1 Kings 13:19

_SO HE WENT BACK WITH HIM, AND DID EAT BREAD IN HIS HOUSE, AND DRANK WATER._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

11-22 The old prophet's conduct proves that he was not really a godly man. When the change took place under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion. He took a very bad method to bring the good prophet back. It was all a lie. Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness. We may wonder that the wicked prophet went unpunished, while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom; and there is a judgment to come. Nothing can excuse any act of wilful disobedience. This shows what they must expect who hearken to the great deceiver. They that yield to him as a tempter, will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom he now fawns upon, he will afterwards fly upon; and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair....

Verse 1 Kings 13:19. _SO HE WENT BACK WITH HIM_] He permitted himself to be imposed on; he might have thought, as he had accomplished every purpose for which God sent him, and had actually begun to return by another way, God, who had given him the charge, had authority to say, "As thy purpose was to obey every injunction, even to the letter, I now permit thee to go with this old prophet, and take some refreshment." Now God might as well have dispensed with this part of the injunction, as he did in the case of Abraham: _Take thy_ _son Isaac, thy only son, whom thou lovest-and offer him for a_ _burnt-offering_; but, when he saw his perfect readiness, he dispensed with the _actual offering_, and accepted a ram in his stead. Thus much may be said in vindication of the man of God: but if this be so, why should he be punished with _death_, for doing what he had...

EXPOSITION THE DISOBEDIENCE AND DEATH OF THE MAN OF GOD.—The seduction of the man of God, who has borne such fearless witness against Jeroboam's ecclesiastical policy, and his tragical end, are now narrated, partly because of the deep impression the story made at the time, but principally because these events were in themselves an eloquent testimony against the worship of the calves and the whole ecclesiastical policy of Jeroboam, and a solemn warning for all time against any, the slightest, departure from the commandments of God. The very unfaithfulness of this accredited messenger of the Most High, and the instant punishment it provoked, became part of the Divine protest against the new _regime, _against the unfaithfulness of Israel; whilst the remarkable manner in which these occurrences were recalle

SO HE WENT BACK WITH HIM,.... In which he sinned; for as he had most certainly the command of God not to eat and drink in that place, he ought to have had the countermand from the Lord, and not trusted to another person. There are some things indeed which may be said in his favour, and be an apology for him, as that this man was an ancient prophet of the Lord, as he appeared to him; and that though he was forbid to eat and drink with idolaters, yet he thought he might with a prophet of the Lord, and especially as he affirmed he had the direction of an angel of the Lord for it; nor could he conceive that the prophet had any interest to serve by it, but rather it might be chargeable and burdensome to him; and he might think the Lord, out of compassion on him, had countermanded his former orders, and the circumstances he was in might the more incline him to listen to these plausible pretenc...

2. JEROBOAM AND REHOBOAM AND THEIR REIGN CHAPTER 13 The Man of God from Judah _ 1. The man of God and Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:1)_ 2. The temptation and lying message (1 Kings 13:11) 3. Judgment announced (1 Kings 13:20) 4. The fate of the man of Judah (1 Kings 13:23) 5. Jeroboam's impenitence (1 Kings 13:33) A dramatic scene opens this chapter. The idolatrous King is engaged in his religious ceremony when an unnamed man of God interrupted him. He did not rebuke Jeroboam, but addressed

1 Kings 12:25 to 1 Kings 13:34. THE SIN OF JEROBOAM. THE PROPHET AT BETHEL. The sources cannot be exactly determined. Some (see Cent.B) may belong to the annals of the northern kingdom, but the tone is decidedly Deuteronomic. The prophet's message to Jeroboam is certainly late. Jeroboam's first act as recorded was to build or fortify Shechem (1 Kings 12:25). Then for some reason he transferred his seat of government to the E. of Jordan to Penuel. Possibly he was hard pressed by his former patron Shishak, who invaded Israel in his reign (1 Kings 14:25). There is no proof of this; but Abner after Saul's death set up Ishbosh

_So he went back with him_ The LXX., by reading slightly different vowel points, renders -So he turned him back". Josephus thinks these things were from God as in the case of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. -These things happened, I think, according to the will of God, that Jeroboam might give no heed to the words of Jadon, as he had been convicted of falsehood", i.e. he had said he would not return, and then had done so....

B. THE DECEPTION OF THE MAN OF GOD 13:11-19 TRANSLATION (11) Now a certain old prophet lived in Bethel; and his son[347] came and related to him all which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken unto the king, they told to their father. (12) And their father spoke unto diem, What way did he go? For his sons had seen the way which the man of God who had come from Judah had gone. (13) And he said unto his sons, Saddle the donkey! And they saddled for him the donkey and he rode after him. (14) And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said unto him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am. (15) And he said unto him, Come with me to my house and eat bread. (16) And he said, I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. (17) For it was said unto m...

THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET 2. Josiah] for the fulfilment see 2 Kings 23:15. Some 300 years separated the prediction from the event, and the mention by name of the king destined to accomplish it is unlike the methods of Hebrew prophecy in general. It is possible that the records upon which the present account is based were less precise, and that Josiah's name was introduced by the compiler of the book of Kings, who lived after Josiah's time and was familiar with what he had done. OFFER] better, 'slaughter.' They would not be offered in sacrifice....