Wednesday Bible Study: False Prophets

Chapter 13 tells the story of an unnamed "man of God" who has two adventures. In the first, he comes out of Judah to denounce Jeroboam for his phony altar and his non-Levite priests. He prophecies the coming of a King Josiah who will trash the altar and kill all its priests. That would be a pretty good prophecy except that this was written some 300 years after the events  it purports to describe, probably during or after the reign of King Josiah. So no credit for the prophecy! Jeroboam tries to have the moG arrested but his hand withers. Jeroboam asks the moG to intercede for him with God,, which moG does, and Jeroboam gets his hand back. So Jeroboam invites the guy over for lunch but he says no, for unknown reasons God has commanded him not to eat or drink, and also not to go back to Judah by the way he came. Whatev.

The man of God's second adventure is puzzling, to say the least. .He meets another prophet, who lies to him and says an angel said he could forget about the not eating or drinking thing. Some prophet! So the moG goes back and has a meal, whereupon God has him killed by a lion. Why is God messing with the guy in this way? No clue. Then Jeroboam goes back to his blasphemous ways. End of story.

 As odd and off topic as the second story seems to be, the first one is a big reveal. We're starting to get a clue as to why this was written, and what it's really all about.Yes, in large part it's a compilation of older stories, but they've been selected, organized and edited with a purpose.

13 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jerobo′am was standing by the altar to burn incense. 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, Josi′ah by name; and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and men’s bones shall be burned upon 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 upon 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, Jerobo′am stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Lay hold of 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 which 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.

¹¹ Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And his sons^[a] came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words also which he had spoken to the king, they told to their father. ¹² And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me.” So they saddled the ass 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 commandment which 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 ass 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 ass 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 dwelt.

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 slain him, according to the word which the Lord spoke to him.” ²⁷ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸ And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the ass and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the ass. ²⁹ And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it upon the ass, 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 which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samar′ia, shall surely come to pass.”

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

Footnotes

1. 1 Kings 13:11 Gk Syr Vg: Heb son
2. 1 Kings 13:29 Gk: Heb he came to the city of the old prophet