UNROLL
Dusk in the hill country between Bethel and Judah: a lone great oak beside an empty, stony road winding south over the hills, its shadow long across the road, under a calm, deepening evening sky.

The Book of

1 Kings 13

A man of God comes from Judah to cry out against Bethel’s altar. He has one command: do not eat, do not drink, do not go back the way you came.

34 verses≈ 8 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–2Solomon's throneThe kingdom made secure
  2. 3–4WisdomA discerning heart
  3. 5–8The templeA house for the LORD's Name
  4. 9–11Glory and fallSolomon's heart turns
  5. 12–16Two kingdomsThe kingdom tornChapter 13
  6. 17–19ElijahThe LORD, He is God
  7. 20–22AhabNaboth and Micaiah

Jeroboam’s Hand Withers

Evening on Bethel's high place: King Jeroboam in a deep green robe and gold circlet stands beside the great stone altar with a bronze incense shovel, smoke rising, priests and a festival crowd behind him, as a lean man in a dusty cloak strides up the steps with his hand raised toward the altar.

Suddenly, as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD.

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And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”

That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’”

Jeroboam
Jeroboam

Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back.

The big stone altar of Bethel cracked clean through the middle, its two halves leaning apart, a heap of gray ashes pouring down the crack and spilling across the paving stones, a last wisp of smoke, the crowd drawn back at the edges.

And the altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

Jeroboam

Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.”

So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before.

Jeroboam

Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”

But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’”

1 Kings 13:8–9

So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

Question

Quick question

The man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, and the king stretched out his hand against him.

What sign did the man of God give at Bethel?

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that the man had spoken to the king.

The old prophet

“Which way did he go?” their father asked.

And his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah.

The old prophet

So the prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.”

Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

and went after the man of God.

The old prophet

He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

The man of God

“I am,” he replied.

Midday on the road south of Bethel: the man of God sits resting in the deep shade of a great oak, his staff across his knees, while up the road an old man with a long gray-white beard rides toward him on a gray donkey, raising a hand in greeting.

The old prophet

So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.”

The man of God

But the man replied, “I cannot go home with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”

The old prophet

Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him,

Inside the old prophet's plain stone house at dusk: the two men sit on mats at a low wooden table with flat loaves and a clay water jar by the light of a clay oil lamp; the man of God, dusty from the road, breaks bread while the old prophet watches him across the table.

but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

Reflect

Test what you hear

God had told the man of God plainly what to do, and he held firm before a king. Then a friendly old man said, “I too am a prophet like you,” and claimed an angel’s word, and he turned back. God does not contradict His own word. What has God plainly said to you in Scripture that you are tempted to set aside because someone persuasive says otherwise? Write it down.

While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back, and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you, but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”

Last light on a stony road leaving Bethel: the man of God, seen from behind, rides away south on a saddled gray donkey, while in a doorway of the town behind him the old prophet stands small, watching.

And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.

0:24

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him.”

After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”

Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places. And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.

Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways

1 Kings 13:33

Pray

By the word of the LORD

Ask God for ears that listen to His word and a heart that keeps it to the end, even when a kind voice says otherwise. Ask for grace where you have turned back. And thank Him that what He says “will surely come to pass.”

You’ve experienced

1 Kings 13

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A verse to carry with you

If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’

1 Kings 13:8–9

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