Prophecies against Jeroboam
13
📚And just then a man of God 📖 came to Bethel from Judah 📖 by the word of the LORD; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense 📖. 2 📚And the man cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Look, a child will be born to the house of David, Josiah 📖 by name; and he will offer on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones will be burned on you.’ ” 3 📚And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: ‘Look, the altar will split apart and the ashes on it will spill out.’ ”13:3 God gave evidence to Jeroboam and to the nation that the prophet was declaring the Word of God. It was important for them to know this, for Israel was at a very critical stage in its history. Compare Ex 4:1-9; Deut 18:21-22; Heb 2:4.⚜
4 📚Then this happened: when king Jeroboam heard the words of the man of God who cried out against the altar in Bethel, he put out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him 📖!” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to him. 5 📚And the altar split apart and the ashes spilled out of the altar, in accordance with the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 📚And the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please plead with the face of the LORD your God, and pray 📖 for me, that my hand may be restored to me”. And the man of God pleaded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.
7 📚And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward 📖”.
8 📚And the man of God said to the king, “Even if you would give me half your house, I would not go in with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 📚because this is what the word of the LORD commanded me, saying, ‘Eat no bread and drink no water, and do not return by the same way that you go.’ ” 10 So he went another way, and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
13:8-10 The prophet had received his instructions from God, and he was firm in his determination to follow them completely. So far so good.⚜
11 📚Now an old prophet lived in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, and they told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
13:11 This old prophet sets out to ruin the prophet from Judah (v 18). His motive is not stated. It may have been envy (and envy is deadly). Perhaps he reasoned like this – “I am a prophet and live right here in Bethel. Why did God bring a prophet from Judah to give His message. Why am I passed over?” Or it may have been simply that this old prophet was a backslidden failure and was pleased to see other prophets fail too. Who can say for sure? (Jer 17:9). But we know there are such people in the world and among God’s people.⚜
12 And their father said to them, “What way did he go?” For his sons saw the way the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 📚And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me”. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
14 📚And went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am”.
15 📖Then he said to him, “Come home with me, and eat bread”.
16 📚And he said, “I cannot return with you or go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place,
13:16 Verse 9. Sometimes the command of God may seem strange and unreasonable to His servants. Compare Ezek 4:12-14; Hos 1:2; Acts 10:9-14.⚜
17 📚because it was said to me by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread or drink water there, or return by the way that you go.’ ”
18 📚He said to him, “I am also a prophet, just as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, so that he can eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him 📖.
19 📚So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.
13:19 How important it is to hold firm in obedience to what God has said.⚜
20 📚And it came about, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who brought him back,
13:20 This old man had the true prophetic gift.⚜
21 📚and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word spoken by the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
13:21 This man of God should have realized that God would not change His instructions, that his obedience was being tested. Once God has told us to do something we must do it, even though a world of prophets and all our family and friends try to turn us from God’s will. If we do not we will experience great loss.⚜
22 📚but came back and ate bread and drank water in the place concerning which the LORD said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water, your dead body will not go to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”
13:22 Disobedience in what men might regard as a small matter may result in the destruction of our whole ministry, may indeed cost us our lives. No disobedience is small in God’s eyes, and little matters may bring great tests. Compare Luke 16:10. For the terrible results of another act of disobedience see Rom 5:12, 15, 17-19.⚜
23 And it came about after he ate bread and after he drank, he saddled the donkey for him, that is, for the prophet whom he brought back. 24 📚And as the man was going, a lion met him in the road and killed him. And his dead body was thrown down in the road, and the donkey stood by it, and the lion stood by the body.
13:24 The donkey did not run away, the lion did not attack the donkey – evidence to those who saw it that this was an act of God.⚜
25 📚And men appeared, passing by, and saw the body thrown down in the road, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 📚And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard this, he said, “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, in accordance with the word of the LORD, which he spoke to him”.
13:26 A man of God died for one act of disobedience, but the lying prophet and wicked Jeroboam lived on. Strange appear the ways of God to men (Isa 55:8-9; Rom 11:33-34), and none of us will understand all He does on earth. But we should learn not to judge people’s character by what happens to them, by the measure of their present punishment or lack of it. Some faithful children of God suffer greatly and die young. Many rascals live on untroubled, and seem to prosper (Ps 73:3-12). But the end is not yet – Rev 22:12.⚜
27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me”. And they saddled it for him. 28 📚And he went and found his body thrown down in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, nor torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey and brought it back, and the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 📚And he laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”
13:29-30 It seems this strange old man was genuinely sorry. He had ruined his “brother”, and his heart was saddened and troubled. Perhaps, when he started out to test him, he did not think it would result in the young man’s death.⚜
31 📚And it came about, 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; 32 📚for the thing which he cried out 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, will surely come true”.
33 📚After this incident Jeroboam did not turn 📖 from his evil way, but again made priests for the high places from the lowest of the people. He consecrated whoever had the desire 📖 to be a priest, and he became one of the priests of the high places. 34 📚And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it 📖 from the face of the earth.