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1 Kings Chapter 13
A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam
God is so good to send someone when He
sees we are about to destroy what is good and right. He warns before
judgment. He warned Ninevah once through Jonah and saved a whole
city. God's word is to be taken seriously though never lightly. For
as we read further, the prophet that warned Jeroboam was later
killed because He just slightly disobeyed the word of God but it
would seem to us as a little thing but God's word should be believed
the first time He speaks.
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1Kings 13:2 And he cried
against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar,
altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto
the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer
the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and
men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
This was 322 years before Josiah was
born.
-
1Kings 13:3 And he gave a
sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath
spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are
upon it shall be poured out.
This sign about the altar was a sign
that is given immediately. That helps our faith to believe the later
fulfillment to be true also.
-
1Kings 13:4 And it came to
pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God,
which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth
his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand,
which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not
pull it in again to him.
Jeroboam knew better than to depart
from God and build altars to false gods or idols. His sin was
rebellion against the God He knew was real. He knew this before the
prophet came to him. There was no excuse for his ways at all. He
can't claim ignorance.
- 1Kings 13:5 The
altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar,
according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word
of the LORD.
- 6 And the king
answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of
the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored
me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king's
hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
Jereboam know enough about God to ask
for prayer than his hand be restored. He also offered to the prophet
refreshment.
- 1Kings 13:7 And the
king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh
thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
- 8 And the man of God
said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I
will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink
water in this place:
- 9 For so was it
charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor
drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
- 10 So he went
another way, and returned not by the way that he came to
Bethel.
The Prophet's Disobedience
Now we learn that we are to obey the
first word of God we hear and are convinced it is God that speaks
and not our imagination. Once we are settled in the matter, that is
when we obey and do not deviate from that even if another prophet of
God tells us differently.
- 1Kings 13:11 Now
there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told
him all the works that the man of God had done that day in
Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they
told also to their father.
- 12 And their father
said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way
the man of God went, which came from Judah.
- 13 And he said unto
his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he
rode thereon,
- 14 And went after
the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said
unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he
said, I am.
- 15 Then he said unto
him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
- 16 And he said, I
may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I
eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:
- 17 For it was said
to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink
water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
God did not change His mind. The first
word was the true word of God.
-
1Kings 13:18 He said unto
him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me
by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into
thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied
unto him.
This was a true prophet but like many
of us, we fail to live without spot of wrinkle sometimes and do
things in the moment that are wrong, like lying. What he should have
said was, "It is good that you obey the word of the Lord, continue
on your way."
- 1Kings 13:19 So he
went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank
water.
Surely by this time the prophet would have
been hungry and this tempted him to believe the words of the prophet
thinking God was using him to give him refreshment.
- 1 Kings 13:20 And it came
to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD
came unto the prophet that brought him back:
- 21 And he cried unto
the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the
LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD,
and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God
commanded thee,
- 22 But camest back,
and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which
the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy
carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
- 23 And it came to
pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he
saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had
brought back.
- 24 And when he was
gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase
was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also
stood by the carcase.
- 25 And, behold, men
passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion
standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city
where the old prophet dwelt.
- 26 And when the
prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he
said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of
the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion,
which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the
LORD, which he spake unto him.
- 27 And he spake to
his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.
- 28 And he went and
found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion
standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor
torn the ass.
- 29 And the prophet
took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass,
- and brought it back: and
the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid
his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying,
Alas, my brother!
- 31 And it came to
pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons,
saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein
the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:
This makes me want to cry for sure. It
was a big lesson to this prophet but since this prophet did not
directly disobey the word of God he was not punished like the other
prophet but he mourned and asked to be buried in the same place when
his time of death came. He had to live with the fact that his lies
caused the death of the 1st prophet.
This may seem harsh to us in the modern
age we live in but it does show the importance of not taking God's
word lightly. Even though this marvelous day of grace through Jesus,
we must treat God's word as final and not depart from Him.
- Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it;
- 26 That he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
- 27 That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish.
If we mess up, make it right just as
soon as possible. Become that glorious church without spot or
wrinkle.
- 1Kings 13:32 For the
saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar
in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which
are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
- 33 After this thing
Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the
lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever
would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of
the high places.
- 34 And this thing
became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and
to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
All these signs and words from God yet
Jeroboam still does not repent but continues doing wickedly. The
kings over the ten tribes really have a hard time keeping the word
of God as one by one arises and does the same thing. High places
were build to worship idols not the real God. It was an abomination
that caused the latter destruction of the ten tribes.
Once we start disobeying God after He
sends prophets and warnings our heart will become harden and it is
harder to get right with God. To hear the first time is
best. God in His mercy may wait longer but it is better to hear and
obey the first time around. DC
1 Kings Chapter 14
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