What Did God Tell You

 ¹⁴So 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."
 ¹⁵Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."
 ¹⁶He said, "^(K)I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
 ¹⁷"For a command came to me ^(L)by the word of the LORD, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.'"
 ¹⁸He said to him, "^(M)I also am a prophet like you, and ^(N)an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water '" But ^(O)he lied to him.
 ¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.


1 Kings 13:14-19


Whenever I read this passage I have to stop and think what just happened.  The man of God obeyed the Lord by delivering the message to Jeroboam in Bethel.  After delivering the message, allowing God's power to be made known, he was faithful with rejecting the king's invitation to stay and eat.  Earlier, God instructed him not to eat, drink or go back the way he came.  But later, an old prophet lied to the man of God saying he received a message from God instructing him to stay and eat.  God punished the man of God by killing him with a lion.


The obvious culprit here is the old prophet.  He deceived the man of God but it wasn't he who was punished, it was the man of God.  Why?  Why didn't God strike the old prophet instead of the other?  It seems wrong.  I'm not sure of the details of this incident but what I do know is that the man of God disobeyed too.  He compromised what God told him for what the old prophet told him.  I'm sure the man of God was famished by this time and he really wanted to stop and eat, drink and rest.  Did the man of God pray for confirmation?  Did he really ask for God's discernment here?  It seems as though he jumped at the next opportunity to satisfy his cravings instead of standing firm like before in Bethel.  


When things are going good in my life it's easy to stand firm but when things are tough, when we're challenged and adversity is upon us it's easy to bypass God's command to satisfy our own flesh.  We are too quick to jump on the lesser without spending time with God working on the greater.  We need to obey what God has told us because He will never contradict Himself.


Thank You Father God for being an awesome Counselor.  Help me in this chapter in my life to grow in faith and respond obediently without hesitation.  Teach me to stand firm on Your commands.  In the wonderful name of Christ Jesus I pray, Amen!