Embracing the Creature's Sophistries and Eschewing the Creator's Statutes

I Kings 13:14-24, 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.” Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 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, 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.’” 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. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 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, 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.’” And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 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.

(Please read I Kings 12-13 for crucial background on a story we never hear in church or in our devotional materials.)

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This story has always troubled me, Lord. Your measures were too drastic, too harsh for something this insignificant. After all, this man was Your servant and You killed him for merely eating and drinking?! Are You not unfair, unsympathetic? No, and a thousand times no! This is how we humans understand things, we who do not fully grasp the greatness of Your person, the terribleness of our mission, and the awfulness of our sin.

First, we must not downplay the truth that this was a true servant of the LORD, chosen by Him to bear a message of judgment to Israel. He’d been charged with a specific, personal command from the LORD to not eat or drink in Israel but to return straight way after discharging his burden at Bethel. Yet, when the evil prophet finds the LORD’s servant, he is sitting down. I could make too much of this little detail, but it does seem the man was weary and ready to give in to his fleshly wants, fearing too little the awful weight of judgment the LORD had cast upon Israel. In this state of weakening resolve, the man of God meets the old prophet who convinces him that the old man has received a message from the Lord contradicting the revelation the servant of God had received directly from the LORD Himself. The man of God chose to ignore what he know to be the word of God for what he heard from another man regarding the Lord’s plan. He abandoned divine revelation in favor of human interpretation.

Why? Because, I think, human interpretation sounded more appealing than God’s stark commands requiring sacrifice and suffering (lack of food and water). Fleshly desires for comfort (a comfort promised by those who claimed to speak for God) superseded God’s clear commands and the importance of complete obedience. And, Lord, as You so often do to underscore the enormity of such an offense in Your eyes, You slew Your own servant so the rest of us would not mistake the gravity of rejecting clearly divine revelation in favor of man’s more comfortable interpretation.

There is so much in this passage that applies to our souls today! Lord, preserve me from following the easy way, from being weak in my heart and ready to crumble before temptation. Don’t let me sit in the way of sinners (Psalm 1:1). Help me to be ever moving away from the kingdom of judgment toward Your kingdom of truth. Do not let me be fooled by false teachers (Matthew 7:15-16a) who come bearing a word that seems similar to Yours but that leads to a drastically different end (Proverbs 16:25). Never let me swap the truth I know comes from You for something more palatable reinterpreted by men who do not believe in the sufficiency of Your powerful and eternal Word. Make me such a lover of truth, such a man of Your word, that I will immediately recognize, avoid, and condemn any false doctrine that leads to death! Do not let me be led by any man save Him who is also God. Jesus my Shepherd, speak often to me that I may know Your voice and Your voice only (John 10:26-27). One final request, loving Savior: let me die before I follow anyone but You!