The Price You Can't Name

Some falsely think that the Old Testament is no longer relevant and that it serves no purpose for today, other than relating history. When I read the story I'd like to share with you today, I see so many things that are applicable to us. Our text is 1 Kings chapter 13...

A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam

13 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” 4 And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. 5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 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, 9 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.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

The Prophet's Disobedience

11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons[a] 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[b] 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 Hebrew phrase: ish ha'Elohim or Man of God, is used over 70 times in the Old Testament with men like Moses, Samuel, David, Elisha, Elijah and a few others making the list for those who bear the esteemed title. (Interesting side note, the title is only used once in the New Testament towards Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11.)

This man was undoubtedly faithful. He would not have received this esteemed title “Man of God” if he was not. He also was clearly called by God and does love God. He does obey the word of the Lord and he does go to King Jeroboam. The man certainly has boldness and a desire to be used by God. He must have a measure of the fear of the Lord, otherwise he never would have gone to Bethel. There are admirable qualities in this man.

There is an anonymity about his identity. We don’t know his name, status, life, or tribe. What he had to say was more important than who he was. Additionally, I think there’s a lesson in being able to obey a call from God without popularity, recognition, fame or legacy. However, we do find some grievous hiccups in his story and so I think he is here as a warning to us, but not necessarily as a model for us.

He delivers the very bold word in the presence of the King and confirms that his speech is from the Lord with a sign that indeed comes to pass, the altar is torn down. The King is in the very act of idolatry when his hand experiences an immediate crippling. In verse 6, he says, “Entreat the Lord YOUR God, and pray for me". He very well can't call the Lord HIS God in the midst of idolatry. Even after being healed, the King offers no repentance, no acknowledgment of his wrongdoing. He just wanted to be healed. This is later confirmed towards the end of the chapter in verse 33 when it says that he did not turn away from his evil ways. Even after being healed, witnessing an immediate fulfillment of prophecy, the sign, the miracle - none of it was enough to move him or change his heart.

Today, I speak with many who are on the fence about God, Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible. When I ask them what kind of proof they would need in order to believe, they usually respond with something like this. They want Jesus to physically show up, manifest Himself in that very moment and/or do something miraculous for them. King Jeroboam had this encounter. God confronted him through a prophet in the very act of spiritual adultery, rebuked him, and healed him, and it wasn't enough for him to repent and believe. Just as Jesus told the rich man in hell in Luke 16:31, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." People say that if God appeared on their command, they would believe. The truth is, Romans 1 says we are without excuse by merely observing nature. Ironically, many of these same individuals are the ones who criticize the Old Testament for being outdated and irrelevant. But if they do not listen to these Old Testament prophets, they won't believe Jesus coming back from the dead. We do not believe because we see. We see because we believe (John 3:3).

King Jeroboam offers a feast and reward to the man of God but he would not be so easily bribed or pursuaded. God had given him strict orders and he intended to follow them. We may not see the big deal with grabbing a bit before hitting the road, but Proverbs 23:1-3 tells us, “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.” The King’s offer wouldn’t have come without strings. To share a meal wasn’t just a social custom, it was an intimate fellowship, it was the beginning of alliances. This dedicated man of God refused the delicacies of the King and he headed for home hungry but anointed.

"Now an old prophet lived in Bethel." This Old Prophet was a carnal prophet, who had fallen into complacency, living silently in Bethel. When he hears of another prophet doing his job he’s intrigued and wants to investigate. We have to ask some questions about him. In 2 Chronicles, it talks about how Jeroboam had kicked all the Levites out of their offices, set up alters, and set up a false religion. Many of the true priests and prophets left everything behind to go back to Jerusalem in support of King Rehoboam in the south. If this man is a true prophet, why is he in Bethel? If this man is a true prophet, why are his sons attending a feast for a false religion? If this man is a true prophet, why did God send a man from Judah? Why didn’t God use this local man?

The old carnal prophet also invites the man of God to a feast, but again he refuses, citing his specific instructions from the Lord, and again standing firm against temptation. However, this cunning old prophet says, "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." (vs 18). The old prophet never said that God spoke to him, but that an angel did.

Sometimes we value sensationalism, encounters, angels, or other supernatural things more than the word of God. Or at the very least we can be easily distracted by such things because of their tendency to be more emotionally pulling. The old prophet’s response sounded holy and spiritual. He was an elder prophet, but sometimes the more mature person is not more spiritually mature. The old prophet kinda one-ups the man of God. The text says that the Lord gave the man of God a word, but this older prophet comes along and says, “I’m just like you, but an angel came to me.” They are two very different experiences, having God speak a word to your heart and having an angel show up. That can be impressive if it’s true. We can learn from this that the Word of God is what ought to the final standard in our lives and will guard us from deception. His Word is enough. If His word is not enough for us, then we will ultimately allow our experiences to inform our theology rather than our theology informing our experiences.

The text tells us that the old prophet was lying. He wasn’t lying when he said he, too, was a prophet. He was a prophet. But he was lying when he implied that God gave him a message through an angel. In our current culture, we may think of taking the Name of the Lord in vain to mean expletives, which is wrong, but here we also see that to take His name in vain is to say, “Thus saith the Lord,” when the Lord did not say! Don’t say a message is from God when it’s not. Some people will lie in the name of the Lord, who will use His name as a tool for manipulation. Additionally, the old prophet could have been deceived himself, and being so deceived may have actually believed that an angel did come to speak to him. We know that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light, perhaps an angel did visit and say such a word to the old prophet, but we know it was certainly was not an angel of the Lord because the messages contradicted one another. We don’t know for sure.

The man of God follows the older prophet back home, effectively disobeying the Lord. The man of God is not carnal, if he was he would have taken the king’s invitation and reward, but he didn’t. He was naïve. He lacked discernment. He lacked self-discipline. He may have thought that he DID deliver the word of the Lord, he DID begin to go home another way – he KIND OF obeyed God, he obeyed well enough. And if he had been obedient thus far, then he very well could have been thirsty and hungry having traveled without eating. But even after the judgment is pronounced, after he is killed, he is still referred to as “The man of God”. With him retaining that very esteemed title, I believe we can assume the best of this man, that his disobedience wasn’t anything malicious on his part, nonetheless, he did disobey, and he faced the consequence for that. He failed to take the word that the Lord gave to him to heart. He failed to discern the fact that the word God gave him and the ‘word’ the ‘angel’ gave the other were opposite. He failed to test the spirit. He failed to ask questions.

So why would the old prophet lie? Was he offended by the younger man of God doing what he should have done as a prophet? Was he jealous? A more sinister view could be that he understood what it would do to the testimony if he could get the man of God to disobey. Was that the case? There's no way to know for sure. But there are some who get a twisted thrill out of causing others to sin.

While sitting at the dinner table, the old prophet opens his mouth to speak. This time the Lord God actually does speak through the carnal, lying prophet. It is not the only time God would choose to use a ‘wayward’ prophet to speak through. He did use Balaam in Numbers and He does prophesy through Caiaphas in John 11. I would bet, however, that this was the last time God ever did use this man because he deserved some judgement, too. And how sad that would be? How sad to exist and not be used? How sad to have a calling, a gift, an anointing in a particular area and because of sin that calling, gift or anointing is just a fruitless title? The old prophet confronts the man of God's disobedience rather directly. How did the man of God respond? Was he shocked? Did he already have a gnawing in the pit of his stomach all the way to the prophet's house? Did he weep? Was he remorseful? Was he accepting of the judgement? Did he argue? Was he angry at the prophet's deception? Did he feel stupid for believing the old man?

While traveling homeward, the words spoken by the old prophet come to pass and the man of God is attacked and killed by a lion. If the judgment pronounced on the man of God sounds harsh, it is. It’s supposed to be. The man had become a public icon, his message was nationwide, and his sin would be, too, and without judgment, would be detrimental to the message he preached. Scripture says that judgment begins in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). His message was public, his judgment had to be public, too. In this time, no one was listening to the voice of the Lord. Jeroboam rejected God. Rehoboam turns from God. It was so crucial for this man of God to obey. His disobedience allowed Jeroboam to spin the story and not listen to what God had said through him. If only the man of God had obeyed. If only he would have exercised discernment. The cost of disobedience is a price we cannot name. We will never know the extent of consequences our disobedience requires. We will never know what could have been if we had only been faithful to every letter the Lord commanded us. We will never know how many souls were affected by, or even led astray by our disobedience. We will never know until the day we stand before God and must give an account for it. This is one reason why the Day of the Lord is often referred to as a terrible day... we will all feel the weight of our imperfections.

The fact that the lion did not attack the donkey, eat the man or attack the prophet when he arrived, is a sure sign of God’s judgment. It is not normal zoology for prey and predator to stand side by side. The old prophet offers his own tomb as a burial place for the man. He then makes an odd request that his bones be buried with the man of God's bones. His motive for making such a request may have been based on a superstitious hope that his bones could perhaps benefit at the resurrection having been buried along with this man of God.

Jeroboam did not heed the warnings of the Lord through the man of God. Instead, he goes on to appoint any con-artist who wished to be a priest, a priest. A little over 300 years later Josiah would be born and fulfill the prophecy of this man of God.

2 Kings 23:15-18

Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed. Then he said, "What gravestone in this that I see?" So the men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel." And he said, "Let him alone; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

We can also know the genuineness of this man of God by the fact that what he proclaimed actually came to pass. He did in fact hear the Lord. He did in fact speak the words of the Lord. He was truly a man of God. As for ourselves, in a much similar day, when few leaders acknowledge the Lord, when idolatry is at its height, when false teachers and prophets are for hire, when the word of the Lord is not as valued as it ought to be... we must learn to discern lest our naivety lead to our disobedience and be just as costly.

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Human trafficking, for instance.

If people didn't idolize money, power, or sex - it wouldn't exist.

Period.

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