1Ki 13:26-33 | KingComments | STEP | 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”, – 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 ( ).

‏ 1 Kings 13:26-33

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).

The Sin of Jeroboam

Jeroboam can’t be stopped by anything. He has not learned anything from the events and does not care about what God has shown and said. He perseveres in his sin. Then God speaks to him even more clearly. This is shown in the next chapter.