Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary1 Kings 13

Jeroboam stood. The occasion was one of importance, Jeroboam was officiating as priest at the dedication of the new altar at Bethel, endeavoring to invest it with a sanctity that would win for it the homage and respect of the people, God could not allow the king’s bold defiance to go unrebuked.

Ellen G. White

Josiah by name. The Lord does not often predict the future with such definite detail as to point out the specific actors. A parallel example is found in the reference to Cyrus, the Persian king, by name many years before his birth (Isa. 44:28; 45:1). This prophecy concerning Josiah was literally fulfilled (2 Kings 23:15, 16).

A sign. So that Jeroboam and the people might be impressed that the man of God was a true phophet and that his message of warning carried weight, he gave a striking prophecy, which would be immediately fulfilled.

Put forth. It is dangerous for anyone, whoever he be, to lift up his hand against a man sent with a solemn message from God. The stretched-forth arm was immediately smitten, to strike terror into the hearts of both king and people, and to impress them anew that they had before them a true prophet of God.

The altar also was rent. This manifestation of the Lord’s presence and power was something that could not be successfully gainsaid. Instead of being persuaded of the solemnity of the altar and the sanctity of their priestly king, the people now realized that Jeroboam was acting in direct defiance of Heaven and bringing upon himself the divine rebuke.

Pray for me. The king had been humbled. He had also been brought to a realization that he was dealing with a man of God, who, under the circumstances, alone could release him from his present plight. The restoration of the arm on the submission of the king and the prayer of the prophet was designed to give Jeroboam another opportunity for repentance. He had not yet gone too far for the Lord to forgive. If the king had been willing to go all the way, and had asked for a restoration of heart as well as of hand, the way would have been opened for a return of the nation of God and a mighty reform throughout the land of Israel.

A reward. The offer of the king was prompted not by gratitude but by policy. An acceptance of hospitality and reward would in the eyes of the people imply that the prophet condoned the king’s course and would serve to destroy the solemn impression that he had made. He would also have created an unfavorable impression regarding his character and mission.

I will not go. The resolute refusal to receive the king’s proffered reward placed the prohet on vantage ground and made a deep impression upon both king and people.

An old prophet. A prophet, but a false prophet, a man who was a tool of Satan, not of God. Having failed to secure his purpose in one way, Satan now worked in another way, determined to thwart the purposes of the Lord by bringing His messenger into disrepute.

Ellen G. White

Come home. That is exactly the invitation that had been extended by the king and had been refused on the ground that it was against the expressed will of God (v. 9). The enemy is very persistent, and returns again and again with his temptations, modified in one way or another, determined to bring about a man’s fall.

A prophet also. He was, but not God’s prophet. the Lord never sends contradictory messages by His prophets. An angel spake. Perhaps, but if so it must have been an evil angel that spoke. When God had forbidden man to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil under pain of death, the serpent came with the contradictory message, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). The words of the false prophet identified their source. The true prophet should have known that if he himself had indeed been sent by the Lord, then the angel that spoke through the prophet of Bethel was a messenger of Satan. He lied. Satan is a liar and deceiver, and should be recognized by the children of God by means of his deceptive wiles.

Went back. A messenger of God can never go back from God’s errands and yet be true to the Lord. The prophet had his instructions from God, and had twice voiced them as reasons for refusing to give ear to a contrary call (vs. 8, 9, 16, 17). In going contrary to the express directions from the Lord, he was placing himself on the enemy’s ground, where the Lord could not be with him.

Word of the Lord. At this time God did speak through the false prophet of the true. The man of God was brought to see his mistake by words delivered by an emissary of Satan. After the man of God had disobeyed the express command of the Lord, God permitted that fact to be brought home to him by a man who had allowed himself to be used as a messenger of the evil one (see PK 106).

Thy carcase. The desire to be buried in the family sepulcher was especially strong among the Hebrews. This privilege was to be denied the disobedient prophet. The tree of evil produced an early and certain harvest. The prophet of God had by his disobedience put himself on the enemy’s ground, where he would have neither the divine presence nor protection.

A lion met him. Prophets often meet lions, but as long as they are on errands for God they need have no fear. No man can have greater boldness, no man has stronger reasons for courage, than the messenger venturing forth in obedience to the Lord’s commands. To him the promises apply: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20); “Fear not: for I am with thee” (Isa. 43:5). Daniel was cast into a den of lions, but on him the lions had no power, for the Lord was with him. He explained that that was because innocency had been found in him (Dan. 6:22). That testimony the prophet on this occasion could not bear.

Who was disobedient. One hour the man of God was a man with a mission, the next a corpse by the wayside. Disobedience to God was the cause of his swift and inglorious death. The speedy penalty that overtook him was a further testimony to the king and people of Israel that obedience to the Lord’s commands is the only path of safety. In the rending of the altar, the withered arm of the king, and the swift death of the prophet who had gone contrary to the Lord’s command, the nation could have perceived the Lord’s displeasure, and His purpose to make entirely clear to Israel that the pathway of disobedience is the pathway of sorrow and death.

His own grave. Probably as a token of remorse and personal compassion for the victim of his own treachery. Burial in Palestine was often in rock-hewn tombs where families might be buried together. My brother! The true prophet was identified with the false, as the true religion of Jehovah was being identified with the new idolatrous religion of Jeroboam. It was

probably only another effort to confuse the minds of the people so that they might not perceive the seriousness of the issues at stake. The disobedience of the prophet was playing into the hands of wickedness.

Beside his bones. That is, lay my body in the cell next to his. We were brothers in life; we will be brothers in death. The bones of both prophets were found in the crypt by King Josiah when he defiled the altar at Bethel by burning on it human bones from the sepulchers, but the bones of the two prophets were not molested (2 Kings 23:17, 18).

Surely come to pass. The prophecy was not conditional. The message of warning was given in mercy and love, to save the kingdom of Israel from the doom its course of evil must inevitably bring.

Returned not. A warning had been given, and a warning had been rejected. The king persisted in his evil way in spite of the prophecy of doom. Henceforth he could blame none other than himself for the results that were to accrue from his evil ways.

Destroy it. The house of Jeroboam, which might have been sure, was soon to perish. When Jeroboam rejected the divine warning and persisted in his evil ways, he sentenced his own house to ruin. Sin cannot, must not, will not endure, forever (see Isa. 1:28; see also Ps. 34:16; 37:9).