The Man of God's Epitaph: God is Faithful!

1 Kings 13:26-32 ESV

26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” 27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

This morning, we are ending our series of sermons from this particular narrative where we will conclude our examination of the life and times of the man of God.

And what we have seen throughout our study of this narrative is 1. the realization that God’s people are pilgrims in the world, unlike those of this world, having no home here, 2. that though they are pilgrims, they long for godly fellowship while in this world, 3. that the commands of God are to be strictly adhered to, and 4. that God’s sovereign purposes always come to pass.

And in our reading for today, closing our study of this narrative, and in an additional reading that we will come to towards the end of this message, we will indeed read of a vivid example of God’s sovereign will completely coming to pass.

In our reading from last week, we read of how the old prophet who had deceptively brought the man of God back from his journey to Judah and to his home where they had ate and drank, had received a legitimate word of God.

That word which had been delivered to the old prophet said that because the man of God had disobeyed the command of God to neither eat nor drink until he arrived safely back in Judah, that he would not be buried with his fathers.

After mournfully relaying this word to the man of God, the man of God then left the home of the old prophet to continue his journey to Judah, riding upon the old prophet’s donkey.

But not far from the home of the old prophet, God’s judgment quickly came to pass as the man of God was met on the road by a lion that had torn the man of God from the back of the old prophet’s donkey, killing him there.

But what was interesting and obviously supernatural about all of this is that the donkey had not been harmed in the process, the lion did not eat the body of the man of God, nor did it attack the donkey, and the lion and the donkey both remained standing on each side of the man of God’s body. None of this is natural and so, when those traveling along saw this phenomenon, they reported it far and wide.

And with the old prophet not living far from the scene, word reached him rather quickly. And as we come to the exposition of our reading for today, we look first to verse twenty-six to see what the initial reaction of the old prophet was after receiving the news, where we read:

1 Kings 13:26 ESV

26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.”

So, when the old prophet had received word on what had happened to the man of God, he responded by testifying of the truth in the matter.

He begins by identifying who had been slain by saying, “It is the man of God”. This might seem like a mere footnote in the matter, but the old prophet’s identifying the man of God shows that he has insight in the matter and that what he will now relay is truthful.

He says that this judgment came upon the man of God because he disobeyed God’s command. And in saying this, the old prophet may be asserting that this judgment came to pass not because what the man of God had prophesied was false as many there may conclude, but because God’s express command had been disobeyed.

So, in all reality, it could be that the old prophet is subtly hinting at the fact that as this judgment has come to pass so will the judgment concerning the destruction of the altar in Bethel and burning the idolatrous priests’ bones on it come to pass.

As we then move on to the next three verses in the narrative, verses twenty-seven through twenty-nine, we see what the old prophet does in response to hearing this news, where we read:

1 Kings 13:27-29 ESV

27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him.

So, upon hearing the news, the old prophet prepares to set out to see what had happened for himself. He tells his sons to saddle his donkey, a different donkey than the one that the man of God had rode out upon, which was carried out for him.

We then read that when the old prophet came upon the scene, everything was exactly as it had been reported to him. He saw the body of the man of God, who he could identify “thrown in the road” from the back of the donkey, lying there with the lion and the donkey standing beside, not moving from where God had caused them to remain, with the lion having neither eaten the body of the man of God nor disturbed the donkey.

And as we said in our message last week, this lion had been serving almost as a guard to the body of the man of God, ensuring that no one who went along the road would disturb the body.

And with having that particular tidbit of information in mind, it will then come as a great surprise when we read that when the old prophet approached the man of God’s body, the lion permitted it to be so. Indeed, as the lion may have warded off others who attempted to approach the body, it permitted the old prophet to come near, which of course, is another abnormal happening.

And so, this means that either the lion had fled when the old prophet came near, doing so at the command of God, or that the lion remained near the body while the old prophet gathered the body, the lion at the sovereign command of God, remaining idle as this took place.

And having taken up the body, the old prophet laid it upon the donkey that the man of God had ridden upon, which had remained beside the body so that it may bear the body back to Bethel. And so, riding his own donkey, the old prophet leads the other donkey, which had the body of the man of God placed on its back.

And his purpose in bringing the body back to Bethel, our reading says, is so that the old prophet may bury it and mourn over him.

Knowing the hatred that the people of the city must have felt toward the man of God, the old prophet knew that they would certainly disrespect the man of God’s body if he left it there and so, he felt an obligation to properly bury and honor him.

But as was said, it was his intention to not only bury the man of God, but to also mourn over the man of God. Mourn, because of the untimely death of a servant of God. Mourn, because the old prophet recognizes his part in the man of God’s slaying. Mourn, because he would not be buried with his fathers. And most of all, mourn because of how many in Bethel and in all of Israel would be deceived by the untimely death of the man of God.

He knew that because of such an untimely death that clearly had come about as a result of God’s judgment, that so many would be deceived and not heed to the warning of the man of God and would therefore continue living lives consisting of unrepentant sin and heresy.

And as we move now to verse thirty in the text, we see a brief summary of the man of God’s funeral, when we read:

1 Kings 13:30 ESV

30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”

What we read of here is perhaps the most profound display of respect that the old prophet can give to the man of God in the given circumstance. In the given circumstance, the old prophet communicates to the man of God the highest possible honor as he buries him in his own grave.

Now, we might look at that and say, “Well, he has to bury him somewhere and that is the only grave that he has, so I don’t see what the big deal is with that!” But in burying the man of God in his own grave, the family tomb, the old prophet is treating the man of God as if he had been one of his own family.

And having laid his body to rest in the grave, we read, “And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”” Now, let’s focus here on this word “they”. “They” mourned over him. This clearly indicates more than the old prophet as it is likely in reference to the old prophet and his sons.

The reason why it is important to point this out is because if you remember back to our first sermon in this series, we said that it was likely that the old prophet’s sons were idolaters. But their inclusion in this mourning, indicates that they have certainly been affected by everything that had taken place with the man of God, and may very well have been converted to the worship of the one true God.

And together, they cried a common form of expression in funeral lamentations at that time, saying “Alas, my brother!”

This being completed, we look to the last two verses of our reading where we see the old prophet give final instructions to his sons while also expressing certainty concerning the man of God’s prophecy, where we read:

1 Kings 13:31-32 ESV

31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

The prophecy had been that in a time still yet far off, a Davidic king by the name of Josiah would tear down the altar of Bethel and burn the bones of the idolatrous priests upon that altar. The old prophet told his sons, “This shall surely come to pass”.

Therefore, the old prophet desired that his body be laid beside the body of the man of God, that their bones may mingle together. And so, he commanded his sons that upon his death, his bones be laid beside the bones of the old prophet, that his bones may too be spared when the word of God would finally be fulfilled.

And then traveling ahead, about three hundred years after what was spoken in our reading for today took place, we come to that additional reading that I spoke of earlier, in the book of Second Kings, chapter twenty-three, verses fifteen through eighteen, where we read:

2 Kings 23:15-18 ESV

15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

It was just as he had prophesied! What a glorious ending to such a mournful narrative. And so, we go back to the title of this sermon. If the man of God could have an epitaph on his tomb, it would rightly say, “God is Faithful!”

Great is the faithfulness of our most awesome God!

Amen?