1 Kings 13:11-34--The Prophet's Disobedience

1 Kings 13:11-34
English Standard Version

The Prophet's Disobedience
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. 14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” 18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command that the LORD your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” 23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD spoke to him.” 27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

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The LORD had called a prophet from the Southern Kingdom to deliver the message to the king of the Northern Kingdom, and when an old prophet from the Northern Kingdom heard of the message the man of God from the South delivered by way of a report from the old prophet's sons, he went out to search for the man to try to invite him to his home and to have a meal with him.  The LORD however had given the man of God from the South explicit instructions to head directly home and to not stop to eat or drink anything along the way.

The old prophet tricked the man of God from the South and told him that an angel had come to him with a message from the LORD to tell him to seek out the man of God and invite him to his house.  The young prophet from the South believed the old prophet's lies and went back with him and he ate and drank.  The old prophet cursed him on his way out saying that he had violated the LORD's command and that the LORD would make him die away from home so that he would not be buried in the tomb of his fathers.  So it was that after he ate and drank and his donkey was saddled, he left and a lion met him on the road and killed him.  The body was left there for all to see.

The old prophet saw him and said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD spoke to him."  He told his sons to saddle his donkey and he went to look for the body.  When he got there the donkey and lion were still there next to the body and the lion had not touched the donkey or eaten the body of the man of God.  So he took up the body and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to town so that his death could be mourned and he could be buried (remember that Jews were supposed to bury a dead body before sundown, and they did not embalm bodies for burial like the Egyptians did).

So the old prophet buried the young man of God in his own grave to fulfil the word of the LORD that was spoken through the old prophet that the young man of God would be buried away from the tomb of his fathers.  However, the old prophet considered it an honor to be buried next to this young man of God, for the word of the LORD that he delivered about the altar at Bethel was sure to come to pass (that the false priests would be killed there and that the altar would be torn down).

Jeroboam did not learn from these events, and returned to his evil ways and set up new high places and ordained more priests.  The LORD was so angry with this sin of Jeroboam that the LORD set out to kill the whole household of Jeroboam so that none form his house would be able to rule in his place and continue this wickedness, but this idolatry and wickedness was now engrained in the culture of the Northern Kingdom, and the people will continually worship the idols that he set up as well as the gods and goddesses of their pagan neighbors and that Solomon exposed them to when he built places of worship for his pagan wives.  This sin will be generational and we have no indication that the Northern Kingdom of Israel ever repented of this sin.