THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET
‘And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back,’ etc.
1 Kings 13:20
I. Consider what was the mission or work of this prophet of Judah.—Jeroboam, like many a statesman since his time, looked upon religion, not as the happiness and strength of his own life, but simply as an instrument of successful government. He saw that if, after the separation of the ten tribes, Jerusalem should still continue to be the religious centre of the whole nation, sooner or later it would become the political centre too. The prophet was to Jeroboam what Samuel was to Saul after the victory over Amalek. He announced God’s displeasure at the most critical moment of his life, when an uninterrupted success was crowned with high-handed rebellion against the gracious Being who had done everything for the rebel. The prophet placed the king under the ban of God. It was a service of the utmost danger; it was a service of corresponding honour.
II. Consider the temptations to which the Jewish prophet was exposed in the discharge of his mission.—It was not difficult for him to decline Jeroboam’s invitation to eat and drink with him. The invitation of the old prophet was a much more serious temptation, and had a different result. This old prophet was a religious adventurer who had a Divine commission and even supernatural gifts, yet who placed them at the service of Jeroboam. He wanted to bring the other prophet down to his own level. Looking at the sacred garb, the white hairs, of the old prophet of Beth-el, the prophet of Judah listened to the false appeal to his own Lord and Master, and he fell.
III. Notice the prophet’s punishment.—By a solemn, a terrible, irony the seducer was forced to pass a solemn sentence on his victim. If the sterner penalty was paid by the prophet who disobeyed, and not by the prophet who tempted, this is only what we see every day. The victims of false teaching too often suffer, while the tempter seems to escape. The lesson from the story is that our first duty is fidelity to God’s voice in conscience.
Canon Liddon.
Illustrations
(1) ‘No gifts could save this prophet from his ruin when once he left the pathway of obedience. He was a man of God inspired for a great work—there was given to him the power of working miracles—he was courageous and thoroughly in earnest—he had said in his heart “Here am I, send me”—yet darkness fell on him, and all was lost, spite of his calling, and all his gifts and graces, because he disobeyed the will of heaven. That is a lesson for the brightest boys, and for the girls who are beautiful or gifted. Are we not tempted to think, if we are finely dowered, that God will forgive us for a little liberty? But for the genius, as for the dullest brain, there is only one path to peace and power and safety, and that is to walk in God’s commandment, and strive to be obedient to His will.’
(2) ‘The prophet turned from the stir and throng of Bethel to the solitude of the road that led to Judah, and it was then, in the very flush of victory, that he was tempted again, and yielded to temptation. Many an army has been put to flight in the hours that followed on some great success. They became careless—they grew secure and easy—and all unexpectedly they were assailed again. And as it is with armies, so with men. It is a glad and a good thing to be victorious. But the season that follows on a moral victory is often a season that is big with danger. That is what Paul means when, writing to the Ephesians, he bids them “having done all, to stand.” This prophet had “done all” that God had laid on him, yet having done it all, he failed to stand. There is danger when the breaker lifts its head and with a wild thunder dashes on the shore, but not less dangerous is its retreat, as it moves back again into the deeps.’
(3) ‘The vital importance of this prophet’s work is to be found not only in his message, but in the fact that he was called to utter it when the kingdom of the north was in its infancy. Now in such circumstances would you not have thought that the name of the prophet would have been written large? Would you not have expected it upon the page of scripture, so to be held in perpetual remembrance? Instead of that we do not know his name, nor his home, nor his father or his mother—he is just “a man of God out of Judah.” Do you remember what Milton calls the desire for fame? He calls it “the last infirmity of noble minds.” Some of the greatest things the world has known have been done by men whose names are in oblivion.’

JEROBOAM’S SIN
‘After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way.’
1 Kings 13:33
‘After this thing,’ viz., such a succession of miracles and prophecies as we can hardly find elsewhere in the Bible.
Jeroboam saw four or five miracles together, and yet turned not from his evil way.
I. He had two warnings—the rent altar, and the withered hand. We have had many more—nay, many more than two all of us have neglected. We have been ill and vowed to do better on recovery. But with the danger, all the good resolutions have vanished.
But Jeroboam had not only a warning in his withered hand, he had another in the destruction of his altar. And we, too, have had warnings enough in others as well as in ourselves.
II. But notice again, all the warnings Jeroboam had were not in anger.—One was in mercy. His withered hand was made whole at the prayer of the prophet. And he had some good feelings still, for he offered hospitality and a reward to the man of God from Judah. If Jeroboam had only obeyed the words of the prophet, that would have been his true reward—the crown and glory of his journey.
III. See what Jeroboam’s sin was, and what the message was.—His sin was in diverting his people from worshipping at Jerusalem, to worship the golden calves at Dan and Beth-el. Worldly men would have called it a clever device. The Holy Spirit called it a sin. Eighteen times we read these fearful words: ‘who made Israel to sin.’
IV. His sin, even so far as this world was concerned, was a miserable failure.—He lost the next world, and he did not even gain this. So it is very often with those who break God’s commandments. It very often happens that from those who do not seek God’s kingdom first, the very things which they do seek first, and for which they give that up, are taken away. And in the old prophet’s death that evening Jeroboam had a more fearful warning still. That was the worst sign of all. How suddenly Jeroboam was destroyed! Like Pharaoh and Balaam. To have so many chances, and yet to miss them all! Think, then, when you are tempted to take counsel how you may please yourselves even at the risk or certainty of breaking God’s law—think and fear, lest your own end should be like that of Jeroboam, ‘who made Israel to sin.’
Dr. J. Mason Neale.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Experience should have taught Jeroboam. He had the warning of Solomon’s example. Prophecy and promise ought to have held him to a right course. He had the distinct utterance of Ahijah to guide him. His own observation should have told him that every promise of God is conditional. But all was in vain. Jeroboam descends to history with the infamous character of being emphatically the man “that made Israel to sin.” ’
(2) ‘The cause of Jeroboam’s conduct was not weakness of character, but rather, on the contrary, the obstinacy with which he pursued what his soul desired, and which was the mainspring of all his actions, i.e. the resolve to keep himself on the throne at any cost and under all circumstances, and not to come under the dominion of the hated house of David and Judah again. The petition to have his hand restored was only the effect of momentary fright; when this passed, instead of listening to the man of God, he tried to bribe him and win him over, and the whole transaction left no trace behind it. He is a type of those usurpers who have no other aim in life than to gratify their ambition and love of power, and whose apparently good and noble actions are only the fruit of this passion.’