1 Kings 13:4

_AND HE GAVE A SIGN THE SAME DAY, SAYING, THIS IS THE SIGN WHICH THE LORD HATH SPOKEN; BEHOLD, THE ALTAR SHALL BE RENT, AND THE ASHES THAT ARE UPON IT SHALL BE POURED OUT._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-10 In threatening the altar, the prophet threatens the founder and worshippers. Idolatrous worship will not continue, but the word of the Lord will endure for ever. The prediction plainly declared that the family of David would continue, and support true religion, when the ten tribes would not be able to resist them. If God, in justice, harden the hearts of sinners, so that the hand they have stretched out in sin they cannot pull in again by repentance, that is a spiritual judgment, represented by this, and much more dreadful. Jeroboam looked for help, not from his calves, but from God only, from his power, and his favour. The time may come when those that hate the preaching, would be glad of the prayers of faithful ministers. Jeroboam does not desire the prophet to pray that his sin might be pardoned, and his heart changed, but only that his hand might be restored. He seemed affected...

Verse 1 Kings 13:4. _LAY HOLD ON HIM._] No doubt, stretching out his own hand at the same time, through rage, pride, and haste, to execute his own orders. _AND HIS HAND DRIED UP_] The whole arm became suddenly rigid; the nerves no longer communicated their influence, and the muscles ceased to obey the dictates of the will....

EXPOSITION THE TESTIMONY OF GOD AGAINST THE CALF WORSHIP.—We have in this chapter, which some commentators consider to be derived from a different source from the narratives which precede and follow it—the expression of 1 Kings 13:32, "the cities of Samaria," according to them, proving it to be of a later date, while the style and colouring of the story suggest that it embodies a tradition current in the time of the compiler—an account of certain circumstances of profound significance which marked the inauguration of Jeroboam's first great feast—for the close connexion with 1 Kings 12:1. shows that it is "the fifteenth day of the eighth month" that is he

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN KING JEROBOAM HEARD THE SAYING OF THE MAN OF GOD, WHO HAD CRIED AGAINST THE ALTAR IN BETHEL,.... He was highly provoked: so that he put forth his hand from the altar; on which he was burning incense: SAYING, LAY HOLD ON HIM; he put forth his hand, and either shook it at the prophet, threatening what he would do to him; or as beckoning to the people to seize him, and which he also expressed: AND HIS HAND, WHICH HE PUT FORTH AGAINST HIM, DRIED UP, SO THAT HE COULD NOT PULL IT IN AGAIN TO HIM; he could not move it one way nor another, but it remained in the same position, the nerves and muscles being shrunk; which was a further confirmation of the prophet's mission from God, being one of those concerning whom he says, "do my prophets no harm", and a fresh token of the certain performance of what he had said....

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

PUT FORTH HIS HAND. One of the eleven rulers who thus assaulted Jehovah's witnesses. See note on Exodus 10:28....

_he put forth his hand from the altar_ He was busy in the operations connected with the sacrifice, but the words of the prophet roused his anger, and the raised hand is the sign of his wrath, as well as a signal to those who were near him, pointing out that the speaker was to be seized. Hence it is said immediately -which he put forth against him." The R.V. has observed the order of the Hebrew in which the proper name Jeroboam comes in the second clause of the verse and not in the first: thus -when the king heard … Jeroboam put forth, &c." _dried up_ The effect described is that of a limb becoming rigid, not so much shrivelling, as stiffening. Josephus says it was -numbed and dead"....

DISCOURSE: 339 JEROBOAM’S IDOLATRY REPROVED 1 Kings 13:4._ And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Beth-el, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him._ TO be raised to a situation of eminence and authority is generally thought a subject of congratulation: but if preferment be not accompanied with a proportionable increase of grace to fit us for it, it is rather to be dreaded than desired. Distinctions of every kind open a wider sphere for the exercise of our own corruptions, and too frequently become to the possessors of them an occasion of deeper condemnation. This is strongly illustrated in the case of Pharaoh, who was raised up to the throne of Egypt on purpose that he migh