Scripture Menu
1 Kings 13:21-22— The Old Prophet to the Man of God:
“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.”
Cogitations—
1 Kings 13 is a perplexing chapter to digest. It begins in a way we can understand: God calls an un-named prophet in the south, a prophet who will be referred to as “a man of God” from Judah. He is to head north to speak a word of judgment on King Jeroboam during the official dedication festivities of his golden calf temple in Bethel.
It is worth noting that the name “man of God” is used as a title for Moses (Deut. 33:1, Joshua 14:6). And this prophet’s visit to the golden calf temple in Bethel does seem to have resonance with Moses coming down from Sinai with the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, only to be greeted by the golden calf his brother Aaron had fashioned. You remember what happened? Moses broke the two tablets in two and ground the golden calf into dust. Aaron repented, and the scene was cleaned up.
But here, the man of God brings the word of the Lord to bear upon the idol-making king, as if he’s the other man of God coming down from Sinai. The king’s arm freezes, and the altar is split in two just like the tablets of the Law. There seems to be repentance from the king, and so the man of God moves on, his mission on the face of it – complete.
But then the story gets complicated. An “old prophet” from Bethel, a northern prophet, saddles up his donkey to catch up with the man of God from Judah to the south. He invites the man of God back to his house for dinner and drinks. God had originally charged the southern prophet with delivering the message, and then, not returning the same way he came; and most definitely, not to eat or drink in the north. However, the cagey old prophet says (13:18), “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 then it says, “But he lied to him.” The man of God buys it and goes back for dinner with the old prophet. Bad move.
The man of God is judged for his disobedience. God said not to do it, but he did it! So, a lion attacks him on the return trip, and mauls him, while totally ignoring the prophet’s donkey. The old northern prophet scurries out to the scene, finding the lion and donkey standing quietly over the mangled body of the prophet. The old prophet buries the man of God in a grave far from his homeland, in the soil of “exile” in the northern kingdom.
The key to understanding this very strange story comes clean in the last words of counsel from the old prophet from Bethel. Look at 1 Kings 13:30-31— The old prophet “laid the body [of the man of God from Judah] in his own grave. And mourned over him, saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, ‘When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.’”
My take is that this entire episode is a prophetic parable of sorts. God’s prophets often became the canvas upon which morality tales were displayed, (many times quite graphically). Just think of the prophet Hosea’s call (Hosea 1:1-2) to marry and bear children with a wayward woman by the name of Gomer to show the unfaithfulness of God’s people and at the same time, the faithfulness of God. Or think of poor Ezekiel being commanded to eat human dung (Ezek. 4:12-15) to illustrate the distastefulness of sin. Or even stranger, when Isaiah was commanded to preach butt-naked for three years (Isa. 20:1-4) as a sign of how God was going to judge certain nations. What we have here in 1 Kings 13 is an example of prophetic demonstration. A parable that waxes prophetic: This is what’s going to happen!
Here’s the way it shakes out: The southern prophet rightfully calls out the sin of the northern king’s idolatry. The southern kingdom, as opposed to the northern kingdom, will have more kings who are faithful to God. But eventually, the southern kingdom will succumb to idolatry and unfaithfulness just like their northern kin folks. Both north and south will end up in exile. The north, scattered by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah, carried away in exile in 586 BC by the Babylonians.
The old prophet says, bury me with my brother. He spoke the truth, and his words will come true. But that won’t be the end of the story. We are separated now, but there is coming a Day when we shall be raised and reconciled. Although he doesn’t express it here in resurrection language, the reference is surely to that coming Day when God will puts all things to right again.
I close with an extended quote from the conclusion of Ezekiel 37 and the “Valley of Dry Bones” because I think this is what the old prophet from Bethel had in mind. (Ezekiel 37:19-22)
“Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.”
We do know who that King is! Jeroboam and Rehoboam made a mess of things. But God is ever faithful. God will never abandon his people. God’s answer is his one and only Son, who will be the faithful Son of David.
Art: “The Disobedient Prophet” (18th century)
