seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Kings 13:23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “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.”
27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “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.”
27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.
Well.... it's a thrilling story now. Donkeys and Lions and Prophets... oh my.
This is from the easy English site.
This is a very unusual story. The prophet from Judah refused the king’s invitation, but he accepted the old prophet’s invitation. Perhaps he thought that the old prophet from Bethel was telling the truth. In fact he was lying. He told the prophet from Judah that an angel had told him to give his invitation. When people talk to us about God, we need to be careful. Paul says this in Galatians 1:8. ‘We taught you the good news about Christ. Let God punish us if we teach you something different. Let God punish even an angel from heaven who teaches something different.’ We must compare everything with what the Bible teaches. People may say that they are teaching God’s truth. But not all of them actually are.
As the prophet travelled back towards Judah, a lion attacked him. Usually a lion eats the bodies of anything that it kills. But the lion did not even damage the prophet’s body. Instead, the lion stood by the body, like a guard. Usually a mule would run away from a lion. Otherwise the lion would kill the mule. But this mule did not run away. Instead, it stood with the lion by the body. These animals were behaving in a very strange manner. The people who saw this talked about it. The actions of these animals showed that the dead prophet deserved great honour. He deserved honour because he spoke God’s words.
The death of the prophet from Judah caused the old prophet to turn back to God. The old prophet buried the prophet from Judah with great honour. The grave was in an important position near to Jeroboam’s altar (2 Kings 23:17). The old prophet declared to his sons that the prophet from Judah gave a genuine message from God. So the old prophet emphasised the importance of that message.
Jeroboam did not change his behaviour even after God warned him. He probably repaired the altar and sacrificed on it again. He made priests from families that God had not chosen. In the end, his family were no longer kings of Israel.
As the prophet travelled back towards Judah, a lion attacked him. Usually a lion eats the bodies of anything that it kills. But the lion did not even damage the prophet’s body. Instead, the lion stood by the body, like a guard. Usually a mule would run away from a lion. Otherwise the lion would kill the mule. But this mule did not run away. Instead, it stood with the lion by the body. These animals were behaving in a very strange manner. The people who saw this talked about it. The actions of these animals showed that the dead prophet deserved great honour. He deserved honour because he spoke God’s words.
The death of the prophet from Judah caused the old prophet to turn back to God. The old prophet buried the prophet from Judah with great honour. The grave was in an important position near to Jeroboam’s altar (2 Kings 23:17). The old prophet declared to his sons that the prophet from Judah gave a genuine message from God. So the old prophet emphasised the importance of that message.
Jeroboam did not change his behaviour even after God warned him. He probably repaired the altar and sacrificed on it again. He made priests from families that God had not chosen. In the end, his family were no longer kings of Israel.
I got this from gotquestions.org.
We also see that sometimes temptations come from surprising quarters. The king tempted the man of God to break God’s command, but the man of God refused. His guard was up, and there was no way he would disobey God for the sake of dining with an evil king. However, when a fellow prophet tempted the man of God to sin, he gave in. His guard was let down, and he did disobey God for the sake of dining with a (seemingly) genuine prophet.
The prophet who had lied buried the man of God in his own grave and instructed his own sons to, upon his death, bury him beside the man of God. In doing these things, the old prophet showed his sincere belief that the prophet who died had been a true man of God—his prophecies against the idolaters of Israel would come true (1 Kings 13:31–32).
I have a lot I want to type.... but I'm going to leave it here.... I think the moral of the story stands for itself... right?
