Hi All,
The story of the Man of God always intrigued me. Here was a man filled with the Spirit of God, doing God's Will, facing down the corrupt king of Israel who would, it seems, have the power of life and death over him. This Man of God prophesied and what he said came to pass. This Man of God had a divine protection over him, as when Jeroboam, the king of Israel, went to grab him, Jeroboam was smitten of God. The Man of God was able to pronounce healing over Jeroboam. You get the impression that the Man of God was truly a prophet in the highest sense.
But then, no sooner does the Man of God triumph, he falls. He falls big time. That is just too much to take in. What was the cause of his downfall, and how does this relate to us in these times? One may say that it was disobedience and leave it at that, but I believe it is much deeper than that. But that is for tomorrow.
As for today, the lesson here is that God has throughout man's history shown to man what manner of worship is pleasing to Him. He has shown mankind the narrow road, but man insists upon approaching God in his own way—this is false religion. Man seems to think that it is OK to come to any alter, after all God understands, but God is very specific. Scriptures don't say that Jesus is a way, has some truth, and is endowed with some life.
When Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness [Mat 6:33]
he wasn't telling people to work to get to heaven; he was telling them to come under the authority of the king and obey him. When you obey the King, whatever you do is righteous. You may walk in authority because you are under His authority.
Blessings,
~Al
A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 1Ki 13:1
The disobedient prophet, and the liar, masked in the angel-face of truth-The first and last phase of the evil one
I. The mission of this man of God to Bethel is a most important one. He is entrusted by his heavenly Master with unfolding the Divine judgments to King Jeroboam, on account of his great sin in making the lowest of the people priests of the high places, and in consequence also of his open and zealous patronage of the most abominable idolatry.
1. The time of the prophet's arrival at Bethel. It happened when Jeroboam stood at the altar to burn incense. To face a guilty monarch and unveil the Divine denunciations threatened on account of his rebellious conduct, is by no means an easy task.
2. The mode of address. He addresses himself not to the guilty monarch, but as if he wished Jeroboam to feel he had forfeited the honor of being addressed like a rational agent, the prophet accosts the inanimate altar, that altar by which the king now usurpingly stood to burn incense. "O altar, altar!" he cries, not in his own name, but in the name of that God who sent him, "Thus saith the Lord."
3. The matter of the prophet's address. Now it is well worthy of remark, that though this predicted king is so particularly mentioned by name, none of the kings of Israel thought fit to assume the name, until the real and good Josiah himself appeared as the executor of all the vengeance of a righteous God against sin. This name was given by the wicked Manasseh to his son quite undesignedly, a name which was to be the terrible watchword of the downfall of idolatry practiced by Manasseh and Jeroboam: it was a name given by Manasseh to his son, in spite, as it were, of Manasseh himself, in diametrical opposition to Manasseh's policy
II. Regard his test of obedience. The man of God having executed in a bold and faithful manner the grave commission on trusted to him, is preparing to take his departure, when Jeroboam, anxious it would appear to render the man of God some recompense for his kindness in having petitioned the Majesty of Heaven to restore his hand, approaches him with the friendly invitation. The prophet having manfully, by the grace of God, resisted the temptation of the king's invitation, is already on the way back to Judah, the way pointed out by the Lord for him to take. But although he has resisted one temptation and got apparently clear of Bethel, he is not yet safe. We are never secure while we are pilgrims and travelers in this world, which is not our rest, against the varied and constant assaults of Satan's temptations; as soon as one temptation is overcome, another is ready to overtake us on life's road; which teaches us ever to be watchful and prayerful.
III. The prophet's disobedience, and its result. How does the faith of the man of God now stand against this tremendous trial? He, who had a little previous so triumphantly combated the temptation to eat bread and drink water at a royal table, now, alas! totters in his obedience, and listens to the unlikely lie of an aged prophet, sanctioned, as he diabolically pretended, by an angel's revelation, and consents to return with him. The most dangerous form temptation can assume, is that of a lie, disguised in the mantle of truth, uttered by the ravening wolf clad in the sheep's clothing. By the snares of this temptation, the prophet now fell into the labyrinth of disobedience. It is Satan's master temptation. By this truth-gilded lie our first parents fell, and sin and death entered into the world. The devil put on a goodly outside, entered into the then attractive serpent, approached our unsuspecting mother in that so sleek form, and led her to fail in the first great test of human obedience, which was to be the proof of man's love, the eating of the forbidden fruit. The man of God, disobedient to the Divine command, accompanies the old prophet back to Bethel. There, dead to the fearful consequences of what he is doing, he refreshes the exhausted body at the board of hospitality. Swift indeed, and signal is the punishment inflicted on the man of God, and some may think the punishment severe; but the disobedience of the prophet in eating bread and drinking water was aggravated by the circumstances under which it was committed. Learn a lesson from this sorrowful circumstance, which Jeroboam failed to learn, even the lesson of obedience to the Word of God. Keep only in the track pointed out by that Word, though an angel from heaven might tell thee to do contrary to its Divine message to thy soul. Obey its every precept, small or great.
(R.Jones,M.A.)
JUDGMENT UPON WORTHLESS WORSHIP
What a noble name for anyone to bear-a man of God! Yet we all might so bear the impress of God in our character that those who come in contact with us might feel that ineffable something which you cannot define, which does not need advertising, but which tells that the person who bears it is truly a child of God.
The altar by which Jeroboam expected to consolidate his kingdom was the cause of its overthrow and disaster, until at last Israel was carried into captivity. When we turn from the fountain of living waters and hew out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, we start on a course of unfailing disaster and loss.
Literal obedience to God is indispensable to those who would carry his messages. It was a fit and proper answer that the prophet, in the first instance, gave the king. He rightly told Jeroboam that he must abide by the exact terms of his commission, and that the bribe of half of Jeroboam's house would not induce him to tarry even so long as to take a meal at the royal table. This minute and rigorous obedience stood out in striking contrast to the conduct of Jeroboam. God is exact and requires exact obedience. (F.B.Meyer)
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