MEN WILL LIE TO YOU AND LEAD YOU AGAINST THE WORD OF GOD

PROCLAMATION

“I have been told by The Word of The Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return the way you came.’  The old prophet answered, ‘I too am a prophet, as you are.  And an angel said to me by The Word of The Lord: Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’  But he was lying to him.  So, the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.”  1 Kings 13:17-19 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

After King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king. (1 Kings 11:42-43)  But Rehoboam consulted the elders of Israel and rejected their advice.  This eventually caused him to lose the support of the people (1 Kings 12:16-17) and led to the division of Israel with only the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin supporting him.  Jeroboam, Solomon’s son who had rebelled against him in his old age, became the king of the ten northern tribes, built shrines and two golden calves to be their gods and led them to worship idols. (1 Kings 12:28-33)  King Jeroboam was standing by the alter when a man of God came and cried out against the alter of the idols.  When the king stretched out his hand and told his men to seize the man of God, his hand shriveled up and he could not move it. (1 Kings 13:4)  The king then begged the man of God to pray for him, which he did, and his hand was restored. (1 Kings 13:6)  To reward him the king invited him to dine with him and offered him a gift, but the man of God refused per his instructions from The Word of God. (1 Kings 13:7-10)  The sons of a prophet in Bethel saw this and told him what had happened to the king, then he went after the man of God and invited him to dine with him.  The man of God declined, and the prophet lied to him saying that he had been sent to get him by an angel of The Lord.  The man of God listened to the lying prophet and disobeyed The Word of God.  When he left the prophet’s house he was attacked and killed by a lion. (1 Kings 13:23-25)  

APPLICATION

We can get all kinds of advice and requests from people who make false claims which will lead us away from The Word of God.  That is why we need to read and study The Word of God for ourselves.  Just because someone claims that The Bible says something does not mean that what they are saying is the truth.  We all will pay a price for our disobedience to God’s Holy Word.