The month of January we’re asking the question, “How does a God-honoring culture that rightly values the image of God in man and the sanctity of human life come about?” as a part of our Image of God and Sanctity of Human Life Sermon Series. We find an answer to this question in a strange, up and down story in 1 Kings 13.
Here’s the context. The kingdom of God’s people, who have just enjoyed the zenith of God’s kingdom culture under the collective reigns of David and Solomon, has disastrously divided due in large part to Solomon’s son Rehoboam’s foolishness. Rehoboam of David’s line reigns in Jerusalem over the southern kingdom—the one tribe of Judah and it seems some folks from the tribe of Benjamin. Jeroboam reigns over all the other tribes of Israel in the northern kingdom. Jeroboam, out of fear that the people of Israel would turn back to David’s house because they will need to return to Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice, hatches the ‘genius’ plan of building two golden calves for the people of Israel to worship. He does, declaring in a very Exodus 32-esque way, “Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:28). He puts one of these golden calf idols in the city of Bethel. In brief, the culture of God’s kingdom is a broken, patch work, idol worshiping, Frankenstein monster. Not what it was or should be. Oh! how to restore? We’re up to speed now.
In 1 Kings 13, while we don’t see the full restoration of the kingdom we do catch a glimpse of how it will come about through a somewhat bizarre narrative that proves a helpful illustration. God sends to Bethel and Jeroboam “a man of God” from Judah to address Jeroboam and Israel’s idolatry with “the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 13:1–2). The phrase “word of the Lord” in this narrative is key. It occurs 33 times in 1 Kings, a decent sized book of twenty-two chapters. Over a third of those occurrences, including references to it, spring up in 1 Kings 13—far more than any other chapter. Okay, note taken. Key theme here. As the episode unfolds, the “man of God” declares “the word of the Lord” to the altar that Jeroboam had set up for sacrificing to his bright shiny bovine. The marrow of the message: God will send a son of David King to destroy this altar of abomination (1 Kings 13:2). To affirm this word of God, the man of God also says that there will be a sign: the altar will be torn down and the ashes on it poured out (1 Kings 13:3). Jeroboam doesn’t like this word, so he stretches out his hand to give orders for his men to seize the prophet. So far this seems to just be your regular run of the mill OT prophecy landing on a hard heart. Standard fare. But then the strange stuff starts. At once, Jeroboam’s outstretched hand shrivels up and the altar crumbles, “according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 13:5). Now the roller coaster really starts.
Understandably, Jeroboam has a sudden change of heart and asks the man of God to pray for God to heal his deformed appendage. He does, and God does. Jeroboam then invites the prophet “for tea,” which the man of God promptly refuses because the word of the Lord forbade him to—“You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came” (1 Kings 13:9). So he departs. But then an old prophet who lives in Bethel catches wind, naturally, of the word of God spoken down at the shrine and after finding out which way the man of God went, he gives chase. He finds the man of God and, likely out of a sense of camaraderie with this fellow lonely prophet, also invites him “for tea.” The man of God gives the same response: the word of God forbids it. “Ah,” says the old prophet, “but the word of the Lord came to me too and said you’re supposed to come” (1 Kings 13:18, my paraphrase). He lied. And the man of God goes with him, eats, and drinks. Then comes again the word of the Lord, this time by the old prophet, “Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you…your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers’ ” (1 Kings 13:21–22). In other words, “you’re not going to make it back home before you die.” He saddles up his donkey, goes down the road a bit, and a lion attacks and kills him just for fun, not to eat him (1 Kings 13:24, 28). The old prophet retrieves his body, mourns him and buries him there, not in Judah according to the word of the Lord. And, as prophets apparently do, he goes on to make the request to be buried alongside this fellow prophet when he dies because he knows that, “the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass” (1 Kings 13:32).
All kinds of questions. Was Jeroboam’s change of heart authentic? Why did the old prophet lie to a fellow prophet? Did he trick him on purpose? Was it malicious? And if so, why does what to be honored in death with him? Those are worthy of trying to answer. But they seem to be somewhat incidental to the pith of this entire chapter that we don’t want to miss. The takeaway from this eclectic episode is the contrast between fallen man and the word of the Lord. Amidst the ups and downs, the stops and start, the forward marching and sudden about-faces, amidst the fickleness and flimsiness and unreliability of man, one thing stands immovable, consistent, unstoppable, and true—the word of the Lord.
The man of God came with the word of the Lord, Jeroboam resisted it, and yet the word of the Lord came to pass. Jeroboam seeks God’s favor and at his implicit word, Jeroboam is restored. The old prophet shows brazen disregard for the sacred word of the Lord by haphazardly declaring a false word from the Lord. The man of God, while faithful in half of his mission, is easily persuaded to doubt and disobey the word of the Lord that was spoken to him so clearly. As a result, he dies according to the word of the Lord. It is his witnessing the unshakable word of the Lord in this wild story that finally convinces the old prophet that the word of the Lord spoken by the man of God from Judah will surely come to pass. And yet, even in the face of this unstoppable train that is the word of the Lord, we find in the end Jeroboam continuing in his rebellion which led to the downfall of Jeroboam’s house according to the word of the Lord (1 Kings 13:33–34; cf. 14:10). What do we ultimately see in this scene? Though everyone and everything should fall and fade away the word of the Lord will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8).
Notably, the prophecy the man of God issued regarding the fall of Israel’s idolatry foretold its coming about through a specific son of David King, Josiah. King Josiah fulfilled this in his kingdom wide restoration project roughly 340 years later according to the word of the Lord (2 Kings 23:15–16). How will God bring about his kingdom culture? Not through earthly kings or imperfect prophets, but through a son of David King who is the eternal Word of the Lord.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1–5).
This is the King we serve and the Word of the Lord we proclaim.
Do You Have Ears? Then Hear!