And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
1 Kings 13:7-10
The stories of the Old Testament are sometimes odd and confusing to me. I would love to have some more details to help me understand why God worked in the ways that He worked. But He chose not to give us more details. So I am left to contemplate and consider.
After reading this story in 1 Kings 13, I was confused, as I am each time I come to this story. A "man of God" came to deliver a message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel. The man delivered his message, what he said would happen happened, and he even healed the king while he was there. He refused the king's offers of sustenance and reward because he was compelled to walk in obedience to the Lord.
The Bible calls this guy "a man of God." His actions confirm this as an accurate description. The man has completed his task and is heading home in his best effort to be completely obedient to the Lord's instructions. Clearly, this is a man who heard God's voice and had some understanding of His ways.
But as he is going along the way, another man, identified in scripture as "an old prophet," tracks him down and invites the man of God to his house for dinner. The man of God relates the instructions he received from the Lord as he politely declines the old prophet's invitation. The old prophet tells the man of God that he got new instructions from the Lord, and so the man of God believes him and goes home with the prophet for dinner. During dinner, the old prophet gets an actual message from the Lord, and he rebukes the man of God for his disobedience. As the story goes on, the man of God ultimately gets killed by a lion on the way home, and the old prophet sees to his burial.
My initial reaction to this story is that it's just weird! Besides that, it seems really unfair. We get enough information from the scripture that we can know that both men would have been looked to as spiritual leaders of their day. The man of God did what God told him to do - boldly, and at great personal risk. When he had delivered his message, he started home, still carefully following the Lord's instructions. On the surface, the only mistake the man of God made was trusting a fellow spiritual leader. It just seems unfair that he has to die for this. After all, why should he doubt the old prophet? The prophet said his instructions were from God. At the end of a difficult day, the man of God was tired (the prophet found him resting under a tree), so it would seem logical that the Lord might send someone to come alongside him so he could be encouraged and refreshed. I mean, that would make sense to me.
So there must be a deeper principle at work here.
The best conclusion I can draw from this seemingly strange story is the serious nature of continuing to believe and act on what you know God has said. The man of God had a clear message from the Lord. He delivered the message. And he had clear instructions about what to do next. He obviously understood the instructions. But when he got tired, his faith wavered- just a little. When the old prophet came with a message that contradicted the instructions, the man of God did not pause to ask the Lord what he should do. He went with his feelings, and his feelings betrayed him.
Not every message that someone SAYS is from God really IS from God. Even if the person bringing the message is known to be a spokesperson for God ("a prophet"), we must measure the message against what we know God has already said. For us, this is the Bible. No matter how good or inviting a message or idea may sound, if it contradicts what God has already said, we must be true to the Word of the Lord. We must continue to believe what God has said, continue to do what God has told us to do, and not be swayed.
Interestingly, even after the old prophet lied to the man of God, "the Lord came to the old prophet..." (1 Kings 13:20). After the prophet delivered a false message, the Lord still used him to deliver a true message. I don't really understand this either, but that's a thought for another day.
For today, I think this story is a call to examine my ways and to be sure that I am walking in obedience to what the Lord has set before me. Whether there is pandemic, society on the verge of collapse, or simple weariness - regardless of what I may be feeling at any given moment, I must be careful to continue in what I know God has commanded. He takes obedience seriously, so I'd better do the same.
...Just a thought...
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