The LORD Hath Delivered Him Unto The Lion

"The LORD Hath Delivered Him Unto The Lion" – 1 Kings 13:7-19 The study walks through the account of the two prophets in 1 Kings 13: the man of God sent from Judah to prophesy against the altar at Bethel, with three express instructions —eat no bread, drink no water, and do not return by the same way— and the old prophet of Bethel who brings him back saying an angel spoke to him, when the text itself adds: "but he lied unto him" (13:18). The man of God believed the lie, ate, drank, and on the road back a lion killed him. From this comes the lesson that runs through the whole message: the word of God is not replaced by opinions, experiences or supposed revelations, even when they come from someone who seems spiritual or holds authority, and obedience requires perseverance to the end.

I. The prophet of Judah and the life of the prophets

A. God sends the man of God, the prophet of Judah, to prophesy against the altar at Bethel, in the days of king Jeroboam.

B. He gave him very clear instructions, and they were not points to be argued, because the prophets were men who lived wholly for God, in great austerity and alone.

C. What he was charged with was not the easiest thing: when God sends, one cannot do it as one thinks, nor as one analyzes it, nor as one believes it will turn out better.

D. The whole matter of living and working for God is to center on who God is, what He is like, what He feels and what His perfect thought is. And that is hard.

E. To stand before Jeroboam was to risk being killed by the king; he had no safety for his life, but he went because God had sent him.

F. The prophets could have a family, but they were not to be among the people: they had to hear the voice of God and pass those words on at once.

G. The less you know, the less it troubles you; the more you know, the more you know you must struggle, do battle, and set your life in order.

H. From Genesis to Revelation, the holy book teaches, corrects and reproves. For the Scriptures you need not be a genius; with them you grow and you know how to carry your life.

II. The three instructions and their purpose

A. Eat no bread: that bread was wholly dedicated to the idols. It was not "a piece of bread the baker made": it was a law.

B. Drink no water there.

C. Do not return by the same way.

D. All three were protection: not to eat, because they would try to poison him; not to drink, because they would poison him through the water; not to go back the same way, because whoever goes where he is not well treated does not return by the road he came.

E. He was given three ways of guarding himself, the most perfect ones. And the easiest thing in life is to obey.

F. The trouble with life is that you do not know what is around the corner, because you do not know who loves you.

III. He obeyed at first and refused the king

A. The prophet of Judah obeyed at first and refused king Jeroboam's invitation — a king who in the end wanted him dead.

B. The prophet was the one who told the truth, who confronted the people, whom the people feared when they saw him.

C. In that atmosphere the man must have been tense; the situation was a hard one.

D. Obeying at the start and giving way at the end are two positions, two attitudes a human being takes.

E. Each one is responsible for his own life: no one harms you if you do not allow it. You have one existence, and it is yours to guard, watching what may come in and what must not.

F. We cannot live like fools: we are warriors, and no one has only one battle a day. The message is to watch well, to understand things clearly and precisely, to be shrewd.

IV. The old prophet of Bethel

A. There are two prophets: the first is the one from Judah; the second is the old prophet, the one from Bethel.

B. If he is the old prophet, he is the one who should command most respect: the one who ought already to hold a posture of care, of protecting, of loving, of serving, of doing all that is good, just and true. That was the old prophet's part.

C. They did not know each other: there were prophets in different corners of the land of Israel and of Judah.

D. He went out after the man of God and said to him: "I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD." It was false.

E. What had been forbidden the prophet of Judah was eating anywhere at all, though he were starving. If God said "eat not," it is because God will strengthen him.

V. "But he lied unto him" (1 Kings 13:18)

A. The Bible adds at once the phrase that defines him: "but he lied unto him." It means God keeps no secrets.

B. The text does not say he was an impostor by trade; it marks the action he took at that moment. That is why we must keep our eyes open, clear and precise.

C. For that one occasion the name stayed with him: the prophet who lied. He falsely claimed to have received a message from God.

D. In life everything comes to the surface. A lie does not come out at once: it comes out as it fattens, because it is deceit.

VI. The man of God believed the lie

A. Two or three little words were spoken to him. He must have been tired, hungry and thirsty, with much road still ahead: he was emotionally affected.

B. And in that state he did what he should not: he lent his ear where the ear must not be lent.

C. "So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water." That weak he was. And he was a prophet: prophets missed nothing.

D. Remember Elijah and Elisha: they spoke, and within the minute it came to pass.

VII. God truly spoke through the one who lied (13:20)

A. "And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back." He had lied to him, and God used him. Be careful with whom you speak.

B. When God sets a man to speak, he speaks: God puts the words in his mouth, because he is compelled. With God even the stones must speak.

C. In heaven there are millions of angels ascending and descending, and archangels and cherubim, beings superior in strength and in the dominion of what they are given to do.

D. The angels write it down and take it up, and in heaven it accumulates in the books; on the day of final judgment the books will be opened, each one will be called by name, and out will come everything he did — and what he failed to do as well.

E. Living is no soft thing. God guards us from all that comes to destroy us, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken.

F. If God is in heaven seeing everything, whose hand is it that moves? Not demons': God's, with power.

VIII. God is sovereign, but does not approve the sin

A. The old prophet, who had lied before, now receives a true message from God. This teaches several things.

B. Though he had sinned in lying, God chose to use him at that moment to communicate His judgment. That does not justify his lie nor approve his conduct.

C. What became of that prophet afterward, we do not know; the text does not say.

D. We cannot live life as though it were a trifle, nor by our own reasoning: it is by the justice of God.

E. God can use whomever He wills to fulfill His purposes, even someone who has failed; it is not that God needs us. We are not special beings nor eternal ones: the eternal One is God.

F. The prerogative is God's: the yes and the no are His, and that remains secret. That is why she never says who went with the Lord and who did not; she confronts in life, while there is breath of life.

IX. The judgment: "thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD" (13:21)

A. "Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee."

B. The command had been given expressly by the highest authority, the LORD God, and it had to be kept. Keeping it is not hard.

C. It is like the child told "do not go that way, there is a pothole," who goes, falls and scrapes himself. And why are you crying? You disobeyed. If we saw it was a dangerous place, how did we walk into it?

D. We live without thinking, like children — and not even like five-year-olds, who are very sharp.

E. Our existence must not be like that of either prophet. They were given instructions, and God has given us ours in this book.

F. If you do not read it, that is your problem; if you are ignorant of what is here, this same word is what can condemn you, because having the truth we keep it hidden.

G. The man of God's error was to accept the old prophet's word above the word God had already given him. God did not change that command (13:9).

X. Why God was so severe

A. Because the man of God was a messenger of the LORD: if he changes the words given to him, he changes the prophetic words he was to deliver.

B. Nothing may be spoken according to what we want.

C. Those who represent God bear a great responsibility to obey His word faithfully; whoever does not carry it does not represent God.

D. The voice of God is brought when it is needed, to give warning of tomorrow; once he has spoken, the messenger's part is to withdraw.

E. One must watch what one takes in, for that is where idolatry and the patron-saint festivals slip through.

F. What we go on doing when we do not obey: eating what must not be eaten, drinking water from where it must not be drawn, and returning by the road we walked when we were ungodly. That old road was lost on the day of conversion.

G. The disobedience of a servant of God can confuse another: he is not lost alone, he takes another with him. Better never to have been born than to make another fall.

XI. The lesson: nothing replaces the word

A. The word of God must not be replaced by opinions. How are we to give our opinion about the word of God?

B. Nor by experiences: "I had an experience and saw heaven open" — that was your experience, it is not Scripture.

C. No fantasy, no mysticism. The believer's life is a reality: against the tide that comes, against the stone that comes, against the devil himself who rises up.

D. God abhors the lukewarm; and if He abhors him, there is no eternal life.

E. To touch the Holy Spirit is the greatest danger in life: it is the one place where there is no forgiveness.

F. We must discern every message in the light of the Scriptures.

G. Obedience to God requires perseverance to the end, even when another person —though he seem spiritual or hold authority— says something different.

XII. "The LORD hath delivered him unto the lion"

A. The man of God was delivered to the lion: on the road back a lion came out and killed him. Because he did not keep the word.

B. And the one called a prophet went, gathered up the bones and buried them.

C. God leaves nothing hidden, and God does not work as each of us imagines: He works according to the weight we carry in our heart.

D. God has no eagerness to collect people. He is the Creator, and if He wills He goes on creating, as He has done to this day.

E. None of us is a marvel: we all need God, and not merely by coming to a church, but by keeping ourselves as the Father wants each of us to be.

F. When we cast our knees down in prayer we go straight up to heaven; when we lift our hands in worship we come to the Father, and He rejoices.

XIII. Closing

A. "It falls to me to preach; it falls to you to seek God, in spirit and in truth."

B. There is a heaven, but there is also a hell, and a lake of fire and brimstone at the end; whoever says it does not exist has stopped reading the word.

C. Religion is not opinions or suggestions, nor "whether I like it or not": one may dislike the food, not God.

D. God is served with a meek spirit that bends us.