Introduction: Bethel was the scene of some good encounters between people and the LORD. Sadly it was also a place where Jeroboam established a false religion, centering on the worship of a golden calf. The background for this message comes from 1 Kings 12-13
Full disclosure: Sermon Central has previously accepted a message based on this text called “O Altar, Altar” showing how a true prophet cried out against Jeroboam’s altar, but listened to a false prophet, and paid with his life. This message is not merely a copy and paste of that one, but rather focuses on the false prophet.
1 The false religion: Jeroboam’s altar, idol, and proclamation
Text, 1 Kings 13:1-10, KJV: 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.
This event probably took place not long after Israel split into two kingdoms. It’s been mentioned many times by many people that the Ten Northern Tribes remained known as Israel, but the Two Southern Tribes (Judah and Benjamin) became known as Judah. All this is found in 1 Kings 12,
After this, Jeroboam built (re-built?) Shechem in Mount Ephraim and apparently made this city his capital, at least for a while. Likely, during this time, there seemed to be at least some religious tolerance for those of the Ten Tribes to worship and sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. But Jeroboam wasn’t idle—he “took counsel” and had golden calves installed as objects of worship in Bethel and Dan. Dan was in the farthest north of Israel, but Bethel was about as close a border town as anybody could make it. So, from the north to the south of the Ten Tribes, Jeroboam was about to install an entirely new religious system. See the last several verses of 1 Kings 11 for some of the details.
To digress for a moment, some have wondered just what Jeroboam was really planning to do. I myself am of the opinion that Jeroboam took the original golden calf imagery from Exodus 32 and planned to force the Ten Tribes to worship that calf. If I’ve read Exodus 32 properly, the same people of Israel who had only recently seen the LORD deliver them from Egypt, kept them safe and dry while crossing the bed of the Red Sea, and had provided food and water ever since they left Egypt—now, while Moses was on the mountain obtaining the very Law they had sworn to obey, they were breaking that Law!
Even so, there were some in the North who remained there for whatever reason. As time went on, there seemed to be a push to either worship the calf-god either alongside the worship of the LORD (Laban had tried this “I want to be sure” strategy in Genesis; compare Genesis 24 and 31:30; his daughter Rachel had stolen his “gods” or household idols!) or separate and distinct from the worship of the LORD. Of note, Jeroboam had fled to Egypt to escape Solomon’s wrath and in my opinion, he got the idea for the calf-worship there.
Jeroboam then proceeded to build his altar to the calf-god in Bethel and invited (commanded?) the people to take part in this. These first verses of chapter 12 contain the record of the prophet of Judah who prophesied against the altar itself and had the grace to pray for Jeroboam to receive healing when the LORD caused one of his arms to wither. I’ve known a few people who have less than perfect arms—each time, due to birth defects—but this case was different.
To give Jeroboam credit, he did at least offer the prophet a reward and some food, maybe in appreciation. I would surely be grateful if someone healed a defective body part! For that prophet, though, he was working under strict orders: don’t eat or drink anything and don’t even return to Judah by the same way you made it to Bethel. So he refused the king’s offer.
He was about to meet something or someone else, however, who did him more harm than the king could have thought of.
2 The false prophet was deceitful
Text, 1 Kings 13:11-19, KJV: 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.
Something that I’ve wondered is why God’s people remain in either a pagan or apostate land. True, Israel had conquered (reclaimed, actually) the land of Canaan back in Joshua’s days, and they had all been living under the basically godly leadership of David and Solomon, but now the king is forcing the people—all the people—into choosing whom to worship: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the calf-god which Jeroboam had made. It’s true that there was a number of northerners, including priests and Levites, who fled to the south (see 2 Chronicles 11:13-17). But there seemed to be a good number of genuine believers who stayed in the North.
This prophet was one of those who chose to stay. We don’t have the reason why he did this.
Yet for whatever reason, he did stay in Bethel, but his commitment to the LORD God of Israel does seem to be a bit weak. According to the Law, if anyone (and there is no qualifier) would entice or try to get Israel to worship false gods, that person was to be put to death after an investigation (Deut. 17:2-7)/ Well, there was no need for an investigation: the proof, namely the altar and image, were right there in plain sight!
And, further, why did he stay home but allow his sons to go that first “worship service”, for lack of a better term? At the very least, to give credit, the sons did tell the prophet about what had happened: the prophet from Judah prophesied against the altar and everyone there saw it split in two; they saw Jeroboam’s arm wither, and then get restored; and the prophet was bold enough and confident enough to turn down a king’s offer! At least three miracles in just minutes!
Now comes one of the strangest and saddest encounters in Scripture, The old prophet, who should have been doing what the other prophet did, had stayed home but now he wants to know which way the other prophet was going. It’s possible the false prophet’s sons had heard the other prophet say he wasn’t even supposed to return to Judah by the same way he traveled to Bethel.
Why is this sad, you might say? Something was in the heart and mind of this false prophet. It was bad enough he didn’t take a stand for the LORD when it was time to stand and be counted; no, he was about to do something nobody, especially a prophet, should ever do.
Eventually, he found the other prophet who was resting under an apparently good sized tree to get some shade. In one sense, that’s understandable, as most agree that the temperature and climate in Israel is hot, real hot, and unbearably hot at some times. Any time in the sun is usually a good reason to get some time in the shade and the true prophet decided to take a rest under the shade of that tree. At a guess, this tells me this was sometime in either spring or summer when the shade would be at its greatest. I’m of the opinion that if oaks in Israel are anything like oaks in North America, they’ll drop their leaves in the fall and it would be difficult to get shade when resting under bare branches!
Others have criticized the prophet for stopping when he may have been only a few miles from his own territory. Ramah (home of Samuel, interestingly: 1 Sam 1:19) was almost in sight of Bethel (see the map at https://bibleportal.com/bible-maps/headwaters-bible-maps) At any rate, the false prophet met the true prophet under the tree and spoke to him. The conversation seems to have started off relatively friendly, at first.
The false prophet, as we read, asked the other, “Are you the man of God from Judah?” This makes me wonder, how would he even ask? Was it the clothing or something else? Then the prophet from Judah rather tersely replies, “I am”. Sometimes fewer words are better than many.
Here came the next statement from the false prophet. He said, “Come home with me and eat bread (let’s get you something to eat)”. On the surface, that sounded reasonable, maybe even polite. All of us could use some more hospitality: wouldn’t hurt to give some more of it, too.
Ever faithful, the true prophet said in so many words, “Thanks, but not thanks: the LORD told me not to eat or drink anything and don’t even go back by the way you got here.” Polite, but concise, and about as clear as anyone could make it.
It was at this time the false prophet sinned against the LORD and this other prophet. He said, “Oh, so you’re a prophet? I am, too, and by the way, an angel gave me a message that I’m to bring you back to my house so that you can get some water and food,” but all of that was a lie. I still wonder how and why anyone would lie to a preacher of any kind; especially when the “message” received is a request for the other party to reject the LORD’s clear command. Paul would later remind the believers in Galatia that even if an angel preached a gospel other than what the Lord gave Paul, “let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8). Nowhere did a true angel ever give a false message.
Well, for whatever reason, the true prophet went back to the false prophet’s house, ate some food, and drank some water. He didn’t know, though, he’d never eat another meal on this earth.
3 The true prophet died for his sin
Text, 1 Kings 13:20-25, KJV: 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.
The ways of the LORD are sometimes strange. That’s the case here: a prophet who, for whatever reason, didn’t stand up to the king when he should have, and then lied to another true prophet, now gets a message directly from the LORD. The false prophet was a true prophet for a moment when he declared, “The LORD says, 'You didn’t obey Me, so you are going to die and your body will never return to your family burial plot.'” Losing his life would be bad enough, but to know you would never return, and your body/corpse would never be taken back to your family, must have been more than the true prophet could bear. I mean, take a look at the (at least) three generations of Abraham’s family buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron which Abraham purchased (see Genesis 23 for the purchase and Sarah’s burial; Abraham’s in Gen 25:9; Isaac’s and Rebekah’s in Gen 49:31 and Leah, Jacob’s wife with Jacob himself (Gen 50:13).
I don’t know about you, but my guess is that the true prophet heard the message and seemed, maybe, resigned to what was about to happen. He finished his meal, drank some more water, the saddled his donkey and headed—somewhere. He knew he’d never make it home alive.
But a lion was waiting for him. We’re not told how far he had traveled before he met the lion which promptly killed him. No need to speculate how the lion killed the prophet, the important thing was that he had sinned and now he was going to pay for that sin. The lion, though, did something I’ve never heard of before or since, namely, the lion left the body alone. Somehow the carcase (the prophet’s body) was “cast in the way” and that’s where the lion stood. And, even more strange, the prophet’s donkey was standing near the body, too—but was not attacked!
There was one other special effect from all of this, and that was when people traveled by the “scene of the crime”, as it were, and began to talk about this in the false prophet’s hometown. He paid attention to that report, as we’ll see next.
4 The false prophet’s dedication
Text, 1 Kings 13:26-32, KJV: 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 torn 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 torn 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.
“Dedication” may not be the best word for the point but it does speak of the care that the false prophet did show, better late than never one might say, to the true prophet’s body. The lion had “torn” the true prophet—whether with teeth, claws, something else, doesn’t matter—but had incredibly left the prophet’s body where it lay. And, the prophet’s donkey was standing there, not attacked by the lion, either.
And, then as now, news traveled and eventually the false prophet heard about what had happened. He guessed, correctly, that the source of the news was the true prophet whom he had deceived and tricked into signing his own death warrant. The false prophet then asked his sons to saddle their own donkey, which they did, and the false prophet went to find the body of the true prophet, somewhere between his house and Judah.
The false prophet did show a little compassion to the true prophet’s body. He risked being attacked by either the lion, or the prophet’s donkey, or both and loaded the body onto one of the donkeys. He then proceeded to take the body to the city in order to give the body a proper burial. He also mourned over the man’s death but I myself wonder how sincere or genuine this “mourning” really was—after all, this man was responsible for the true prophet’s death!
Bur to be fair, again, the false prophet did lay the true prophet’s body in one of Bethel’s burial places (“his own grave”). I remember reading a commentary that explained sometimes “graves” were not necessarily holes in the ground but mini-caves in hillsides. One such example cited was a tomb or grave that was six to seven feet long, two feet wide and three feet high, At the very least, the true prophet’s body wasn’t about to be food for the lion or to suffer decay in the open.
Something must have spoken to the false prophet’s heart after all this. Even though he had shied away from making a stand, and lying to another prophet (who knows why he did this/?), he made one request of his sons: “When I’m dead, bury me where we buried the true prophet.” Even though he was responsible for the true prophet’s death, he knew that the message was true and surely enough, about 300 years later, King Josiah did exactly as that prophet had said (see 2 Kings 23:15-20).
Epilog, 1 Kings 13:33-34, KJV: 33 After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made 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
We don’t read any more about this false prophet, his sons, or anything else. Why he remained in Bethel even after King Jeroboam had proclaimed a new religion is unknown. Why he decided to lie to the true prophet again is something we’ll never understand down here. True, the LORD will sometimes test us but He will never, ever, even drop a hint or suggestion that we do anything evil or outside of His will (James 1:13).
Certainly we can “what if” for a long time but the fact remains: if that false prophet (false, because he not only refused to stand for the LORD but also lied, causing the death of another true prophet) had done right, this story, and Israel’s story, might have been very different.
You and I will be called on to take stands, make decisions and maybe even speak truths that few if any really want to hear. Don’t worry. If we do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, we’ll have His assurance and His reward for faithful service.
And one additional word of exhortation: if something sounds wrong, it usually is! That true prophet should have listened to the LORD, not someone else, even if the other person quoted an angel. “Fear God, and keep His commandments!”
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
