In the 1970's the famous boxer George Foreman owned a pet lion. Are you brave enough to take on a lion as a pet?
The Brewery Ministries Paraphrase
One day God sends a prophet called the “man of God” from Judah to Bethel with a specific mission: Heckle King Jeroboam while he’s sacrificing to a golden calf. The prophet shows up and predicts that someday a guy named Josiah will tear down the altar and burn human bones on it. Then he says, “In case you don’t believe me, I’ll make another prediction; today the altar will split in two.”
The king doesn’t like this much. He shouts “arrest that man!” but in a classic “don’t touch me” move—his hand supernaturally shrivels up like a giant raisin. Then it happens. As the king stands on the altar, the stone cracks down the middle and the ashes spill out.
But in a surprisingly classy move, the prophet heals the hostile King’s hand. However, he refuses a royal dinner invitation because God gave him three strict rules: 1. No bread. 2. No water. 3. Don’t go home the same way you came.
Then an old local prophet hears about the drama and tracks the Man of God down. He invites him over for wine and snacks. The Man of God says, “Can’t. God’s orders.”
Then comes the bizarre part: The old prophet tells a lie, “Oh, don’t worry! An angel told me it’s okay now! Come on over.”
The Man of God falls for it. While they’re eating, the old local prophet shares some words directly from God: “Since you didn’t follow God’s orders, you’re not going to survive the journey home.”
On his way home, a lion jumps out and kills the Man of God. But here’s the weird part: The lion doesn’t eat the guy, and it doesn’t attack his donkey. It just stands there next to the body like it’s guarding the corpse.
The old prophet hears the news, hauls the body back through a river of tears, buries him in his own grave, and tells his sons: “When I die, bury me next to him.”
The moral of the story? Don’t let an old man and an angel trick you into eating a sandwich.
Work Through the Evidence
King Jeroboam’s altar is brand new when it cracks, which is odd.* Usually altars in Israel were made of stone. This certainly happened to send a message. What do you think the symbolism might be behind the altar cracking?
What about the man of God’s second prediction? A guy named Josiah actually did burn human bones on the altar approximately 300 years later. He tore down the shoddy altar, then took the bones of the priests out of the tombs and burned them on the altar (documented in 2 Kings 23). Burning human bones would defile the altar making it unuseable. Why do you think these predictions are in the story and what do they mean to you?
Nobody really knows for sure why the prophet from Bethel lied to the man of God, but let’s take a stab at it. Do you have any theories?
Here’s a clue to understanding God’s instructions for the man of God. Sharing a meal with someone had a different meaning than it has in our culture today. For them, it had spiritual connotations meaning you agreed with and endorsed the other person’s spiritual practices. How is this different from sharing a meal with someone today?
Clues from the book of Exodus can help you decipher the story’s meaning. Shortly after God saved the people from a life of slavery in Egypt, they asked their priest to make a golden calf for them to worship. When the priest presented the calf, he told the people, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4). Fast-forward to this story. Israel isn’t getting along and they split into two kingdoms. King Jeroboam rules the northern kingdom. His people keep traveling to the temple in the southern kingdom. What if the two kingdoms make up and reunite? He’ll lose his kingdom and political power. Like any good politician, he invents a solution: make a counterfeit religion! If the two kingdoms have different religions, they’ll never reunite! So the king makes his own temple, altar and not one but two golden calves. Then he makes a familiar announcement: “Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” What do you think of the King’s scheme? How does this explain why God told the man of God not to eat or drink with anyone during his visit?
There’s a subtle clue that the man of God’s death may have been supernatural. Normally lions eat their prey, but this lion did not. He killed the man and stood by his body. Second, the man of God was a prophet of Judah. The symbol of the tribe of Judah was a lion. Do you think the lion was just an animal, an “agent” of God, or something else?
In the end, the man of God gets tricked by someone who probably seemed spiritually credible to him. What can you learn from this?
Why It Matters
This story might seem confusing at first, but a few clues help make more sense out of it. First, it’s meant to remind us of the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). In both stories, God gave humans some instructions but also told them to stay away from something that could corrupt them (like fruit from the tree of knowledge). In both stories, a seemingly credible spiritual figure lies and tricks our main character(s). Finally, taking the forbidden action leads to death in both stories.
It also may be important to recognize that this was a high-stakes political and spiritual situation. That means the story isn’t saying we shouldn’t eat meals with people of other religions; this situation had a very specific context. But it is also true that God held prophets to a higher standard than the average person. We may not be able to look at this chapter to find out how God would necessarily deal with us today. But you might be able to think of it like this: The man of God signed up for one of God’s most important missions, then broke the battle plan while he was “on the clock.” He was sent to confront a compromised religious system but was duped by it himself. It serves as a reminder that we all relive Adam and Eve’s choice to take the forbidden fruit in some way.
This story becomes important because Israel never recovered from the split which eventually led to two complete disasters: Israel was conquered by Assyria. Judah fell to Babylon.
1 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’”
4 And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. 5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. 14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” 18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him.
19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. 20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”
23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. 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.”
What Did You Find?
My Overall Conclusions
I Learned This About God
I Learned This About Myself
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