1 Kings 13:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see a messenger sent to Jeroboam to show God’s anger against his idolatry (1 Kings 13:1). The army from Judah that might have destroyed him had been ordered back and could not strike him down (1 Kings 12:24). Instead, a prophet from Judah was sent to turn him from his evil way, and he was sent at the right time, while Jeroboam was still dedicating his altar and before sin hardened his heart.

How bold this messenger was. He dared to confront the king in the middle of his pride and interrupt the worship service he had arranged for himself. Those who go on God’s errands must not fear human faces, because they know who will stand with them. How kind it was of God to send warning before wrath fell from heaven on Jeroboam’s sin.

The message was delivered loudly, not in a whisper. That showed both the prophet’s courage and his earnest desire to be heard by everyone there, and there were many people gathered for this great occasion. The message was aimed, not at Jeroboam or the people directly, but at the altar itself. The stones of the altar would more readily hear and yield than people who were mad about their idols and deaf to God’s calls.

Yet when God threatened the altar, he was also threatening the one who built it and the people who worshiped there. The altar was as precious to them as their own lives. If God’s anger would fall on a lifeless altar, how could they hope to escape? The prophecy said that, in time, a prince from David’s family, Josiah, would defile this altar by burning the priests of the high places on it and burning human bones on it (1 Kings 13:2).

Let Jeroboam understand three things. First, the altar he had just dedicated would one day be desecrated. False worship will not last forever, but the word of the Lord will stand. Second, the priests he had appointed for the high places would themselves become sacrifices to God’s justice, and they would be the first and only sacrifices on that altar that pleased him. If the offering is hateful to God, then the ones who offer it will also fall under his wrath. Third, this would be done by a branch of David’s family, the very house Jeroboam had despised and broken away from in a treacherous way. That family would yet recover enough power to tear down the altar he thought he had firmly established.

So right and truth would finally prevail in both civil and religious matters, even though those who loved change were then winning and despising both God and the king. It was about 356 years before this prophecy came true, yet it was spoken of as if it were near, because a thousand years with God are like one day. Nothing seems more uncertain than naming a child before he is born, yet Josiah was named more than 300 years ahead of his birth. Nothing future is hidden from God. He has names written in his book of foreknowledge, names written in heaven (Philippians 4:3).

A sign was then given to prove the truth of this prediction. The altar was to split apart by an unseen power, and the ashes of the sacrifice were to be scattered (1 Kings 13:3), and this happened right away (1 Kings 13:5). This was, first, a clear proof that the prophet had truly been sent by God, who confirmed the word with a following sign (Mark 16:20). Second, it was a present sign of God’s disgust with these idolatrous sacrifices. How could the gift be acceptable when the altar that was supposed to make it holy was itself hateful to God? Third, it was a rebuke to the people, whose hearts were harder than these stones and were not broken by the word of the Lord. Fourth, it was a preview of what Josiah would later do, since the altar was already broken in token of its coming ruin.

Jeroboam then stretched out his hand to seize or strike the man of God, and his hand withered at once (1 Kings 13:4). Instead of trembling at the warning, as he should have, he attacked the one who brought it. He showed contempt for the grace that warned him and for the wrath that warning revealed. If you rebuke a sinner, he will hate you and, if he can, do you harm. Even so, God’s prophets must still expose themselves rather than betray their calling. The one who sends them will protect them and will restrain human anger, as he did here by drying up Jeroboam’s hand so that he could neither harm the prophet nor pull it back to help himself.

When Jeroboam stretched out his hand to burn incense to his calves, it was not withered. But when that same hand was raised against a prophet, he could not use it again until he humbled himself. Of all the sins of the wicked, none provokes God more than their hateful attacks on his prophets, to whom he has said, “Do not touch them, and do not harm them.” This was both a punishment that matched the sin and a rescue for the prophet. God has many ways to keep the enemies of his church from carrying out their harmful plans.

Jeroboam’s unable hand made him a public example for everyone to see and fear. If God, in judgment, hardens sinners so that a hand stretched out in sin cannot be pulled back by repentance, that is a spiritual judgment, shown here in outward form, and it is far more terrible.

The hand was then healed just as suddenly as it had dried up, when Jeroboam submitted (1 Kings 13:6). God’s word should have reached his conscience and broken his pride, but it was the pain in his body that brought him low. Now he looks for help, not from his calves, but from God alone, from his power and favor. He knows that the one who wounds is the only one who can heal.

He also seeks help, not through his own sacrifice or incense, but through the prayer and intercession of the prophet whom he had just threatened to destroy. A time may come when those who hate preaching will be glad for the prayers of faithful ministers. “Pray to the Lord your God,” Jeroboam says, because he knows the prophet has access to God and can use it for him. Yet he does not ask for forgiveness of sin or a changed heart, only for the healing of his hand. In this he is like Pharaoh, who asked Moses to pray only that the plague would stop, not that his sin would be removed (Exodus 10:17).

The prophet, as a true man of God, answers evil with good. He does not scold Jeroboam for his powerless anger, and he does not boast in his surrender. He immediately turns to God on his behalf. Only those who learn from Christ to pray for their persecutors are fit for the blessing he gave to the persecuted (Matthew 5:10, 44).

When the prophet honored God by showing a forgiving spirit, God honored him again. At his word, the judgment was taken back, and the withered hand was healed by another miracle. In this way, the goodness of God might lead Jeroboam toward repentance, and if the judgment did not break him, mercy might still soften him. For the moment, both signs seemed to affect him, but the feeling did not last.

The prophet then refused Jeroboam’s kind invitation. God had forbidden His messenger to eat or drink in Bethel, because He wanted to show His hatred of that terrible idolatry and of their turning away from Him (1 Kings 13:9). God also meant to teach us not to share in the works of darkness, so that we do not catch their evil or encourage it. The prophet was not even to return by the same road, but was to deliver his message as he passed through. He was not to seem as if he had been sent there on a special visit, because they were not worthy of that honor, but rather as one who only stopped briefly on the way, as Paul did in Athens when he passed by and saw their worship. God used this command to test His prophet, just as He tested Ezekiel, to see whether he would refuse to rebel like that rebellious people (Ezekiel 2:8).

Jeroboam was so moved by the healing of his hand that he wanted to show gratitude to the prophet and pay him for his prayers (1 Kings 13:7). We do not read that he thanked God for the mercy or sent an offering to the altar in Jerusalem, but he was willing to honor the prophet. Even people who have no real faith often seem grateful to good ministers when they receive some bodily blessing.

The prophet, however, though hungry and tired, and perhaps poor too, obeyed God’s command and refused both the meal and the reward. He may have thought that accepting them would let him speak with the king longer and perhaps bring about a true change now that the king had been convinced. But he would not trust his own wisdom above God’s command. Like a faithful messenger who has finished his task, he hurried home. Those have learned very little about self-denial if they cannot turn down one forbidden meal.