After Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, a man of God speaks to Jeroboam, 1 Kings 13:1. We don’t know who this man is, but some suggest it is Iddo the seer, 2 Chronicles 13:22.
Notice that God Himself didn’t speak directly to Jeroboam, He used his prophet from Judah, 1 Kings 13:1, who was probably a Levite. Notice also that Jeroboam was ‘standing by the altar to make an offering’, 1 Kings 13:1. He had no right to be there and no right to make an offering on his own.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Like gods, like priest, he made himself high priest, and he took of the lowest of the people, and made them priests of the high places; they proved themselves to be fools by worshipping calves.’
Israel, the northern kingdom, simply wanted to get some kind of relief from Solomon’s taxes, 1 Kings 12:1-5, but Jeroboam used the excuse that the northern kingdoms were too far away from Jerusalem to change God’s laws, 1 Kings 12:25-33.
And so, he goes on and builds two more places of worship for sacrifices to be made, one in Bethel and one in Dan, 1 Kings 12:29. He denounces the destruction of this idolatrous system by crying ‘altar’ altar’, 1 Kings 13:2.
The mention of the name Josiah was a prophecy, 1 Kings 13:2, as he wasn’t born yet, this is just like the naming of Cyrus, Isaiah 44:26 / Isaiah 44:28 / Isaiah 45:2. Because Josiah is named, this would leave no doubts that God was going to work through Josiah to bring an end to Israel’s apostasy, 2 Kings 23:15-20.
The prophet’s message wasn’t good news for Jeroboam; his message was of severe punishment, which was coming upon him and his household, 1 Kings 13:2.
A sign was given in a visible split which was miraculously made on the altar, 1 Kings 13:3. Jeroboam becomes really angry with the man because of what he said and so, he stretched out his hand and ordered his attendants to seize the man, 1 Kings 13:4.
At that moment Jeroboam’s arm became stiff and motionless, 1 Kings 13:4, and the altar split apart so that the fire and ashes fell on the floor, 1 Kings 13:5. Scared by the effects of what happened, Jeroboam begged the prophet to pray and intercede for him, 1 Kings 13:6. His request was granted, and the hand was restored to its healthy state, 1 Kings 13:6.
Jeroboam was crafty and invited the prophet to the royal table, but not to do him honour or show his gratitude for the restoration of his hand, but to win him over, 1 Kings 13:7, by his courtesy and liberal hospitality, a person whom he couldn’t crush by his power.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It was customary to honour a prophet with a gift, if he performed any service that was requested at his hands.’
Even though Jeroboam offered the prophet some hospitality, the prophet refused; he wasn’t going to be bought over by any amount he was offered, 1 Kings 13:8. This tells us that God was completely rejecting Jeroboam and Bethel.
The prophet informed him of a divine restriction that prohibited him from mixing with any people in the place, as well as from returning the same way, 1 Kings 13:9.
The prohibition not to eat or drink in Bethel was because all the people had become apostates from the true religion, and the reason he wasn’t allowed to return the same way was he might be recognised by any whom he had seen in going. So the man of God took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel, 1 Kings 13:10.
As one prophet leaves, another one appears, this time it was an old prophet from Bethel whose sons told him everything the man of God from Judah had done, and what he said to Jeroboam, 1 Kings 13:11. We don’t know who he was, but he appears to be going along and encouraging the apostasy of Jeroboam.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Probably once a prophet of the Lord, who had fallen from his steadfastness, and yet not so deeply as to lose the knowledge of the true God, and join with Jeroboam in his idolatries. We find he was not at the king’s sacrifice, though his sons were there; and perhaps even they were there, not as idolaters, but as spectators of what was done.’
After inquiring from his sons which way the man of God went, he went on a donkey and drove out to meet him, 1 Kings 13:11-14. He finds the man of God sitting under an oak tree and asks, if he is the man of God from Judah, to which the man of God replied ‘yes,’ 1 Kings 13:14.
The prophet then invites the man of God to come to his home and eat with him, but the man of God he can’t turn back and go with him, nor can he eat bread or drink water with him in this place, 1 Kings 13:15-16, because he was told not to, 1 Kings 13:17.
The old prophet lied through his teeth to the man of God, claiming that he himself is a prophet and an angel told him that the man of God must go back to the old prophet’s house to eat and drink, 1 Kings 13:18. So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house, 1 Kings 13:19.
There’s no doubt that he was lying through his teeth to the man of God from Judah, but he was possibly driven by fear. He was an old man, 1 Kings 13:11; he couldn’t stand up to Jeroboam because Jeroboam recruited the lowest of the people to be his prophets, 1 Kings 13:32.
It’s possible that he lied out of desperation and wanted the man of God to be in his company for a while so he could be encouraged. It’s also possible that he suspected that the man of God was the same as him, and therefore tried to test him.
When we read about what happened to the man of God here, 1 Kings 13:20-22, we learn that we simply can’t ignore God’s commands. He may have been innocent in believing the old prophet’s lies, but he still had to pay the consequences for being disobedient to God, 1 Kings 13:22.
Whatever the old prophet’s motives were for lying, the man of God should have never trusted him in the first place. Think about it, would God have told the man of God one thing, 1 Kings 13:9, and then have contradicted it by sending an authentic word by another? 1 Kings 13:18. No! 1 John 4:1.
He was told not to stay in Bethel and not to eat and drink with anyone there, but he did, and as a result of his disobedience, he was killed by a lion, 1 Kings 13:23-24.
Under normal circumstances, a lion would devour the whole carcass, but here it is standing beside the carcass, 1 Kings 13:25, which tells us that God was in control of this situation. It’s almost as if the lion was protecting the carcass from other predators.
The people who saw the body and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived, 1 Kings 13:25. He lies to them and says, ‘It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD.
The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him,’ 1 Kings 13:26. His sons prepare a donkey for him so that he can ride and see the body for himself, however, when he arrives he notices that the lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey, 1 Kings 13:27-28.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘These strange circumstances were of a nature to call men’s attention to the matter, and cause the whole story to be bruited abroad. By these means, an incident, which Jeroboam would have wished hushed up, became no doubt the common talk of the whole people.’
He takes the man of God’s body back home, mourns for him and buries him and lays him in a tomb, Matthew 27:60, and the mourners say, ‘Alas, my brother!’1 Kings 13:29-30.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This lamentation is very simple, very short, and very pathetic. Perhaps the old prophet said it as much in reference to himself, who had been the cause of his untimely death, as in reference to the man of God, whose corpse he now committed to the tomb. But the words may be no more than the burden of each line of the lamentation, which was used on this occasion, Jeremiah 22:18.’
He requests that when he dies, he wants to be buried in the same place as the man of God, with his bones next to the man of God’s, 1 Kings 13:31. He now knows that the man of God was a true prophet of God because of what happened, 1 Kings 13:32.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Word of God actually came to this evil old prophet, and there was apparently no appropriate medium in all of Bethel who could have served the purpose of God any better than this lying old prophet. When God actually spoke through him, he not only learned that the man of God was indeed an authentic spokesman from Jehovah, but he also came to believe all of the words which the man of God had spoken.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning Samaria, 1 Kings 13:32.
‘The word Samaria cannot have been employed by the old prophet, in whose days Samaria did not exist, 1 Kings 16:24. The writer of Kings has substituted for the term used by him that whereby the country was known in his own day.’
Even after everything which happened between Jeroboam and the man of God and the man of God and the old prophet, Jeroboam still didn’t change his ways, 1 Kings 13:33 / Luke 16:31.
In fact, he began to spread his own religion and religious beliefs among the people by appointing anyone who wanted to be a priest, 1 Kings 13:33. Because of this God was going to bring about the destruction of Jeroboam and his household, 1 Kings 13:34 / 1 Kings 15:29.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘These abominations were too glaring, and too insulting to the Divine Majesty, to be permitted to last; his house was cut off, and destroyed from the face of the earth.’
Coffman, in his commentary, shares the following useful summary of Jeroboam’s wickedness.
1. He made paganism the official religion of Israel.
2. He consecrated priests of tribes other than that of Levi.
3. He erected pagan idols in Dan, Bethel, and Samaria.
4. He arrogantly intruded himself into the sacrifices.
5. He organised and promoted a corrupt Feast of Tabernacles, contrary to God’s law.
6. He persuaded the people to disobey God by not going to Jerusalem to worship.
7. He established and organised high places all over northern Israel.