1 Kings 13 Man of God Part 1

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
1 Kings 13:1 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.

6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.​

So this is graphic!

This is from the easy English site.

The kingdom that David and Solomon used to rule had divided into two kingdoms. The northern tribes were not still loyal to David’s family. And those tribes had chosen a new religion. They were worshipping the images of bulls, instead of the Lord. But, by an extraordinary series of events, God showed that he still had a special relationship with those tribes. They were worshipping false gods. But they were still responsible to the real God.

God warned Jeroboam that he was doing the wrong thing. He sent a prophet who prophesied to the altar. In other words, the prophet spoke to the altar. He announced what would happen to the altar in the future. He even named the king who would destroy that altar. Josiah would sacrifice the bones of the priests who had worshipped other gods on this altar. (This worship often happened on high hills.) Josiah did this about 350 years later. We can read about it in 2 Kings 23:15-20.

As a sign that this would happen, the altar fell apart. The ashes of the altar poured out.

Jeroboam tried to arrest the prophet. But Jeroboam’s arm suddenly became weak. It seemed dry and without life. The king was unable to move it. God was showing everyone that Jeroboam had no power over the prophet. The prophet had authority from God. And no king’s authority is ever greater than God’s authority.

Jeroboam asked the prophet to pray that God would cure him. And God did this. Then Jeroboam invited the prophet to come home for a meal. He also offered him a gift. Jeroboam was trying to reward the prophet, because Jeroboam’s arm was well again. The prophet refused. He said that God had told him not to accept the king’s offer. He wanted to show Jeroboam that God did not want payment, but a change of mind. The prophet did not want to associate with Jeroboam’s worship of idols. God does not forgive us because of the things that we do. He does not forgive us because of the gifts that we bring. We must change our minds. And today we must trust in Jesus.

The special instructions that God gave to this prophet show the importance of the prophet’s words. And people continued to remember his words for many centuries because of the strange events that happened next.

Jeroboam seems to have forgotten one very important truth. Israel is not a kingdom. Israel is a Theocracy. Jeroboam is only there on the throne to do whatever God says. He's not supposed to be building new religions. He's not supposed to be arresting a messenger from God. This guy was a messenger from God. Now wonder Jeroboam's hand shriveled up.

There was no way for them to tell that this messenger knew what he was talking about.... until.... verse 5.. " the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord." That alter had to be huge. It was meant to hold a bull! It broke in half. The ashes fell to the ground. Add that to the shriveled up hand.... impressive and graphic.

:coffee:
 
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