The Lying Old Prophet

[stmatthew]

1Ki 13:7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

1Ki 13:8 And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:

1Ki 13:9 For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

1Ki 13:10 So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

1Ki 13:11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

1Ki 13:12 And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

1Ki 13:13 And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,

1Ki 13:14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, [Art] thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I [am].

1Ki 13:15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.

1Ki 13:16 And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:

1Ki 13:17 For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.

1Ki 13:18 He said unto him, I [am] a prophet also as thou [art]; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied unto him.

1Ki 13:19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.

1Ki 13:20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back:

1Ki 13:21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,

1Ki 13:22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which [the LORD] did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

1Ki 13:23 And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, [to wit], for the prophet whom he had brought back.

1Ki 13:24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.


Why??? Why did he lie??

[Xerf]

Lie on me will ya, well here's a lion to lie on you liar!

(.........wisecrack 19462.........)....23.ui9

[Hebrews116]

Good question. I don't know!

[Xerf]

Liar!



Where did they get that song, "Liar, liar, pants on fire (pronounced fie yer)? Just because it rhymes? Or was there a more subtle inference? Like maybe you go to Hell for lieing!!!!!


SO the next time you are tempted to lie (age, weight, IQ) remember..........HOT SEAT!

[truemessianic]

From what I can understand from this passge, the old prophet dies for his disobedience to the Word of the Lord. God told him not to go back and eat, but he did anyway. Being a prophet requires extreme obedience, and failure in OT times meant death.

[tufluv]

It was a test from GOD, using that lying old prophet...and he failed it miserably. SAD indeed. How easily one can get persuaded that just 'cause someone says something is a truth, it is not always THE TRUTH!
and so, you get eaten by a lion! :eek: or worse, the lion that goes about roaring, seeking whom he may consume! That would be a worker of iniquity, evil, satan himself! Espousing false doctrines of devils...on & on, this could go.
JUST MY THOUGHTS!

[Legacy]

I think the answer to as why the old prophet lied to the prophet that came from another part of the country to do the will of God in telling the king the words of God was because even though he lived IN the vicinity God did not use him but appears to have to bring in a prophet from a distance. This no doubt bothered the old prophet and he set out to align himself with the prophet that obeyed God to appear that they were ONE. Human pride always is a LIAR!

Amen?

[Sandy]

That could be Legacy. But if you read the rest of the story from 1st Kings 13:26-32 they seem to suggest that it might have been a test the Lord had led that old prophet to partake in.

[Hnovilla]

His Name is Jesus!

Doesn't say WHY...but the scriptures DO teach us the problem.
"...every man who prays or prophecys with his 'head' covered, dishonors his 'head'..."
The 'Man of God" disobeyed God by listening to another man; in effect, he 'covered' his head. He had listened and obeyed the Lord up until the old prophet told him that an angel had spoken to him [the old prophet]. Of course, the 'Man of God' knew that angels could talk to men if summnoed by the Lord. But the 'Man of God' DID NOT NEED a message from anyone else because he was already in DIRECT communion with the Lord. By obeying the old prophet, the 'Man of God' dishonored the Voice of GOd.
Today, EXCEPT for the "...laying on of hands by the presbytery...", a man called by the Lord needs to listen to the Voice that has called him. He should not need another voicem except for a confirmation. There's more, but...

Brother Villa

[stmatthew]

I heard it preached that the old prophet was in a backslidden state because he was in Bethel, while God was working only in Judah. Of course the young man of God fell into a back slashed state when the lion got ahold of him.


All right, all right!! quit throwing the tomatoes :D

[Sandy]

Hinovilla. In other words, what we hear from God is what we should adhere to always, simply because of being one of his sheep according to John chapter 10:4, and therefore able to hear his voice. I agree totally.

Matthew, was your original question, why did the old prophet lie, and not why the young one disobeyed though?

[stmatthew]

Yes Sandy,

My original question was why did the old prophet lie?? Its just one of those wondering questions I have. I don't know that the bible gives an answer per say. Just thought i would ask and see if someone had an answer.

[Sandy]

It doesn't say, true But none the less, God did not slay him for doing so, which could suggest that he might have been led to do what he did. But on the other hand, what Legacy suggested may be true too.

I used to wander why the Lord slayed the other one though, because it seemed he was deceived by the lieing one. But I believe the Lord revealed to me that it was because he should have known better than to believe the words of a man above the Words that God spoke directly to him. And that he did so because his flesh got in the way. Pretty much similar to what Adam and Eve did in the Garden, I would say. And so God slayed Him just as He said He would.

Pretty heavy message to us isn't it? When God tells you something, and man tells you something else, you had better listen to the Word of the Lord huh?

[Sandy]

In other words, if the Lord tells you to stand on your head and stack bee bee's, you had better look for a way to do it, even if you have to get up against a wall to first stand on your head, and then hold the bee bee's together thus only able to stack two of them. :D