Today I’d like to discuss 1 Kings chapter 13 and a very important lesson we are taught in it.  I want to talk about it because thousands of Christians today are making the same mistake that this particular man of God made.

To give a little background after King Solomon died there was a revolt of the northern tribes resulting in 2 nations (Israel and Judah).  Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became King of Judah and Jeroboam (one of Solomon’s officials) became King of Israel.

In 1 Kings chapter 12 we see that King Jeroboam did a lot of things, including making golden calves, that displeased God so the beginning the chapter 13 details God’s response to Jeroboam’s evil ways and misleading God’s people away from Him.  God gives His pronouncement to King Jeroboam by sending a prophet.

1 Kings 13: 1-10
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.  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.’  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.”

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 toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.  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.

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.

The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”

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. 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.’ So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

In the above verses we see that God gave the man of God a message to give King Jeroboam.  But God also gave him strict instructions to not eat or drink anything while there and to return home by a different route.  Sounds like pretty easy instructions….doesn’t it?  Let’s continue.

1 Kings 13: 11-29
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. Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 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.

So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

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.  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.’”

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.)  So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 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.  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.’”

When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.  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.  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.

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.”

The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.  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.  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.

We are never told the prophet’s name that gave King Jeroboam God’s message but we do know that by God’s own words he was considered a man of God.  This man of God was given explicit instructions from God and yet he was easily led astray.  I cannot stress this enough that he was a man of God and yet was easily deceived!!!

Let’s break this down:

• A man approaches him saying he is a prophet
• This man also tells the man of God that he has received a message from an angel
• The man of God says “oh, okay that must be true so I’ll go against what God has told me”.

Can you see what I’m getting at?  Today we do the very same thing.  God tells us how to live in His Word aka the Bible and yet people still place other people above the Bible.

Let me give you some examples of what I’m talking about:

- A lot of Christians go to Church and leave their spiritual growth exclusively to their Pastor/Priest. They never open up their Bibles and never make sure that what their leader is teaching them is actually the truth.

- I’ve had someone email prophesies to me that they were really excited about. I read them, researched them to see if they were in alignment with what the Bible says and I looked into the person giving the prophesy to see if they were credible.   This prophesies were not in alignment with God’s Word yet this person emailing me obviously didn’t do their own homework and rejected the truth that I gave them.There are prophets out there but we must test what they are saying with what the Bible says.  If someone claims to be a prophet and says something that doesn’t happen stop following them because God would never say something and not do it!

1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
Do not scoff at prophecies but test everything that is said.

- A lot of these false Christian religions started with the Bible and then decided a man had more knowledge and authority than God.

Roman Catholics believe that the Pope is above the Bible.
Jehovah Witnesses believe that their founder Charles Taze Russell and his writings are above the Bible.
Mormons believe that their founder Joseph Smith had visions that later became the Book of Mormon which is placed above the Bible.
And it goes on…

The point is that there are a lot of charismatic teachers out there.  There are also a lot of false teachers and prophets out there.  We are NEVER to take a man or woman’s word over God’s.

So if someone tells you they’ve had a vision or word from God don’t believe it unless you can back it up in the Bible.  God WILL NEVER go against what He says in the Bible!  So if anyone is telling you different run away!!

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie.  He is not a human, that He should change His mind.

I think another reason God put this account in the Bible is so we don’t get deceived by pride.  We might believe we are too “religious” or know too much to fall for any lies but that’s pride.  God gives us this account to warn us because the person deceived wasn’t just anyone, he was a prophet of God, he was a man of God and yet he was led to disobey his Creator.

Think about that.

We must always be on alert and never take someone’s word over the Bible.  The Bible is our ONLY source of authority especially in these days because…

Matthew 24:24-25
For false messiahs, and false prophets will rise up and perform great miraculous signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.  See, I have warned you.

Now it didn’t end well for the man of God who was shortly after killed by a lion for disobeying God’s orders.  And when I first read 1 Kings 13 I was like “That was harsh the poor guy was lied to.”  But as I prayed and mediated on it God made it so clear to me:

“Follow my words and you will be kept safe, leave my words and it ends in death.”

And it’s so true.  The man of God is a clear example of the danger of leaving God’s word.  Not that we are going to be killed by a lion but definitely we run the risk of spiritually dying and forever being separated from God.

So I encourage you today to make a commitment to yourself and your own spiritual growth.  That you dig daily into the Bible and pray for God’s wisdom and His knowledge so that you don’t get led astray.  That you do your homework and don’t automatically believe everything you hear and read just because they sound “Christian” that’s me included.  Do your homework.  Pray every day.  Read the Bible every day.

I’ll end with this Scripture:

Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of you mind, that you may prove what is good, acceptable and perfect in God’s will.

Your Sister in Christ,

Angela