40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 1 Kings 13:1-34 (Episode 309)

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

A man of God from Judah travels to Jeroboam. The prophet's words are not received but a dried-up hand stops Jeroboam from seizing him. A separate prophet lies to get the man of God to eat and drink with him. And a donkey and a lion are waiting on the road home. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! HWSS Regional Conference 1517 Podcast Network 1517 YouTube Donate

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that says regional conference Chad we are in chapter 13 of 1st Kings we've had two kings now we've got two kings we've got double kings going on neither of them are great

and they're both doing things that they really shouldn't have done yeah we were introduced to Rehoboam I Solomon's son and of course he's just full of himself he's he says oh you had a bad under my dad well you just wait so now we have a like you say two kings we have a division of the kingdom and we've already heard in the last episode about what jeroboam was up to and he certainly is causing problems for not just himself but for his entire kingdom in fact this is going to be basically the the terrible legacy that he leaves to all those

would come after him i was looking this morning i think there were 15 15 different kings who were described in the northern kingdom as walking in the way of jeroboam or walking in the sin of jeroboam by which they meant that these guys basically perpetuated the idolatry that jeroboam initiated it wasn't just idolatry it wasn't just the golden calves that he put in dan and bethel but as we talked about in last episode he devised a lot of things in his heart to use the the language of the last verse of chapter 12 because he had the different worship places he had the golden calves he had a different month in which the feast of tabernacles was celebrated and then he started making priests from outside the tribe of levi so it's one thing after another that he

devised in his own heart all of which were leading to the downfall of the northern kingdom and we're going to hear more about that in chapter 13. chapter 13 is we were talking about this actually after the episode recorded last week. It's a strange chapter. There are some sections in Scripture where you think to yourself, I wish that the biblical authors would have included more material here to describe this with greater color and more details. And there's also parts of Scripture where you're like, why exactly was all of this recorded in so much detail it was so much color and first kings 13 is is one of those chapters uh at least that's the that's the initial impression you get because there's a there's a long description of this prophet

who comes from the south and he uh basically rails against jeroboam tells him what he's doing is wrong here's what's going to happen and then he leaves and then another prophet who hears he's been in town since his sons to bring that prophet back and then they have a meal and then all of a sudden this prophet is given a word of god which condemns this other prophet and then you have thrown into this mix you got a lion who kills a prophet you got a donkey who stands there by the lion there's a lot of a lot of strange things happening here but i think that when we get into it into these 33 verses that comprise this chapter that you'll see that actually at least i began to and hopefully you will too that all these details are significant and that this is one of these

stories that's more than just this about the story itself so this is one of those and there's many examples of this in the scriptures this is one of those one of those stories about individuals which is about more than just the individual so the individual himself or herself stands for a greater reality and that is certainly going to be the case when we look at the characters in this particular chapter. So starting out here, we are introduced right away to a man of God, Ish Elohim, in the Hebrew. In fact, if this is not, of course, the only place that you have a prophet called a man of God, there are many such occurrences in the scriptures. Moses is called a man of God. But the number of times that we have a reference to this Ish Elohim, this man of God,

in this chapter is by far the most in any chapter in the whole Bible. So this guy is going to be certainly an individual in himself, and he carries out a very specific mission that God sends him on, but he also is going to represent this greater reality that I was just talking about. We'll get there as we work our way through it. But we're told that he was not just a man of God, a prophet, but he came out of Judah, and that's significant. So this is all going to, what's what we're about to hear about it's going to take place in the northern kingdom which is often referred to as israel but this prophet comes from judah so he is connected geographically to the southern kingdom and he's going to bring this message from the southern

kingdom into the northern kingdom and this is going to fit with the broader pattern of history where we see the prophets from the south being used by god to condemn what was happening in the north and you're going to have the south lasting longer than the north does the north will be destroyed by the assyrians in 722 bc the south will keep going until 586 bc when they themselves will be destroyed but there is a a greater loyalty and a greater longevity to judah to the southern kingdom than there is to than there is to the north so this prophet this ish elohim he comes from the south, by the word of the Lord, we're told, to Bethel. So he just, he works his way into the southern part of the northern kingdom, because Dan's in the north and Bethel is in the

south. And he's sent by God with this message. And as we'll hear, it's a very specific message. The prophet is told in no uncertain terms what he is to say, and then what he is to do, and what he is not to do. Keep that in mind, because as we go through the narrative, we'll find that when he's doing that, everything's fine. When he's sticking exactly with what God told him to do or not to do, everything is good. When he deviates from that, even in a seemingly minor, innocent sort of way, then catastrophe comes. Everything is derailed, and he himself ends up killed by this line. So he gets there, he gets to Bethel, and what's happening? Well, we're told that Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings, literally to burn incense. So you got the king

of the north, he's standing there at the altar, acting in a priestly sort of way. He's standing by the altar, just like Solomon, a generation before, had stood in front of the altar at the newly constructed temple in order to have this long prayer, and sacrifices are being offered, Except in this case, in that case, with Solomon, things went well. In this case, with Jeroboam, they're not going to go well. And we're told in verse 2 that the man, this prophet, cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord. Now, that's strange, and that is unique.

Most of the time, of course, when a prophet preaches, he preaches either to a group of people or to an individual. He doesn't address an inanimate object. in fact i can't think of any other instance where this takes place so he says oh altar altar so the altar is is representing everything that's happening there basically you have not just the altar but the golden calf and the entire system that jeroboam has devised in his own heart but the prophet is directing his word specifically to the altar because the altar is where god and humanity is supposed to supposed to meet this is the the meeting place between god and his people were sacrifices are offered and atonement atonement is made so that is this

idolatrous altar is going to be the addressee of the prophet he says oh altar altar thus says the lord behold a son shall be born to the house of david so there's his judah southern kingdom connection a son shall be born to the house of david josiah by name and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you and human bones shall be burned on you and then just to proceed a little further and we'll talk about what that means and he gave a sign the same day saying this is the sign that the lord has spoken behold the altar shall be torn down and the ashes literally the fat so like the fatty ashes of the sacrifice the ashes the fatty ashes that are poured that are on it shall be poured out so let's stop there so josiah

this is happening in uh in the 900s so that we're that's the century that we're in when when jeroboam is initiating all these reforms josiah we're not going to get to josiah until second kings 23 we're in first kings 13 we're not going to get to him uh in the rest of first kings and And then we're a significant way through second Kings before actually going to get to, get to Josiah. And Josiah is about three centuries after the events that are taking place here. This, so it's, I mean, prophets do prophesy some very specific things at times,

but the specificity of this prophet is, is, is remarkable. Even for prophecy, you know, sometimes you'll have a, you know, somewhat detailed description of what's going to happen down, down the line, but rarely, I can think of maybe a couple of other instances, but rarely do you actually have a person's name added to the prophecy saying, this man, Josiah, is going to do such and such. But of course, as we will get there eventually, and that's precisely who did this and precisely actually what he did in 2 Kings 23. It seems like there's a couple of things that Jeroboam wouldn't love about this. First of all, you have this, hey, there's going to be this guy

from the house of David. It's not good news for Jeroboam. This is exactly not, this is not the house that he is interested in having do anything regarding his kingdom. So that's bad. And then it does sound, I mean, you have to assume that Jeroboam is just sort of getting this new religious system underway right like so he's just he's just starting to we don't know for sure but it seems like this is not been a this has not been well established for you know obviously this has not been going on for a very long time and immediately you have some guy show up you just said hey you don't need to go jerusalem anymore we're gonna do our own thing up here because you're freaked out about people having too much of an attachment to jerusalem besides you got the

son of Solomon, who's the son of David there. So that's not good. I don't want you feeling any affinity towards that. And then this guy shows up from there, talking about some guy who's from the house of David, trying to get my religious system underway. This is like a horrible thing for Jeroboam as he tries to convince the people that we just stay right here.

We got our own thing, and it's a good thing. Yeah, and he's not even told when this is going to happen. But I mean, for all Jeroboam knows, this is going to be like in his own lifetime, or at least maybe the lifetime of his son or grandson. Of course, we know it was 300 years about, but he doesn't know that. All he knows is there's going to be a guy from David's line from the south who's going to basically destroy, not just destroy, but desecrate everything that you have created here. I mean, this would be like, you know, a church had just been built, newly constructed. Everything's perfect inside. Everybody's getting gathered inside.

there's a pastor up there. Somebody shows up and say, hey, I just want you to know this place is going to be rubble. That's more or less what's happened. He's built his quote-unquote church, his whole religious system, and the prophet shows up with very, very bad news for what's going to happen. So yeah, as you would expect, Jeroboam does not react well to this. It says in verse four, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar saying seize him and his hand which he stretched out against him dried up so that he could not draw it back to himself and as if that was not bad enough in the next verse we're told the altar also was torn down we'll talk about that just a

second torn down and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. So first of all, this is a strange, in Hebrew, it's a strange description of the altar. So when it says the altar was torn down, that's the ESV translation, the Hebrew verb is kara, which is the same verb used back in 1 Kings 11 30 to describe when the prophet came up to Jeroboam when he was out in the field and took a new garment and kara, tore it into 12 pieces so this is the the usual verb for tearing something up like you'd take a piece of cloth and rip it in half here it's used at the altar which i think is on purpose just like jeroboam had been told through this prophetic sign that he would receive some tribes 10 tribes

in the north now this very altar which he has constructed is korah is is torn is ripped is destroyed before him and the ashes are are drawn out and then something else here um when it says he could not draw it back to himself that is uh the verb that's used there is the verb shuv shuv is one of these verbs can mean a whole lot of different things it can mean uh to turn it can mean to return it can mean to restore here it here's translated as uh draw back to himself Now, the reason it's important is because this verb is going to be used throughout the chapter. It occurs, I don't know, about 16 times in the chapter, and it's translated different ways. So it's going to be used to mean return, to turn, to here it's translated to draw back to itself.

Now, at the very end of the chapter, it's going to be used for how Jeroboam returned to doing the very same evil that he had been doing prior to this prophetic indictment of what he was doing. So that becomes one of the kind of motifs of the chapter. You have the prophet who shows up, he's returning home, but then he returns to Bethel. And then Jeroboam, even after he hears God condemning what he's doing, he returns to doing the same thing as before. So there is this sense of the verb kind of providing cohesion to the story. And another wrinkle in that is that shuv, this verb, is also the verb for repent. So in Hebrew, when you repent, you turn, you return, you're restored to God. And that's the very thing that is lacking in in jeroboam so even though it's translated different ways by english

it's the same verb or verbal form in about 16 verses in this particular chapter so here his hand dries up which he stretches out to to to say to his soldiers or guards whoever sees him the hand withers and we'll see next what he does how every how he responds to this so verse six it says the king said to the man of god entreat now the favor of the lord your god literally to soften the face so appease god pray intercede for me pray for me that my hand may be restored so he does this prophet who just took jeroboam to task who said this is going to happen he actually prays to the lord and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it as it was before you finish the section we'll talk about some of this verse 7 says the king said to him then

so after he prays his hands restored he says come home with me refresh yourself and i'll give you a reward and the man of god says to the king if you were to give me half your house i wouldn't go into you i will not eat bread or drink water in this place for so it was commanded me by the word of the lord saying you shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came so he leaps he went another way and did not return by the way that he that he came to Bethel this is a this is pretty fascinating so you gotta he Jeroboam freaks out then his hand withers up and the altar gets split in half and stuff's pouring out all over the place and his mind is quickly changed his mind is quickly turned from maybe I'm not going to lay my hands on this

guy and kill him because uh those are some pretty vicious signs that have just followed this man's words and it's no wonder i mean i'm sure this prophet you ever think about prophets saying things and then things happening and even they're surprised you know when that happens and so when when this guy's like hey you know jaron boehm's like hey i'll give you a reward it's no wonder like you want to talk about what would have been the dumbest thing to do if you're this guy you'd been like all right let's talk about it yeah yeah yeah let's see what you're gonna pay me as a reward for me praying for your withered hand it's humanity is so funny too because you know here here jeroboam obviously this this just happened to him because he was trying to seize the lord's

prophet his hand withers the same prophet prays his hand is restored you would think i mean it It would seem rationalogical to assume that since the prophet was able to do this, therefore, that what the prophet said about the altar and everything else should be heeded. That would make sense. Yeah, well, you would think not so much you'd be like, hey, let's talk about a reward. You would be saying, let's talk about what I need to do to prevent what you just said from happening. so like it would seem that this would be a great time accompanied by signs and wonders for you to repent of all this idolatry and try you know let's get back on the right track here man uh but that's not at all what he does he's like hey let's talk about what i can uh give you for the whole hand

being restored thing jeroboam doesn't seem that deterred by this happening which is wild like you So this seems like it would absolutely change your mind, but it does not. No, no. I've said before how, you know, faith based on miracles has a short shelf life. But you see that especially in the Torah with the Israelites. I mean, they're seeing miracles left and right, as are people, of course, in the ministry of Jesus. But that doesn't mean that the faith that is based entirely or almost exclusively upon those miracles is going to last. You certainly see that with Israelites, but it's the same here with he's,

he sees a miracle, which should be impressive, but it doesn't even affect his repentance. He doesn't say now that I've seen this, I'm going to tell you what, I'm going to take those golden cabs and I'm going to go all Moses on them. I'm going to grind them up. I'm going to sprinkle them in the water and I'm going to drink, I'm going to drink the water along with my people. And I'm going to make sure that I'm doing what God told me to do to begin

with. No, no, that happens. He just wants to make sure that this prophet is rewarded for praying on behalf of his hand. And I suspect, too, what's going on is he doesn't want this guy leaving. He wants him to stay. Obviously, this guy has power because he's able to pray and God restores his hand. So let's try and get him to stay here. Maybe we can get him on our side somehow. Maybe he could actually stay here and he could be my man of God.

He could be my prophet and not go back to Jerusalem and be a prophet there. It does seem that maybe Jeroboam is attributing what just happened to the man and not to God. Yeah, almost like he's a magic healer, something like that. Yeah, since you have such powers, why don't you stay here? And the prophet responds wisely at this point. He's doing everything up to this point. He's doing everything that God told him to do. He went up there.

He gave the word of God against the altar. And when Jeroboam wanted him to stay to give him a reward, he said, no way. You could give me half your kingdom. You could give me half your house. You could enrich me beyond my wildest dreams, and there's no way that I would go with you. In fact, I'm not going to eat with you. I'm not going to get a drink of water from you because God gave me these three clear commands. i'm not to eat bread or drink water nor return by the way that you that i that i came so he's

even going to go back by by a different route so he god wanted to make sure that basically the the prophet's rejection of everything that jeroboam was doing mimicked god's rejection of everything that jeroboam was doing so the prophet as the representative of god is saying i'm not going have table fellowship with you. I'm not going to receive your gifts. In fact, I'm going to do nothing but proclaim condemnation against what you've done here because that's exactly what God is doing. God's not going to eat with you. He's not receiving your sacrifices. He's not going to drink with you. He's not going to be part of the things that are going on here. In fact, he is going to abandon this place and abandon you and not create a dynasty from you like he said he would

do if you had remained faithful. So the prophet's rejection of everything from Jeroboam is an imitation of, or a confirmation of, God's rejection of everything that Jeroboam had as well. So that's the first 10 verses, and you know, at least from the prophet's perspective, so far everything is going according to plan. Jeroboam, of course, is not well pleased with the way everything turned out. But the strange part of the story is only beginning, and that begins in verse 11. We're told there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel. So the prophet from the south is just called the Nish Elohim, a man of God. This guy's called a prophet, a Navi. So an old prophet lived in Bethel. Of course, all these things take place in Bethel. His sons come, and they tell him

what just happened. They told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. So the sons, they were evidently around. They saw everything happen. They have this great story. They go back call him. They say, dad, you'd never believe what we saw. They relay these things. And they also told him what had been spoken to them, what the king had spoken. So the dad says, which way did he go? And his son showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. So he says to his sons, get a donkey ready for me. Saddle my donkey. So they saddle the donkey. He gets on it. And it says he went after the man of God and he finds him. He's, you know, he's made it a little ways he's sitting under this this oak tree and he strikes up a conversation he says are you are you

the guy are you the the man of god who came from judah he says yeah that's me and then he says to him come home with me and eat bread now of course keep in mind what we've already heard about what he should and shouldn't do but this is a prophet this time this isn't jeroboam this is a prophet who says come home and eat eat bread with me well to his credit the guy from the south says i may not return with you or go in with you neither will i eat bread nor drink water with you in this place for it was said to me by the word of the lord so here's just quoting what god said you shall neither eat bread or drink water there nor return by the way that you came again so far so good the prophet is saying you know that that sounds all good and all but i'm not

going to do it not going to happen because here's what god said and because god said this this is what I'm going to do. That phrase, the word of the Lord, it's going to pop up over and over and over, which I think is, again, one of the themes of this chapter is strict adherence, fidelity to what God says. So don't be going by what you devise in your own heart. Don't be going by anything else but the clear black and white words that God spoke to you, because it's pretty clear. I mean, there's no loopholes in this. Don't eat bread. Don't drink water with them. Don't go back the same way that you came. But listen to this little twist. Now this is verse 18. The prophet, the old prophet from Bethel, says to the man of God from the south, 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 he lied to him so he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water so this is a this is a crazy twist because you got to wonder what's up with this old prophet from Bethel I mean is he so desperate to seek the companionship of this prophet from the south that he completely fabricates a story he says he doesn't try and just you know win him over he actually makes up a a prophetic lie and says well i know that's what god told you to begin with but i've got another word for you an angel appeared to me and told me to tell you this to come back with me yeah i mean unless this old prophet is

you know trying to become the the the main you know man of god in the eyes of jeroboam or something he's like let me go figure out what this guy's about uh apparently his sons are maybe up to that as well other than that i don't it doesn't make much sense to me at all no and and as we as we go through through the rest of it i don't to me anyway it doesn't have any greater greater clarity the only thing i can think of is that at this stage but yeah he he thinks that well his sons had told him everything had happened right and they told him how you know what the king had said what he said the king whatnot maybe the prophet is saying to himself you know what if i can get this guy back he wouldn't go in and eat with the king but maybe if i can get him to

eat and drink with me in my house then that'll be the the proverbial foot in the door with this guy and i might be able to convince him to stay and just imagine if i can what kind of favor i would receive from the king so maybe that's kind of his goal he's uh he's thinking you know we're both prophets you know we're both in the same way we we work the same work the same kind of stuff so why don't you have fellowship with me and let's come back and to get him to do that he resorts to a lie of the worst kind i mean there is no greater there is no worse lie than to say that god said this when he did not say that so he's he's he's taken in the lord's name in vain he's basically he's making up a prophecy so at this point he's engaging in the work of a false

prophet nothing more nothing less by the way this uh when i when he says an angel spoke to me It reminded me of Galatians, when Paul in chapter 1 says, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preached to you, let him be accursed. So here we have the prophet claiming that an angel spoke to him and told him this word, which is in direct contradiction to what the prophet had earlier been told. This also just reminds you not to believe people when they tell you an angel told them things. particularly if it goes against something else so okay so god's not speaking to us uh audibly or probably in the same way that he spoke to this prophet but uh we do have the words

of scripture and if someone comes to you and says god told me or an angel told me this thing and that thing doesn't sound like the kind of things that god says in scripture just don't believe it simple as that simple as that yeah just don't believe it yeah if the scriptures say something with with great clarity and someone comes along and says i received revelation i received a vision which told me this and that which is in contradiction to the scriptures yeah it's real simple just shut yours and walk away yep because it's not true that's right yeah god's not going to uh god's not going to contradict himself but that's what happens here uh so the the real risk for this man of god was not even the threat of the king he wasn't afraid of the king

he spoke truth but what ultimately deceived him was a false preacher so the more things change more they say the same so verse 20 says they sat at the table and as they did the word of the lord came to the prophet who had brought him back so this guy who had just lied now is going to receive a true word from god verse 21 says and he cried to the man of god who came from judah thus says the lord because you have disobeyed the word of the lord i would translate that as rebelled this the verb is mara and it occurs over and over in this in the in the torah especially when the israelites rebel against god that's a verb that's used because you have rebelled against the word of the lord and have not come and have not kept the command of the lord your god commanded

you but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said don't do it then here's the result your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers so what an ironic situation this guy lied to him that was the very reason that the prophet came back and while they're eating this guy who had lied to him then receives a true word from god that says because you've disobeyed god because you have rebelled against what he said to you here's what's going to happen to you you're not going to come to the tomb of your fathers now how he responded that we're not told because the story picks up with him after he finishes the meal he gets his donkey ready and he goes away and as he's going away a lion met him on the road and killed him his body was

thrown in the road this these are more of these kind of strange happenings in this chapter so the lion shows up kills the guy his corpse is in the road the donkey stands beside his corpse so the donkey doesn't run away the lion stands beside the body so you got a dead guy a dead prophet you got a lion you've got the the donkey just standing there and then men pass by they see the body thrown in the road they see the lion standing by the body so yeah of course it's going to be an amazing sight. And so they go back and they tell it in the city where the old prophet lived. Let's pause there just for a minute before we continue with the story. God's use of a lion is pretty consistent with what we see elsewhere in other examples in the Old Testament. Just think

to God use serpents to punish the Israelites. In 1 Kings 20, we have a lion killing another prophet. But you get the famous story of the bears, the mama bear that attacks the boys who insult the prophet. Later, in 2 Kings 17, God sends lions once more to kill people in the northern kingdom who are committing idolatry. And, of course, you have stories like Jonah, where God commands the great fish to swallow the prophet. So God does use animals a lot to teach his people a lesson. and this is of course one of those one of those instances yeah and it does seem like super harsh right where you're like man i don't know all he did was he was a little bit gullible that's all like i mean he was like really nailing it like he wasn't gonna take a reward from the king he

wasn't gonna go eat and drink with the king he even told this prophet he wasn't gonna go eat and drink with him but then dude just straight up lied to him and he believed him like it seems like this guy being somebody who takes people at their word really backfired on him i think what the the point of this is it's yes like you should heed the word of the lord that you know so this prophet knows what he heard and so he should not have heeded a different word it's that yes it's also that god is trying to send a message about idolatry and about what is going on uh what jeroboam has going on and he's showing you how serious he is about what's going on in this kingdom that he's god is not messing around this is all law no gospel time yeah yeah that's that's

precisely what's happening here yes heed exactly what god has said to you but the bigger part of the story and this is the uh you know how these these prophets stand for greater realities this is how this is working you've got the prophet in the north who is a lying prophet who represents the northern kingdom which is just full of idolatry and you have the guy from the south who what happens to him well he gets drawn into the lie of the north that's exactly what's going to happen in the southern kingdom ezekiel will talk about we'll use a different picture he'll talk about the two sisters he'll talk about the the sister in the north the sister in the south and what happens well the sister in the south that is judah begins to imitate the harlotry

the spiritual harlotry of the sister in the north. So these prophets, one from the north, one from the south, they are embodiments of basically future national history of the two kingdoms. Same thing that's happening with these two individuals is the same thing that's going to happen to the northern and southern kingdoms in different ways. In both cases, as we'll see in just a second, in both cases, there's going to be death. In both cases, they're going to be, as it were, buried side by side. They're both going to be buried in exile in different sorts of ways. But it all starts with the embrace of idolatry, as we've talked about often over these last few episodes. It all begins with abandoning the first commandment and committing spiritual

adultery with other gods. And that's the serious threat that looms large in this story. so the prophet uh when he when he hears when he hears what's happened he uh basically saddles his saddles his donkey says to his sons get my donkey ready to saddle it he goes and he finds the body thrown to the road with a donkey and the lion standing there the lion has not done anything lion just like sitting there he didn't eat the body he didn't attack the donkey he just which all of this is is odd but it accents the miraculous nature of this so it wasn't like this guy just you know he was having a he just was unlucky and it just so happened that one of the one of the neighborhood lions found him and attacked him and killed him of course this

lion was sent by god and the fact that he stays there stands there doesn't harm anything else is of course indicative that this was this was a miraculous event by the way lions uh were they're not in israel today but they were very prevalent in in ancient times hebrew has five different words for lion, which I tell us there were a lot of lions. You don't make up five different words if there's like very few of these animals. So five different words for lion. So they were all over Israel back in the day. Not today, but back in this time they were. So this lion standing there, the donkey's there. The prophet takes the body of the dead prophet, puts it on his donkey, takes it back to a city, mourns over him, buries him, puts the guy in his own grave,

mourns over him says alas my brother and then he says to his sons when i die i want you to bury me in the grave where this man of god is put my bones by by his bones because he called out against the word of called out by god's word against his altar and against the high places and all these things are surely going to come to pass now this is what i mentioned a couple minutes ago where the prophet from the north is going to join in death the the guy from the south and that's you know ultimately this is this is uh foreshadowing what's going to happen centuries later the north will be destroyed the south will be destroyed the these two quote-unquote prophets will be placed in the same tomb of of exile and everything that's going to come to pass that that he talked about will come

to pass will indeed come to pass in fact if anybody wants to skip ahead to josiah's life and read about what happened, when Josiah is destroying these altars and desecrating them, the one tomb he does not get bones from is this one. So the bones of these two prophets, the one from the north, one from the south, will not be disturbed. They will be left intact. And so the prophet from the north is basically ensuring by being buried with this prophet from the south that at least his bones will not be dug up and placed upon an altar. It does seem that this older prophet who lied and stuff

does realize that he messed up badly. Yeah, in hindsight, unlike Jeroboam, at least he repents. He seems to really think, you know, I should not have done that, should not have brought him back, and look what happened as a result. So to his credit, at least, he mourns, he grieves what happened to the prophet from the south unlike jeroboam whom we were told in these closing two

verses did not turn from his evil way there's that shuv verb again that i mentioned at the beginning so he didn't repent he didn't turn from his evil way but now the esv has but made priests for the high places literally in the hebrew it's something like but returned and made priests for the high places that's the verb shuv again so that's that's the motif that's going on here he the prophet returned but jeroboam did not return did not repent from the ways that he was going instead he ordained priest for the high places and this thing became sin to the house of jeroboam so as to cut it off and destroy it from the face of face of the earth so despite everything that happened despite the prophet's proclamation from God,

despite the withered hand, despite the prophet's intercession for him and the restoration of his withered hand, despite all of the things that happened with the donkey and the lion and whatnot, none of this moved the heart of Jeroboam. He continued in his ways despite what God had said would happen

and despite the things that God made happen. Yeah, and that's it. That is out of time and a wild chapter 13 of 1 Kings. Yeah, bizarre in lots of different ways, but I understand it better now after doing all the research, and hopefully everybody else understands a little bit more why we have this 34-verse chapter included in here with all these interesting details. And just, I mean, the two big things that you can pull from this are that God, as we've discussed over and over again, takes idolatry really seriously. It's sort of the thing that he won't stand for, and that man's heart can become remarkably hard. Yeah, despite all the evidence that would suggest it needs to be softened, Jeroboam does quite the opposite.

Yep. We're going to hear more about Jeroboam next week, but we're going to leave it right there. I will see you then, Chad. All right. We'll see you then. We'll see you then.