Well this is a strange chapter
really and it's a sad one as well. To read the account that
we have of this man of God as we're told, Behold there came
a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel,
and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. So we see this
man of God, as he's described here, was told to go there and
he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said,
O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be
born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, which of course
came to pass, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high
places that have been incensed upon thee, and men's bones shall
be burnt upon thee.' And he gave a sign the same day, saying,
This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken. Behold, the altar
shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured
out. And that also came to pass. So it's quite amazing really
as we see the account of this situation and those two men. And we're told then the altar
was rent according to the sign which the man of God had given
by the word of the Lord. And the king answered and said
unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy
God and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again. Because
he put his hand out against the altar and it had dried up. The man of God besought the Lord
and the king's hand was restored again. And it became as it was
before. And the king said unto the man
of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give
thee a reward. And the man of God said unto
the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not
go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water
in this place, for So was it charged me by the word of the
Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by
the same way that thou camest. We see here, therefore, this
man of God, this prophet, was obedient up till now and obeyed
the word of the Lord. It reminds us really of the case
in Genesis of Adam and Eve where you may remember I'm sure that
Eve was tempted and told by the devil that she could eat of that
fruit and she remembered what God had told her and her husband
what she should not do and she reiterated it word for word which
was right and good but we see how she departed from that truth. She disobeyed God. And this prophet
did exactly the same. Because we're told, now there
dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him
all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which he had spoken
unto the king, them they had told also to their father. And
their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons
had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle
me the ass. So they saddled him the ass,
and he rode thereon. Obviously he had more than one
ass. And went after the man of God.
and found him sitting under an oak. And he said unto him, Art
thou the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am.
Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return
with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor
drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me
by the word of the Lord, thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink
water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.'
And he said unto him, I am a prophet also, as thou art. And an angel
spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back
with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. but he lied unto him. So he went back with him and
did eat bread in his house and drank water." Well, that was
a very sad situation. He'd remembered, he knew, he
stood firm before with the king, not to go with the king. And
the king had also offered him a reward, but that didn't induce
him. And he refused, but now he's
taken in by the words of this old prophet. And he agrees to
go back with him. And he eats and drinks with him,
which the Lord clearly had commanded him not. And we're told, and
he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying,
thus saith the Lord forasmuch, as thou hast disobeyed the mouth
of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord
thy God commanded thee, but camest back and hast eaten bread and
drunk water in the place at which the Lord did say to thee, eat
no bread and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come unto
the sepulcher of thy fathers. where we then read, And it came
to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that
he saddled him the ass to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought
back, and when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew
him, and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood
by it, The lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, men
passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion
standing by the carcass, and came and told it in the city
where the prophet lived. And when the prophet that brought
him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God,
who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord hath delivered
him unto the lion. which hath torn him and slain
him according to the word of the Lord which he spake unto
him. Well, we won't go on to the rest
of the chapter but it's a very sad indictment and it's a very
important warning to everyone really that we are not to disregard
the word of the Lord. However, much the pressure might
be on us and clearly it was on because this man was taken in
sadly by the lies of an old prophet who pretended God had spoken
to him and told him to invite the prophet to his house you
see how wily the devil is how careful we must be we must be
aware And he goes about with that one desire to deceive people. And we know throughout the Bible,
there are so many cases where Satan deceived and people sinned. They fell under the temptation. Well, God has given us accounts
like this, hard as they may be to really understand. that there
may be a warning to us to obey God's Word. However high the
temptation may be, and reasonable, to disobey it, if God commands
from His Word, we are to obey it. We're not to turn from it. And what a blessing it is if
therefore we constantly pray that prayer, The Lord directed
us to lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Gracious and glorious words.
And may you and I have that grace to lay hold of them and to turn
away from the temptations of Satan. You see, Satan didn't
give up. He tried first with the king. And in the thought, that would
have been all right, wouldn't it? But no, the man was firm. But
then he's taken in by this old prophet. Well, may God give us
grace to stand firm for that which the Lord speaks to us and
obey his word and not turn aside from it. Well, we'll leave these
few remarks there.