The Word, A Dead Prophet, and a Live Donkey!

         In the last dialogue of Listen we learned that if Jeroboam listened to the Word of God, God would build him a sure house.  However, as a result of the counsel (12:28) he was given he made a set of golden calves.  Rehoboam had also taken counsel that led to his troubles.  Who we receive counsel from can make or break our lives…make sure the counsel you receive comes from the Word.  Though Jeroboam had turned his back on the living God, God still reaches out to him by sending him His Word through an unnamed prophet.  While being strictly warned, Jeroboam lashes out and orders the prophet to be seized.  Instantly with his hand raised pointing to the prophet, his arm becomes stiff so that he could not draw it back.  I guess God was getting his point across (no pun intended).  With an immediate change of heart, Jeroboam humbles himself and pleads with the prophet to return home with him.  This is where the plot thickens.  It actually begins in 12:22 when the Word of the Lord comes to Rehoboam through another prophet.  It is here where Rehoboam humbles himself and "listened to the Word of the Lord…"  Now it is Jeroboam's turn to see if he will listen to the Word of the Lord.  His first encounter was rather rough.  He was made to obey with a stiff arm.  Now God is going to give him an opportunity to listen and obey on his own.  The method is most peculiar.  This unnamed prophet emphasizes that he cannot go back with Jeroboam even if he were to give him half his kingdom.  He continues his emphasis by saying in 13:7-10, "I will not go in with you…for so was it commanded me by the Word of the Lord…" 

            Now for the beauty of the text as the emphasis upon obeying the Word unfolds.  If you were to count the repeated times the "Word of the Lord" is written from 12:22 – 12:32, you would count sixteen times.  Both Jeroboam and the reader of the Scripture would have to be blind and deaf to miss this.  This section of Scripture is about listening to the Word of the Lord and obeying it—16 times!  So the prophet goes back a different way than he came according to the Word of the Lord, but is intercepted by an older prophet who is apparently lonely and lacking fellowship with one if his own kind.  Being a prophet can lead to lonely life you know.  But the unnamed prophet is adamant about following the Word of the Lord and is not willing to go home with the old lonely prophet.  So the old prophet lies and concocts a story that an angel spoke the Word of the Lord to him, telling him to bring the unnamed prophet home to eat bread and drink water.  Sounds good…he's probably hungry…its been a long day…he's tired…why not?  It is during times when we are lonely, tired, and hungry that we let our guard down.  They haven't even finished dinner and the Word of the Lord does indeed come to the old prophet.  And he has to reveal the bad news: "Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the Word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord commanded you…you shall die…(emphasis mine)."  I can't imagine what the two prophets talked about after this disruption in their fellowship.  So off he goes on his donkey.  And just a short distance down the road a lion comes and kills the unnamed prophet without tearing him to pieces or touching the donkey.  And to make this more odd, both the donkey and the lion stand beside the dead body of the prophet while travelers pass by.  This is obviously the Work of God.

            What I find most striking in this text is the old prophet's response to the news about the dead prophet—a death that he caused by his own lying tongue.  He says, "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."  Isn't that weird that he would say this?  It was because of his lie that the prophet is dead…or was it?  In the book of Galatians 1:8 we read, "but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."  As I stated in the beginning…we need to be careful of the counsel we receive.  Unless the direction we receive is clearly from the Word of God and is found in more than one isolated place, (16 times in I Kings!), then we need to refrain from following the advice of others.  God will speak…His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.  David in Psalm 1 teaches us to avoid the counsel of the ungodly, but to delight in the Word of the Lord.  What I find interesting in I Kings 13 is that after the "Word of the Lord" is repeated 16 times, and after God places such a high standard on following His Word through the death of one of His own, even though he was deceived by one of God's own, the text ends by stating, "After this thing (the death of the prophet) Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way."  This is unfortunate.  God went out of His way to demonstrate how essential the keeping of His Word is in our lives…both for Jeroboam and for us.  May we learn what Jeboboam did not…and heed the Word by spending time to know what is says.