And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived. Sermons
I. MERCY DISPLAYED IN THE MIDST OF JUDGMENT. The sin may have been forgiven though the chastisement fell. 1. His body was preserved from dishonour. The lion's ferocity was bridled; the prophet's body was neither eaten nor torn; he guarded the remains from the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field. (1) Though God chastises His erring people, He will not utterly cast them away. (2) The fiercest instruments of His vengeance can go only so far as He permits them. 2. The message he had borne received added weight by his punishment. In his humiliation God was exalted. The circumstances showed that the blow was from the hand of God, and the question was no doubt raised in many a heart, if the Lord has so punished His servant's error, what will Israel's judgment be? 3. He still preached in his grave. He was buried near the altar, and over his tomb was graven the story of his mission and his fate (2 Kings 23:17). II. THE PUNISHMENT OF UNFAITHFULNESS. When all has been said that can be of the attendant mercy, the judgment still stands out in terribleness. The prophet still preached, but the cry came up from the dark pathway of death. Its place was not among the vessels of mercy, but among the vessels of wrath. If we eat in idolatrous Bethel, even though it be in ignorance, God's hand will find us. He punishes now in spiritual leanness, and that again leads to deeper judgment; in the falling away of our children into indifference and worldliness and sin, and will not God demand their blood at our hand? God will have perfect compliance in regard to the conduct of His own worship; He demands "a pure offering." Are we making His word our only law? Whose altar are we serving, Jehovah's or Jeroboam's? III. BETHEL'S ANSWER TO GOD'S WARNINGS. 1. The prophet's fear. (1) He owned God's servant. He cared for his body, mourned over him with the cry, "Alas my brother!" placed him in his own tomb and had his own bones laid beside those of the man of God. (2) He lifted up again God's testimony (ver. 32). The beginning of a better thing in Bethel is ever after this fashion: the honouring God's servants, cleaving to them, and continuing their work. 2. The king's unconcern. We are not told that he did anything worse than he had done before; he simply "returned not from his evil way." And this became sin to his house, to cut it off and to destroy it, etc. To bring upon ourselves God's judgments we need do no more than turn a deaf ear to His warnings. - J.U.
And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him. But, surely, to be slain by a lion on the way home was a much too sharp punishment for taking one's supper with a prophet and an angel; uneasy conscience and all. But then, "some sins," says that noble piece, the Westminster Larger Catechism, "receive their aggravation from the persons offending; if they be of riper age, greater experience in grace, eminent for profession, gifts, place, office, and as such are guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by others." The very case, to the letter, of the man of God out of Judah. The sublimity of his public services that morning had henceforth set up a corresponding standard for his private life. And this is one of our best compensations for preaching the grace of God and the law of Christ. Our office quickens our conscience; it makes the law cut deeper and deeper into us every day; and it compels us to a public and private life we would otherwise have escaped. Preaching recoils with terrible strokes on the preacher. It curtails his liberty in a most tyrannous way; it tracks him through all his life in a most remorseless manner. Think it out well, and count the cost before you become minister, or an elder, or a Sabbath School teacher, or a young communicant. Yes, it was surely a little sin, if ever there was a little sin, to sup that Sabbath night at an old prophet's table, and that, too, on the invitation of an angel(A. Whyte, D. D.) People David, Jeroboam, JosiahPlaces Bethel, SamariaTopics Behold, Beside, Body, Carcase, Carcass, Cast, Corpse, Dwelling, Dwelt, Lion, News, Passed, Passing, Prophet, Reported, Road, Speak, Standing, Stretched, Thrown, TownOutline 1. Jeroboam's hand withers6. and at the prayer of the prophet is restored 7. The prophet departs from Bethel 11. An old prophet brings him back 20. He is reproved by God 23. slain by a lion 26. buried by the old prophet 31. who confirms the prophecy 33. Jeroboam's obstinacy Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 13:23-29Library Whether Christ Took Flesh of the Seed of David?Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not take flesh of the seed of David. For Matthew, in tracing the genealogy of Christ, brings it down to Joseph. But Joseph was not Christ's father, as shown above ([4138]Q[28], A[1], ad 1,2). Therefore it seems that Christ was not descended from David. Objection 2: Further, Aaron was of the tribe of Levi, as related Ex. 6. Now Mary the Mother of Christ is called the cousin of Elizabeth, who was a daughter of Aaron, as is clear from Lk. 1:5,36. Therefore, … Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Interpretation of Prophecy. And Yet, by Reason of that Affection of the Human Heart... The Prophet Hosea. Paul's Departure and Crown; Kings Links 1 Kings 13:25 NIV1 Kings 13:25 NLT 1 Kings 13:25 ESV 1 Kings 13:25 NASB 1 Kings 13:25 KJV 1 Kings 13:25 Bible Apps 1 Kings 13:25 Parallel 1 Kings 13:25 Biblia Paralela 1 Kings 13:25 Chinese Bible 1 Kings 13:25 French Bible 1 Kings 13:25 German Bible 1 Kings 13:25 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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