The Man of God and the Old Prophet - The Book of 1 Kings

In this Bible Story, we learn about the man of God’s disobedience towards the Lord. He's tricked into eating among the wicked city, and ultimately devoured by a lion. Meanwhile, the country of Israel descends into wickedness under the leadership of Jeroboam. This story is inspired by 1 Kings 13:11-32. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is 1 Kings 13:18 from the King James Version.

Episode 119: God had told the mysterious prophet, whom he sent to warn king Jeroboam, not to eat or drink anything in the city and not to return by the same way he came. So he refused the king’s offer to go back to the palace and have a meal. Hearing what signs the mysterious prophet had done, an old prophet in the city left to go find the man of God. When he found him, he lied to him and brought him back into the city to enjoy a meal. But during the meal, God made his message clear that this meal would be his last because of his disobedience.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray. He said unto him, I am a prophet,
also as thou art, and an angel spake unto me
by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back
with thee into Thine house, that he may eat bread
and drink water. But he lied unto him First Kings,
thirteen eighteen. Dear God, as the transformation and newness of

(00:26):
my life continues to take place, I stand in a
place of gratitude and thankfulness that your word continues to
bring light and illumination to the different areas of my
life to day. Through the reading of First Kings thirteen
twelve through thirty two, I realize the importance of direct

(00:46):
and immediate obedience. And it is because of this that
I ask that if there is anything in my life
where I have not walked in obedience, that you redirect
me and allow me to make it right. I will
not allow the false prophets and deceitful people around me
to derail me from living and executing my life with

(01:08):
critical obedience. I confess that the desire of my heart
is to live in direct harmony with your steps. For
me and everything I do. Lying lions will devour what
You've placed in my life simply because of my disobedience.
Holy Spirit, strengthen my spiritual ears so that I will

(01:32):
recognize and hear your voice when you speak. I'm listening
and obeying, Lord in Jesus name. Amen, Thank you for
praying with me today. Continue listening for an incredible Bible
story brought to you by Bible in a Year dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
The Man of God and the Old Prophet. In our
last story, we watched the fragile kingdom of Jeroboam descend
into idolatry and pride. Jeroboam erected altars of golden calves
and established pagan priests. The Lord sent a man from
Judah to rebuke him, but his disobedience did not cease.

(02:26):
Now we learn more about the Man of God that
was sent on his way back from Bethel. He is
greeted by an old prophet and deceived into disobeying God.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Hello, I'm Pastor Jack Graham with today's episode of the
Bible in a Year podcast. In our prior episode, we
learned how King Jeroboam was unfaithful to God. He built
shrines to pagan gods in a temple where he called
people to worship golden calves. History was tragically repeating itself,
with God's people being led astray and serving other gods.

(03:01):
But God would not allow his king to lead the
people into certain death and separation from him, So he
sent a man to rebuke Jeroboam and gave him a
sign of God's displeasure. This man did as God instructed,
then departed from the king, not wanting to remain in
a place of faithlessness and disobedience to God. But as
we'll hear today, the man will meet an old prophet

(03:24):
who will lead him into sin and cause him to
disobey God. So let's listen to today's scripture.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
God had split the wicked altar of Jeroboam in half,
ash fell to the floor and floated up into the
air like snowfall. The Man of God stood over the
pathetic king and warned him of his demise. The torchlight
shifted and made shadows around the man as he looked
down at Jeroboam. After warning him, he left. Jeroboam had

(03:53):
offered to have him stay and eat, but the Lord
had strictly told him not to partake in any food
or water the city. He departed from Bethel and left
towards Judah. As he was journeying home. Word had spread
of what had happened at the Altar. An old prophet
living in Bethel heard of the Man of God and
saddled his donkey to go and meet him. The man

(04:16):
had his sons help him up on to the donkey,
and he ventured forth to speak with the man whom
God had just spoken through. The man had walked all
night and stopped in the morning to rest under a
massive tree. The man breathed in the fresh air and
rested his eyes. Since the man had been commanded to
not eat any food while in the land, he was
very hungry and very thirsty. Weakened by his lack of food,

(04:40):
he rested for a long while. The old prophet had
been riding for a few hours until he finally saw
the man resting under the tree. Elated to see the
man had not yet left, he rode fast to meet him.
He waved and yelled to catch his attention. Hello, are
you the Man of God who came from Judah? He shouted.
The man opened his eyes and watched as the large

(05:02):
old prophet rode closer to him. He sat up with
his back against the tree. Yes, the man replied, wiping
his eyes and stretching his arms before rising to his feet.
The old prophet smiled and said, please, you must come
and feast with me and my sons. Sorry, but I cannot,
the man replied. He strapped his pack around his shoulder

(05:23):
and prepared to leave. I am not allowed to eat
or drink anything here. God has commanded it. The old
prophet did not want to miss on an opportunity to
talk to a fellow man of God, for the land
had become blighted with idle worship and wickedness. He decided
to lie out of his lonely heart. He weaved a
fib that would prove to be detrimental. I am a

(05:45):
prophet too, the man said. An angel of the Lord
told me to bring you home and give you something
to eat. The Man of God was famished and weary
from his travels. It did not take much convincing for
him to buy into the lie, so he left with
the old prophet back home. They sat at the table
and ate together. The Man of God was grateful to

(06:06):
finally get food in his belly after a few days
of travel. While the two were eating, the Lord spoke
to the man, saying, you have defied my words, you
have come back to this place and ate and drank.
Because of this, your body will not be buried in
the grave of your ancestors.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
The Man of.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
God leaped from his chair and pushed back his plate.
Angered at the old prophet, he began to pack his
bag again to take off. Feeling guilty. The old prophet
saddled a donkey for him and sent him on his way.
The Man of God rode the donkey, sitting in his
anger against the prophet for lying to him. He rode
along the trail winding up a mountain from Bethel. The

(06:46):
man's side as he trotted along, not noticing something lurking
in the bushes beside him. Like a flash of lightning,
a lion came out from the bushes and tackled him
off the donkey, The man and beast wrestled in the dirt.
Screams of pain and fear echoed down the canyon below,
but nobody was around to hear them. The lion latched

(07:06):
onto the man's neck and swung its jaws, and that
instant the man was dead. His body lay on the road.
Both the donkey and the lion stood beside it. It
was an odd sight, for the lion sat beside the corpse,
with the donkey not moving next to it. People passing
by the trail stopped in their tracks to see the
lion and donkeys standing over the dead body. Confused and afraid,

(07:30):
people brought reports back to the city. The word came
to the old prophet, and he saddled his donkey immediately
to go and see for himself. There he saw the
Man of God lying underneath the paw of a lion,
and there next to him his old donkey stood. The
man shed a few tears, for he knew that it
was his fault that the man was dead. He shouted,

(07:53):
and the lion disappeared back into the bushes. Then he
lifted the man's body on to his donkey and walked
him back to Bethel. Oh, my poor brother, the prophet cried.
He buried the man on his property and asked that
his sons bury him as well when he passed. Bury
me next to this man when I die, he said,

(08:13):
for he was brave and standing up against the altar
in Bethel and against the people with shrines in the city.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
As we begin today's passage, the Man of God, who
had gone to deliver a message and assigned to King
Jeroboam is returning from Bethel to Judah. He had left
the King refusing to eat or drink with him, obeying
God's orders to not partake of anything while in this
sinful land. But his journey home is long, and he
grows weary and in need of rest. There was in

(08:45):
Bethel an old prophet, whose sons told him that this
man of God had come to give King Jeroboam a word.
So the prophet went out to meet the man. When
he found him rode weary and very hungry. The old
prophet told him to come with him to his home,
where he would feed him and give him water. The
man of God, still wanting to obey the Lord, refused

(09:06):
his offer, saying that God had given him clear instructions
to not eat or drink anything there. It required great
trust in the Lord's provision to turn down such an offer,
but he understood that God's commands are not to be
taken lightly, so he obeyed. But then the old man
said something that changed things. He told the man that

(09:27):
he also was a prophet, and that an angel of
the Lord had spoken to him to say that the
man could in fact go home with him to eat
and drink. Now, this man was indeed a prophet, but
as the man will soon learn, not all prophets are
truly trusting God or speaking the truth. This man told
him a half truth, which is really a whole lie.

(09:48):
In disguise. He was a prophet, but there was no
message from God to overrule the command and not eat
or drink in the land. But with this new information,
the man accept the offer and returned to the old
man's home, where he ate and drank. Whether it was
because he was tired, or because he was hungry, or
simply because he wanted to hear something different than what

(10:12):
he knew to be true, the man believed the lie
that he had heard. It was a costly era. God spoke,
this time through the old prophet, delivering a message that
was as true as it was tragic for the man
of God. In One Kings thirteen twenty one and twenty two,
we read, thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed

(10:34):
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,
or drink no water. Your body shall not come to
the tomb of your father's. The Man of God left
angry at the old man lying to him. You have

(10:55):
to believe that he was also angry at himself for
falling for such a life. He, of all people, should
have known that God isn't to be tested, but rather
is to be trusted. As this man travel along the road,
the tragedy indeed happened. He was killed by a lion.
The old prophet was told of this man's fate and

(11:16):
went to find his body. He brought it back to
his home and laid it in a grave on his
own property. He was deeply grieved at the judgment that
fell upon this man and his part played in it,
and he asked his sons to bury him beside the
Man of God when he died. Today's passage reminds us

(11:38):
that we must always seek what is truly from God
and what is not. There are false prophets in the world.
There is truth, and there is error, and many preach
lies and live lies, rather than preach and live the truth.
We must always beware of those who deny the word
of God and turn from God's truth. In a generation

(12:01):
which many fall to the lives of the culture and
society and that of Satan himself. We must always be
ready to stand with the truth. Dear God, thank you
for today's lessons and what it means to know and
to do your will and always to obey your truth.
Help us to seek You above all things and not

(12:22):
other things, to rely upon you and rest in You
in Jesus' name. Amen, Thank you for listening to today's
Bible in a Year podcast. I'm Pastor Jack Graham of Dallas, Texas.
I would encourage you to download the pray dot com
app and certainly to make Bible study and prayer a
priority in your life. I would encourage you to go

(12:44):
to church and be a part of a Bible believing
Christ exalting church. If you enjoyed this podcast, tell a friend,
let someone else know, because the Word of God changes lives.
And if you want more resources as to how you
can know and love God and follow Him all the
days of your life, be sure to visit Jack Graham
dot org as we have many resources available to you

(13:08):
as you journey with the Lord God. Bless you.