Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Following the word of the Lord, no matter what people say. Next on Hope From the Word.

Bill Luebkemann: When God puts something on your heart to do something, when God leads you to do something, when He speaks to you somehow, don't change it around because of what someone else tells you. Don't take someone else's word for it just because they're more mature, they've been a Christian longer than me. They said it really would be a better idea not to do that. Maybe I shouldn't do that.

If God is leading you to do something, then you need to go with what God is leading you to do, not with what someone else says to do, no matter if they're 90 years old and have been a Christian for 89 years.

Guest (Male): So, let's suppose God told you to pack up your bags, get on a plane, and become a missionary in a foreign land. Or He tells you to bring a word of correction to someone you're pretty sure won't take it well. What do you do? Will you be faithful to complete your God-given task?

Today on Hope From the Word, a prophet comes onto the scene as we continue through 1 Kings. God had given him an important task. But like many of us, he failed to follow through. We'll see what happened as a result. Let's join Pastor Bill Luebkemann now in 1 Kings 13.

Bill Luebkemann: There was a certain old prophet living in Bethel whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

So he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he replied. So the prophet said to him, "Come home with me and eat."

The man of God said, "I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord, 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'"

So, there's a certain old geezer, I'm sorry, there's a certain old prophet that lives in this land. He was some prophet that didn't move out of the land and move back down to Judah. He was a real prophet. He really did hear the word of God, apparently at times. But apparently, he didn't always do the right thing.

And he was living in this land of corruption, but apparently, he wasn't maybe necessarily sold out for the corruption completely. He was living in this land, maybe he was not participating in all the idol worship. Maybe he hated it. It doesn't really say what his take was on all the idol worship that Jeroboam had going on there. Maybe he was happy to hear that another prophet was in the area and he would welcome a little fellowship with someone who was like-minded.

And this certain old guy was living in Bethel there, the same town, and his sons came and told him about the man of God that had been there that day. "Hey Dad, you're not going to believe it. There's another prophet that came. You're not going to believe what happened. It was just like when you used to prophesy, back before the kingdom got all messed up. This guy came up and he prophesied and the king stretched out his hand and then it shriveled up." They told their dad everything. "The altar split, unbelievable."

And the father got all excited. "Wow, haven't seen that happen in a long time." This was an old prophet. I kind of get the feel that he probably hadn't seen much happen recently. They also tell their father what he had said to the king, that he had to go home on a different road and all that other kind of stuff. So their father said, "Well, which way did he go?" And the sons showed him. "Well, he went that way."

So he got his sons to saddle up the donkey and he took off and rode down after the guy. And he found the guy sitting under an oak tree. Now, the guy might have been famished. Maybe it was hot out. He wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. Maybe he was fasting. Maybe he was sitting under the oak tree just dying, "I got to get back to have a drink, I got to get back to Judah."

I don't know what the guy felt like, how tired he was. He was resting. He comes up to the guy and says, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he replied. So the prophet said to him, "Come home with me and eat." He invites him over to dinner. Now, he already knows that this guy is not supposed to eat there and he knows why the guy's not supposed to eat there because it says earlier his sons told him what the man of God had said to the king.

He knows all this stuff. But he goes down and he says, "Are you the man of God? I want you to come over to my house and eat." "No, I can't do that." And he tells him the same story. So now the man of God hears the same thing to his own ears. The old prophet, "I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'" True. That's what he was told. He tells the same exact thing here.

Now it gets interesting. The old prophet answered, "I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he was lying to him. So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

Now, it doesn't say why this old prophet did this, by the way. It doesn't say why the prophet from Judah went along with it. Some people speculated, well, maybe it was an angel of darkness, maybe it was the devil appearing as an angel that was fooling this old prophet. I don't think that's the case because the Bible says he was lying to him.

So when he said an angel appeared to me, well, if he was lying, then that means an angel did not appear to him. So, in other words, he was making it up. I think this old prophet just wanted some company. It seems to me this old prophet was either maybe he was saying, "Ah, it doesn't matter that much. Why would God care about that? You're hungry, you're tired, you did the point. I'm a prophet too, what would it matter if you come over to my house?"

He probably didn't want you eating with King Jeroboam because he's an idol worshiper. But I'm a prophet, man, we're in the same union, and so we could get together. You can only speculate what was going through their minds. He told the guy a flat-out lie. The old prophet lied to the prophet from Judah, telling him that an angel had appeared to him.

And that was a gross sin to do so, but it was an even greater sin for the man of God to return with him because the man of God had had clear instructions from the Lord what to do. Go up there, do what you're supposed to do, come home on a different road, don't eat or drink anything. He could have told the old geezer, "Hey, why don't you come back to my place? We could have a meal back there and talk about prophet stuff."

I think, seems to me, the man of God was guilty of a greater sin. While they were sitting at the table, they went back to the old prophet's house. While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, "This is what the Lord says: 'You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore, your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.'"

Now, see, the guy had been lying before. No angel appeared to him. He didn't have a word from God. He just wanted to have some fellowship with this guy maybe. And why did the man of God from Judah, why did he go along with it? Why did he believe this guy? Maybe because this prophet was older, maybe because he was an old guy, he looked up to him, respected him, seemed reasonable, seemed logical, maybe made a good argument, maybe told him some other things. Maybe not all the words are written down here.

But now back at the guy's house, the word of the Lord really comes to the old prophet. He was lying before, but now God speaks through him. And this is what he says: "This is what the Lord says: 'You defied the word of the Lord and you've not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You did what you weren't supposed to do. You came back, you ate the bread, you drank the water. You did the things you were told not to do.'"

This was Saul's problem. This was the problem all throughout ancient Israel. They didn't complete the task, they didn't do everything they were supposed to do. They didn't quite get it all done. Go into the land, kill everybody, leave nothing left undone.

And they'd come back. There's one verse where Samuel says to Saul, "Did you kill everyone?" "Oh, everyone, we killed everyone." "Well, what's the animals I hear bleating in the background?" "Well, we just kept a few of them alive, just a few of the best ones." Everyone and all means everyone and all, not some and most of.

And that was the same kind of thing that all throughout Israel's history, over and over and over again, the same kind of trouble they always got into. And that was the same kind of trouble this guy got into. He didn't follow the word of the Lord. And look, this applies to us today. When God puts something on your heart to do something, when God leads you to do something, when He speaks to you somehow, don't change it around because of what someone else tells you.

Don't take someone else's word for it just because they're more mature, they've been a Christian longer than me. They said it really would be a better idea not to do that. Maybe I shouldn't do that. If God is leading you to do something, then you need to go with what God is leading you to do, not with what someone else says to do, no matter if they're 90 years old and have been a Christian for 89 years.

You kind of get the idea here that this guy may have been going along with the old geezer because of respectability. And maybe because he was more mature or whatever, look up to him, respect him, seem reasonable. Look, you can be a young Christian and God can be leading you to do something and some older, more mature Christian can pooh-pooh that. And I've seen that happen. Or younger Christians are excited and really serving God and excited to be serving the Lord and doing things, and it gets pooh-poohed or put down by older, supposedly more mature people who know better.

And it's almost like the fire of God gets somewhat extinguished in them by someone who knows better or should know better and really knows less and needs to remember what their first love was. And maybe that's kind of like what was going on here. And this man of God gets a little lecture here: "You did what you weren't supposed to do. Therefore, your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers."

When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, now, it doesn't say what his reaction is. Also, you don't see any repentance here either. It doesn't say, "Oh my gosh, I've sinned. Lord, repent, please forgive me." You don't see Jeroboam repent, you don't see him repent either. It's interesting, no response recorded. I would like to know what his response was. I don't know why that's not in here. Lord, what's his response? I guess I can only assume if it was worth putting in here, God would have put it in here. If it's not in here, must not have been worthwhile.

When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Some people who passed by saw the body thrown down there with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

So God sent a lion. And by the way, yes, there were lions in Palestine. History records there were lions there at least till the 13th century AD. He went out, got on his donkey, the old prophet helped him saddle up his donkey, sent him on his way. A lion met him on the road, killed him, his body was thrown down, and the lion is standing right there next to him.

The lion's not eating his body. It just killed him. The lion's not attacking the donkey. The lion doesn't bother the other people who walked by. The lion didn't go somewhere else. The lion's just standing there. The donkey's just standing there, and the dead guy is just lying there. Isn't that interesting? So you can see that God had a mission for that lion to accomplish there.

Not a pleasant way to go, huh? Not a pleasant way to go. They talk today about which form of capital punishment can cause pain and how much pain and how much is too much and is this cruel and unusual punishment and everything else. Well, here is God's capital punishment. He sent out a lion to the guy. Look, I'm not making any comments on capital punishment, but I'm saying here this was what God did here. He sent a lion to the guy. I would not want to meet a lion on the wrong side of his mouth. I prefer to see them at the zoo and not the San Francisco Zoo, by the way, some other zoo.

Some people who walked by saw the body there, they saw the lion standing there, they went back and told it in the city. "Hey, funny sight down the road there. There's a body there and there's a lion and a donkey right next to it. We didn't want to get too close to it, that lion didn't look too nice." 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."

I wonder if this guy has any in his mind has any remorse at all for just lying to this guy. Because yes, the man of God defied God's instructions, but this old geezer prophet guy lied in the beginning. So you wonder if he has any remorse at all, if he in any way connects that he did anything wrong or not. It doesn't seem to say that here, but it does indicate he realizes it must be the man of God because I sent him out on a donkey and now I'm hearing there's a dead guy on a donkey hit by a lion. It's got to be the same guy.

The prophet said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me," and they did so. Then he went out and found the body thrown down on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. Interesting. 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.

Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, "Oh, my brother." So the prophet goes out, gets his sons to help him saddle up his donkey and he goes out. He finds the scene just the way he's been told. "Here's the dead body, here's the donkey, here's the lion there." He's not afraid of the lion. He takes the body, he brings it back, and he lays the body in his own tomb because the prophecy said that this prophet was not going to be buried in his tomb or with his fathers. "You have defied the word of the Lord and not kept the command the Lord your God has given you... therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers."

By the way, that prophecy didn't say he was going to die that day. He might have expected after hearing that prophecy to live another 50 years and just not be buried in his father's tomb. And it was I think considered a disgrace not to be buried with your fathers. It was way worse of a disgrace not to be buried at all, of course. But this prophecy came true even faster.

The prophecy about Josiah came true 350 years later. This guy delivered a prophecy, a word of God, spoke it, a miracle happened right on the spot. The shriveled hand happened, then it was unshriveled, and the altar was broken too. And the prophecy came true. And the very same guy that did that, later on the same day, was killed by a lion. He was killed by a lion later on that same day because he failed to follow the Lord's instructions all the way around.

So the prophet brings him back, puts him in his own tomb and mourns for him, because he knows, well, this is a real, true man of God. Yeah, he made a mistake. Yeah, he made a serious, big-time, colossal blunder of a mistake. To whom more is given, more is expected. Much is given, to whom much is given, much is expected. He was sent on this mission. This was critically important, terribly important, highly important. This was what God wanted to be done.

Ananias and Sapphira, they came to church and lied about how much they put in the offering, and they dropped dead. No doubt many people have lied over the years about how much they put in the offering. They haven't all dropped dead. But from time to time, the Lord makes an example for some reason, for some purpose, to suit His purposes and to suit His end. But nevertheless, this old prophet understands and realizes, well, this guy, this guy was still, he was a true prophet. He did come here, he did deliver a true message, and he still he did mourn for his brother.

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. 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."

So see, he knew not only that this prophet was supposed to return on the other road, but he knew the message that had been proclaimed there because his sons told him. And I think while they were having tea and crumpets together in his house, the prophet, the man of God, told him about the message that he had brought there. And I think probably since this guy was a prophet himself, he probably didn't like all these altars and high places and everything around.

I think it's interesting that he wasn't out doing anything about it. He didn't leave town and move down where the respectable people were in Judah, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like he's out doing anything about it. He seems to just be like one of those types of believers that just has accommodated to the world. Sort of the way Lot cast his tent towards Sodom. That may be what this guy was like here. He's kind of like living in the land, just kind of putting up, not really saying anything about what's going wrong, not really doing too much about it, just kind of putting up with it and not moving out but not objecting to it, but yet knowing in his heart how wrong it is.

And when he heard the message of this prophet of God who came up there, he knows in his heart that this is true. And maybe just doesn't have the guts to go and confront Jeroboam himself. Maybe the Lord didn't send him specifically to do that. But he knows it's true and he says, "Put my bones next to his bones. I want to be buried next to that guy because that guy, he was a real prophet of God in spite of the fact he made a mistake, got killed by the lion. His message was true and the message that he brought, that he declared by the word of the Lord against this altar and against all the shrines on all the high places in all the towns of Samaria, that message is going to come true."

So even though the unfortunate thing happened to this guy and he wasn't buried with his fathers, he had some respectability. One guy cared about him and wanted to be buried alongside of him. Unfortunately, none of this mattered to Jeroboam, though. Even after this, it says 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. Some of the translations even say he made himself a priest, which was implied earlier in the chapter. I think I pointed that out.

This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth. Even after this, Jeroboam had his hand shriveled, had his hand restored, heard the prophecy, the altar split in two. What a huge opportunity to repent. Hello? Anyone home in there? Is there any gray matter inside? Anyone home? Knock, knock, knock. Wake up. He didn't. He didn't. Even after this, he did not change his evil ways.

In other words, what that means is, to paraphrase this in the Luebkemann tradition here, this was his opportunity to change his ways and mend his ways. Not just his opportunity, but one of his opportunities because I'm sure God gave him many opportunities.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill's study of 1 Kings. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find your podcasts.

If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton, where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can also livestream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us at our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of 1 Kings, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.