1 Kings 13:19 Komentář

In the close of the foregoing chapter we left Jeroboam attending his altar at Beth-el, and there we find him in the beginning of this, when he received a testimony from God against his idolatry and apostasy. This was sent to him by a prophet, a man of God that lived in Judah, who is the principal subject of the story of this chapter, where we are told, I. What passed between him and the new king. 1. The prophet threatened Jeroboam's altar (Kg1 13:1, Kg1 13:2), and gave him a sign (Kg1 13:3), which immediately came to pass (Kg1 13:5). 2. The king threatened the prophet, and was himself made another sign, by the withering of his hand (Kg1 13:4), and the restoring of it upon his submission and the prophet's intercession (Kg1 13:6). 3. The prophet refused the kindness offered him thereupon (Kg1 13:7-10). II. What passed between him and the old prophet. 1. The old prophet fetched him back by a lie, and gave him entertainment (Kg1 13:11-19). 2. He, for accepting it, in disobedience to the divine command, is threatened with death (Kg1 13:20-22). And, 3. The threatening is executed, for he is slain by a lion (Kg1 13:23, Kg1 13:24), and buried at Beth-el (Kg1 13:25-32). 4. Jeroboam is hardened in his idolatry (Kg1 13:33, Kg1 13:34). "Thy judgments, Lord, are a great deep."

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 13 In this chapter is an account of a man of God being sent to exclaim against Jeroboam's altar, and threaten its destruction, of which he gave a sign, which was accomplished, and with it the withering of the king's hand, which was healed upon the prophet's prayer for him, Kg1 13:1, who would have entertained him at his house, but he refused the offer, and departed, Kg1 13:8, but an old prophet in Bethel hearing of him, rode after him, and fetched him back to eat bread with him, through a lie he told him, Kg1 13:11 upon which the word came to the old prophet, threatening the man of God with death for disobeying his command, and which was accordingly executed by a lion that met him in the way, and slew him, Kg1 13:20, of which the old prophet being informed, went and took up his carcass, and buried it in his own sepulchre, where he charged his sons to bury him also when dead, believing that all the man of God had said would be fulfilled, Kg1 13:25 and the chapter is closed with observing the continuance of Jeroboam in his idolatry, Kg1 13:33.

And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah,.... His mind being greatly affected with the word brought to him, partly on his own account, who, by a lie his conscience must accuse him of, had been the means of seducing the man of God, and partly on his account, who was threatened with death for complying with him: saying, thus saith the Lord; being obliged to deliver, in the name of the Lord, what was said unto him: forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord; the order that came out of his mouth, as follows: and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee; not to eat nor drink in Bethel.

For even if God does prefer the works of righteousness, still, these works are not without sacrifice, which represents a soul afflicted with fasts. He, at all events, is the God to whom neither a people incontinent of appetite nor a priest nor a prophet was pleasing. To this day the “monuments of concupiscence” remain, where the people, greedy of “flesh”—until, by devouring without digesting the quails, they brought on cholera—were buried. Eli breaks his neck before the temple doors, his sons fall in battle, his daughter-in-law expires in childbirth. For such was the blow that had been deserved at the hand of God by the shameless house, the defrauder of the fleshy sacrifices. Sameas, a man of God, after prophesying the issue of the idolatry introduced by king Jeroboam (the drying up and immediate restoration of that king’s hand; after the rending in two of the sacrificial altar), being on account of these signs invited [home] by the king by way of reward, plainly declined [for he had been prohibited by God] to touch food at all in that place. However, having presently afterwards rashly taken food from another old man who deceitfully professed himself a prophet, he was deprived of burial in his fathers’ sepulchers, in accordance with the word of God then and there uttered over the table. For he was felled by the rushing of a lion on him along the way and was buried among strangers; and thus he paid the penalty of his breach of fast. These will be warnings both to people and to bishops, even spiritual ones, in case they may ever have been guilty of not controlling their appetite.

A man of God prophesies against Jeroboam's altar, and foretells the destruction of that altar, and of its idolatrous priests by Josiah; and gives Jeroboam a sign that the prophecy should be accomplished, Kg1 13:1-3. Jeroboam is enraged, and orders the man of God to be seized; and stretching out his hand for this purpose, his arm dries up, Kg1 13:4. The altar is rent, and the ashes poured out, according to the sign given by the man of God; and at his intercession Jeroboam's arm is restored, Kg1 13:5, Kg1 13:6. Jeroboam wishes to engage him in his service, but he refuses, and tells him that he was ordered by God not even to eat or drink in that place; and he accordingly departs, Kg1 13:7-10. An old prophet that dwelt at Beth-el, hearing of this, rides after the man of God; deceives him; brings him back to his house, and persuades him to eat and drink, Kg1 13:11-19. While he is eating, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet, and he foretells the death of the man of God; who departing is met by a lion, and slain, Kg1 13:20-25. On hearing this, the old prophet goes to the place, finds the carcass, brings it home, burns it, and mourns over it, charging his sons to bury him, when dead, in the same grave, Kg1 13:26-32. Notwithstanding these warnings, Jeroboam continues in his idolatry, Kg1 13:33, Kg1 13:34.

So he went back with him - He permitted himself to be imposed on; he might have thought, as he had accomplished every purpose for which God sent him, and had actually begun to return by another way, God, who had given him the charge, had authority to say, "As thy purpose was to obey every injunction, even to the letter, I now permit thee to go with this old prophet, and take some refreshment." Now God might as well have dispensed with this part of the injunction, as he did in the case of Abraham: Take thy son Isaac, thy only son, whom thou lovest - and offer him for a burnt-offering; but, when he saw his perfect readiness, he dispensed with the actual offering, and accepted a ram in his stead. Thus much may be said in vindication of the man of God: but if this be so, why should he be punished with death, for doing what he had reason and precedent to believe might be the will of God? I answer: He should not have taken a step back, till he had remission of the clause from the same authority which gave him the general message. He should have had it from the word of the Lord to himself, in both cases, as Abraham had; and not taken an apparent contradiction of what was before delivered unto him, from the mouth of a stranger, who only professed to have it from an angel, who pretended to speak unto him by the word of the Lord. In this, and in this alone, lay the sinfulness of the act of the man of God, who came out of Judah.

JEROBOAM'S HAND WITHERS. (1Ki. 13:1-22) there came a man of God out of Judah--Who this prophet was cannot be ascertained, He came by divine authority. It could not be either Iddo or Ahijah, for both were alive after the events here related. Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense--It was at one of the annual festivals. The king, to give interest to the new ritual, was himself the officiating priest. The altar and its accompaniments would, of course, exhibit all the splendor of a new and gorgeously decorated temple. But the prophet foretold its utter destruction [Kg1 13:3].