Let’s remind ourselves of the events of the last study.
Read 1 Kings 11:29-36
29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.
33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.
34 ‘“But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.
Because Solomon had deliberately turned his back on God, his kingdom was decimated. One tribe had been left to his son to rule over in Jerusalem, but the bulk of the kingdom was now entrusted to a palace official – Jeroboam. God had made promises to him too
Read 1 Kings 11:37-39
37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not for ever.”’
Wow! What a promise: ‘I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David’
We saw last time how Rehoboam had failed in his charge over just one tribe in the south. How would Jeroboam succeed with the rest of Israel?
Remember Jeroboam was only a palace official, and a ‘young man’. He would have been employed at the palace while Solomon was worshipping other gods, so he never had the experience of a truly godly king like David to guide him.
He didn’t have an official residence, and no other palace officials he could trust – most would have supported Rehoboam and were still in Jerusalem.
So his first job was to provide himself with a capital city and a palace. But he was still feeling insecure. He was well aware that at regular times throughout the year there would be great festivals at the Temple in Jerusalem, and many thousands from all over Israel would travel to these.
Read 1 Kings 12:25-33
25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘The kingdom is now likely to revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.’
Well he’d seen Solomon building temples and altars for other gods. So he’d do the same. He’d been told how the people had originally been led out of Egypt, even perhaps how they’d made golden bull images to worship. That’s what he’d do.
28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.
(‘as far as Dan’ this was the breakaway part of Dan that had settled in the most northern part of Israel.)
I wonder who he asked for advice? Certainly not the Lord. Actually he didn’t need to ask as the Lord had already told him:
Read 1 Kings 11:38
38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you.
So what did he do next?
Read 1 Kings 12:31-33
31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. 33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
Bethel was just over the border from the Temple in Jerusalem and God was having none of that. Disobedience on that scale provoked an immediate response. Note the phrase twice repeated in the next two verses ‘By the word of the Lord’.
Read 1 Kings 13:1-10
1 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: ‘Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: “A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.”’
A true prophet, because over 300 years later, King Josiah from Jerusalem did exactly that (2 kings 23:15-20).
3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: ‘This is the sign the Lord has declared: the altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.’
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, ‘Seize him!’ But the hand he stretched out towards the man shrivelled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
How tempting it is to leave Jeroboam for a moment with his shrivelled hand pointing to the true man of God. Powerless to do anything against the God who he had defied.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, ‘Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.’ So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.
7 The king said to the man of God, ‘Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.’
8 But the man of God answered the king, ‘Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: “You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.”’ 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
Note that the ‘man of God’ had travelled from Judah. Possibly many of those who were truly Godly had already fled to Jerusalem.
Naturally I wanted to know what happened next to the King; but that will have to wait because there follows a strange and difficult passage. Before we attempt to dissect it we’d better read the whole passage.
Read 1 Kings 13:11-32
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, ‘Which way did he go?’ And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, ‘Saddle the donkey for me.’ And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, ‘Are you the man of God who came from Judah?’
‘I am,’ he replied.
15 So the prophet said to him, ‘Come home with me and eat.’
16 The man of God said, ‘I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 I have been told by the word of the Lord: “You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.”’
18 The old prophet answered, ‘I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: “Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.”’ (But he was lying to him.) 19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.”’
23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, ‘It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.’
27 The prophet said to his sons, ‘Saddle the donkey for me,’ and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, ‘Alas, my brother!’
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, ‘When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.’
Well now where to start? At the beginning! Verse 11:
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, ‘Which way did he go?’ And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, ‘Saddle the donkey for me.’ And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, ‘Are you the man of God who came from Judah?’
‘I am,’ he replied.
Here we are presented with an old prophet living in Bethel. Why didn’t the Lord choose him to proclaim his message there? Why did he have to bring someone else from Judah? Is the answer in the choice of titles used? ‘Man of God’ and ‘old prophet’. He had watched from the sidelines as the ‘high place’ had been taken over by the evil practices of idolatry but had been powerless to speak out. Note too that the prophet did not know what had happened there that day – his sons had to tell him. And had he been happy for his sons to attend this pagan festival?
Now verses 12-18
12 Their father asked them, ‘Which way did he go?’ And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, ‘Saddle the donkey for me.’ And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, ‘Are you the man of God who came from Judah?’
‘Are you the man of God who came from Judah?’
15 So the prophet said to him, ‘Come home with me and eat.’
16 The man of God said, ‘I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 I have been told by the word of the Lord: “You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.”’
'I am', he replied
Here the ‘man of God’ is faced with an outwardly pious old prophet asking him to return to the place of evil worship from which he had just escaped.
Could we ever be misled by ‘religious’ people with ‘a message from the Lord’ which seems to go against what we know is right?
How can we avoid being misled by modern-day ‘prophets’? 1 John 4:1 tells us ‘Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ’
Our path is a narrow one. Attractive diversions are at best simply that, but some would take us backwards. Note God’s specific instruction to the man of God (Verse 9) ‘You must not . . . . return by the way you came. ’
Writing these studies I have to continually be aware of the Holy Spirit’s voice questioning what I write! The Bible is God’s word to us, and the Holy Spirit of God who inspired it is the best person to interpret it.
We are told he was lying – but who lied? The old prophet or the ‘angel’?
2 Corinthians 11:14 says ‘Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ’ And John 8:44 says ‘he is a liar and the father of lies. ’ I believe that here Satan used the age of the prophet and his aura of respectability to overcome the true word from the Lord.
But Satan couldn’t prevent the Lord from using the prophet when he needed to.
Read verses 20-22
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.”’
Ancestors, and the ancestral inheritance were a very strong influence. To be ‘gathered with your people’ in death was a comforting thought. To be denied that was a hard punishment to bear.
23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, ‘It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.’
Death is inevitable for us all. Whether it is sooner or later, it is not necessarily a punishment when it comes. Here though, it certainly was from God. The lion was only allowed to kill him, not eat him – nor even attack his donkey, or the people who passed by.
But what about the old prophet? Surely he too should be punished?
Our natural desire for justice can never be allowed to turn into judgement. Who knows if in his remaining years the constant memory of these events were used to draw him back to God?
27 The prophet said to his sons, ‘Saddle the donkey for me,’ and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, ‘Alas, my brother!’
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, ‘When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.’
A sad episode. And I’m sure that if the writer of 1 Kings knew of it, then so did Jeroboam.
Read 1 Kings 13:33-34
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.
