1 Kings 13

Bible Passage:  1 Kings 13

What do you make of today’s passage?  Quite a strange story isn’t it?  And I must admit, I had to read it several times through and think about it before I quite understood what happened.

We read yesterday how Jeroboam quickly showed his foolishness and disobedience to God by making two golden calves and setting them in Dan and Bethel for the 10 tribes to worship – lest they went to Jerusalem for their usual offerings and attendance to the spiritual feasts and get their hearts turned by Rehoboam and his people.  He also started appointing anyone (even if they were not Levites) to be priests… all in an attempt to ensure he maintained his kingdom.

So this chapter has a man of God (no name mentioned) who was sent to warn Jeroboam and pronounced judgement on his kingdom.  Jeroboam was obviously not happy with the message and wanted to seized the man of God but ended up having his hand all shriveled up! After some intercession from the man of God, Jeroboam’s hand was restored and now the king wanted to reward the man of God by inviting him for a meal and give him a gift.

But the man of God declined as he was given strict instructions from God not to eat and drink in Bethel and had to depart from a different way as well.

Now… the problem came.  As he was leaving, he met an old prophet who lived in Bethel.  I am not sure what was the motive of the old prophet, but when he heard what happened, he sought out the man of God, and through a lie – deceived the man of God and got him to eat and drink in Bethel.

What happened next was something that we would not have imagined. As they were eating, God’s judgement was proclaimed on the man of God!

Instead of the liar being punished, the man of God was killed by a lion!  And to add injury to insult, he was not buried in the tomb of his fathers.

We can continue to debate the actions and words of the old prophet and I admit I still do not know why he did all the things that he did.  But there are some things we definitely can learn and I thought I’d try to share briefly what I see and maybe you can think about it and share more…

Absolute Obedience to God

Now this may seem like a no brainer.  But total obedience to God should be key in our lives.

The young man of God started out obeying God totally.  Bravely, he went to deliver bad news to the king (with grave dangers to his life).  After that, he showed his obedience by refusing to eat and drink in Bethel and went back a different way from which he came.

BUT….

He was deceived later and disobeyed God by eating and drinking in Bethel.

What does this tell us?

Elder James reminds us this by saying…

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

James 2:8-10

Very often we think that we are doing  great job in our lives by obeying God in the big things.  We keep the Sabbath.  We come for services regularly.  We do this and that in obedience to what the Bible says.

But are there areas in our lives that we know (and God certainly knows) where we have failed to be 100% obedient to Him?

Or else it does not really matter how good you have been or are otherwise.

This young man perished, not by wickedness or sincerity but by believing a lie.

Are there lies in our lives that were told to us or we have told ourselves that prevent us from being less than 100% obedient to God?

Am I That Old Prophet?

I still cannot get my head round to why did the old prophet lie to the young man of God.

What was his motive?  What benefits did he gained from it?  Did he know that his lie would lead to such devastating consequences for the young man?

Other than the lie that he told to get the young man to come and eat and drink with him… all the rest of his other actions seems to suggest nothing evil in his intentions.

Then I wondered… am I like that old prophet?

Bear with me a bit as I try to explain this….

Perhaps the old prophet sincerely wanted to find out more about what the man of God did and knew the only way to get him to his house was to tell a lie.  He knew that God had spoken and the judgement would come upon the kingdom and he wanted to know what it was all about. And perhaps then, he would be able to be better prepared to guide and lead the people in the nation in their proper worship of God again.

In trying to do certain things in church, while I have not lied or deceived anyone, have I done things which affect the faith or work of my fellow workers?

This may have been done out of good intention but if these are against the will of God, I will then have certainly done more harm than good.

Man can be wrong.

People active in doing God’s work can be wrong (eg.  like Apollos in Acts 18:24-26).

Teachers can be wrong because there are many false teachers who are telling lies (2 Cor 11:13-14).

Even our brethren whom we have known for many years can be the tools that mislead and deceive us (Matt 7:15; 2 Pet 2:1-3; Jude 4).

Now What?

What I am trying to get at is this….

We too, can be deceived.  So we should no longer remain as babies, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine or trickery of men.  We should learn to avoid things which causes divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrines. (Eph 4:14; Rom 16:17).

We must learn to test what is said (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1; 1 Thess 5:21).  Unfortunately, the young man of God did not.  But the lesson is this…. we must do it ALL the time and never let our guard down… even from those who seem to be trustworthy.

We must read and study the Bible for ourselves (2 Tim 2:15; Heb 5:14).  Only in this way, can we know what is right or wrong, handling the word of God properly.

We must never misuse or misapply the Word of God (2 Pet 3:16; 2 Cor 2:17).  While we may not purposely set out to do it, we must watch over how we use the Word of God and use it rightly.

The same thing that happened to the young man of God can happen to us today as all kinds of lies are being preached and followed today .

We MUST develop a love for the Word of God and His truth.  And the only way is if we pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and put in the required time and effort as often as possible to search the Scriptures… for truly in them, there is the Word of eternal life!

May God guide us through these perilous last days!