I Kings 13

In I Kings 13, we’re told about a man of God. We aren’t told very much about him, or even his name. We are, however, told that this man came out of Judah to speak against King Jeroboam. Near the end of King Solomon’s life, Solomon strayed from God. He began to chase after the idols of his wives. Because of this, God told him that he would take the kingdom away from Solomon’s son, but leave two tribes. Jeroboam is the man God decided to give the kingdom to. Jeroboam led a revolt against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, which intensified when Rehoboam threatened to make life much harder for the people. During the rebellion, the people of Israel, with the exception of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, named Jeroboam their king.

Fearing that the people would kill him and return to Rehoboam if they were able to sacrifice in Jerusalem, Jeroboam set up two golden calves for the people to worship. He told them that they  needn’t go to Jerusalem to sacrifice, because these were their gods now. Jeroboam and the people of Israel began to worship calves with sacrifices and feasts and incense.

This is where we meet our nameless prophet. He came to Bethel to announce that Josiah would come and kill the false priests on the altar. Jeroboam ordered his men to seize the prophet. Before they could, “And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.” Jeroboam asked the prophet to ask God to heal him, so he did. The king then offered to have the prophet come home with him for refreshment. 

The prophet says that, no matter what, he couldn’t accept because God had told him not to eat or drink or go back the way he had come. After the prophet leaves, an old prophet seeks him out. He wants to bring him home with him and feed him. The prophet refuses because he had already had his command from God, which had been to abstain.

The old prophet lied to the first, telling him that an angel had told him to bring the prophet home and give him a good meal. Believing him, the prophet obliged. They ate together and then God spoke to the old prophet, who told the younger prophet that he had disobeyed God and “your carcass will not come into the sepulchre of your fathers”.

After the younger prophet left, he was met by a lion. The lion mauled him and he died.

The prophet had played a dangerous game. He knew what he had been told by God, but he listened to somebody else instead. And yet, how often do we do this very same thing? We have God’s word right in front of us. We have access to it in a way that countless people do not. Instead of diving into it ourselves, we let other people tell us what it says. Or, perhaps, we know it like the back of our hands, but we listen to somebody who twists it in a way that sounds more pleasurable.

God says what He says. Obeying what God says is the simplest thing in the world. It’s rarely easy, but it is simple. We already know what God calls good and what He calls bad. Why let man tell us that we don’t? Are our own sensibilities enough to risk offending God?