Christians can always experience miracles and wonders, because God uses them to create miracles and wonders. This chapter mentions a man of God who could restore a withered hand in an instant! When God grants you such ability, can you continue to faithfully obey every word of God, and become a vessel used by God? God's word is always affirmative and clear!
Questions for Reflection:
If one day, God makes you a person of great power, what do you think you should be careful about?
What role do you think the old prophet plays?
Analyze the reasons for the death of the man of God, what lessons do we learn from it?
What is the difference between Jeroboam and David? If you are called by God to establish a church, who will you emulate? How to emulate?
The main thread of this chapter is divided into three parts: first, the ability of the man of God; second, the temptations the man of God encountered; and third, the death of the man of God. In fact, 1 Kings Chapter 13 speaks of two themes: the first is the death of the man of God; the second is the destruction of the family of Jeroboam. So how did they perish? Following this line of thought, we can unearth a spiritual principle from this story. The revelation that the Bible gives us is so rich, I would like to explain these three parts one by one.
The Death of the Man of God
This man of God was very, very powerful. He could immediately restore a withered hand. If a person has such ability, your name will surely be known far and wide. All of Israel knew that there was such a very powerful prophet who could cause Jeroboam's hand to wither and then immediately restore it. Where did his ability come from? It came from God, in fulfilling God's mission. Being used by God will surely bring forth many miracles. The process of performing miracles is actually declaring the prophecy of Jehovah, and declaring God's judgment on this polluted land, and then the judgment is immediately fulfilled.
Jeroboam's hand withered as soon as he stretched it out. He could not seize the man of God, nor could his men seize the man of God, and he even had to ask the man of God to pray for his healing. This is the glory that God manifests in people. We see whether a person is a man of God by whether God's power is manifested through him. I believe that those who often perform miracles are men of God, and in the future, each of us will be men of God, because Christians should be little Christs, little Jesuses.
This is the ability of the man of God. But as a man of God, one must be especially careful, if a man of God is careless, he will fall into temptation, and the problem will be very serious. The temptations encountered by those who are particularly capable are not ordinary temptations. Just now we have been distinguishing which is the good guy and which is the bad guy between the old prophet and the man of God, but in fact, good guys and bad guys are not important. But this allows us to see that God has a very clear intention, which is to let us not be contaminated with filth, because this land has been polluted. If you eat and drink in this place, you will surely die. So this temptation comes from disobeying God's command. We may ask: God, why don't you stop this man of God? In fact, this man of God has already received God's command, and this command is actually very clear and does not need to be re-examined.
Next, we will summarize the lessons we have learned from this matter. God actually deliberately tempted this man of God, for our benefit today, so that we can be careful of temptation after reading it today. When the man of God experienced temptation, the old prophet said: You can go back and eat and drink with me. As a result, the man of God went back to eat and drink and was killed by a lion. Then this old prophet announced a sentence, which is very interesting: This is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. Therefore, the Lord has handed him over to the lion, and the lion has mauled him and killed him. It is the fulfillment of the word that the Lord spoke to him. (1 Kings 13:26) I believe that God must have said to this man of God: If you eat and drink in that place, you will surely die. But this man of God actually went back to eat and drink with this person because someone said a word to him, and as a result, he perished. This is really a very deadly lesson. Let's briefly summarize this story, and the train of thought will become clear. In fact, in the final analysis, the destruction of Jeroboam and the destruction of the man of God were both due to one reason: they disobeyed the commandments and commands that Jehovah God had given him. Here we learn several lessons.
Do not be Contaminated with Filth, Contamination with Filth will lead to Death
1 Corinthians mentions that: with sexually immoral people, you must not even eat (see 1 Corinthians 5:11), because when you eat and drink with such people, you will surely be contaminated with filth. Therefore, be especially careful when interacting with people. What kind of friends you make, you will be contaminated with what kind of bad habits. If it is a filthy person, even eating and drinking with him is not allowed. That place has already been contaminated with filth, so God said that you should not eat or drink in that place. In fact, what God is saying is not material contamination and filth, but the spiritual condition of that place has changed. Because they worshiped the golden calf, the evil spirits in that place were very rampant, so eating and drinking in that place would surely lead to death. So does God mean to kill people? No, God wants people to live, so he tells him not to drink. This is our first lesson: Do not be contaminated with filth.
No Need for Constant Verification
Some brothers and sisters felt that this man of God should have sought God further, to verify God's will. Actually, there's no need for verification. Why? Because God is definitely not a God of confusion, and the commands God gives are definitely not confusing. God's gospel, the words God speaks, all have a characteristic: consistency. God would absolutely not tell the man of God one day that he cannot eat or drink, and then send another prophet to tell the man of God: you can eat and drink. God had already given the man of God a very clear command, and the man of God himself had repeated this command several times, he was very clear about this command. When you encounter this situation, you must be especially careful, because if you listen to the words of men and forget the commands God has given you, you will walk a path that violates the commands of Jehovah God.
The old prophet said a word, and this man of God returned and ate and drank with others. What mistake did he make? It was doubting what God said. Originally, the words God spoke were indeed established. Once established, you should no longer believe anything else, because in fact, God did not need to change His mind about eating and drinking. If a person deeply loathes sin and spiritual defilement, he will definitely not eat or drink. But if he does not have such a view of spiritual matters, he will perish because of this eating and drinking. I want to share a concept with everyone: Some things do not require God to specially reveal to you, nor do they require another prophet to tell you; you yourself should know God's will clearly.
Let me give you a few examples of these things. The first is obedience. When you begin to feel that you have a reason not to obey, you still must reject this thought of disobedience, because God will absolutely not say: You must obey when you encounter this kind of thing, but you can disobey when you encounter that kind of thing. God does not need to give additional revelation about whether you should obey. Some people often pray like this: God, if I disobey, please discipline me! As a result, God did not discipline him. Because he was not disciplined by God, he thought he had a reason to disobey. Actually, does obedience still need to be questioned? God's Word has already spoken very clearly. You do not need to receive additional revelation from God again, because obedience is blessing.
The second is faithfulness. Regarding faithfulness, you also do not need to seek God's revelation again. The opposite of obedience is rebellion, and the opposite of faithfulness is adultery. Rebellious people will never have a good ending, and adulterous people will never have a good ending. For example, some people ask in prayer: Lord, I have a boyfriend, is it okay for me to live with him? Then God did not respond by saying no, so they lived together. What will happen as a result? This is committing the sin of adultery. Actually, these adulterous and unfaithful things do not require additional revelation, because the Bible speaks very clearly about them.
When we studied 1 Corinthians last time, we talked about keeping our bodies pure, not sinning against God in our bodies, because God is for the body, and the body is also for God, and our whole person, soul, and body must live a holy life (see 1 Corinthians 6:13, 18-20). This does not need further explanation, nor does it need additional reception. Do you want to pray and ask God to give you a spiritual prompting so that you can commit the sin of adultery? No prompting is needed, and God will not prompt you in this way, because God is a God of consistency.
The third is idolatry. You also do not need to ask God to prevent you from worshiping any idols. We often say that certain things need to be verified, but faithful things do not need to be verified, adulterous things do not need to be verified, and obedient and rebellious things do not need to be verified. God's will is already very clear within us, so just hold on to God's will in your life.
If the concepts we receive are different from the gospel that Paul preached, that person is accursed. That is to say, in any case, we do not need to invent another gospel. Some people say, this morning I met an angel, and the angel spoke to me, saying that the gospel is not like this, but like that. According to Paul, whether it is those in heaven, on earth, or anyone else, even if it is a prophet, if the gospel he preaches is different from what I have said, or different from what you have received, he is accursed (see Galatians 1:8-9). So this entire gospel is written very clearly in the Bible. This story tells us that you do not need to receive another gospel. Adding or subtracting a little from the gospel is common in heresies, because it changes the essence of the gospel.
Avoid Dogmatism
After we have learned these lessons, we must also pay attention to one thing, which is to avoid dogmatism. Dogmatism is very dangerous; it is the spirit of religion. What is the spirit of religion? It is understanding and acting according to the literal meaning in a very rigid way. Because a man of God in Bethel ate and drank and died, I will not eat or drink when I arrive at a place. You should not do this, because God did not call you to do this. If God has not told you that you cannot eat or drink when you arrive at a certain place, then eat and drink as usual, and do not be dogmatic.
Summary
What God did to the man of God reflects that disobeying His commands is a very serious matter. God also commanded Jeroboam to carefully keep and observe His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, and not to worship other gods, which was stated very clearly. Jeroboam was very familiar with the law of Moses, but he later committed serious sins and did not turn away from his evil ways. The reason why this person did not turn away from his evil ways is also very simple: it is because he valued worldly things and valued his throne. He wanted to keep his throne, so he had to use political tactics to preserve his power. This is completely the opposite of David's mindset. David said: My throne comes from God, so whether I sit on it or not is up to God. If God removes me, then He removes me; if God lets me continue to reign, then I will continue to reign, so David was a peaceful and stable king.
But Jeroboam did not believe that Jehovah God had made him king, so he did not believe that God could preserve his throne, and he began to set up golden calves. Jeroboam also did a very serious thing: he consecrated and appointed as priests of the high places all who were willing to be priests. In fact, he had encroached upon God's authority. Was he qualified to consecrate priests? Even if the high place was built for Jehovah, he was not qualified to do so. As a result, this caused Jeroboam's house to fall into sin. So whether you are a king, a man of God, or an ordinary person, all who disobey the commands of Jehovah God will perish. This is the entire revelation that this chapter gives us.