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1 Kings 13, you're probably going 
to leave tonight with some questions. It's one of those chapters that 
as you read it, you have questions, you study through it, you have 
either more or different questions. So we'll try and address some 
of those things. The basic teaching of the chapter, 
I think, is pretty clear. So I'll just begin reading in 
1 Kings 13 at verse 1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Then the king said to the man 
of God, Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will 
give you a reward. 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. 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. So he went another way and did 
not return by the way he came to Bethel. 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. 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. Then 
he said to his son, saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled 
the donkey for him and he rode on it 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. Then he said to him, come home 
with me and eat bread. 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. 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. 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. So he went back with him and 
ate bread in his house and drank water. Now it happened, as they 
sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet 
who had brought him back. 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. 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." 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. 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. 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. Now when the prophet who 
had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, it is 
the man of God who is 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. And he spoke to his son, saying, 
Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled it. 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. 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. 
Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned over 
him, saying, Alas, my brother! So it was, after he had buried 
him, that he spoke to his son, saying, When I am dead, then 
bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my 
bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried 
out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against 
all the shrines in the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, 
will surely come to pass. 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. And 
this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate 
and destroy it from the face of the earth. Amen. Well, in 
the last few weeks of the last chapters in our studies in 1 
Kings, we've seen the division of the kingdom, specifically 
in chapter 12. It had been prophesied by Ahijah 
the Shilonite. He had told Jeroboam that the 
Lord was going to split the kingdom in two. Ten tribes would go to 
Jeroboam in the north. Two tribes would go to Rehoboam 
in the south. And that is precisely what happens 
in chapter 12, verses 1 to 24. And then the scene shifts to 
Jeroboam and his reign in the north, and specifically his rule 
over the people by manipulating and using religion. We saw that 
he engaged in idolatry. He didn't want the people of 
the north to travel down to Jerusalem, because he knew if they went 
to Jerusalem, where it was commanded that they go for the worship 
of God, then they might give allegiance to Rehoboam. And thus, 
Jeroboam would lose his control over the northern tribes. So 
he devised this scheme. He put an altar or high place 
in Dan. And then in Bethel, he consecrated 
priests that were not Levites. He himself engaged in priestly 
activity. So, as we come to chapter 13, 
it really is a continuation of the last part of chapter 12. 
Jeroboam is conducting worship in an unauthorized and in an 
ungodly way. He's engaged in idolatry. And 
so the Lord sends this man of God to rebuke him and to promise 
judgment upon him unless he would repent and deceased from his 
ways. So when we look at chapter 13, 
I just want to try and isolate three major portions. There's 
a lot going on obviously, but in the first place we have the 
message of the man of God to Jeroboam in verses 1 to 10. Secondly, 
the deception of the man of God by the old prophet in verses 
11 to 32, and then the rejection of the message of the man of 
God by Jeroboam in verses 33 and 34. Now, as I read this particular 
passage, again, it's probably suggesting a lot of questions, 
especially the lion, the donkey, and the corpse. I don't know 
that I will be able to satisfactorily answer all of your questions 
tonight, but we are going to try and get at some of the particulars 
involved. But let's look first at the message 
of the man of God to Jeroboam in verses 1 to 10. And in the 
first place, we see his message. The setting, as I've already 
mentioned, is consistent with what we find in chapter 12. Notice 
in chapter 13 at verse 1, And behold, the man of God went from 
Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood 
by the altar to burn incense. This is the divine response to 
idolatry. The Lord God does not tolerate 
it. He does not brook any rivals 
with reference to the worship of His holy name. If persons 
are going to abominate and to reject and to despise His law 
and confess that they are part of the covenant community, then 
God sends the prophet. God sends this man of God in 
order to set things aright. This is the divine response to 
idolatry. Now note the particular message. 
In verse 2, he cried out against the altar by the word of the 
Lord and said, O altar, altar. Now we might ask the question, 
why is he speaking to the altar? I think John Gill answers it 
well. He says, addressing himself, 
not to Jeroboam, but the altar, thereby reproving his stupidity, 
Jeroboams, the altar being as ready to hear as he. And because 
that was what moved the indignation of the Lord. That was the offending 
item. Now certainly it was Jeroboam 
who constructed the altar, who built the house of worship. It was Jeroboam that was offending. 
He comes to reprove that. Now note what he goes on to say. 
O 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. Now this particular prophecy 
concerned an event that was at least 300 years in the future. 
at least 300 years in the future. Just a little math here. Jeroboam 
reigned from 931 to 910 BC. Josiah reigned from 640 to 609 
BC. And Matthew Poole reminds us 
that this prediction, this prophecy, plainly shows the absolute certainty 
of God's providence and foreknowledge even in the most contingent things. He prophesies concerning the 
very situation that Josiah would face, but also the very name 
that the parents of Josiah would give to him. Now, this prophecy 
concerned the reforms of Josiah in 2 Samuel 23. You can turn 
there. 2 Samuel chapter 23. Remember the particular instance. 
The book of the law was found in the temple by Hilkiah. It 
was read in Josiah's hearing, and Josiah realized that unless 
we repent, we are going to meet judgment. We are going to meet 
punishment from on high. So Josiah sought to restore true 
worship throughout Israel. And part of that was a fulfillment 
of what is spoken here in 1 Kings chapter 13. Note specifically 
in 2 Kings 23 verse 15. Moreover, the altar that was 
at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, 
who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high 
place he broke down. And he burned the high place 
and crushed it to powder and burned the wooden image. As Josiah 
turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And 
he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them 
on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the 
Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words." 
You see, this is what was spoken. in 1 Kings chapter 13. Robert Alter explains, in the 
course of that campaign, this desire to reform worship in Israel, 
he slaughters the idolatrous priests and also exhumes bones 
from graves and burns them on the altar of Bethel in order 
to make it forever ritually impure. It was an act of judgment And 
it was an act of purge. He wanted to purge the land of 
the idolatry and the wickedness that existed. So going back to 
1 Kings 13, we see this prophesied over 300 years prior to its actual 
fulfillment. Now certainly it also functions 
this way. It concerned a time that was 
about a hundred years after the fall of the Northern Kingdom. So what this man of God is essentially 
telling Jeroboam is that not only is the Northern Kingdom 
going to collapse, but there's a man, a son of David, interestingly 
enough, that is going to purge the land of idolatry and of wickedness 
and of evil. This declaration suggests the 
eventual demise of Jeroboam's dynasty and the northern kingdom's 
loss of sovereignty. You can see why Jeroboam didn't 
particularly like this message. Notice that he doesn't warm up 
to the prophet. Notice that he doesn't love on 
the man of God. Eventually he will, but that's 
simply to try and manipulate him, but initially he rejects 
him and he refuses him. So this is the setting, the message, 
and then note the sign that's going to accompany this particular 
man of God's prophecy. Verse three, 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. Now, the significance obviously, 
if this indeed occurs, under the prophet of God, or according 
rather to the word of the prophet of God, if the near event is 
going to be fulfilled and accomplished, then certainly the latter event 
is going to be fulfilled and accomplished. In other words, 
if God can split this altar open right before the eyes of Jeroboam, 
such that the ashes come pouring out, then Jeroboam has a surety 
that, in fact, in the days of Josiah, those bones are going 
to be exhumed and they're going to be burned upon the altar as 
a means of purging the nation from the effects of Jeroboam, 
the son of Nebat's sin, with reference to the northern kingdom. 
Now, note Jeroboam's response in verses 4 to 8. as is often 
the case and as is customary with men in general, he wants 
to silence the prophet of God. I mean, isn't that just symptomatically 
us? We hear something we don't necessarily 
like, and so what do we do? Instead of repent, instead of 
forsake, instead of confess, instead of trying to get right 
with God, we'd rather silence the messenger. That is always 
or typically the response of people. Notice in verse 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. Now, I listened 
to a good sermon on this passage, and the man who preached it was 
a southerner, not a southerner from the tribe of Judah, but 
a southerner in the tribe of America. And he said he didn't 
do this in order to whisper sweet nothings in his ear. He wanted 
him arrested so he could kill him, so he could silence this 
man of God from Judah who had come with a message from God 
concerning the demise, the collapse, the utter destruction of the 
northern kingdom. Remember, Jeroboam wants to hold 
on to what he has received. Notice that he doesn't do it 
in the God-sanctioned way. Go back to chapter 11. Remember, 
when Ahijah the Shilonite speaks to Jeroboam and tells him that 
he's receiving the ten northern tribes, God through Ahijah tells 
him, specifically in verse 38, then it shall be, if you heed 
all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right 
in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as my servant 
David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring 
house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. 
So you see, instead of a path of obedience, instead of the 
purity of worship, instead of honoring the God of heaven and 
earth, he rather seeks to control and manipulate the people of 
the north by setting up these sort of bastardized altars in 
order to somehow give homage to Yahweh of Israel, and instead 
of obeying, he chooses the path of disobedience. So he wants 
to silence this man of God. Notice what goes on in verse 
4. It says, then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, 
withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. What 
does this indicate? He cannot silence the man of 
God. He wants to reach out his hand, 
he wants to see the man arrested, but he cannot silence the man 
of God. He cannot control the God of 
heaven and earth. He cannot manipulate the circumstances 
in such a way as to try and facilitate this sort of abominable practice 
of idolatrous worship. Kylin Dalich says, thus Jeroboam 
experienced in the limbs of his own body the severity of the 
threatened judgment of God. You have to keep in mind all 
of these things are bits of revelation given to Jeroboam. God sends 
this man of God from Judah to tell Jeroboam essentially to 
cease and desist from his wickedness. He gives him one sign, the withered 
hand, and then this second sign in accordance with verse 3. Notice 
at verse 5, the altar also is 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. So you see, he cannot 
say, I just didn't know. He cannot say, but I just wasn't 
aware. The man of God not only comes 
with the message of God, but he also comes with these confirmatory 
signs. You know, when Jesus goes about 
doing these wondrous things, it is to affirm, authenticate, 
and confirm that he is the mouthpiece of God. That's why signs and 
wonders take place in the Bible. You see, I think at times, especially 
Charismatics and Pentecostals and sometimes Reformed people, 
they look at the signs, they look at the wonders, and they 
get mesmerized by that. The signs and the wonders authenticated 
the reality that the prophet who spoke was speaking the truth 
of God's Word. The more miraculous thing is 
that the God of heaven and earth has actually spoken to us, has 
actually revealed Himself to us, and these signs confirm that, 
they affirm that, or they authenticate that. So, Jeroboam sees these 
things, and notice what he goes on to do. Verse 6, he sees the 
withered hand, or probably paralyzed, his hand is paralyzed, he sees 
this altar, I gotta tell you, Jeroboam is just a symptomatic 
sinner, isn't he? Again, this is man, isn't it? What do we do? We hear the message 
of God and we want to silence the messenger. We get a bit of 
judgment in our lives and instead of forsaking it, instead of confessing 
it, instead of seeking forgiveness or asking the man of God to entreat 
God for us to forgive us, we just want our hand back. Thank 
you very much. That's all that matters to us 
are those things that directly affect us, kingdom, idolatry, 
law of God, obedience. None of that matters one whit 
to Jeroboam. And it is intriguing, he says 
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. Jeroboam 
knew enough of old covenant religion to realize that he was on the 
wrong side of things at this particular time. I don't know 
that a man could plunge into idolatry that headlong without 
having some consciousness of it at all. So he has this desire 
for health. And then 6b, so the man of God 
entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and 
became as before. Now, that's obviously an act 
of mercy on the part of God, isn't it? That God would heal 
this man who has taken the northern kingdom and has sought to control 
through manipulation that he actually heals this withered 
hand is an act of mercy. It's also an act of mercy by 
the man of God. I've got to tell you, if I was 
hearing in verse 4, arrest him, arrest him, not so they could 
whisper sweet nothings into my ear, but most likely cut my throat, 
I'm not sure I'd be so quick to entreat the favor of the Lord 
on behalf of the man that was trying to arrest me. This man 
of God is the real deal, and he remains the real deal all 
throughout this chapter. Certainly he listens to the lying 
prophet to be sure. He suffers some chastisement 
via an untimely death at the hands or mouth of a lion, but 
he's never stopped being the man of God. He never stops being 
a true prophet. Even in that passage in 2 Kings 
23, he's still the man of God, the prophet of God from Judah, 
who spoke the truth. In fact, when we continue on, 
as we will later in 2 Kings 23, when Josiah is alerted that the 
bones of the man of God are in a particular tomb, Josiah says, 
leave him alone. Do not dig him up, do not exhume 
him, and do not place him on this altar that is going to be 
destroyed as a sign of God's judgment in the northern tribes. 
God loves this prophet all throughout. Now, that doesn't mean he's a 
perfect prophet, but he's certainly a better prophet than I would 
have been, because I'm not sure I would have entreated the Lord 
so that the king's hand would be restored to him. Now, notice 
the attempt to bribe the man of God. Symptomatic, typical 
of sinnerhood, Jeroboam exhibits everything. He wants to silence 
the man of God. He only is concerned about the 
withered hand, not about the mess he's made of the northern 
kingdom, not about the prophecy that the northern kingdom is 
going to cease to exist and that a Josiah is going to utterly 
destroy and purge the northern kingdom. And now he wants to 
bribe the man of God, verse 7. Then the king said to the man 
of God, come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will 
give you a reward. He moves from wanting to arrest 
and kill him to now wanting to bribe him. This man might be 
useful to Jeroboam. He has the power to entreat the 
Lord to heal paralyzed hands. He's the sort of guy you want 
to keep around. So he invites him over, and he 
says, I will give you a reward. Note the refusal by the man of 
God in verses 8 to 10. He says, 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. Now, before we proceed, 
this is the kind of man of God we need today. I was thinking 
about that passage in Matthew 11 recently with reference to 
John the Baptist, when Christ basically is telling the people, 
What did you go out to the wilderness to see? Did you go out to see 
some soft, effeminate, prissy preacher? Did you go out to see 
a man who was clothed in soft garments? No, you went out to 
hear the truth as it is from the mouth of God through his 
servant, John the Baptist. Do you realize that this man 
of God from Judah is standing before a lawfully authorized 
king in the northern tribes? Jeroboam was not a usurper. Jeroboam 
did not steal the throne. Jeroboam didn't go sort of through 
the back door. He was the authorized, Romans 
13, God-installed authority in the northern kingdom. But when 
he sins against God, and God sends the man of God from Judah, 
the man of God from Judah doesn't shrink back. He doesn't fear, 
he doesn't fret, he doesn't run away, he doesn't cry, he doesn't 
snivel, he doesn't whine. He testifies what the God of 
heaven and earth has to say, and that is precisely what he 
says. 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. 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. Now, as we 
read through this chapter, and as I hope you've seen, what is 
conspicuous throughout is the Word of the Lord. How men respond 
to the Word of the Lord. You want to take something home 
that's practical tonight? Obey God. Because when the Word 
of the Lord comes, we are to receive it, we are to obey it, 
we are to heed it. Now, he doesn't explain the reason 
for the command. He simply gives it, or he gives 
the reason why he doesn't want to eat, why he doesn't want to 
drink. Because God said, you shall not eat bread, nor drink 
water, nor return by the same way you came. Now, we might surmise 
the idea being, you don't want to have truck with these sinners 
in the north. You don't want to sit down to 
table fellowship with these people that are engaged in idolatry. 
You want to shun the Northern Kingdom altogether. If you sit 
and eat their bread, you drink their water, and you sort of 
cozy up with them, it is in some sense giving tacit approval to 
the sorts of idolatry they're engaged in. Why he was told not 
to return the same way that he came, I simply do not know, but 
it's a feature that serves later in the narrative. Verse 10 tells 
us, so he went another way and did not return by the way he 
came to Bethel. So as we move on, let's look 
secondly at the deception of the man of God by the old prophet 
in verses 11 to 32. This is a great chapter. Don't ever let anybody tell you, 
oh, the Bible's an old, dusty, boring book. This is exciting. 
I mean, when's the last time you read a nonfiction piece of 
work that had a lion, a donkey, and a corpse all sort of hanging 
out together? I mean, that sort of thing testifies 
of the majesty, miraculous power, and sovereignty of God Almighty. 
This is great storytelling, and I don't mean by story that it's 
not accurate or it's not true. I'm simply suggesting that as 
the Bible comes to us, and we typically refer to this section 
of the Bible as historical books. These are the former prophets. 
When we look at Joshua through 2 Kings, those are all former 
prophets. They're not just history, it's 
theological history. It's got a theological interpretation. But it's not just given to us 
in some sort of a dry academic, and this happened on this date, 
and this happened on that date. Certainly, as we read some of 
the portions of it, it gives us that sort of a reporting of 
things. But it's exciting. It's engaging. I mean, you can spend time in 
1 Kings chapter 13, a significant amount of time and never be able 
to say, well, I've got this all figured out. If you actually 
get to that point, give me a call and let me know what you think 
about the lion and the donkey and a couple other particulars 
in this chapter. But notice, with reference to 
the deception of the man of God by the old prophet, verses 11 
to 17, we see the report. 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. Now, we're 
immediately met with some suspicious things here. Now, this is indeed 
an old prophet. Why is he still in Samaria or 
still in the north? If he is a faithful true prophet, 
I'm not suggesting they would have all left the north, but 
the fact that he resides still in this particular situation 
is a bit curious. As well, his sons were attending 
Jeroboam's worship services. His sons were present such that 
they not only see the man of God, but they also told their 
father the words which he had spoken to the king. So they were 
within earshot of what the man of God had instructed Jeroboam. 
So they were present at this abominable worship situation 
that had been manufactured by Jeroboam. Notice the response 
of this old prophet. The 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. Now, if that wasn't 
in there, the story wouldn't continue. It's very intriguing. 
That little incidental thing, that these sons happened to know 
the way that the man of God was going back to Judah, is basically 
the hinge upon which the rest of the story was told. Because 
if they hadn't known that, or they hadn't seen that, then he 
wouldn't have been able to find this man of God. There's all 
these little bits of providence all along the way. That's what 
I would suggest the lion and the donkey and the corpse suggests 
we'll see later. Certainly, there's a lot going 
on there, but providence is obvious. In other words, God has the lion 
standing by the carcass and the donkey so that no one returns 
home and says, you know, that's a terrible thing that men get, 
you know, sort of eaten by lions on the way home. That couldn't 
have happened. This was supernatural. When's 
the last time you saw a lion, a donkey, and a carcass laying 
on the ground? I mean, lions eat carcasses, 
don't they? I'm not a zoology major, but 
I think I know enough to say that that just doesn't happen. 
And certainly a nice, big, tasty donkey standing there would certainly 
be a bit enticing to a lion. So God doesn't want any of the 
men of Bethel to return and say, well, you know, we saw a carcass 
on the road. You know, as history tells us, apparently there were 
a lot of lions in Israel up until about the 13th century. What 
would man have done? Well, you know, somebody got 
struck by a lion on the way home. They couldn't have done that 
in this instance. I mean, it's so packed with providence. Even right down to the sons, 
knowing the very direction, different than the man of God coming in, 
different such that he was going out, they nevertheless knew where 
he was. That brings us to verse 13. He 
said to his son, saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey 
for him, and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and 
found him sitting under an oak. Now, this is intriguing, too, 
because the man of God was only about six miles away from Judah. Now, he's probably hungry and 
he's probably thirsty. I gotta think, you know, having 
been given instruction not to eat in Bethel, he probably would 
have packed a light lunch or something or had some water, 
so he wasn't probably completely destitute. And, you know, we 
can probably surmise that he'd sit for a spell under this particular 
oak tree, but he wasn't really far from Judah in terms of mileage. It seems to indicate that everything 
that happens between this man of God from Judah and the old 
prophet was supposed to happen. In other words, it wasn't haphazard. 
It didn't just sort of fall into place. But it actually seems 
as if God had purpose that this man of God meet with this old 
prophet for a specific reason. You see what I'm getting at? 
This isn't just filler. It isn't just the curious bit. 
It's not just a bit of interesting embellishment to make an otherwise 
historical narrative exciting for us to read. Because who doesn't 
want to read about lions and donkeys and carcasses? So this 
is ordained by God that these two men should gather together. 
Now note specifically with reference to his request. He asks, verse 
14, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? He said, I am. 
Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. Verse 
16, I cannot return with you, nor go in with you, neither can 
I eat bread. nor drink water with you in this 
place 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." Not surprising to us he's already given this 
to Jeroboam. He's already instructed Jeroboam, 
I'm not supposed to hunker down with you northerners. I'm not 
supposed to break bread with you northerners. I'm supposed 
to get back to Judah having accomplished my task. Now notice what we find 
here specifically in terms of the deception. Verse 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. Now, we get that note, he was 
lying to him. The man of God doesn't get that 
note. However, the man of God should 
have listened to the word of God that had been received by 
him personally. I think that's the fault here, 
or the error here, or the problem here. But this particular prophet, 
this old prophet, is lying to him. Now, that suggests a lot 
of questions. Why was he lying to him? Why 
would anybody do this? Why would he go through this 
sort of a thing? Again, I think the whole encounter 
and the whole scenario is orchestrated by God. I'm not saying God made 
him lie or anything like that, but these two men were supposed 
to meet and unfortunately, this was the condition or this was 
the problem. So this man lies to him. And then in verse 19 it says, 
he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank 
water. Now the obvious implication that 
should leap out at us from the text is that he shouldn't listen 
to him. He had been given orders by God, 
he had obeyed those orders with reference to Jeroboam, and now 
he doesn't obey the orders with reference to this old prophet 
from Bethel. Davis says, the text warns us 
that the ministry of proclaiming the word does not exempt us from 
the duty of obeying that word. In other words, he preaches, 
he teaches, but he also must be submissive to and subject 
to that word that governs him. It's not just his particular 
profession to proclaim truth, but it's also his life to be 
subject to that truth. I think there's a good sort of 
application there for preachers of the word. We're not just to 
traffic in proclamation, but we're to live in subjection to 
that word. We're always under it. It's not 
something that we master in order to teach others, but rather it's 
something that ought to master us, and then teaching is the 
outflow of a life that has been conquered by the grace and the 
Word of God. I think we see this in Ezra 7.10. 
Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, 
and to teach statutes in Israel. I've always thought that ought 
to be sort of a motto text at a theological seminary. Ezra 
7.10. He sets his heart to study the 
law, to do it, and then to teach. You see, you can't bypass the 
doing it. It's not just, I'm going to study 
and learn how to exegete Hebrew and Greek so that I can teach 
in the church. No, you're going to do that in order to do it 
and then teach. Because if you're not doing it 
and you're teaching it, you're a hypocrite. Now, all of us certainly 
are hypocrites to one degree or other. However, there's a 
man who obviously is a hypocrite, and then there's one with remaining 
hypocrisy who's seeking by the grace of God to deal with that. 
So he submits, he listens to this particular deception. Now 
notice what we find in terms of chastisement in verses 20 
to 25. Verse 20, it happened. As they 
sat at the table that the word of the Lord came to the prophet 
who had brought him back. This is the old prophet from 
Bethel. You see, you can't just write 
him off as a false prophet. You can't just say he's a wretched 
false prophet. A lot of commentators say, this 
is where we start to see the sort of contrast between true 
prophecy and false prophecy. No, that's not necessarily the 
case. The word of the Lord comes through 
this old prophet at Bethel. Before I started working in this 
particular chapter, verses 20 to 22, and it still does, I couldn't 
imagine sitting with a guy who just told me, well, the angel 
of the Lord told me that you can sit with me and eat, and 
now he's telling me you shouldn't have sat with me and eat. But the way that the man of God 
deals, It really is incredible and I think it sort of buttresses 
the idea that this was by divine appointment that the man of God 
have some positive impact upon this old prophet. Because the 
man of God doesn't say anything. Again, I just don't know of anybody 
who would be sitting there, munching on whatever they munched in the 
Northern Kingdom at this particular time period in history, who had 
just heard a man say, well, you know, Lord told me you can't 
eat and drink with me. Oh, by the way, the word of the 
Lord came to me and said, you're going to be judged for eating 
and drinking with me. Who of us would have just sat 
there and then actually continued eating? Look at verse 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. John Gill says 
one would have thought that he would no longer continue with 
his meal, right? I think I'd lose my appetite 
if I'd gone through this sort of progression of events. Don't 
you want dessert? No, you've just lied to me, got 
me in your house, and then told me that God's going to judge 
me for listening to your lie. Who's going to finish dessert 
in that content? I don't care what you make. And 
then the fact that he actually leaves, right? If you knew that 
judgment was coming upon you, you might just be tempted to 
spend the night at the old prophet's house there in Bethel. There's 
more going on than meets the eye. And I'm not certain that 
I have it all figured out, but I am suggesting that it's wrong 
to say true prophet versus false prophet. I think we have true 
prophet helping a man become a better or true prophet. Notice what the man says in verse 
21. 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, 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. That would just really put a 
damper on the entire meal. It would be just a miserable 
thing. But he eats. He finishes. He 
saddles the donkey and he goes. Now notice the specific act of 
chastisement. I choose that word very particularly. 
I think what we have here is a temporal judgment in order 
to preserve him for eternity. You see this in Corinthians. 
You see this whole concept. There are times where the Lord 
God will chastise a man or a woman unto death in order to save them. with reference to their spiritual 
well-being. You see it in the Lord's Supper, 
right? For this reason, many sleep and many are sick among 
you. Well, the specific juxtaposition 
that Paul says there is that when we are chastised, it's so 
that we're not condemned with the world. I don't think this 
was condemnation of this man of God from Judah. It was a chastisement. He lost his life to a lion, no 
doubt. no less, but nevertheless he 
was preserved in terms of his bones, which I think is symptomatic 
or signifies or is typical of God's preservation of this particular 
prophet. But notice he's killed by the 
lion. Verse 24, 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. Now I suggest 
that this suggests to us providence and judgment. It's the providence 
of God and the judgment of God, and God wants everybody to know. 
I'm using judgment there slash chastisement. I'm just simply 
saying that God wanted everybody to know that this didn't happen 
haphazard. It wasn't because there was a 
lion problem in the North at that particular time. It's because 
God was showing judgment upon someone who had rejected his 
word. And so that's why the lion and the donkey are standing there, 
and the corpse is standing there. Not standing there, but lying 
there. Notice verse 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. 
One man says, we need find no difficulty in the miraculous. 
In the Bible it is almost invariably found in moments of crisis when 
the fate of the nation was at stake. Such a moment was Jeroboam's 
remodeling of religion to suit his purposes. The lion and donkey 
standing watch over the dead man were needed lest they should 
say with a shrug of the shoulders how dangerous the roads have 
become since Solomon's death and dismiss the whole matter 
as an accident. If the lion and the donkey and the carcass were 
not there, and the lion was eating the carcass, or the lion was 
eating the donkey, it would look haphazard. It would look random. But God wants Israel to know 
that this was indeed the man of God. That what the man of 
God did was wrong, and he is being chastised for this. But 
even more than that, If the man of God suffers chastisement at 
the hand of God for rejecting the word of God, what is King 
Jeroboam going to receive when he rejects the word of God? In 
other words, if the Lord brings chastisement upon a man of God 
who ultimately ends up in heaven, what's he going to do with a 
wretch like Jeroboam who is with both reigns taking the northern 
kingdom and driving it into the ground? This is an acted parable 
to demonstrate that God in his providence has come in judgment. Gil says, but rather as if he 
was the guard of it. Speaking of the lion, to keep 
off all others from meddling with it. These circumstances 
are very surprising and show the thing to be of God. For when 
the lion had done what he had a commission to do, which was 
to kill the prophet, he was to do no more. So the passers-by 
go back to Bethel, and you can imagine the conversation at coffee. You'll never guess what we saw 
on the way into the city today. There was a lion, a corpse, and 
a donkey. You'll never believe it. The 
lion didn't eat the corpse. The lion didn't try to eat the 
donkey. They all just stood, or the donkey and the lion just 
stood there by the corpse. What would be the take-home message? 
God is in this place, this is divine, it is His providence, 
and this judgment comes as a result of Him. If Jeroboam doesn't take 
heed to the goings-on, he is going to reap the whirlwind with 
reference to God's judgment. Now note the burial in verses 
26 and 27. The prophet who had brought him 
back from the way heard it. This is the old prophet from 
Bethel. He says, 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. 
And he spoke to his son saying, saddle the donkey for me. So 
they saddled it. Then he went and found his corpse 
thrown on the road and the donkey and the lion standing by the 
corpse. Brethren, I love you guys and 
I'd like to think that if you called me in a bind, I would 
come and help you. But if I knew there was a lion 
standing next to you, I'd probably not rush to do it. What's happening 
here? What's happening with this old 
prophet? Somewhere along the line, he has turned the corner. Notice what's happening. He's 
showing esteem and respect for this man of God from Judah. He 
does so in such a way as, at least as far as he knows, risking 
his life. I mean, you don't just go up 
to the scene and say, let's grab that dead body and throw it on 
the donkey. There's a lion standing there. You see, at some point he now 
believes God, God who sent this prophet, and God who is working 
through this in his providence. Now the lion so much isn't a 
sign of God's judgment, but of preservation and protection. 
He is presiding over this whole scene such that the old prophet 
can come and fetch the dead prophet, put him on the donkey, and give 
him a proper burial. This is precisely what's in view 
from this point on. Notice, the old prophet took 
the man of God to the city to bury him in his own tomb, verses 
29 and 30. The old prophet gave instruction 
to his sons in verse 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. Look at 2 Kings 23 again. 2 Kings 
chapter 23. We read up to verse 16, notice 
in verse 17, then he said, this is Josiah, remember he's purging 
the land of the idolatrous priests, even pulling out the bones, exhuming 
bones, and burning them on the altar. Again, this is to render 
the whole system as ceremonially unclean and impure. In other 
words, it is to salt the earth, religiously speaking. No religion 
will ever grow here again that does not have divine sanction. 
That's the significance under Josiah's reforms. So he says, 
what gravestone is this that I see? So the men of the city 
told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah 
and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar 
of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no one move his bones. So they let his bones alone with 
the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. Now, I'm not 
suggesting that necessarily means everybody's in heaven and they're 
all eating with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But it does suggest 
some sort of preservation. which is symptomatic or typical 
or significant of the fact that God was pleased with the actions 
of both these men. And I think the second man was 
greatly influenced by this man of God from Judah. God used the 
man of God from Judah to help this old prophet from Bethel. Now notice specifically in chapter 
13 at verse 32. He says, 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. Consider this. Jeroboam is in the north, he's 
a wretch, he is polluted, he is vile, he is evil. God sends 
a prophet from Judah up to testify and tell him, you need to repent, 
you need to forsake. God is going to shut you down 
and close down the northern kingdom. You've caused a great situation 
for the judgment of God. So it's not only now this prophet 
from Judah, but we've got a prophet from Bethel that is testifying 
the very same thing. He says everything that the man 
of God from Judah has testified will surely come to pass. It is a comprehensive message. South and North, those who are 
faithful, are telling Jeroboam that if he doesn't stop the way 
that he is progressing, he is going to destroy the northern 
kingdom. So the old prophet has benefited 
from the tutelage of this man of God from Judah. Now notice 
thirdly and finally, this is probably the quickest I think 
a Bible study has ever gone, but let's look at thirdly quickly 
the rejection of the message of the man of God by Jeroboam. It's incredible, isn't it? Symptomatic, 
typical sinner. Jeroboam is that to a T. If you ever want to show somebody 
what a sinner looks like, I mean, have them look in the mirror, 
but certainly Jeroboam would be a poster child. I mean, the 
guy just operates according to plan with reference to sin. Verse 
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. the 
attempts to silence the man of God, something Jeroboam did. 
First, by murder, and secondly, by bribery. I mean, Jeroboam 
doesn't look good in this section of scripture, does he? I mean, 
this is pretty pathetic behavior for a typical sinner, but for 
a God-sanctioned, God-installed, God-ordained king. Again, it's 
all happening according to plan. Southern kingdoms will eventually 
be the only, the House of David will prevail. But at this particular 
point in terms of history, Jeroboam is not doing well. So the attempts 
to silence the man of God via murder, via bribery, the things 
witnessed by Jeroboam. Now, this is, you know, verse 
33, after this event, I think it connects us to the lion, the 
donkey, and the carcass, but it also connects us to everything 
prior, because the lion, donkey, and carcass are connected to 
what is prior. So everything up to this point, after this 
event, this whole complex situation that Jeroboam had witnessed. 
Now, what did he see? First, he heard the message of 
judgment concerning the northern kingdom. That should have been 
enough. That should have been enough. When the prophet of God 
declares to you the word of God, that should be enough. We should 
submit, we should honor, we should obey. But he also saw the signs, 
the paralyzed hand and the splitting of the altar. I mean, didn't 
Jesus upbraid the cities of his own day? He said, woe to you, 
Bethsaida. Woe to you, Chorazin. If Sodom 
and Gomorrah had seen the things that you had seen, or if Tyre 
and Sidon had seen the things that you had seen, they would 
have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But you saw these signs, 
and it didn't produce anything. See, evidences and proofs and 
miracles and signs don't make believers. The Holy Spirit makes 
believers. Thirdly, he saw the goodness 
of God. What's Paul say concerning the 
goodness of God in Romans 2.4? What is one of the purposes for 
the goodness of God? It ought to lead us to repentance. So Jeroboam couldn't bring his 
arm back to his body. He asks the man of God to entreat 
the Lord. He entreats the Lord and the 
Lord heals his arm. And instead of praising the Lord, 
he wants to pay off the profit. Isn't that just amazing? He doesn't 
say, thank you, God, for using the prophet to help me. He wants 
to bribe the prophet and say, come back to my house, I'll give 
you a great reward. Just terrible human being here. Not that, you know, God needs 
me to confirm that. And then the providence of God. 
Either he had seen or he had certainly heard, because it was 
the buzz in Bethel that day, no less than it would be today. 
My dead body was lying on Wellington, and there was a donkey and a 
lion sitting there next to it. And the donkey wasn't being eaten, 
and the carcass wasn't being eaten. You would hear about that. 
It would make the news. It would be in the Progress. 
It would be in the Times. So Jeroboam had heard these things 
and had known these things concerning God's providence in terms of 
judgment or chastisement. and in terms of preservation. And then as well, the chastisement 
of God upon the man of God. He had seen how the Lord dealt 
with this man of God from Judah, who had rejected the word, and 
his crime, his sin, his violation, it was bad because he disobeyed 
the word of the Lord, but he ate bread and he drank water. 
What's Jeroboam doing? Jeroboam is manufacturing places 
of worship for idolatry. He had seen a lot of things. 
And 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. He himself became a priest 
of the high places. House says, not even a string 
of miracles deters Jeroboam from his path to idolatry. He still 
sanctions high places, non-Levitical priests and non-Mosaic inspired 
sacrifices. Proven says, true prophecy will 
bring forth the judgment it promises. Even prophets cannot escape if 
they are disobedient. And if prophets cannot escape, 
neither can kings. So, in conclusion, one of the 
central themes here is the word of the Lord. If you want a good 
take-home practical piece of application tonight, do what 
God says. I think that's always the end 
result, or ought to be the end result of a Bible study. We need 
to obey. We need to honor. We need to 
do what the Lord commands. The Lord said to Jeroboam, if 
you obey, if you keep, if you follow, then you will be blessed 
in the northern kingdom. As soon as Jeroboam takes the 
reins of the kingdom, he plunges it right into idolatry. He will 
subsequently become the benchmark of evil in the northern kingdom. 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, becomes in a negative way what David, 
the king of Israel, had become in a positive way. He is the 
standard by which others are seen in terms of their wickedness 
and their evil and their depravity and their wretchedness. We see, 
secondly, God's war against idolatry. We cannot get this idea that 
it's okay when we mix a little Yahweh and a little Baal, or 
we mix a little Yahweh and golden calves, or we mix a little Yahweh 
and our money, or our time, or our energy, or whatever. We need 
to understand that we're to seek first the Kingdom of God and 
His righteousness. God, Brooks, no rivals. We see the persistent rejection 
of God by idolaters. Matthew Henry made this observation. Various methods had been used 
to reclaim him, Jeroboam, but neither threats nor signs, neither 
judgments nor mercies wrought upon him. So strangely was he 
wedded to his calves. He loved those calves. He worshiped 
those calves, and he would ultimately do so to the demise of his own 
household, to his own death, and to the plunging of the nation 
into calamity and destruction. And then finally, we see the 
accuracy of biblical prophecy. I mean this is an amazing thing. 
Now obviously today people say well that couldn't actually happen 
that way. Most, or not most, but a lot 
of modern say because it was so accurate it had to be written 
after the fact. Nobody actually believes in the 
modern scholarly circles that Moses wrote when Moses wrote, 
and the former prophets wrote when the former prophets wrote. 
Most of them think that it was much, much later in Israel's 
history, after all these things transpired, then they recorded 
it and made it look like prophecy. Well, that's just a worldview 
assumption that excludes the reality of the supernatural. better to see it as the word 
of the living God who cannot lie, the God who is promised 
and prophesied through this man of God from Judah, that over 
300 years later, Josiah, a son of David, a son of David, would 
be the one to obliterate idolatry in the northern kingdom. God's 
word is sure, God's word is true, God's word is central. Well, 
let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for 
Your Word. We thank You for this very exciting passage of Scripture. 
We pray, God, that as we read, as we study, as we go through 
the Word of God, it would thrill our hearts, and that it would 
inform our minds, and that we would seek to be a faithful people 
in Your sight. Go with us now, we pray, and 
we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.