Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me
and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward."
But the man of God said to the king, "If you were to give
me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I
eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was
commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'You shall
not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way
you came.'" So he went another way and did not return by
the way he came to Bethel.
Now an old prophet {who} dwelt in Bethel, ... said to him,
"Come home with me and eat bread." ..."I too am a prophet
as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the
LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, that
he may eat bread and drink water.'" (He was lying to him.)
So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk,
that ... a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his
corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it.
The lion also stood by the corpse. And there, men passed by
and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion
standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the
city where the old prophet dwelt.
So it was, after [the old prophet] 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. For the saying which he cried out by the
word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against
all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities
of Samaria, will surely come to pass."
After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way...
(1 Kings 13:7-11,15,18,23-25,31, NKJV)
The unnamed Prophet had just given a powerful prophecy to
Jeroboam, king of the ten northern tribes of Israel. This
prophecy was immediately confirmed by the splitting of the
idolatrous altar at Bethel and the withering of the king's
hand that he had angrily pointed at the prophet. The
prophet subsequently prayed for the restoration of
Jeroboam's hand, and the Lord immediately healed the king's
hand.
Jeroboam was so appreciative of his hand being restored,
that he invited the unnamed Prophet to dinner. Since he had
been warned by the Lord to refrain from eating, or even
drinking water in the northern kingdom of Israel, the
unnamed prophet refused Jeroboam's offer in obedience to
the Lord's instructions, and left the area by a different
route to return home.
On his way, the unnamed Prophet was met by an old prophet
who lived in Bethel, who immediately invited him to dinner,
falsely declaring that the old prophet had received a more
recent word from the Lord rescinding the word the unnamed
prophet had received. Shortly after accepting the old
prophet's offer, the unnamed prophet was prophetically
chastised by the Lord through the old prophet, and was
subsequently killed by a lion, who then refrained from
further injuring him, the donkey he was riding, or the old
prophet, who later picked up the body for burial. The old
prophet then requested to be buried with the unnamed
prophet since he knew that his prophecy was going to be
fulfilled.
In this story we learn that the Lord doesn't lower His
expectations for us, even after a powerful demonstration of
faith. Second, even though the Lord will often provide us
with prophetic confirmations of His word to us, we should
be very suspect of any contrary, supposedly prophetic words
from others, especially those closely associated with
people we know are living in rebellion to the Lord. Third,
the Lord expects us to properly discern His word to us and
perfectly obey, in spite of any statements to the contrary
by others deceptively claiming to be prophesying for the
Lord.
----------------------------------------------------
Jon V Straumfjord III is the author of numerous articles
about the Seven Spirits of God and the God of the Bible. He
is also the creator of the website http://www.7-spirits.com
, and is the author of the book "The Seven Spirits of God."
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