Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20030601.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part XI: Blessing In Taking God's Word SERIOUSLY In Apostate Times
(1 Kings 13:1-32)
  1. Introduction
    1. Though many Christians may know what the Bible says, various levels of RESPECTING what it says show up in varying degrees believers may align their lives in accord with its teachings.
    2. When Jeroboam brazenly opposed God's true worship by instituting idolatry, God gave EVIDENCES that His TRUE worship was something Jeroboam was accountable to TAKE SERIOUSLY as follows:
  2. Blessing In Taking God's Word SERIOUSLY In Apostate Times, 1 Kings 13:1-32.
    1. Jeroboam had not taken God's Word about avoiding idolatrously seriously so as to turn to idols himself:
      1. We before learned God had told Jeroboam He was giving him ten of Israel's tribes in judgment against Solomon because Solomon had turned to idols, cf. 1 Kings 11:29-33.
      2. Yet, once he gained power, fearing his followers might turn back to follow Rehoboam were he to let them return to Jerusalem to worship, Jeroboam overlooked the judgment for idolatry against Solomon that had won him his kingdom and instituted a false golden calf worship in Israel, 1 Kings 12:26-33.
    2. Thus, God sent a prophet from Judah to Jeroboam to make him realize he had to take God seriously and thus abandon his false idol worship for blessing. The events in 1 Kings 13:1-32 reveal this truth:
      1. First, God sent a godly prophet from Judah to Jeroboam as he sacrificed at the false idol altar to predict a descendant of David would desecrate the altar by burning the bones of its priests upon it, 13:1-2.
      2. Second, to prove this prophecy was true (though it would be fulfilled in 300), God had this prophet predict the altar would be destroyed and its ashes spilled out, Ryrie St. Bib., KJV , ftn. To 1 Kings 13:3.
      3. Third, when Jeroboam disrespected this prophet's word as he spoke it, GOD caused Jeroboam's outstretched arm he'd extended for ordering the prophet harmed to freeze in paralysis, and to remain so until the prophet healed him, and that along with the altar's immediate destruction, 1 Kings 13:4-6.
      4. Fourth, when the godly prophet himself FAILED to heed a personal command given to him by the Lord, GOD had this godly prophet SLAIN to show his ORIGINAL prophecy of the altar was true:
        1. Jeroboam tried to reward the godly prophet for healing him, but he refused, claiming God had told him not to go and eat or drink with anybody in Israel, but to return directly to Judah, 1 Kings 13:7-9.
        2. Though the godly prophet at first started to practice God's order, an elderly, apostate prophet in Israel by way of deception led the godly prophet to doubt the Lord's command to himself in preference to the apostate prophet's claim, and to eat with the apostate prophet in Israel, 13:10-19.
        3. Accordingly, God revealed through this elderly, apostate prophet the godly one would die for disobeying God, certifying the validity of the godly prophet's prediction of the altar, 13:20-22.
        4. When this prophecy about the godly prophet by the apostate one came true, it did so in a miraculous way: a lion slew the godly man without upsetting his donkey or mauling the slain body, 13:23-26.
        5. Accordingly, the elderly, apostate prophet buried the godly prophet's body, urging his sons to bury his own body next to the godly man that he not be disturbed when the bones of the false priests were burned 300 years later by David's descendant, Josiah, 1 Kings 13:27-30. The elderly, apostate prophet saw through this event God's Word by the godly prophet had been true, so banking on that fact, he wanted himself buried next to him in faith that his own bones be not disturbed, 13:31-32.
        6. This is exactly what happened: when king Josiah 300 years later was unearthing the bones of the false priests to desecrate them on the false altar, and he discovered the marked tomb of the godly prophet, he ordered it to be left alone, also leaving the apostate prophet's bones, 2 Kings 23:16-18.
Lesson: Through a series of IMMEDIATE, SEVERE judgments, including a LETHAL one against a previously GODLY prophet, God revealed His WORD against idolatry was to be taken SERIOUSLY by Jeroboam! In this way, God urged Jeroboam to REPENT from his IDOLATRY!

Application: Though many OTHERS in our day -- and that may include other CHRISTIANS -- may NOT take God's Word SERIOUSLY, WE must trust GOD holds US accountable to do otherwise! He may EVEN JUDGE US SEVERELY if we let other even respectable (elderly) believers lead us to heed THEIR CLAIMS of truth while WE AVOID heeding what WE READ His Word teaches to US!