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.
Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 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. 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.
Introduction
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
The Man of God's Message to Jeroboam
let's look first at the message of the man of God to Jeroboam in verses 1 to 10. And
The Message and Its Setting
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
The Confirming Sign
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,
Jeroboam's Response to the Sign
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,
The Attempt to Bribe the Prophet
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,
Deception of the Man of God
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,
The Report of the Old Prophet
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
The Lie and the Prophet's Error
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
Chastisement: the Lion and the Corpse
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
Burial and the Old Prophet's Confession
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
Jeroboam's Rejection of the Message
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.
Closing Prayer
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.