Old and New Prophets
June 14, 2007
When God gives you a word of what He wants you to do, often it is not good to tell others about it.
Today, the story is about a prophet of God. Judah and Israel have just split apart because Solomon would not follow God like he should have. His son had lost all but Judah to Jeroboam, who has become king of Israel with God's blessing. But with the blessing came a command, follow God. Not even a year goes by and he is afraid of loosing power to Judah's king when the people travel there to worship at Jerusalem, so he makes golden calves as gods for the people to worship.
Into this come a man of God, he is not named, it is not important. He makes a prophecy to King Jeroboam about what will happen. As I tell my kids, he comes in, fires his guns and rides off into the sunset. And that would be a great story as the prophecy came true, but it does not end there. A old prophet hears of what happens and goes after the new prophet.
1Ki 13:14-24 ESV
(14) And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am."
(15) Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."
(16) And he said, "I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place,
(17) for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.'"
This is the second time that he has said this. He knows that God told him to do this. It is clear to him.
(18) And he said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he lied to him.
Do you find it interesting that God spoke to the old prophet to tell him something but did not speak to new one. Very simple reason. The old one lied. Why? Who knows. Maybe he was jealous of what the the young man had done. Maybe he was disappointed in himself for not speaking against the king for the evil that was being done. But one thing is clear with what happens next.
(19) So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
(20) And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back.
(21) And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command that the LORD your God commanded you,
(22) but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"
(23) And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.
(24) And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.
First lesson here: when God speaks to you, do not let anyone else try to steal that vision from you. I speak from experience on that one. Other people can speak to you and say that they speak from God. If God is speaking to you, he will use another way to confirm it if someone else says they speak from God. Do not change your plans to God speaks to you.
Another less and one many would not notice, God can use people who are not 'good' Christians, ones who are worldly, who are not church attenders anymore, to speak. Notice the old prophet lied first, but then God used him to speak what would happen because of the new prophet's mistake. Do not throw out what a person says just because of their status with the Lord (or what you perceive that status to be).
