But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place. For the Lord gave me this command: ‘You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.’” So he left Bethel and went home another way. 1 Kings 13:8-10 (NLT)
I have to be honest. I don’t like the story in 1 Kings 13. Here is a summary but you should go read it for yourself. There was a prophet. He was told to go to Jeroboam and denounce his alters to idols. The prophet did as he was told. Jeroboam raised his hand to say “Seize that man!” and his hand froze and was paralyzed in that position. Jeroboam pleaded with the prophet to pray and heal him. The prophet did. (Not sure I would have been so magnanimous.)
After his hand was healed, Jeroboam asked the prophet to share a meal. The prophet declined and said that God told him he could not eat or drink anything while he was on this mission (see today’s text.)
The prophet left and as he was traveling home, another old prophet heard about the story and went to find him. He asked him to come to a meal. The prophet repeated his command from God. Then, the old prophet lied and told him God said it was OK. So the prophet went and ate with him.
Suddenly, the old prophet receives a word from God and pronounces the prophet’s death because he disobeyed God’s command. As the prophet was on the way home, he was killed by a lion.
Do you see why this story bothered me? The prophet was lied to and he was punished. Didn’t seem fair to me. Really. I kept thinking “But it wasn’t his fault.” As I thought through and prayed about this, I realized a few things.
We expect things in this world to be fair. But they aren’t. The world is full of sinful people who may or may not have the same values that we have. Where I may not think of lying and misleading someone, they may think the end justifies the means. Satan will use every means possible to trip us up.
Have you ever been in a position where you know God has told you something but very well meaning, Christian people are telling you something else? What they are saying is true but it doesn’t align with what God told you. Who do you listen to?
While I felt sorry for the prophet who was deceived, he did recite twice in the chapter that God told him not to eat or drink anything while on this mission. He knew his instructions. It should be the same with us. If God tells us something, no matter what, we should not deviate from that path.