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A Disturbing Passage of Scripture

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Have you ever read a story in the Bible that scared you or kept you awake at night? Maybe you’ve read the story before but for some reason this time it leapt off the page and got your attention. Or maybe a life event caused you to see the passage in a new way.


I came across a passage of scripture last week in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings that has me still asking “Why? Why? Why?”. It’s an odd little story in 1 Kings 13.

 

You can read the passage by clicking this link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20kings%2013&version=NIV

 

An Odd Little Story

 

1 and 2 Kings chronicles the rise and fall of many ancient leaders of the Hebrew people. You read a story of a king, how many years he ruled, whether he did evil or right in the sight of the Lord, and his death. This recurring theme is sometimes dubbed the ‘cycle of apostasy’ because more kings did evil in the sight of the Lord than kings who obeyed God. One of the learning aims of these stories is for the people of God to see clearly the consequences of doing evil and the consequences of doing right in the eyes of God.

 

1 Kings 12 tells the pivotal story of how the tribes of Israel were split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Individuals important to the story are called by name, poor choices are identified, and consequences are clearly detailed.

 

1 Kings 14 tells the story of Jeroboam’s reign as king of Israel. The story names the king, the prophets and other characters, specific places and large scale, national consequences of his decisions. So, too, it describes Rehoboam’s reigned over Judah, including his mother’s name and the consequences to the kingdom of his poor choices.

 

Yet, when you read the story of 1 Kings 13, the main character of the story is only identified as “a man of God from Judah”. The antagonist of the story is only identified as “an older prophet”. This is a stark contrast to the details provided in chapters 12 and 14.

 

What is Happening Here?

 

The man of God from Judah, a prophet of God, traveled from Judah where Rehoboam is now king to Bethel in northern Israel, where Jeroboam is now king. Jeroboam is attending an alter in preparation for an offering. The man of God from Judah loudly proclaims a prophecy against Jeroboam’s idolatry by speaking to the altar. The prophecy tells Jeroboam that there will be signs from God that the prophecy is true; the altar will split in half, ashes will pour out of the altar, a future king will rid the nation of its idolatry.

 

When King Jeroboam ordered the man of God from Judah to be arrested, his hand “shriveled up”. Jeroboam asked the man of God from Judah to pray to God to restore his hand. The prophet prays and his hand is healed. The altar split apart, and ashes poured from it just as the prophet said.

 

Jeroboam invited the man of God from Judah back to his palace to eat, drink, and receive a gift. The man of God from Judah replies that he was strictly instructed by God not to eat or drink or return to Judah the same way he came. So the man of God left and took a different road out of Bethel.

 

Now It Gets Confusing

 

Enter the old prophet. The old prophet lived in Bethel and had heard the story from his sons of all that the man of God from Judah did and spoke. The old prophet had his sons saddle his donkey and he goes quickly out to catch up with the man of God from Judah.

 

The old prophet catches up with the man of God from Judah and invites him back to his home in Bethel to eat and drink. The man of God from Judah tells him the same thing he told the king; he had clear instructions from God not to eat or drink in Bethel and not to go home the same way he came.

 

The old prophet tells the man of God from Judah that he is a prophet of God, too and received instructions from an angel to bring the man of God back to his place to eat and drink. But the old prophet was lying! The man of God from Judah goes with the old prophet, eats, drinks, and dies later that day because the man of God from Judah had disobeyed God.

 

The story ends with the old prophet going out and finding the man of God from Judah dead on the side of the road. He buries his body in the family tomb and instructs his sons to bury his bones with the bones of the man of God from Judah.

 

So Many Questions


            Considering the many details provided in the book of Kings, why are we not provided with the names of the man of God from Judah or the old prophet?

 

            This story has no significant outcome on or consequences to the nations of Judah and Israel like the other stories in the book, so why was this story included?

 

            Why did the old prophet lie to the man of God from Judah and trick him into disobeying God? In the end, the old prophet honored the man of God from Judah and said that his prophecies came true. Did the old prophet not believe that God would punish disobedience? Did the man of God from Judah trigger some kind of hatred or jealousy in the old prophet?

 

            Why did the man of God from Judah go with the old prophet and choose to disobey God?



Why Does It Bother Me So Much?

 

First, I can see the hypocrisy in the old prophet. The temptations to pretend to be more spiritual than we are in real life are real. The need to preserve status, power, influence, reputation can easily cause us to harm and manipulate other believers for the sake of image. I would speculate the old prophet thought he was doing God a righteous favor because the man of God was from Judah.

 

Secondly and probably more significantly on a personal level, it would be so easy to be the man of God from Judah. One minute you believe you have a word from the Lord. The next minute, someone older and more influential in the faith comes along and makes you doubt what God said. “Did God really say?” was one of Satan’s first lies in the garden.

 

Thirdly, the wages of sin is always death. I was raised in the evangelical community that always taught the wages of sin is death, BUT… The gift of God is eternal life. In the communities I was in, somehow I got the idea that if you have the gift of eternal life, you no longer have the wages of sin. Yes, Jesus gives us eternal life therefore we no longer live in fear of eternal death. But in the temporal existence on earth, the wages of sin is still death. Death to relationships, death to blessings, death to opportunities. In some way, our choice to disobey God brings death to something in our mortal life.

 

The man of God from Judah clearly understood the word he received from the Lord. He understood the word from the Lord well enough to refuse to sit at the king’s table. Yet, he chose to eat with the old prophet. It doesn’t matter that the old prophet lied and tricked him. The man of God from Judah chose to disobey God and received the promised consequence.

 


And that is disturbing.


 

Praise be to God through Christ Jesus who forgives us of our disobedience and leads us to repentance. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

 

 

 

           

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