1 Kings 13:5

_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 13:5. _THE ALTAR WAS ALSO RENT_] It split or clave of its own accord; and, as the split parts would decline at the top from the line of their perpendicular, so the ashes and coals would fall off, or be poured out....

We need not suppose a complete shattering of the altar, but rather the appearance of a crack or fissure in the fabric, which, extending from top to bottom, caused the embers and the fragments of the victims to fall until they reached the ground....

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

THE ALTAR ALSO WAS RENT,.... Split into two parts perhaps, and one fell one way, and the other another; AND THE ASHES POURED OUT FROM THE ALTAR; the ashes of the burnt offering, these were spilled on the ground; all which was done without any outward force, or any visible means thereof: ACCORDING TO THE SIGN WHICH THE MAN OF GOD HAD GIVEN BY THE WORD OF THE LORD; by his direction and order....

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

AND HIS HAND—DRIED UP, &C.— The Almighty employs here three striking proofs to convince a deluded people that HE is the true God, and not those _calves_ which an idolatrous king had set up from a principle of false policy. We see the seducer punished in the first miracle, cursed in the second, and his altar rent in the third. The king was in a good state of health; the circulation of his blood was regular; the nervous fluids proper for sensation and motion visited every organ of his body; his fibres were in just tension. In this state, attempting to point out the prophet, he stretched forth the hand with which he offered incense. And instantly, _his hand which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back._ It does not seem as if this drying up should be understood of the arm's really becoming dry; as if all the vital fluids had ceased to flow thither, and it grew...

I. DENUNCIATION OF JEROBOAM 13:1-32 Chapter 13 narrates a thought-provoking episode from the early history of the Northern Kingdom. The historical message of the chapter is clear. Because Jeroboam had initiated his apostate religion in Israel, he lost the support of the prophetic community. But while this basic thrust of the chapter is simple, the ethical and doctrinal implications are profound. The historian first describes the mission of an unnamed man of God who publicly and fearlessly denounced Jeroboam for his religious innovations (1 Kings 13:1-10). He then relates how this devout man of God was deceived and consequently violated the specific commandment of God (1 Kings 13:11-19). Then the account moves on to relate how the man of God received divine condemnation and judgment f