A Lamb Among Wolves

1 Kings 13:1-10 ESV

1 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, 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.’” 3 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 that are on it shall be poured out.’” 4 And 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. 5 The altar also was 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. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it 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.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

There is an old saying that says, “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.” Now, what that saying means is that in certain situations, we look at what “could be” and what “could be” seems like a nice alternative to what I have now, so I give it a shot, but I find out that things were better off for me before delving into what “could be”.

Well, I don’t know if Jeroboam, the man who was the newly crowned king over the newly established kingdom of the northern ten tribes of Israel in our reading for today ever figured out in the long run that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side, but as we will see in our exposition for today, he certainly realized it in this particular moment.

And indeed, Jeroboam had found himself grazing in grass that he felt would be greener as prior to what takes place in our reading for today, we read of how Jeroboam had personally led a rebellion against and an exodus from submission to the Davidic king.

And just like that, the kingdom had been divided. Jeroboam now reigned over the ten northern tribes of Israel while the House of David still reigned over Judah and the tiny tribe of Benjamin.

But it wasn’t just the politics of the nation that Jeroboam was concerned with; he was also concerned with the religious persuasions of those he ruled over.

Jeroboam knew that if those he reigned over continued to go and worship at the temple in Jerusalem, as God had commanded them to, they would be convinced once again that God had ordained the descendants of David to rule over them and that they would then remove Jeroboam as their king and kill him in the process.

For this reason, Jeroboam established a new religion, a self-made, man-made religion for those in the bounds of his kingdom.

Other than God commanding them to, the main thing that caused the people of Israel to make the trip to the temple in Jerusalem was the Ark of the Covenant, that place where God was very much present.

So, to counteract this, Jeroboam had two golden calves formed, idols is what they were. And he told those he ruled over that God was in fact present in these idols as well.

But he also wanted to make it convenient for his subjects to adhere to his new, self-made religion, and so he designated Dan, in the extreme northern part of the kingdom and Bethel, in the extreme southern part of the kingdom to be where these idols would be housed.

But he also needed priests to make sacrifices to these idols. Now, we know that God had commanded that only Levites could serve as priests, but all of the Levitical priests who had lived in the north had headed south to Judah after the division of the kingdom. So, Jeroboam just said that anyone could be a priest, there were no requirements, and so there were priests from among all the people.

But in order to win the people over even more, Jeroboam also instituted a special feast, one that mocked the divinely instituted Feast of Tabernacles.

And it was at this mimicked festival that we enter into the narrative that we will be working through this month and our reading for today.

We look first at verse one, where we read:

1 Kings 13:1 ESV

1 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 

So, we look first of all, to the last sentence of this verse where it says that Jeroboam, the king himself, rather than one of the priests, was standing by the altar that had been set up for the purpose of making sacrifices in order to make offerings in accordance with his wicked, self-made religion. That the king and not one of the priests makes these offerings immediately shows the ungodly nature of this religion.

But as this was taking place, we read that “a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel”. Now, this is very intriguing, first of all, because of the mysterious nature of this figure, simply known throughout this narrative as “a man of God”.

What we know of him is that he was “of Judah”, the southern kingdom, the place where the God of Israel was still rightly worshipped.

And we know that this man of God “came out of Judah by the word of the Lord”. What this lets us know is that this man came out of Judah for a specific purpose, and that purpose was because he received a divine communication, a command of God to do so.

And lastly, what we see in this verse is where the man of God was commanded to go to. He “came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel.” So, God commands the man of God to leave that place where God is rightly worshipped to go to the city where wickedness and blasphemy was openly flaunted!

Then as we look at verse two, we see what the man of God does by the command of God when he comes near this wicked scene, where we see that he “cried against the altar”, he cried against, fervently spoke in opposition to that place where Jeroboam was making sacrifices.

Now, that the man of God cried against the altar signifies two things. The first thing that it signifies is that the man of God was opposed to what was taking place there and to this new, heretical, self-made religion itself.

The other thing that I think the man of God crying against the altar and not against Jeroboam, the king signified was that the man of God reckoned that Jeroboam had become so pathetic, so disqualified to lead the people of God that he didn’t even feel as though he was worthy of being addressed.

And as we look later in this second verse, we see what the man of God prophesies against the altar and this system of religion when he says that there would be born to the House of David, a king over Judah, who would be named Josiah.

And the man of God says that when this Josiah rules over Judah, he would destroy this very altar and this high place so thoroughly that we would desecrate it by burying up the bones of the idolatrous priests who sacrifices on it and would burn those bones on that very altar… Talk about an absolute desecration! And indeed, this very prophecy would thoroughly come to pass approximately 300 years later!

But that’s not all! As we move to look at verse three, we see that because this destruction of the altar would take place at such a later date, the Lord willed to give an immediate sign to the people there that what has been declared would surely come to pass, as the man of God says that “the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.”

What this sign would serve to signify is that this partial destruction of the altar and the scattering of the sacrifice made upon it is a warning, and foreshadowing of the final and complete destruction of the blasphemous altar and the blasphemous sacrifice made upon it.

Well, as we said at the beginning of this sermon, Jeroboam is here trying to show those he rules over why his self-made religion is so great and why they shouldn’t go to Jerusalem as God commands them, and what the man of God is saying here certainly isn’t helping him accomplish that, so he seeks to stop the man of God in his tracks.

We read in verse four how Jeroboam stretched out his hand against the man of God in order to show those near him whom they were to seize, and also as a show of power and authority over him.

But when the king does this, his hand becomes “dried up”, stiff and unable to be moved. The Pulpit Commentary summarizes the situation well, when it says, “Now stands the king of Israel, like some antique statue, in a posture of impotent endeavour”.

He thought that he possessed quite a bit of power, but here he discovers that he doesn’t even have the power to move his arm! Thus, this man who attempted to rise up to the God of Israel and indeed, to supersede the God of Israel, after expending his own power, recognizes that he has no power at all, as he stands there impotent, powerless.

But that wasn’t the only thing that happened in that moment, for verse five tells us that at that very moment, the altar was supernaturally torn down and the ashes poured forth from it… the very sign that the man of God had spoken had at that moment taken immediate effect!

Well, between his hand being dried up and the altar being torn down, Jeroboam comes to recognize just Who it is that he is up against! He’s not up against some obscure prophet from Judah with big words and no power, no, he is standing toe to toe with the God of heaven and earth.

And because of that, in verse six, we see how Jeroboam, the king who thought that he was so powerful, starts to back pedal. When he realizes that this man of God is truly a man of God, he doesn’t want to be hostile or argumentative anymore, but instead, recognizing how powerless he is, he pleads with the man of God to pray to God for his hand to be restored. Which, surprisingly, the man of God does, and even more surprisingly, God graciously grants the man of God’s request and heals Jeroboam.

Then, in response to this, we read in verse seven how Jeroboam invites the man of God to come to him home and be refreshed with food and drink, maybe even a nap.

And we need to keep in mind that Jeroboam didn’t make this offer because he was so grateful that his hand had been restored, but rather, this was probably offered for political purposes.

In order to keep his subjects loyal to him and to his self-made religion, Jeroboam probably thought that it would be best to have the man of God come to his home, probably in hopes of convincing the people that the man of God didn’t actually mean any harm to come to the king and that this is proven by the fellowship that they share at his home, probably hoping to convince the people that the man of God didn’t actually mean for any harm to come to his self-made religion and so, they can safely continue to practice it.

And in order for the king to convince the man of God to go along with his political stunt, he offers him “a reward” as our reading says. But in basic layman’s terms, it can be called a bribe.

But that pesky man of God once again did not respond the way that Jeroboam wanted him to. And the response that he gave to the king’s offer revealed that he valued that which was of God far greater than the pleasures that the world can afford him.

We see this in verses eight and nine as the man of God responds to the king’s bribe by saying that even if the king were to offer him half of his kingdom, he would not go with him and eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way in which he came, because God Himself had commanded him to refrain from doing so.

But why would God command this? Well, I believe that God commanded this to show the inhabitants of that region that He was grieved at their national sin and that He abhorred the system of worship which Jeroboam had devised of his own heart.

And because this was the case, verse ten tells us that the man of God did as he was commanded; “he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.”

The man of God was just that, he was a man of God. Commissioned by God, inspired by God, sent by God as a lamb in a pack of ravenous wolves. And beloved, so does He send us, His elect people, this very day. But what happens many times is these lambs find it to be “easier” to just dress up and pretend that they too are wolves.

The man of God was quite alone, in the midst of heretics actively indulging in heresy, with the most powerful man in their kingdom, the king himself at the head. Yet, the man of God spoke fearlessly amongst the wolves. He would have none of what the world was offering to him.

Little lambs may God give us the ability and make us willing to be as the man of God in a world filled with wolves!

Amen?

*Communion