Turn with me in the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 13, on page 373 in your pew Bibles. 1 Kings chapter 3, and we will read the whole chapter. Here is God's Word. 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. And the man cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and he 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 offering on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. 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 in it shall be poured out. 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, sees him and his hand which he stretched out against him dried up so that he could not draw it back to himself. 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. 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. And the king said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. 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. For so it was 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. So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. 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. And their father said to them, Which way did he go? And his son showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. And he said to his son, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it. 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. Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. 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. 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. 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. So he went back with him, and he ate bread in his house and drank water. And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 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, 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. And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 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 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 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, which 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. And he said to his son, saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled it. 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. 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 it. And he laid the body in his own grave and they mourned over him saying, Alas, my brother. And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, Would I die? Bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried. lay my bones besides his bones. 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. After this thing, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. So I really like this text. You have confrontation. You have perplexing commands, you have unexpected plot twists, and you have a lion. What more could you want? But as we read it, on maybe your first read, and then maybe your second and third or more, you're left wondering, what is this all about? What just happened here? Who's the hero in this story? The guy that we were cheering for, maybe at the beginning, this courageous man of God from Judah, he ends up being mourned. He ends up dead. And then the guy who got him killed is the one who ends up mourning him and burying him. What is this? Did the good guy become the bad guy and the bad guy become the good guy? Or something similar? Or are we just asking the wrong questions? We usually like our stories, at least our biblical stories, to be a little bit more clear-cut, a little cleaner in how they go. Well, as we look at this passage, we'll see that it does have a clear message, one for Israel back then and one for us now. And as we think of that, we have to remember who it was written to. Where does the book of Kings end? It ends with Israel in exile. They are in exile. Their kings, first Israel has been marched off, and then Judah to a foreign land. Their kings, they were killed, or they were taken prisoners. The land and their capital was destroyed, and God's temple, it was broken about. Bit by bit, it's gold stripped off, all of its vessels and everything taken as plunder to Babylon. And so the exiles are sitting there. Just one of a number of foreign peoples under this great foreign power and king. And they're waiting. They're waiting, waiting and wondering about God and his word. What are those promises? Those promises to Abraham, what are those promises to David? And meanwhile, life goes on. They're in exile. There's kids to raise, bills to pay, work to be done. But the questions remain. And I think if we admit it, we often have questions too. We also have kids to raise, bills to pay, work to be done. We look around the world and we see the state of the church, fractured, struggling, internal strife, external problems, all overshadowed by the powers that be, the powers of the world round about us. We're but one small group among the many different religions, belief systems in this world, and we're waiting, and often waiting, and wondering about God and his work in this world. So tonight we'll look first at our text in more detail as we have this confrontation with the king and then a testing of the messenger. And then we'll reflect more on how this was to apply, how this was to comfort and teach Israel and us as we think of the power of the word of God. Our text begins with Jeroboam, king of the north, at an altar in Bethel. And we need to remember that Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Solomon had been unfaithful, so God tore away ten of the tribes and gave them to Jeroboam. But Jeroboam also was unfaithful. He did not trust the Lord, and he was afraid that if the people went south to the temple to worship, that they would return to Solomon's sons, Rehoboam. And so he set up golden calves, one at the south, one at the northern end of his kingdom, in Bethel and in Dan. And he made altars, he established his own priests, he had his own festivals. All against God's word. And so at the beginning of our text here, Jeroboam is about to offer incense upon his altar. And this man of God comes from Judah. Man of God, another name for a prophet. He comes and he foretells of the desecration of this altar by the burning of human bones. Verse 2 there, 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 and make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. And as we read that, what's maybe so amazing about this prophecy is that he names the very person to do it. Josiah by name, a coming Davidic king. who would reign 300 years later. And he also offers a sign. He says that this altar will be split and the ashes will pour out. Well, Jeroboam is none too pleased. And so he asserts his royal authority, sees this man. But as he does that, the sign of his royal authority, his arm, is shriveled up. And that sign on the altar is fulfilled. It splits, the ashes go out. And so this brings about a change, though maybe only briefly in Jeroboam, as he now pleads for healing. And as he's healed, and then offers hospitality to this man of God, maybe in thankfulness for that, he has this invitation, come dine with me and be rewarded. We find out this man of God had another command upon him that we find in verse 9. God had told him, you shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way you came. And so he refuses the king. He refuses to go with him. Now, as we hear this command that God gave him, we wonder about its purpose. Why did God tell him to do that? Why was that part of his commission? Is he not to eat and drink there because a common meal would be a sign that he was accepting of what was going on? Many have thought something like that. It would legitimize them. But we're not told. But what we really see in the story is this command acts as a test for this man of God. Will he obey or will he fail in that? And would his disobedience cause disgrace? Well, it seems that the man of God passes this test. He refuses Jeroboam, but that's not the end of it. And I think the severity of this test has often been misunderstood. It's clear enough what it means not to eat or drink. But notice that last phrase. Not to return by the way that he came. You shall not return by the way that you came. Many argue, and most understand this, as that the man of God came on one road and he has to go back to Judah on another road. And it certainly is an inconvenience not to eat or drink. Jerusalem and Bethel are about 10 miles apart and there aren't many roads between them so it would be kind of a hassle to take a different way back. But I think that last command has been misinterpreted in that. Instead, it's actually a command that he cannot return at all. We find similar phrases used, and one in Deuteronomy that makes such a statement. Deuteronomy 17, 16 is talking about the king, and he's not to send people to Egypt to get horses. And the reason is given, it says, because God said, you shall not return in that way again. The point is not that they can return to Egypt in another way, but they're not allowed to return at all. So God has commanded this man of God to come there, not eat or drink, and not to go home. And so we now see the severity of this test, and I think we can also now see why we next find this man of God sitting under a tree. waiting for God to give him further instruction. And that's really where we get this harder test for the man of God. This comes from an old prophet in Bethel. This old prophet hears all that's happened from his sons, and then he sets off on his donkey after the man of God. We're not told why. What's he trying to do? What does he want to accomplish? But it becomes somewhat clear in the story. He's going there to test this man of God. We at least wonder what this prophet of God is doing in Bethel amid all of the apostasy and false worship there of Jeroboam. Why wasn't he the one condemning that altar instead of this man of God? What were his sons doing as they observed this? Or were they even participating in the activities? So is this old man seeking some way to undermine the authority of the man of God and thereby his condemnation of that altar? This old prophet, he finds the man of God under the tree and knowing the command that he can't eat or drink, he invites him home to eat bread with him. The man of God seems to pass the test at first, repeating again what God had told him. But the old prophet was ready for that. And he responds by claiming to have a word from God given by an angel. Verse 18, as we read that, but we're told right at the end that he lied. This is the real test. The man of God knows what God commanded him, But now he's confronted with another word spoken by one claiming to be a prophet. The man of God agrees to go home with him. The old prophet brings him back and they sit down and they eat and they drink. And as we read this account, I can't help but think of another test that involved a command not to eat and also a tree. Well, at this point in the story, we've pretty much identified this old prophet as the enemy. The only word he has is lies that we've seen. But shockingly, we now find that the prophet really is a prophet. As he becomes the mouthpiece for God's judgment against the man of God. Verse 21. Since you've done this, since you've come back, your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. You have rebelled against the mouth of the Lord. You haven't guarded the commandment. And this curse to not be buried in the tomb of the fathers, that was really a sign of blessing in the land, that continuity to be buried in the family grave. So this was very much a sign of judgment, and it implied an untimely death away from his land. And it's at least worthy of note that it means that his command not to return would now be enforced upon him permanently. Now, this is where I love Old Testament narratives. I imagine things at the table may have been a little awkward after this. What do you talk about after you've lied to somebody and now you pronounce judgment on them? Can you discuss the weather, the price of wool? We're more interested, did this old prophet say sorry? Did he explain himself? Did he apologize? Sorry about getting you killed and all that. But we're not told. They just finish eating, and they get up, and this man of God leaves. Now, it's a small detail, but verse 23 could probably better be translated something like this, the end part of it, as it talks about the donkey. It could be better translated, He saddled for him the donkey belonging to the prophet who had brought him back. Meaning that the old prophet saddled one of his donkeys. We aren't told that the man of God had his own. So this old prophet is saddling his donkey for the man of God. And as one commentator says, The Bethel prophet gives the man of God his ass, knowing that he would soon have it back, that this prophecy would come. Now, we're not told where the man of God was heading, but a lion finds him, very similar to the prophet finding him earlier. And the lion kills him. That all seems straightforward. But then the lion does something very un-lion-like. He just stands there. And it's not just the lion, the donkey. The donkey upon whom this man of God was riding when the lion comes out and kills him, he doesn't run away. Instead, he just stands there. And so imagine the scene. You're walking along a road, and there's a dead body in the middle of the road with a lion standing on one side and a donkey on the other. Boy, you have a story to tell when you get to town. And very soon, this old prophet hears that story. And he knows right away, this is the man of God. This is not a normal animal killing. Lions and donkeys don't act this way. This is clearly judgment. This is clearly judgment from God. And we must note the irony. The lion was keeping the commandment given to the man of God. He wasn't eating. The old prophet goes and he brings the man of God back again, although this time dead. And he once more surprises us by his actions. He mourns the man of God, calls him his brother, puts him in his own tomb, and then tells his sons to place him in that same tomb when he dies, put their bones together. Now, we should note that Israelites in this period, they didn't dig holes in the ground in order to bury their dead. Instead, they cut out in the rock tombs like caves. And there were benches in there on which they would lay the body of somebody who had died. And then they would come back after everything had decomposed. And then they would collect the bones and put them together in some sort of container. And so this old prophet, by burying this man of God, in one way he's fulfilling the prophecy that he delivered to him, burying him in a tomb different from that of his father's. But it's also a sign of respect and honor for him, giving him a proper burial. For it was a curse to have your body remain exposed for all the beasts of the field and birds of the heavens to devour and destroy. And so the man of God's death was a punishment, but his burial showed that the punishment was not the end. And as we think of what's this old prophet doing, what is most important is the reason, he says, why he wants to be buried with this man of God, why he wants his bones with the man of God's bones. And we read of that in verse 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's happened here? Well, the death of the man of God by the lion has convinced the old prophet that the man of God truly spoke for God, that he really was a man of God. The command not to eat and drink proved true. And so the prophecy about the altar would also come true. And yet, why does that motivate the old prophet to be buried with the man of God, their bones collected together? Well, remember verse 2 as we think of the prophecy. So look back there. 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. Now turn with me to 2 Kings 23. 2 Kings chapter 23, verses 15 through 18. We're in the reign of a king called Josiah. Josiah was doing a great reform, and so we pick up in the midst of it. Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place, he, that is Josiah, pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed who had predicted these things. Then he said, what is that monument I see? And the men of the city told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel. And he said, let him be. Let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. Human bones, like human corpses, were a source of impurity in Israel. People could touch them, they had to, to bury their dead, but you would be unclean for seven days, needing to be sprinkled by ash water to become clean. But human bones, and also bodies, were never to touch something holy, like an altar, since you were never allowed to make them unclean, to defile them. And so we can see the significance of Josiah's actions. He's going to all these false places of worship, supposed holy sites, and not only destroying them, but treating them with contempt, making them unusable by defiling them with human bones. But the other significance is that Josiah, as he looked and gathered those bones, He didn't disturb the bones of the man of God or those of the prophet who was buried with him. And the verb there didn't disturb them. It could also be translated as spared or even saved. To have your bones removed and used to defile something was in many ways a curse. Removing your bones from their proper resting place. Dishonoring them as you scattered them abroad. And so the old prophet was in the end saved by his identification with this man of God from Judah. Now, as we reflect on this story as a whole, I hope it's clear now where we need to focus, where the focus of this lies, how to ask the right questions. Because this is a story about the power of the Word of God. God's Word will accomplish its purposes. It comes as a word of condemnation against this apostasy of Jeroboam, and its power is shown in the signs accompanying it, the withering hand, the split altar. It comes as this command to the man of God, and it comes true through the lion in his disobedience. God's word isn't dependent in this story upon the faithfulness of his servants. When the man of God disobeys, God can confront him, even using that lying old prophet. God can use weak and frail vessels. And we need to see that God's word calls for a response. On the one side, it leads to transformation, even salvation, as it's accepted and believed. The old prophet living amongst the apostasies of Jeroboam, when confronted by the power of God's word as it's fulfilled in that judgment on the man of God, he's changed. He's now affirming God's word, knowing that all that the man of God had proclaimed will come to pass. And he's seeking to connect himself with him, with his burial. But we need to see the contrast also. Jeroboam was also confronted, as we saw in the beginning. That was a call for repentance to him. And yet, what do we find about him? Well, that's the end of our passage, verses 33 through 34. After this thing, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam so as to cut it off and destroy it from the face of the earth. Jeroboam does not repent, unlike that man of the old prophet. Instead, he persists in his rebellion against the Lord, and so God brings judgment on him and his house. And the sins that he introduced, those golden calves, that false altar, they persist year upon year, generation upon generation, through 19 different kings, and yet God's word does come to fulfillment against it. God's word will conquer. As we read, the word of judgment against that altar comes to pass 300 years later as Josiah comes, the son of David who will be born, this righteous one who arises, who abolishes the work of the devil as he cleanses Judah and Israel of false worship. Israel, in their exile, needed to hear this message. They needed to understand and believe that it was actually by God's power, His Word, that they were there. His power, His Word, was the one that brought judgment upon them. The destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, the capturing of their kings. It was a hard word because it was a word against sin and rebellion. But it was one that called for a change, confession and repentance. And many commentators argue that this man of God from Judah and this old prophet in Bethel, they in some ways represent Judah and Israel to us. And in these parallels, Judah is shown that if they join with, if they follow Israel, it will lead to judgment, as it did for that man of God, as he followed home the old prophet from Bethlehem. But, and that's what we see played out, as Judah does follow Israel in their apostasies. But it's not the end of the story, because Israel was also shown something. they needed to see where there was salvation. And that was in identifying themselves with Judah, with the word of God given to Judah to look for salvation from judgment, as that old prophet did in his burial. Because God's word to Israel, to Judah, was not just judgment, but there was also word of restoration of hope. If we read, we find that there is this other son of David that is to come. And so as God's people waited in exile, they needed to be reminded of that power of God's word. It was sure. It would be fulfilled. They needed to believe and to place their trust in the God who promised the coming salvation. And we know of that fulfillment. It came about 600 years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile. Another son of David came. But more than that, for as John tells us in his gospel, this was the word of God come in flesh. God incarnate to save. The death of that man of God, we said, proved that he was really God's spokesman, a man of God. At Jesus' death, the centurion stated, truly, this man was the Son of God. And all who are united with him, with Jesus in his death, participate in a much greater salvation. Not just the preservation of their bones, but life everlasting shown in his resurrection. And yet, here we are 2,000 years later. We are still waiting. Waiting and sometimes wondering about His Word and its fulfillment. His coming in glory to make all things new. He has promised that. And yet, it seems He tarries 2,000 years. And so we need this encouragement too. We need to look back and see the power of God's Word. God will bring it to fulfillment. We need this encouragement. We need our eyes to begin, be refocused upon Jesus, that founder and perfecter of our faith. We need to hold fast to His gospel. We need to pray. Pray believing, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Let us pray. dear heavenly father as we in our lives are discouraged or as we become distracted with this world around us and its many cares and concerns may we be reminded as we look at your word what you have done in the past and those promises that you have given to us for the future and may we know that they will come that you will return to make all things new and so may that be ever our hope and ever our expectation and ever that encouragement to spur us on in this life we pray this in Jesus name Amen