1 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”
This man of God, unnamed in the scripture, had a very important task: to bring Jeroboam to an understanding of God’s sovereignty and to announce a prophecy regarding a future king. It is also important to note that this man of God came from Judah, not the northern kingdom. This is perhaps a way we can understand the heart of where Israel is at this time: there isn’t even a person from with Israel who is available for this task.
The prophecy is a startling and accurate one: Josiah will one day rule Judah. This is fulfilled 2 Kings 23:15: Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
This prophecy shows Jeroboam the future fact of how he has turned Israel away from God. The very altar that he uses will be crushed by the future king. This, of course, would not happen during Jeroboam’s lifetime. It would take about 350 years to come to pass, but shows that even though Jeroboam may believe his legacy eternal, it is not.
3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.” 4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
Jeroboam’s reaction to the future prophecy is met with an immediate curse: the shrinking of the king’s hand. It is not enough that Jeroboam is called out by God, but we see his pride here. Instead of succumbing to his arrogance and falling into a state of humility, he directly opposes the man of God and is cursed by it. Also, the altar is split apart, just as the man of God had said.
6 Then the king said 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 and became as it was before.
Did Jeroboam repent? It doesn’t appear so, yet God grants Jeroboam his wish. This is interesting because Jeroboam has a number of miracles happening around him yet he does not return to God in any way. His hand was shriveled and returned and the altar cracked in two. He plainly sees the power of God but cannot respond to it. His efforts are locked into his own selfish needs.
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.” 8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
Jeroboam wants to reward the man of God, yet it is refused. Again we see Jeroboam operating on a very human level and cannot see the spiritual mechanism at play. The man of God clearly has a mission to show Jeroboam the power of God, to help him into repentance, to show him the path he should have taken when Ahijah told him of the power he would have in following God (1 Kings 11:29-40). The man of God refuses the offer, knowing that accepting it would shackle him to the unit practices of the kingdom. In the book of Daniel we see a similar thread. Daniel, a Jewish captive in Nebuchadnezzar’s court, refuses to eat at the king’s table. His refusal could easily get him killed, but he values his relationship with God as supreme. He will not eat the king’s food because it is an unspoken agreement between the two, an acceptance of Babylon’s practices (Daniel 1:8-21).
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied. 15 So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.” 16 The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 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, from Bethel, chases down the man of God and invites him to dinner, but the man of God refuses this offer as well. Why? Because God told the man of God to return to Judah. He was told to refuse any hospitality (v.10).
18 The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.) 19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.
Although the man of God was initially good at refusing the hospitality of the people of the northern kingdom, he ultimately gave into the old prophet. Why did he do this? There are several reason:
1. The old prophet: the older prophet was most likely a figure of respect. 2.The lie: the old prophet claimed an angelic experience. Whether this was an outright fabrication or he was perhaps visited by something not divine is irrelevant. He lied in order to seduce the man of God away from his original orders.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”
This is a very harsh judgement for the man of God. He didn’t listen to God, allowed himself to stray away from God’s loving embrace. To be buried outside his family tomb in essence was a curse. 1 Peter 4:17 says this: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? The strict arm of judgment begins with his own people.
23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
This shows us that the attack and killings the man of God was a Godly appointment. The lion does not attack the donkey or the people passing by as witnesses.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.” 27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!” 31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”
The old prophet respected the man of God He brings him to his town where he mourns him and ultimately buries him in his own crypt. To lay his bones asides the man of God meant that he associated with him in a common way to identify himself with the word the man of God spoke to Jeroboam.
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.
Jeroboam, in the face of these miracles and curses, did not change. In fact he accelerates his defiance to God by appointing priests not from the Levites but from wherever he desired. This, according to scripture, is the main problem with Jeroboam’s rule. He led Israel astray and continued to confound that rule until the truth was made abstract.