Spiritual Failure Leads to Political
Failure. 1 Kings 13:1-34
When the northern kingdom
split from the southern kingdom and they appointed Jeroboam to be the king he
began to think about how he could secure his dynasty, forgetting what God said:
“If you obey me and walk with me I will establish your house.” He wants to
establish his house on his own terms and he is afraid that if the people in the
north keep going down to Jerusalem every two or three months for one of the
pilgrimage festivals, such as Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, that they would
see the splendour of the temple, the splendour of the blessings that God had
given the southern kingdom, and he would lose his power base. So he completely
forgets the objective divine viewpoint that God had given him, informing him
that God was splitting the kingdom and he wasn’t going to put it back together,
and so we see that in his soul he is enslaved to the darkness of human
viewpoint. That is the same picture that Paul gives in Romans chapter six where
he talks about the fact that we are all born slaves to the sin nature because
there is nothing else that we can do; that is the only nature that any human
nature has when they are born. They are born with a sin nature and even though
they can chose to do moral things or immoral things it all flows out of the sin
nature and we are born, as Paul says, slaves to unrighteousness. In the
darkness of sin every human being is enslaved in his soul. The only way to have
soul freedom comes by responding to the grace of God. In the Old testament they
believed that God would send a Messiah, a saviour who would redeem them and
establish a kingdom; in the New Testament we look back to the fact that Jesus
Christ died on the cross and we trust in Him, so that in Galatians chapter five
we are told that we have freedom. Christ has set us free from the tyranny of
sin and unrighteousness. So it is only when there is an external category of
righteousness, an external category of right and wrong, that we can live and
establish and implement within a culture, that there can be true freedom. That
can only come from the influence of believers as they function as salt in life
within a fallen world. We will never “redeem the culture”; it is impossible, it
is a silly phrase. The culture is the cosmic system. But we can have an impact
and provide that which gives stability to the culture, that which gives an
objective frame of reference for the culture.
Jeroboam has rejected that.
In negative volition civilisation after civilisation rejects the truth and
substitutes the fantasy of the rebellious creature, and then attempts to live
his life and construct all of society around the fantasy concept that is
antagonistic to the will and the Word of God. Jeroboam now has to justify what he
has done. He is then operating on the arrogance skills and not only is he
involved in self-deception, he is now involved in self-justification and is
going to establish his self-justification on the basis of a religious
framework. At the very centre of every system of thought there has to be a
focus and an explanation of ultimate reality, and that ultimate reality is
either that there is nothing or there is God, or some sort of god. That is the
only option. So the very core of any thought system rests upon some idea
related to religion, to some sort of spiritual ideology. That then informs
everything else whether it is the divinity of the ancient Egyptian kings or
whether it is based upon the truth of God’s Word as was seen in the influence
on the
We have to recognise that at
the core of every political system, every thought system, there is some sort of
religious idea. Jeroboam recognised this and he knew that he had to shift the
spiritual orientation of the people in the northern kingdom or he would
possibly lose everyone if they kept going down to
In order to justify their
positions they began to attack the very foundations of the American republic.
Other myths developed: the
What we have seen if we sit
down and analyse the trends of the last forty years is that is within the
so-called evangelical or fundamentalist church the Christian influence has been
fragmented by an incredible amount of false ideas about the Bible, about
salvation—core doctrines that once weren’t even debated in many of these
circles forty or fifty years ago are now questioned at the very seminaries that
were the bulwark for those doctrines. There are positions in theology today
that didn’t even exist then. The arrogance is palpable, and it is because
everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes. The Christians have become as
influenced by the relativism of the culture around them as the ancient
Israelites were during the period of the judges, so that the average Christian
and the average theologian today is no different from his counterpart in the
secular world—he doesn’t think biblically anymore, he thinks in terms of the
relativism of the culture. When the leadership has fallen into relativism and
the pew has fallen into relativism then the voice from the church has been
stifled. That is exactly what has happened. There is little influence from
Bible doctrine today, there is no understanding of
objective truth or objective standards, and when there is no objective truth
and standards the soul becomes enslaved to its own lusts. The people then have
only one value system and that is “whatever makes me feel good, whatever
stimulates my emotions, whatever gives me a sense of stability and happiness,
even if it is not real, as long as I have the façade, the dream, the hope that
everything is just going to work out; don’t confuse me with any facts, I don’t
want to analyse anything, I don’t want to know the truth, I just want to feel
good.” That is the trend of today.
In contrast, when there is a
large influence of Bible doctrine—which is what western civilisation saw coming
out of the Protestant Reformation, what
This is the situation we see
with Jeroboam. He is promoting the public lie: this golden calf is the god who
delivered them from slavery in
There are three key
characters in chapter thirteen: Jeroboam the 1st; the unnamed
prophet called the man of God; the old prophet. They key doctrine that is
emphasised here is the importance of the Word of God and maintaining the
integrity of the message of God. When that integrity is lost then the nation is
going to crumble and the leadership is going to crumble.
1 Kings 13:1 NASB
“Now behold, there came a man of God from
Background: Jeroboam came to
the throne (the nation had split to the north and the south) in 931 BC. He will be
on the throne for 21 years. In 722, approximately 210 years after the split,
It was in this context
that there was the fulfilment of this prophecy. What we must understand is that
prophecy in the Scripture has certain guidelines. There were certain tests that
were established in the Law so that the people would know whether a prophet was
really speaking from God. These tests are found in Deuteronomy 13 and 18. The one
that relates to this is found in Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NASB “But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name
which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of
other gods, that prophet shall die.’
Jeroboam, like most
tyrants, became immediately angry and he has to shut down anyone who is
speaking in opposition. 1 Kings 13:4 NASB “Now when the king heard
the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel,
Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, ‘Seize him.’ But his
hand which he stretched out against him dried up, so that he could not draw it
back to himself.” At the same time the near fulfilment occurs and the altar
splits apart and the ashes on the altar are poured out on the ground indicating
that the altar has now been desecrated and showing that God has completely
rejected Jeroboam’s religion, sacrifice and altar. It is a sign from God the
Jeroboam is completely outside of God’s will and does
not have any authorisation for this. The king is only concerned about his arm
and immediately begins to beg the prophet to heal his arm. 1 Kings 13:6 NASB
“The king said to the man of God, ‘Please entreat the LORD your God,
and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.’ So the man of God
entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it
became as it was before.” This is typical human viewpoint. People want to use
God for their own personal pleasure and agenda but they don’t want to submit
their will to God at all. In grace we see God heal him. God’s grace always
operates within judgment.
1 Kings 13:7 NASB
“Then the king said to the man of God, ‘Come home with me and refresh yourself,
and I will give you a reward.’” God had told the prophet not to eat, not to
stop, to go there and come back because He didn’t want him to a) be distracted
from his mission, and b) He didn’t want there to be any suggestion that he was
beholden to or in debt to the king for any reason at all. So the man of God
says: [8] “If you were to give me half your house I
would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. [9]
For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall eat no
bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.’” He understands
the integrity of the message. Up to this point the prophet shows integrity.
The fulfilment of this: 2
Kings 23. This is one of the five most incredible prophecies in all of the Old
Testament. If ever we are teaching that the Bible is evidence of the Word of
God this is one of those passages to indicate that. This chapter describes all
of the things that Josiah was doing in order to purify and reform the apostasy
that had occurred in the southern kingdom and to remove all of the influence of
all of the idols and false worship centres. Then in verse 15 we read: NASB
“Furthermore, the altar that {was} at Bethel {and} the high place which
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had
made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he demolished its
stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
[16] Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that {were} there on the
mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned {them} on
the altar and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the
man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. [17] Then he said, ‘What is
this monument that I see?’ And the men of the city told him, ‘It is the grave
of the man of God who came from
What happens in the rest
of the story shows what happens when we fail to maintain the integrity of God’s
Word, when we are not consistent in interpreting it and applying it. We now have an old prophet, confused, mixed-up, apostate,
mystical; there is a lot that we don’t know about this
old prophet. All we are told is that he lived there in
1 Kings 13:12 NASB
“Their father said to them, ‘Which way did he go?’ Now his sons had seen the
way which the man of God who came from
Now the old prophet is
speaking in verse 18 NASB “He said to him, ‘I also am a prophet like
you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back
with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ {But} he lied
to him.” This is a test to see if the unnamed prophet will maintain the
integrity of God’s Word as a prophet. He failed and so he is going to die. He
will be mauled and killed by a lion because he fails to maintain the integrity
of the Word. Rather than say, “God told me to do this” and refuse to change his
mind no matter what kind of experience the old prophet has, no matter what kind
of visions he saw, no matter what miracles he may claim to validate his message
from God, he says “I know that God told me not to eat or drink with anyone but
to go straight home, so whatever you say is wrong.” But rather than letting
doctrine determine his thinking and evaluating the situation he succumbs to
this lie on the basis of experience.
This goes right to the
second test that God established for evaluating revelation in Deuteronomy
chapter thirteen. This is one that applies to many things today, especially
within the charismatic movement. Deuteronomy 13:1 NASB “If a prophet
or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder…” He
says this is what God said to me, an angel appeared to me, I healed someone,
this miracle occurred. Notice in this passage that Moses doesn’t say it is a
false miracle or that it is deceptive. He accepts the miracle as legitimate.
[2] “and the sign or the wonder comes true…” He
actually predicted something, there is a healing that occurred, etc. “… concerning
which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not
known) and let us serve them’
Deuteronomy 13:3 NASB
“you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams;
for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God
with all your heart and with all your soul.
When the old prophet hears
about this in verse 26 he realises what has happened and he understands it
correctly. That is what is confusing about it. On the one hand he is deceptive
and seemingly confused, and on the other hand he recognises that this is from
the Lord. 1 Kings 13:26 NASB “Now when the prophet who brought
him back from the way heard {it,} he said, ‘It is the man of God, who disobeyed
the command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and
killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.’ [27] Then he spoke to his
sons, saying, ‘Saddle the donkey for me.’ And they saddled {it.} [28] He went
and found his body thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing
beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor torn the donkey. [29] So
the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and
brought it back, and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to
bury him. [30] He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him,
{saying,} ‘Alas, my brother!’ [31] After he had buried him, he spoke to his
sons, saying, ‘When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is
buried; lay my bones beside his bones. (That is what
Josiah is referencing in 2 Kings 23) For the thing shall
surely come to pass which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in
What is the conclusion of
all of this in relationship to Jeroboam and the political situation in