Chapter 13 - I decided to keep this study to just one chapter. This is one of those freaky Old Testament stories that you may have heard about. They tend to leave you going, "What the WHAT?!? Remember in Chapter 12 when the king set up some golden calves for his people to worship? He's about to get a wake up call.
v2 Am unnamed prophet comes from Judah to warn Jeroboam of terrible things in store for him and his people.
v3 He predicts that the evil alter will be split apart.
v4 Jeroboam won't hear it--he stretches his hand out to point at the prophet and yells "SEIZE HIM!" And his hand dries up! He can't pull it back. Is it frozen, or turned to stone, or mummified? Who knows? But it's stuck in that "seize him" position.
v5-6 When the king sees the alter split apart and his hand jutting out like that, he begs the man to pray for it to be put right. (This prophet was nice. I might have left him like that.)
v7-10 The king offers to reward him, but he had strict guidelines from the Lord. And he follows them...for now.
v14 On the prophet's way back home, and old prophet meets up with him.
v16-17 He starts out strong. He knows what God told him, and he's doesn't want to stray from that.
v18 But then the old prophet lies to him, and tells him he has a new word from the Lord. (Why would he do that?) Suddenly what seemed so clear to the young prophet seems altered and a little fuzzy. He's tired, probably starving, and this guys says he's from the Lord, right? He goes back to the old guy's house.
v20-22 And then, the true words of the Lord start yelling at him from the lying prophet's mouth. He is in serious trouble!
v24 A lion!?
v28 When the old guy gets to the body, there are the lion and the donkey just standing around. The donkey is unharmed, which means the lion must have just snatched the young man from his back and mauled him to death. He didn't even eat him.
v30-31 He buries the young man in his own grave.
My guess about the old guy is that he didn't know what he was doing. He wanted to meet this man who had shaken up the kingdom. When the young prophet wouldn't come back to his house, he threw around the fact that he was a prophet...added a couple white lies, and he made it happen. Maybe he took the role of prophet lightly. We have to be so, so careful what we say in the Lord's name. We could lead others astray, and possibly risk their lives.
To be honest, I don't know exactly what this story is all about. But here's the lesson I've learned.
The young prophet was absolutely sure what his direction was from the Lord. Until something threw him off a little. Why did he let this man--who he'd only just met--lead him into sin? He had no proof that he was a prophet, or that his message was from the Lord. And it went against what he knew to be true! So here's the lesson. Satan is not above using a man of God to tempt us to our demise. Satan is not above anything. His lies are something so close to the Truth that it may be hard to tell what's what. You MUST KNOW what God's Word says. You MUST KNOW the voice of your Heavenly Father. If you don't, you might get eaten by a lion.
Next time: I Kings 14-15
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