In 1 Kings 13, we read about a prophet who was given very direct and clear instruction from God. He was to go to from Judah to Bethel and pass on a message to the king there. Then he was to return home without eating or drinking, and he was not to return by the way he came.
The king offered him money and food, both of which the man of God turned down. All seem to go well as he started his journey home taking another route.
Now in Bethel lived an old prophet who invited this man of God for a meal. This man of God turned down the offer by stating “For I was commanded by the word of the Lord, You shall eat no bread or drink water or return by the way you came.”
Not taking no for an answer, the old prophet said “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The the old prophet was lying!!!
To make a long story short, the man of God who came from Judah decides to eat with the prophet, and gets killed by a lion on the way afterwards.
After reading this passage, I thought about a couple of things:
- If there was a Prophet in Bethel, why did God have to send one from another city? Because this old prophet was not connected to God.
- Why did the old prophet want this man to eat with him so badly that he resorted to deceit? He knew he was not connected but wanted to show that he still in with the in crowd. I’m sure there was some envy involved, and probably did not want to loose face. After all, the man of God did heal the Kings hand which had shriveled as a punishment for rebellion to what God had spoken through him. These are the things that I might go through if I were in the old man’s disconnected and dry shoes.
What is shocking to see is that when the old prophet is called to identify the dead body of the man of God, he says ““It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.”” 1 kings 13:26
This serves as a warning for you and me. When we are on fire for God, when we succeed in what God has told us to do, be very careful of contrary visions and prophecies from ‘qualified mouths’. We need to “discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:10
If God takes the trouble to tell me to go to Bethel from Judah, and come back another way, then I should be 100% sure that if “God changes his mind”, he has the means at his disposal to tell me of it personally.
Guard the fire and the vision God has put in you.