FBC Morning Light – June 3, 2023

Good morning, people of faith. We're in 1 Kings chapter 13 today, and I have to say that this chapter is a very special chapter to me. About 10 years ago, I was just coming out of a very dark time in my spiritual journey, and the pastor of the church that I was a member at had asked me if I would be willing to consider preaching some Sunday evening that summer.

And I had just come across 1 Kings chapter 13 and saw some things, and I had said to myself, there's some things in here that would make for a really good sermon. And so I hope to share in a condensed form some of those things with you this morning.

Jeroboam’s Rebellion and the Setup of 1 Kings 13

So 1 Kings chapter 13, we're going to talk mostly about Jeroboam. The story is going to start with Jeroboam, and it's going to end with Jeroboam, and there's going to be two unnamed people in the mix of this story in 1 Kings chapter 13.

So let me set some of the background here. Jeroboam has just led the rebellion, the 10 tribes of Israel against Judah. Only Benjamin has remained with Judah. And so Jeroboam is thinking very humanly here and strategizes to build the altars throughout the land of Israel, not at the temple, because he didn't want people going back to the temple.

And he's just trying to keep Israel as Israel and form his own little kingdom here. And that's where the story picks up is in chapter 13. God is going to send a messenger to Jeroboam. Verse 1, chapter 13, it says, And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

Then he cried out against the altar, that is this man of God, he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you.

And he gave a sign the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken, surely the altar shall split apart and the ashes on it be poured out. So this is the judgment that is being pronounced by this man of God in Judah.

The Man of God, the Lying Prophet, and the Cost of Disobedience

All right. And so let me try to condense the story a bit here. The Jeroboam stretches out his hand to try and stop or pronounce, say, get him, stop him, and his hand rolls up. All right. The altar does in fact split apart then and there.

The man of God from Judah entreats the Lord for Jeroboam's hand to be healed and his hand is healed. At which time, Jeroboam invites the man of God into his home, say, come and eat with me, a ritual, and you can receive your reward.

And the man of God reveals that the Lord has told him, don't go back or don't go and stop any place and just return home. Don't eat in anyone's home. All right. So he refuses Jeroboam. Along comes a, let's call him the lying prophet of Bethel.

And he says to the man of God from Judah, the Lord told me that you're supposed to eat with me. And it says right in the text, and he was lying. So let's just refer to him as the lying prophet. And so the man of God from Judah is deceived into thinking, well, maybe I was supposed to do this.

And he goes and eats bread in the home of the lying prophet. At which time it's revealed that man of God from Judah is not going to make it back to his home. He's going to be healed on the way. So first lesson you need to learn from that is past obedience and even past triumphs through your obedience are no free pass to disobedience in the future.

All right. You have no guarantee that if you walk in rebellion or you purposely willfully reject what the Lord has said and what you know to be true, that bad things won't happen to you. That, I mean, those sorts of things can happen in a moment when you willfully choose the wrong thing.

The Lion, the Donkey, and the Judgment on Jeroboam

So the man of God from Judah leaves the lying prophet's home. And along the way, a lion comes down and kills him. All right. And it says here in, I believe it's verse 24. Says when he was gone, that is the man of God from Judah, a lion met him on the road and killed him and his corpse was thrown on the road and the donkey stood by it.

The lion also stood by the corpse. So think for a moment what's happening in this picture. The man of God from Judah has just been killed. The donkey stays right there and the lion stays right there. Most of us have probably been to a zoo, but I guarantee you have not been to a zoo where the donkeys and the lions are kept in the same place.

Why is that? Because the lions will eat the donkeys, right? And so right here, you have another supernatural event taking place in order to show the judgment that is going to come upon Jeroboam. All right.

And so you have a lion, you have a donkey, and you have a human corpse. And the lion is just sitting there, not eating the corpse, not attacking the donkey, none of that. And all of this gets back to Jeroboam.

And so when the word of God goes forth, it goes forth with purpose. And we would like to think sometimes that that purpose is always for people to repent and come back to the truth, to submit to the truth.

That's what we would like to think. Verse 33 says, after this event, it is the event of the lion with the donkey and the human corpse. And keep in mind that Jeroboam's hand had shriveled, the altar had broken up, his hand was healed.

He's had lots of signs that what the man of God said to him was in fact true. Says, and after this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way. But again, he made priests from every class of people for the high places.

Whoever wished, he consecrated him and became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

Responding to God’s Word with Repentance and Faithfulness

So the word of God went forth in first Kings chapter 13, but it went forth as judgment on Jeroboam and his descendants. Let it be of us that we do not respond. It should be our, the prayer of our heart or our heart cry to say, Lord, do not let me be as Jeroboam who walked in open rebellion, thinking only in human terms about the situation between Israel and Judah.

And let it be of us, let it be said that we responded to the works that you have done, that you have clearly shown us in your word. Let's pray. Heavenly father this morning, help us to respond to what you show us in your word and how you are clearly at work in all of your creation.

Help us to serve and follow you with all that we have and all that we are. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.