Just as Jeroboam was at the Altar, about to make an offering, a holy man came from Judah by God’s command and preached (these were God’s orders) to the Altar: “Altar, Altar! God’s message! ‘A son will be born into David’s family named Josiah. The priests from the shrines who are making offerings on you, he will sacrifice—on you! Human bones burned on you!‘”.  At the same time he announced a sign: “This is the proof God gives—the Altar will split into pieces and the holy offerings spill into the dirt.”
When the king heard the message the holy man preached against the Altar at Bethel, he reached out to grab him, yelling, “Arrest him!” But his arm was paralyzed and hung useless. At the same time the Altar broke apart and the holy offerings all spilled into the dirt—the very sign the holy man had announced by God’s command. The king pleaded with the holy man, “Help me! Pray to your God for the healing of my arm.” The holy man prayed for him and the king’s arm was healed—as good as new! Then the king invited the holy man, “Join me for a meal; I have a gift for you.” The holy man told the king, “Not on your life! You couldn’t pay me enough to get me to sit down with you at a meal in this place. I’m here under God’s orders, and he commanded, ‘Don’t eat a crumb, don’t drink a drop, and don’t go back the way you came.‘ ” Then he left by a different road than the one on which he had walked to Bethel.
There was an old prophet who lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him the story of what the holy man had done that day in Bethel, told him everything that had happened and what the holy man had said to the king. Their father said, “Which way did he go?” His sons pointed out the road that the holy man from Judah had taken. He told his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” When they had saddled it, he got on and rode after the holy man. He found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the holy man who came from Judah?” “Yes, I am,” he said. “Well, come home with me and have a meal.” “Sorry, I can’t do that,” the holy man said. “I can neither go back with you nor eat with you in this country. I’m under strict orders from God: ‘Don’t eat a crumb; don’t drink a drop; and don’t come back the way you came.‘Â ” But he said, “I am also a prophet, just like you. And an angel came to me with a message from God: ‘Bring him home with you, and give him a good meal!‘Â ” But the man was lying.
So the holy man went home with him and they had a meal together. There they were, sitting at the table together, when the word of God came to the prophet who had brought him back. He confronted the holy man who had come from Judah: “God’s word to you: You disobeyed God’s command; you didn’t keep the strict orders your God gave you; you came back and sat down to a good meal in the very place God told you, ‘Don’t eat a crumb; don’t drink a drop.’ For that you’re going to die far from home and not be buried in your ancestral tomb.” When the meal was over, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. Down the road a way, a lion met him and killed him. His corpse lay crumpled on the road, the lion on one side and the donkey on the other.
Some passersby saw the corpse in a heap on the road, with the lion standing guard beside it. They went to the village where the old prophet lived and told what they had seen. When the prophet who had gotten him off track heard it, he said, “It’s the holy man who disobeyed God’s strict orders. God turned him over to the lion who knocked him around and killed him, just as God had told him.” The prophet told his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” They did it. He rode out and found the corpse in a heap in the road, with the lion and the donkey standing there. The lion hadn’t bothered either the corpse or the donkey. The old prophet loaded the corpse of the holy man on his donkey and returned it to his own town to give it a decent burial. He placed the body in his own tomb.
The people mourned, saying, “A sad day, brother!” After the funeral, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the same tomb where the holy man is buried, my bones alongside his bones. The message that he preached by God’s command against the Altar at Bethel and against all the sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Samaria will come true.”
This a story adapted from 1 King 13:1-32. I find it to be one of the funny and striking stories of the bible, if i’m to caption it with hashtags, i’ll use #Envy #Deception #Disobedience #FearOfMenVsFearOfGod #MentorBeMonster.
Moral Lessons
- God’s instruction (either from His word or directly to you) takes pre eminence above any other person’s, regardless of whatever their status, position or importance to you.
- Be your own prophet, no man has the monopolyy of God’s voice. Learn to hear God for yourself, He already promised to lead you by himself. Man can be deceptive.
- God is not an author of confusion. He’s direction are always direct and clearer to whoever it’s intended.
- Watch out for jealousy in line of your duty. People will always hate.
Fell free to add whatever lesson you picked from the story, more of such will be coming subsequently.
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Ok. This has got to be it! By it, it means ‘the best piece ever written for anyone who has been separated by God for an assignment’. I have found my self in the shoe of the holy man a thousand times(I just mean to say frequently… Please do not take the figure literally). That position in which I am certain of the teaching that the Holy Spirit taught me but I let it go for another man of God’s teaching (since he said the Holy spirit taught him too and I mean… His holy spirit should be better than mine right?) Or that one where you I was sure of what God told me but they said God told them something else about me and I’m like okay no p only to run the circumference of a large cirle to find myself at the ‘where_do_i_begin’ point. People of God… Follow God… And not man… Serve God… And not man.
I forgot to add… “Thank you Lord that the consequence of my own was not death. I wish I didn’t have to waste time or hit rock bottom but still thank you Lord”
One day my pastor was preaching on this passage and he was like ‘God was so embarrased that he didn’t even bother to tell us the name of this prophet’. Who knows? He would have been one of the greatest prophets in the Bible but he chose to listen to man rather than God.
Very true! Know God for yourself.
That Old prophet enhh…..Kai
You echoed my thought and perspective on the moral lesson from the message. God bless you.
God knew that the prophet would disobey. His death was not a surprise to God, I mean. Let’s look from God’s perspective. Its very easy to scream OBEY GOD now when somewhere within us, we know that without his grace we can do nothing. The prophet actually obeyed all instructions and had gone, let’s ask GOD what happened to the prophet and why he was sitting under the oak tree and the other prophet was able to catch up with him. The prophet was probably hungry and felt maybe God wanted to bless him with food. Now to me, my disobedience has passed that of this prophet and I’ve died (gained) multiple times spiritually. We might miss it sometimes but because JESUS that prophet and you have been reconciled. Correct me if what I said is misleading. 🙂
It’s quite funny because God told him. But an angel told the prophet to tell him. That’s one thing even I have to be ware of especially from our advanced Christian brother and sisters.
The moral lessons is very key these days where we know God and his word well and our pastors are saying something else (offering-wise) which we know, don’t add up.
Trust God, lean not on my understanding, acknowledge him in all my ways, he will direct my path.
Our personal convictions in God should be so strong that nothing will move us from the directions he has given but I have three questions to ask the house about the story
1.Why was it that the first thing that came to the old prophet’s mind after hearing the story was to go after him just to lie and make him fall?
2.Why would he mourn over the same person he caused to fall and request for his body to be buried in the same place the man was buried?
3.Why wasn’t the old prophet punished afterall,he obviously misled and caused another man to fall?
Thanks…expecting answers.
God isn’t a God of confusion…well said
Great eye opening words. I luv the caption. The Lord always want us to follow him and his words to the end. meeting another prophet was not supposed to be a bad news but he should have taken time to discern if the message was from God. I have learned that as an individual we should not ignore word from other men of God but we should check with the word of God and the holyspirit to be sure. I pray God ll give us spirit of discernment.
God have mercy! Who can confidently testify to obeying God’s instructions fully without any iota of rationalisation or human wisdom put into it? Inasmuch as we strive towards perfection in our xtian race;disobedience of God’s instructions or better put, incomplete obedience, deprives us of many blessings. As we can’t quantify the extent of what we’re missing out on bcos we don’t even know them; great destinies could have been swapped for extraneous ones just because of incomplete obedience. God have mercy!