Obeying God
10/26/03
1 Kings 13
Verses 1 – 3
“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.”
In these first three verses, we see a couple of things which set the stage for the lessons that follow.
First, the prophet is unknown and unnamed. He was apparently a minor prophet that God selected for this particular task. Throughout this world today, thousands, perhaps millions of unknown, minor prophets or ministers are selected by God to carry out his word. That tells us that God works just as often through the little known as he does through the big name prophets.
Second, God assigned his prophet a particular task, and that was to go to Bethel and deliver a prophecy to the pagan priests. Jeroboam, the king, was one of those pagan personalities, and at the time the prophet arrived, Jeroboam was preparing to burn incense on this particular altar.
Verse 4 picks up the story by telling us that Jeroboam got angry at the prophet for delivering such a message and that he stretched out his hand toward the prophet and called for the other priests to seize him. “And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.”
That must have been a surprise. Here, the king, who was accustomed to having his orders obeyed instantly finding himself with a dried up, paralyzed arm sticking straight out from his body.
Then, to add insult to injury, the prophecy took place exactly as said. (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.”
If the withered arm didn’t get the king’s attention, the breaking of the altar did.
In the space of a couple of minutes, Jeroboam saw two miracles take place. His arm withered, and the altar split wide open. That was enough to convince him of the mighty power of God. He cried out to the man of God. “Pray! Plead to your god to restore my arm.”
The prophet prayed, and God answered by restoring the king’s arm to its previous state. That made three miracles in a row, one right after another. It should have been enough to convince any man that here was the one, true God. Unfortunately, we find that it wasn’t, because verse 33 tells us, “Jeroboam returned not from his evil way.”
The main part of this passage is not about Jeroboam however, but about this man of God who came out of Judah.
This man of God was in God’s will. He was doing what God wanted him to do, and when he prayed, God answered. There is a lesson about prayer here for us. When we are in God’s will, and doing what He wants us to do, he answers our prayers. When we drift away from His will, different things will happen, as we are about to find out.
(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; (90 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.”
You see, this prophet had specific instructions from God as to what he was to do, and he did not intend to stray from those instructions. He went on his way, taking a different path than the one he came by because that was what God told him to do.
The problem is that humans, even men of God, have a way of overlooking God’s instructions. They tend to do what they think is right, or possibly what they think God will overlook or what they can get away with. This isn’t an uncommon problem today, just as in the past. People look for excuses to get around God’s will. They interpret God’s words the way they want to interpret them.
Our prophet here is a good example of that. Up to this point, he has done God’s will. Now, as he is leaving, we see in verse 11-18 that things are about to change. Verse 11 tells us that there was an OLD PROPHET living in Bethel. This prophet learned through his sons about what happened to King Jeroboam and how the altar had split.
He wanted to see this man of God who did these things so he got on his donkey and rode to find him. It doesn’t say why he wanted to see him, but I would suppose it was more curiosity than anything else. At any rate, his actions proved that he was not being led by God.
Look at verse 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.”
That is the same thing the king said, and the man of God gave him the same answer. “God told me not to eat or drink, but to go home by a different way.” He must have been tired and worn out because that Old Prophet found him sitting under an oak. He was resting, and trying to build up his strength in order to go on. He had traveled a long distance, gone without food or drink in order to deliver God’s message. He had made a great personal, physical sacrifice.
Sometimes, God asks us to sacrifice. He asks us to give up some of our comfort in order to do His will. Sometimes, it is even greater. We may have to sacrifice our relationships with others. We may have to give up something we personally are devoted to. God might even ask us to give up the Cowboys in order to serve him. No one knows what he may have to sacrifice until God lays it on his heart.
Now, here is where things begin to fall apart. The old prophet tells the man of God, (18) “I am a prophet also; and an angel spake unto me by 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.”
This was a bald faced lie that the old prophet told, and the man of God bought it. It may have been that the man of God was tired, hungry and thirsty and he was just looking for an excuse to get a good meal. It may have been that because this was an old prophet, that the man of God believed him. After all, why would a prophet lie?
We don’t know the old prophet’s motivation. Obviously, he had no regard for the word of God. Maybe he deliberately planned the lie on the way to catch up with the man of God. Maybe it just slipped out as a little white lie. Whatever the reason, because this man of God, who so far had been doing God’s will, believed the old prophet and went home with him.
He chose man’s word instead of God’s word. We do that today in many different ways. We believe just about anyone, preacher, prophet or politician, who has a good story to tell. We justify our actions, to get what we want. We find excuses.
I can just imagine this man of God thinking to himself as he went back with the old prophet, “well, I guess God changed his mind. Surely, this respected old prophet would not have chased me down if an angel had not truly spoken to him.”
Lots of things may have gone through his mind, except the one most important thing. Up until now, God had spoken directly to him. So Why did not God tell him this? Because it was a lie. The last sentence in verse 18 says it was a lie.
The tragedy is that it was too late for the man from Judah to change his mind. While they were setting at the table eating, the Lord truly spoke to the old prophet, “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 has 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.”
Too late, too late. So many learn the truth too late to change things. If only that man of God had turned around and left before he sat down at the table and took that first bite of food, things would have been different.
Sometimes, we do the same thing. WE say words that hurt, and then it is too late to take them back. We make promises and break them and it is too late to make things better. We put off making things right with other people and then it is too late. So many “too lates” slip into people’s lives, and there is no way to change things. We wait and wait and wait to accept Christ as our Savior and then one day, it is too late.
It was too late for this man of God from Judah. He went on his way and a little piece down the road a lion jumped him and killed him. A little while later, someone told the old prophet. He went out, found the body, and buried him in his own tomb. The old prophet told his sons that when he died to bury him in the same tomb with the man of God when he died.
Now, you will probably say it was the old prophet’s fault, and yes it was to a degree. We must realize that the man of God from Judah did not have to go along with the old prophet. He had God’s instructions plain and clear. He knew what he was supposed to do, and still he disobeyed.
In our lives, we always have God’s instructions, plain and clear. They are written right here in the Bible. All we have to do is look them up, read them, and obey them.
It is not someone else’s responsibility to see that we follow God’s instructions. It is ours. No matter what someone else tells us to do, if it is contrary to what God says, we are in disobedience if we do not follow God.
We need to take man’s word with a grain of salt. We need to pay attention to God. Man will color things to his own advantage.
That old prophet only wanted a dinner guest to associate with so he could probably brag to his friends. It is interesting to note that the word of God came to him at the dinner table, and when it did, it so shocked him that he leaped up and spat out the words that condemned the man of God. It is also interesting to note that the old prophet although he mourned, he did not show any remorse. Was there no repentance in the old man’s heart? We don’t know. We can question but the questions really should be directed to the man of God from Judah.
Was God using the situation to test the man of God? Possibly, although don’t you think God knew what would happen ahead of time. Did God use the situation to bring the old prophet back to God? Maybe. At least he did put the victim in his own tomb. The story does not answer these questions.
What it does tell us is that we should pay attention to God. We are to seek his will, and not listen to the words of man. We are to pray for God’s leadership in our times of joy and times of trial. We are to search the Bible for God’s word and listen for his instructions. We are to follow those instructions before it is too late.
We have the responsibility of following God. So many say, “God is love,” and that is true, but we must also realize that because He is love, we are to do his will. We are to love him and trust him with our very lives. We are to follow his instructions for godly living, because it is his will.
Folks, we cannot rely on man. Man will fail you. Man will lie to you. Man will deceive you. We must trust in God. Our very lives depend on it.
Have you placed your trust in God this morning? Are you willing to drop what man says about the way you should live and trust in God’s Word? Do you want to reach that point in your life when you can trust only in God? Are you willing, as the old hymn says, to Trust and Obey?
Are you willing to do it before it is too late? Had that man of God out of Judah only remembered God’s instructions and followed them, it would not have been too late for him. People wait. People tend to put things off until tomorrow. We make plans for the future, and often, the future changes and it is too late.
As we have our invitation, if you have not trusted in God for your eternal life, your salvation, do it now before it is too late. If you have been putting off completely serving God, don’t put it off any longer. If God has been telling you what you should do, and you have been ignoring it, don’t ignore it any longer.
As we stand and sing, you come as God directs.
