God On Display
1 Kings 13
seems to be more about the authentic nature of God’s character than anything
else. In this chapter alone we have
multiple prophecies, multiple actions that can only be explained
supernaturally, and repeated disobedience.
Those ingredients within a story are like setting up a neon sign that
reads: “God’s Power on Display Here.”
Let’s
start with the prophecies. We have:
- A Judean prophet who receives a word of God to go to Jeroboam’s altar and pronounce judgment against it. He is told to go and come by different ways as well as to eat nothing while on the journey. The man listens to the prophetic message and heads to Bethel. (This is assumed by verse 1.)
- Prophesies about Josiah and the fact that these altars in the northern kingdom are false altars.
- A prophecy about the death of the Judean prophet when he turns aside and eats with a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel.
All three
of these prophecies come true. The altar
is torn down, and later we will hear about Josiah the king. God did sustain the man without bread and
water – well, until he was disobedient.
And we do also hear about the Judean prophet’s death. God has the ability to make good on His word
when His word is truly spoken.
We also
have actions that can only be explained supernaturally:
- First, we have a man successfully making a journey from Judah to Bethel without food or water. Now, perhaps this might be only borderline supernatural. But then again, what is the point of a religious fast? Is a religious fast not an action done in order to demonstrate our reliance upon God’s provision over our own provision? Therefore I think by definition a fast is a supernatural event. It is a person being sustained by God and not their own internal biochemistry.
- Second, we have the withering and restoration of Jeroboam’s arm. That certainly is a demonstration of God’s power in an attempt to protect this prophet who has come to do His will.
- Third, we have the tearing down of the altars. You might think that this is not necessarily a supernatural event, perhaps the people there tore the altars down themselves after seeing the withering of Jeroboam’s arm. But even in this case we can see it as a supernatural event. These people had gathered with Jeroboam to make sacrifices. They were originally in favor of these altars. The altars either get torn down supernaturally or they get torn down by people who have had their hearts impacted supernaturally enough to get them to tear down the false altars. Either way it is an act of supernatural means! {Although personally I think the altar is torn down by God as the text mentions the destruction of the altars in the same place as the supernatural withering of Jeroboam’s hand}.
- Finally, we have the supernatural act of the lion attacking the prophet, killing him, but not eating the prophet or dragging him off to store him for a later meal. In fact, it is also a bit supernatural that the prophet’s donkey would stand in the presence of the lion.
What do
these supernatural actions tell us about God and our relationship with
Him? Let’s look at these actions in the
light of Jesus’ teaching at the end of the triumphal entry found in Luke
19:28-40. There Jesus tells the
Pharisees (and us) that if the people around Him would have kept quiet then the
stones themselves would have cried out.
What is the fairly cryptic point that I am making here? Well, God does not need us to accomplish His
will. God desires us to
participate. God wants us to be a part
of His plan. But He does not
fundamentally need us. God accomplished
creation by His own and He accomplished bringing salvation to mankind all on
His own. God does not fundamentally need
us. He desires to work with us very
much, but it is no need that God has from us.
We also
learn that God has high expectations for us who are called to His service. God expects that when we answer His call we
will follow Him. When we don’t follow
Him, we can expect to be disciplined.
When we don’t follow His leading, we can expect things to not go all
that smoothly.
Finally,
we see pictures of disobedience:
- To begin, Jeroboam’s altar is a disobedient act.
- The prophet turns aside from God’s will and eats because he trusts the world of another prophet over that which he directly heard from God.
- Jeroboam continues in disobedience even after all the events of this story play out.
The Prophet of God
Looking at
the prophet, I began my study of this passage wondering how lucky I am to have
escaped God’s wrath that He poured out on this prophet for disobedience. How many times have I felt like I knew where
God was leading me and yet I have turned aside?
Yet – Lord willing! – I have not been killed by a lion!
But I
think there is a little difference here.
It is one thing to “feel” or “discern” your way to God’s will and get it
wrong. It is another thing to “hear
God’s will audibly” and go against it.
I’ll give you two examples. I
audibly heard the voice of God calling me forward to be baptized. I have also audibly heard God’s voice
indicating to me that ministry of one kind or another would be my
vocation. For me to have refused baptism
or refused to be open to ministry would have been absolutely wrong! *
However, I
don’t often hear the voice of God in ministry.
I have to listen to His Spirit (which is far more complicated), listen
to the Christians around me, evaluate the situation before me, and
discern. This is a far more complex
process and I believe God grants a bit more leeway before jumping straight to
punishment and condemnation here! At least,
my experience is that He grants far more leeway when we are asked to discern
His will than when He comes right out and tells it to us in plain words.
Jeroboam
Finally, looking
at Jeroboam I find this a sad story.
Even after these great displays of God’s power he still cannot turn his
heart to God. But this is no
surprise. I see people all around me who
have the evidence of God’s working in their life all around them and they
refuse to turn from their ways, their tradition, their desires and instead
embrace what God wants to do in their midst.
It is the way of humanity, after all.
God can send us the prophets, the Word, and real tangible change that we
can see in the people around us and we don’t always hear Him and repent. We are a headstrong people, praise be to God
that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!
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*Yes, it is true that I
didn’t go up to be baptized the day I heard God’s voice because I was 8 and
confused. But after talking to my dad,
gaining his wisdom, and waiting to hear it the very next week – and hearing it!
– I went running forward to embrace it.
And yes, I didn’t embrace ministry from the beginning, either – and
shame on me because I deserve to be judged for that! – but I was not closed to the
possibility, either. I asked God to help
me grow into that understanding. I
should have embraced and understood God from the moment that He spoke to me. But I was not ready, and for that I will be
judged correctly. But while I was not
ready, I was still open. I think that’s
the important point here.
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