1 Kings 13:11 - Meaning and Application

The man of God had firmly refused the king’s invitation, even after the promise of a reward. But he was talked into going back with the old prophet, and he ate in Bethel against God’s command. Here we see how dearly that meal cost him.

Notice, with amazement, the old prophet’s wickedness. I cannot help calling him a false prophet and a bad man. It is far easier to believe that someone with such a poor character was forced to admit the truth spoken by the man of God later (1 Kings 13:32) than to believe that a true prophet and good man would tell such a deliberate lie and claim God said it. A good tree cannot produce such rotten fruit.

Perhaps he had once been trained among the sons of the prophets, in one of Samuel’s schools not far away. He may still have kept the name of a prophet, but as he grew worldly and careless, the Spirit of prophecy had left him. If he had truly been a good prophet, he would have rebuked Jeroboam’s idolatry. He would not have allowed his sons to attend Jeroboam’s altars, as they seem to have done.

It is not certain whether he had any good purpose in bringing the man of God back. We might hope he did it out of kindness, thinking the man needed refreshment and wanting to hear his message more fully than his sons had reported it. Yet his sons had told him everything, including the fact that the prophet had been forbidden to eat or drink there, and that he had said this openly to Jeroboam. So I think it was probably a bad plan, meant to trap him and expose him. False prophets have always been the worst enemies of true prophets. Often they try to destroy them, but sometimes, as here, they try to corrupt them and pull them away from their duty.

But we can say for sure that he used a very bad method to bring him back. When the man of God said, “I may not, and therefore I will not, return with you to eat bread” (1 Kings 13:16, 17), the old prophet wickedly claimed that he had received a message from heaven. He used his former title as a prophet to deceive him: “I am a prophet also, as you are.” He even claimed that an angel had appeared and sent him on this errand. It was all a lie. It was mockery of prophecy, and deeply irreverent. When this old prophet is mentioned later (2 Kings 23:18), he is called the prophet who came out of Samaria, even though Samaria did not exist until much later (1 Kings 16:24). I think he is called that because he was like the later prophets of Samaria, who led God’s people Israel astray (Jeremiah 23:13).

Next we see the good prophet’s weakness, because he let himself be deceived. He went back with the old prophet (1 Kings 13:19). The man who was strong enough to refuse a king’s invitation, even with the promise of a reward, could not resist the pressure of someone who claimed to be a prophet. God’s people are often more in danger from smooth claims of holiness and divine authority than from open temptations. That is why we must watch for false prophets and not believe every spirit.

Then comes the work of divine justice, and here we may well wonder that the wicked prophet who told the lie and caused the trouble went unpunished, while the holy man of God, who was led into sin, was suddenly and severely punished. What are we to make of this? God’s judgments are too deep to measure. Both the deceiver and the deceived belong to him, and he does not give an account of his matters. Surely there must be a final judgment, when these things will be reviewed again, and when those who sinned most and suffered least in this life will receive what their deeds deserve.

The message given to the man of God was striking. His sin is stated plainly in 1 Kings 13:21, 22. In a single word, it was disobedience to a clear command. The judgment was also plain: “Your body will not be buried in your family tomb.” In other words, “You will never reach your own home alive. You will die quickly, and your dead body will not be taken to your fathers’ tombs for burial.”

It is even more striking that the old prophet himself became the messenger. We cannot explain this except by saying that God chose it so. In other places, God spoke through Balaam’s donkey, and he announced Saul’s doom through Samuel’s likeness by means of the devil. We may think God meant this, first, to shock the lying prophet and make him feel his sin. The message would have struck him even more because he had to deliver it himself, and it hit him so hard that he cried out in distress (1 Kings 13:21). He had reason to think, if a man could die for disobedience in a small matter, then how much worse a punishment he deserved, since he had lied about an angel of God and tricked a man of God with a made-up story. If this was done to the green tree, what will happen to the dry? Perhaps it did him good. Anyone who warns others about God’s wrath has a very hard heart if he does not fear it himself.

Second, God may have done this to deepen the shame of the deceived prophet and to show what those who listen to the great deceiver can expect. Those who yield to him as a tempter will be afraid of him as a tormentor. The one he flatters now, he will attack later. The one he leads into sin, he will try to drive into despair.