1Ki 13:20-24 | KingComments | STEP | God is holy. The old prophet suddenly receives a word from the LORD, something that must not have happened to him for many years. If God can let the false prophet Balaam and the false priest Caiaphas say things He wants them to say ( ; ), He can also let this old prophet say a word He wants. This intervention by God gives the meal a dramatic turn. The old prophet must make himself known as a liar and the man of God is confronted with God’s judgment. The heavy punishment is exacerbated by the fact that he will not be buried in the grave of his fathers. This time it is a word from God. If it had not been God’s word, he would certainly have apologized. There is no personal word from the man in what he says to the man of God. God does not come back on His word. The sin of the man of God is so great that God can no longer use him as His man. There is nothing of any reaction of the man of God to the announcement of the judgment, nor do we hear of any reaction of the old prophet.

‏ 1 Kings 13:20-24

The Announcement of Judgment

God is holy. The old prophet suddenly receives a word from the LORD, something that must not have happened to him for many years. If God can let the false prophet Balaam and the false priest Caiaphas say things He wants them to say (Num 23:5 ; 16; Jn 11:50-52), He can also let this old prophet say a word He wants. This intervention by God gives the meal a dramatic turn. The old prophet must make himself known as a liar and the man of God is confronted with God’s judgment. The heavy punishment is exacerbated by the fact that he will not be buried in the grave of his fathers.

This time it is a word from God. If it had not been God’s word, he would certainly have apologized. There is no personal word from the man in what he says to the man of God. God does not come back on His word. The sin of the man of God is so great that God can no longer use him as His man. There is nothing of any reaction of the man of God to the announcement of the judgment, nor do we hear of any reaction of the old prophet.

The Death of the Man of God

When the man of God leaves, he knows that he is going to die. It happens as it is predicted. The way it happens is clearly from God. The lion is a tool in His hand. The lion acts according to his nature when he kills the man of God, but he acts against his nature when he does nothing else. He stands by the corpse and also leaves the donkey alone. The donkey also stays there. The lion remains there as a witness, without doing anything more than what he is told to do.

When the prophet hears of it, he speaks of the man of God as one who has been rebellious against the LORD’s command. That is true. Then the old prophet acts according to his responsibility. He is also guilty and takes care of the dead body of the man of God. He takes him up and lays him in his own grave.

He instructs his sons to bury him, when he himself is buried, beside the man of God. He does not speak of “my” grave – it was “his own grave”, 1Kgs 13:30 – but of “the grave in which the man of God is buried”. This identification prevents his bones from being burned when Josiah acts according to what the man of God has announced (2Kgs 23:17-18).