly have caused the man of God to stop and think. This was clearly a less direct message than he had himself received. However, as he knew that angels had spoken to men in the past he let it go.
The kindest way in which we can see these words of the old prophet is to consider them as a kind of test of the genuineness of the man of God, otherwise they are both inexcusable and incomprehensible. As the old prophet was seemingly himself a godly man (verse 20) it is the only reasonable explanation. If he was genuinely trying to discover whether this really was a genuine ‘man of God’ what he did was explicable, and even possibly justifiable. His reasoning was probably that if the man of God were truly a man of God he would discern his lie.
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
Unfortunately, the man of God took his words as genuine and returned to his house to eat and drink with him. He should not, of course, have done so without Himself receiving a word from YHWH, but one problem with being an honest man was that he assumed that others, especially prophets of YHWH, were also honest men. He would probably not have considered the possibility that he was being tested out. After all, had not YHWH’s miraculous working confirmed his genuineness? The old prophet meanwhile was probably congratulating himself on the success of his attempt to prove that the man was an impostor. Otherwise why would he have gone against a word that he had received from YHWH? Neither had considered the possibility of the depths of human sinfulness.
20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “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, 22 but you 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.’ ”
But then the word of YHWH came to him while they were eating, and to his horror he learned what he had really done. He had to acknowledge to himself that he had seemingly betrayed a true prophet of YHWH. But, however embarrassed he might have felt, because it was the word of YHWH for the man of God he could not hold it back, and he declared to the man of God that because he had disobeyed YHWH he would not die in peace (would not be laid in the tomb of his fathers) although no other detail was given. We are not told what the man of God’s reaction was.
23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.
The man of God then departed, and while he was on the rough trail back to Judah (in obedience to YHWH he had had to avoid the normal road), he came across a lion which attacked him and killed him, so fulfilling the prophecy of the old prophet.
We have already mentioned above the seriousness of what the man of God had done. By accepting hospitality in Israel, he had indicated as the representative of YHWH that YHWH was at peace with Israel. But this was to invalidate his own previous message. Thus, it was necessary for him to be punished in such a way that all would see that despite his wrong behavior, the word of YHWH against Israel stood sure, and that in eating and drinking he had not been acting as YHWH’s representative, but as a disobedient sinner.
25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
Certainly, the sight was unusual enough to cause comment, and when men passed by and saw the dead body, and the live ass and lion, they immediately reported what they had seen in the next city that they came to, which was the city where the prophet dwelt.
The indirect ‘the city where the old prophet dwelt’ rather than saying ‘Bethel’ is intended to draw attention to the fact they were unconscious instruments of YHWH. He had deliberately ensured that the message reached the old prophet by bringing them to his city.
26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore, the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.”
The news reached the ears of the old prophet who ‘had brought him back from the way’, and it probably included a description of the man and his clothing. This last comment about being ‘brought back from the way’ probably has a double significance. He had not only brought him back from the road that he had taken but had also stopped him from walking in the way of YHWH. ‘Walking in YHWH’s way’ is a popular description of the spiritual life in Kings. And when the old prophet learned of the dead man he recognized that it must be the man of God who, because of his disobedience to YHWH’s word, had been slain by a lion.
27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So, they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him.
The prophet then took up the body of the man of God and laid it over his donkey, and then led the animal with the dead prophet back to his own city, where he could mourn his death and bury him respectably.
30 Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”
He brought the man of God’s body to be brought back to Bethel to be laid in his own tomb, and as a result confirmed to his sons the genuineness of the man of God’s prophecy. He now knew that he was a true man of God after all.
31 So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.
The old prophet, no doubt filled with remorse, then spoke to his sons after he had buried him and called on them to ensure that when he himself was dead they would bury him in the same tomb in which the man of God was buried, laying his bones by the bones of the dead man of God. It was a declaration of solidarity with the man and his message. We should not overlook the bravery of the old prophet in thus openly declaring himself as in favor with the man of God and his message. It would not make him popular with Jeroboam. But it would indicate clearly whose side he was on.
32 For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
And he confirmed that now he knew that the man of God was a genuine prophet of YHWH and that his word spoken against the altar would surely come about.
This passage causes many to question why God allowed this to happen to His true servant. But it is important to recognize the significance of the situation. This man of God was the first of many who would be called on to prophecy to an antagonistic Israel, and thus through what happened to him God was bringing a warning to all future prophets that once He had given His word, they must strictly obey His word and not turn aside from it for any reason. Nor must they listen to those who would seek to play it down. It indicated to all future prophets the seriousness of being a man of God. (We can in fact look back in the Scriptures and see similar situations. Consider for example the case when YHWH ‘attacked’ Moses on his way back to Egypt for having been disobedient and not circumcising his son (Exodus 4.24-26), or when Moses and Aaron were both punished severely for smiting the Rock and misrepresenting God (Numbers 20.12), or when the sons of Aaron were smitten for disobedience in the Sanctuary (Leviticus 10.1-2), or when Uzzah was struck down for touching the Ark (2 Samuel 6.7). All were examples of a similar gross disobedience by chosen servants of God).
Furthermore, we should remember that by his folly the man of God had in effect countermanded his own message by eating and drinking in Israel, and had the matter ended there all Israel would have believed that the man of God’s message no longer applied. We must remember in considering this the vital role that hospitality played in ancient society. It was not just a casual thing. Once you had supplied hospitality, or received it, you had made a pledge of friendship which was sacrosanct. It was a sign of guaranteed friendly relations. On the other hand, to refrain from hospitality was a direct sign of enmity, and of evil intentions. Thus, the man of God’s disobedience could have had catastrophic results on the faith of the true believers in Israel. The only way in which that could be avoided was by YHWH’s judgment falling on the man of God, thus indicating that in his act of enjoying hospitality he had not been YHWH’s representative.
In the closing verses of this chapter we find that what Jeroboam had done was so heinous that it resulted in his house continually failing to live up to the covenant that YHWH had made with him (failing to walk in His ways and obey His commandments), with the result that YHWH purposed to cut it off and destroy it from off the face of the earth.
33 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
YHWH’s initial purpose in sending the man of God had been to lead Jeroboam to repentance. But his heart was so hardened that he did not return from his evil ways. He refused to repent. And he demonstrated this by continuing to appoint as priests of the high places anyone who was willing. On their expressing willingness he consecrated them as priest of the high places, in order that there might be enough priests.
34 And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.
What he had introduced and carried through became a ‘sin, a missing of the mark’ to the house of Jeroboam. He had not only gone astray but had led his family astray as well. And this would finally result in his house being ‘cut off’ and destroyed from the face of the earth. This was in total contrast to the permanent dynasty that YHWH had promised to him if he would walk in His ways.
