Its so unfair? - 1 Kings 13

Its so unfair?- 1Kings13

One of the most interesting and unusual chapters of the bible!

1 Kings 11:9-12  (NIV) 9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

1 Kings 11:28-31  (NIV) 28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.

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.

Subsequently Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam and so Jeroboam flees to Egypt and stays there until Solomon dies after which he returns. When Solomon died Rehoboam (Solomon’s son) takes over as king. He was a very hard task master and as a result, Israel rebels and Jeroboam is taken as King of all Israel except of the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin that remained loyal to Rehoboam. Unfortunately Jeroboam also turns from God and builds idols and shrines in Bethel and Dan so that his people do not have to go to Jerusalem where King Rehoboam ruled, in fear that he may lose his Kingdom

So here in Jeroboam we have a man of standing, a man who worked hard, a man destined by God to be ruler of the major part of Israel. In fact had he not turned from God he would have possibly been a household name today in Israel but, he turns away from God and jealousy and selfishness enter his heart. There are two main driving forces for this

1. To please his people

2. To hold on to what he has got

Two big mistakes we can make today is to try and be a people pleaser, (at the expense of the word of God) and  conform to the wishes standards and peer pressures of what others want us to do, and secondly to hold on to what God has given us  with both hands closed tight. 

We are blessed to give and release not to hold and accumulate? This applies in our lives to people, possessions and dare I say it time! These two things apply to us today as much as they applied to Jeroboam!

 This sets the scene for 1 Kings 13.  One of the most challenging stories in the bible, and yet as you dig into it one of the most revealing!

1 Kings 13:1-10  (NIV) The Man of God From Judah

 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.’” 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 toward the man shriveled 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.

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.

Its interesting, no name is given to the “man of God”, and that phrase “man of God” is mentioned 17 times! This same phrase is used for Moses, Elisha, Elijah, David…. Really great men of God! So this was no ordinary man and when you see the miracles that happened one can understand why he is called this.

Just think, as the King stretched out his hand to him it just shrivelled up, the altar was split in two, the Kings hand was miraculously cured again! This was a man of conviction…determined to do what was right… look what he says…

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.

There are a few interesting learning points here

1. What happens here in 1 Kings 13 shows the distinction between Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. When the Kings hand was shrivelled up he said “Intercede for me and pray for me that my hand may be restored” and then come home with me for a meal.  So it looks like he has had a change of heart, one minute ready to arrest the man of God and the next asking for prayer and inviting him for a meal? However we will see that Jeroboam did not change at all and he reverted back to his old ways and as a consequence lost everything. Godly sorrow leads to repentance and repentance leads to change. In the Psalms David cries out” Against you only Lord have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight….” But in worldly  sorrow we are sorry for what has happened to us  there is a different focus..—a big difference, with big consequences!

  Corinthians 7:10  (NIV)

10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  When you are sorry about what’s happened to you, there is no benefit. There is no change!

2. Just think about this prophecy by the “man of God” about Josiah and the predictions fulfilled;

   1. A child will be born of the house of David called Josiah,

   2.  He shall offer the High Priests of the high places on this altar, human bones will be burnt on it, 

   3. The altar will be split apart.

 This was a prophecy 322 yrs before it happened. Isaiah’s prophecy about Cyrus in Isaiah 44 was about 200yrs before.  You know I think we have such a narrow concept of God’s timing. We have no idea, we try and fit everything into our timeframe, into this week, this month or this year. God does not work to our timescale and a lifetime is not a constraint!! You can read about Josiah in 2 Kings 23. Amazing story 2 Kings 23:25 (NIV)25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. So Josiah was a special man, prophesied about by another very special man, which makes what happened to him so unusual

3. It just proves again that miracles or great signs and wonders do not make people change! Look at Jeroboam. In spite of three amazing miracles, the withering of his hand, the healing of his hand and splitting of the altar, he does not repent and change? We sometimes think we need this demonstration of God’s power for people to change and for great revivals but all we need is prayer, repentance and obedience to God  and what is truly wonderful will follow!

Now lets look at the second part of the story:

1 Kings 13:11-28  (NIV)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 it14 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.

When I read this story I thought “what is going on here! The lion should have killed the old prophet not the man of God?? This is so unfair!!

However there is a very very important learning points here 

1. The Word of God is our only authority not the word that comes from man, even if someone says they have heard it from an angel! Even if he has a doctorate in religion! Or has studied in 10 universities! Or is the Pope! That which comes from man needs to verified and checked against the standard, and that is the word of God, and if there are discrepancies you know which one you should disregard! It sounds so simple doesn’t it but it isn’t, the Muslims believe Abraham chose Ishmael as the chosen son, so we have these major issues today, the Mormons believe angels revealed the word to John Smith, The Catholics have in the Pope who to this day decides on the interpretation of the bible, and many Christians today still think that the bible is misinterpreted in matters such as homosexuality, same sex marriage etc. God does not change. The word of God remains our standard and not any revelation that comes through man.  How many cults have sprung up with leaders somehow getting some kind of divine revelation!!

Galatians 1:8  (NIV)

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 

You cannot have a relationship with God through someone else except through Jesus, You cannot know God through anybody else. And the way to do it is through the word of God and not through any man or preacher. Yes you can learn of Him but the Bible is our only authority Isaiah sums it up like this

Isaiah 2:22  (NIV)22 Stop trusting in mere humans,

    who have but a breath in their nostrils.

    Why hold them in esteem?

So this man of God makes a major mistake, he listens to the old prophet without asking and checking it out with God, and so he disobeys God’s commandment to him, he goes back  to Bethel against God’s instructions and he eats and drinks in Bethel (against God’s wishes) and he ends up listening to man and not God. Maybe he was inadvertently careless, but even so the consequences were and are the same.

History can change if we are obedient to God!

2. Its interesting that the only one to obey God was the lion! “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”. Very unusual scene to see a lion and a donkey standing together next to the body of a man! Most lions I would have thought would have killed the donkey and eaten it! It seems even animals obey God more than man. It reminds me of parallels with the Lion of Judah obeying God, but not the man of Judah We may think that the lion should have killed the old prophet, not the man of God… that would seem fair. But fairness has nothing to do with this. We are saved not by fairness but by grace, God did not send His Son to condemn us or punish us for our sin, but to save us and likewise for this old prophet he would realise he had been saved by the grace of God not because of fairness. And in a similar manner the death of the Lion of Judah has saved us all.

In closing we often come across matters and situations which we don’t understand, and in Deuteronomy it is written

Deuteronomy 29:29  (KJV)29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

As I studied 1Kings 13, a chapter I’ve never really understood I found that God revealed to me the depth and wonder of His word and I hope it does for you as well. That you may know Him better!!