1 Kings 13

As I was reading 1 Kings 13 today, I was genuinely confused. I understood what happened but I couldn't see much as to why things happened or the implications of people's actions and decisions. Usually, I just read some commentary and move on. Today, I decided to give it a rest and revisit the passage later. Well, the later was just now. I must say, when you seek wisdom and truth from God, He does not disappoint.

1 Kings 13
Summary: King Jeroboam was sacrificing to the false gods. A man of God came to the altar and rebuked the king and spoke prophecies that the Lord had shown him. King Jeroboam reached out to snag the man of God but his hand shriveled. Jeroboam asked for the man of God to intercede with the Lord and so that his hand could get healed, and it did.
God instructed to man of God to not eat or drink anything and to also not came back the way he came. Jeroboam offers him food but the man complies with the Lords instructions. An old, deceptive prophet finds the man of God and lies to him, saying that the Lord desired that he come back and eat-so the man did. The Lord killed the man of God and the old prophet turned to the Lord. King Jeroboam did not.

I'll start off by focusing on King Jeroboam. This man is genuinely living in sincere foolishness. Here's what I find interesting. He tried to kill the man of God and was thwarted when his hand shriveled. The man of God said that the altar at which Jeroboam was sacrificing would be split into two-and it split into two on the spot. In light of all of this, Jeroboam does not turn to the Lord. He merely sought the Lord's healing so that he could have a normal hand. How many times are we like Jeroboam in this case? We know the truth and righteousness of the Lord and yet when afflicted, we seek comfort, healing, or strength from the Lord? I think we can all say that Jeroboam was a fool but I would venture to say that when we seek things from the Lord, we are fools as well. We are instructed to seek the Lord, to seek His face and not His hand. His hand will come. When seeking the Lord, everything else will fall in line as we grow in our relationship with Him.

The other thing that I found interesting was the old prophet. I don't know what this guys motives were to deceive the man of the God but I will say this: He was deceitful and he pulled it off. He disguised himself as a man of God as well and spoke "words of the Lord". This is something that we need to be wary of in our own relationship with Christ. Books and speakers are awesome and all but they are no substitute for the actual word of God which contains the ultimate truth. Just because a speaker is some great guy or the author is some famous person does not necessarily mean that the words are those of truth and righteousness.

I know that my last blog was titled closing thoughts on sincerity but I couldn't help but find this passage also going back to the idea of being sincerely wrong. The man of God did what he thought was right. He knew that the Lord gave him instructs but the old prophet said that God gave a different set of instructions (which was a lie). The man of God did not know that he was doing wrong by eating food at the old prophet's house. He was sincere in his obedience and compliance to what he THOUGHT was the will of God. In actuality, God did not want him to eat from the old man's house and in fact instructed him not to. The old man was merely lying but for his disobedience, the man of God was killed. Don't become mistaken in walking down a path of sincerity but also ignorance and foolishness. Walk a path in which sincerity and the truth and wisdom of the Lord are mutually inclusive.