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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
The Lion Prophet and the Lyin’ Prophet (I Kings 13)
I Kings 13
Introduction
When I first got into ministry, I didn’t know what to do with I Kings 13. I knew God must be trying to communicate something from this story, but I couldn’t figure out what. So many things didn’t line up with my preconceptions.
You have a couple of prophets in this story. Now, in almost every Old Testament story with a prophet of God, they are the good guy. What they do is usually the heroic or brave thing. They’re usually the one setting the example for us.
In this story, the prophets are not too brilliant. They’re great at hearing God. Not so great at the follow-through. And this story can leave us scratching our heads, wondering what the lesson was in all this.
But as I said, it confused me when I first got into ministry and serious Bible study, because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. After a while, I think I figured out what God is saying here and what He’s saying to us today.
So I couldn’t have been happier to get this email from Alana at my church. It said: I’d love to learn more about 1 Kings 13. It’s such an odd story.
Totally agree. I find this story to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to I Kings 13, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
Roscoe the Young Prophet
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about what’s going on in I Kings 13.
Usually the moral of the story is pretty obvious, such as in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, or the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, or the story of when I tried to have a lightsaber fight with my 5-year-old and forgot to stretch first last Tuesday.
Oftentimes, the lesson is clear. But the two prophets in I Kings 13 are not exactly noble and wise, but more like dumb and dumber. There’s an old prophet and a young prophet. I’m going to call them Cletus and Roscoe today. The Bible doesn’t give them names, and it can get pretty confusing when you read this because the Bible just uses the pronoun “he” so many times. So I thought it would be easier to differentiate them today if I gave them some names. The older prophet will be Cletus, and the younger will be Roscoe, and the story today starts with Roscoe. He comes to make a prophecy against the king at that time, which was King Jeroboam. Jeroboam had set up an altar to an idol in Bethel.
I Kings 13:1-3
And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’”
This is an amazingly true and accurate prophecy. This demonstrates that Roscoe legitimately hears from God. A few hundred years later, King Josiah would be born and be the one to bring a national revival to Israel. But Jeroboam was right after King Solomon, and Jeroboam started the process of messing a lot of things up, especially spiritually, so he didn’t appreciate what Roscoe had to say here.
Verse 4
And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.
So Roscoe also has some divine protection, some miracle-working power here, again demonstrating that he’s a true prophet. Jeroboam stretches out his hand to point at him, and it’s like all of the moisture in Jeroboam’s hand just evaporates. His arm dries up and he can’t even move it. It would be quite a terrifying and amazing sight, and so there’s already some weird stuff going on in this story.
I really struggled to decide if we should read this whole story or just the last half of the chapter, and I felt like I really need to read the next set of verses because it sets the stage for what we’ll learn in the back half.
Verses 5 through 10
5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
So what we have here is Roscoe turning around and healing King Jeroboam’s arm. Jeroboam then invites Roscoe to his palace.
If Roscoe were a bad man, a greedy or selfish man like the prophet Balaam, or a self-serving man, he might have said: wow, God is really blessing me, I’ve been invited to dine with the king!
But that was not Roscoe’s reaction. He had heard from God clearly: go on back without stopping, no bread, no water, no Taco Tuesday.
Now, many of us might have been tempted to argue with God at this point. “God, I know you said not to stop for food, but I just got invited to the King’s house. The king! You can’t get much higher than that. If I become an adviser to the King, think of all the good I could do. What could I be doing right now that’s more important than influencing the direction of our country?”
And yet, Roscoe didn’t even consider it. He didn’t stop to pray about it. He said, “God told me not to stop for a snack so I don’t need to ask God again, I don’t need to pray about it, I just need to listen to what God says, because what God says goes.
And just FYI, that’s going to be the first of two main ideas today. What God says goes. That’s the first of two lessons I want us to take away from this. What God says goes.
Remember the old quote from the 10 Commandments movie: So let it be written, so let it be done. Basically, when God says something, whether that’s in the Bible or when God speaks personally to you: so let it be written, so let it be done.
Or a more relatable example nowadays might be from the Mandalorian, that guy who’s always like: I have spoken. That means it’s the end of the conversation. Should Roscoe go have a dinner with the King? Nope, God said no bread, no water, don’t return by the way you came. I have spoken. Go a different way. Not that way. This is the way.
Now we meet Cletus.
Cletus the Old Prophet
Verse 11
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. 14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
Now, if I can psychoanalyze Cletus for a moment, Cletus is called here an old prophet. It doesn’t say whether he was a true or false prophet, but I’m going to guess he was a real one because of something that happens later. But I’d say that Cletus’ glory days are far behind him. Cletus hasn’t been front page news for a while. And Cletus misses the excitement of being “it,” the talk of the town.
And so Cletus hears that this shiny new prophet comes to town and Cletus is thinking, “If I can get in good with this guy, maybe some of his popularity will transfer to me and I can be relevant again.” And that motivates what happens next.
Verse 15
15 Then he (Cletus) said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he (Roscoe) said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” 18 And he (Cletus) said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he (Cletus) lied to him. 19 So he (Roscoe) went back with him and ate bread in his (Cletus’) house and drank water.
So the old prophet made the same offer to the young prophet that the king had made. Now, it had seemed easy for the prophet to turn the king down. “What God says goes.”
But the young prophet let his guard down around the old prophet. Perhaps he justifies it in this way, he says: well this old prophet has been hearing from God a lot longer than I have. Perhaps I should rely on his wisdom over my own understanding.
Now, that would be very good advice a lot of times in life. The Bible even tells us many many times to listen to those who are older, wiser, more experienced than us. I could fill up the rest of this lesson talking about all the verses that tell us to seek wisdom from godly counselors and advisers.
And who could be a better Godly counselor for Roscoe than a longtime prophet of Israel, someone who has beed doing the exact same thing that he was called to do, and who has been doing it longer than him? So I find Roscoe’s mistake here very relatable and understandable. Cletus is lying, but Roscoe doesn’t know that. He has a lot of reasons to think he should trust Cletus’ word.
And yet, when you have heard from God, it doesn’t matter what anyone else tells you. Yes, we should listen to counselors, we should respect our elders, we should trust those who have gone before us and proven themselves. But when you have heard from God yourself clearly, it supersedes all of that stuff about what anyone else might tell you.
So first idea today was: what God says goes.
Second main idea today, the second big lesson from today’s story: hear from God yourself, not through others.
God will sometimes speak to you through others, and we’ll talk about that later. But Plan A is not to hear from God through others. That’s Plan B. Plan A is to hear from God yourself.
And then when you do: what God says goes. Because what God says supersedes what anyone else says.
Now, what God says is never going to supersede the Bible. That is still your anchor and your main source of revelation from God. So if you’re properly hearing from God, it’s not going to contradict His Word. But beyond that, develop your relationship with God to the point that you’ll listen to Him and disregard what anyone else says in contradiction to that.
This was Roscoe’s big mistake, and it’s such a huge mistake that as they’re sitting there at dinner, suddenly Cletus- the old prophet- is once again given a word from the Lord. Cletus, who has just deceived this young prophet into disobeying God, is still given a new revelation from God.
I Kings 13:20-23
20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he (Cletus) cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” 23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he (Cletus) saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.
What an awkward dinner. Cletus is given a fresh download of information, and they both realize that Cletus had lied and that both had now sinned and disobeyed the Lord.
That’s one thing that makes this story so confusing. Why is this old liar who’s just trying to relive his glory days being given a new message from God? And the answer is, for one thing, being a prophet doesn’t make you perfect. Prophets can be sinners just like anyone else. Actually, other than Jesus, 100% of prophets are sinners. They can lie, they can make mistakes, they can have wrong motivations. (We talked about this a lot in episodes 16 through 18 as we looked at Balaam). Even true prophets are not perfect.
But the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. My ESV says they are “irrevocable.” That’s a strong statement. God gives us the gifts. We can misuse them. God can give someone the gift of prophecy and they can still lie. I’ve heard people who have the gift of tongues use that same tongue to lie, use profanity, say hateful things, and yet they could still speak in tongues, and I’ve said, “God, why does the Holy Spirit still in habit that tongue that’s used for sin?”
And the answer is right there in Romans 11:29: the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. King Jimmy says “without repentance.” That means God doesn’t change His mind.
So Cletus here gave a false prophecy. He said he received it by an angel. He lied. Then later he gives a true prophecy. That would mess with some of our theology, because we’d say, “But I thought Deuteronomy false prophets should be stoned.” And quite honestly, perhaps Cletus should have been put to death for this deception. I wouldn’t argue with that.
But this is where some nuance and wisdom has to be used in understanding the Bible. True prophets like Cletus who use their office to lie about what God said might still be real prophets, but they’re also in trouble. True prophets like Roscoe who disobey God’s clear command are in trouble. Balaam heard real prophecies and delivered real prophecies from God, but had immoral, greedy reasons for delivering them, and II Peter calls him a false prophet, even though everything Balaam said from God in the Bible was true. There’s some nuance to this discussion.
So don’t assume that just because you have heard from God clearly in the past that this means anything you say should be taken as correct. You still have a heavy responsibility anytime you start a sentence with “God told me.”
The Fate of Cletus and Roscoe
So here’s how things turned out for Cletus and Roscoe after this. I imagine there was a lot of awkward silences at the rest of that meal. But here’s why I said there’s a heavy responsibility for those who speak for God.
I Kings 13:24-25
24 And as he (Roscoe) went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
Man, I always feel kinda bad for Roscoe. He got tricked, I can totally understand how he got tricked, but he let himself make this one big mistake. And then he loses his life for it.
I’m not saying he went to hell; I’m just saying he had failed to be useful for God any longer after this. His life and death become an example for the rest of us of the gravity of trying to speak for God.
And it’s such a weird scene; a lion just sitting there waiting patiently beside the body. Another weird element to this story that already has a lot of irregularities. This was not random. This lion was not hungry. This was taking someone out.
Verse 26
26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.”
I’m always like, “yeah Cletus, and you played a part in this, too!” Let’s finish the story
Verse 27
27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”
And it will, because what God says goes.
[music]
Housekeeping/Mailbag
In just a minute, I’ll give some final reflections from this chapter. Next time on this podcast, I want to look into the time that God wanted to kill Moses back before the 10 Plagues even started. Did you know that happened? It’s hard to figure out why, but I think I know, and make sure you’re subscribed so you can get that. What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
Send them soon because once I get through all your questions, I’m going to try to set up a few interviews. Not sure if all of them will pan out but I’m going to try. And then I’ll start a chapter-by-chapter study of the Book of Enoch, and I’m going to focus on the places where Enoch intersects with Scripture. So that’s what’s on the way, so if you have a question on any random topics you want to hear about before I get into that, send it soon.
Thank you to Mr. Rade on Youtube who said this this week: Keep up the amazing Biblical content brother in Christ! May the lord be with you, your family and loved ones and even your enemies!
Thank you, and I’m not sure I have any enemies right now, but I’m working on it, don’t worry!
Closing Thoughts
Some final reflections today on I Kings 13: This was an odd chapter, that’s for sure. As I said in the beginning, when I first read this chapter, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. But as I became more experienced in ministry and Bible interpretation, it started to make sense to me.
It messes with some of our preconceptions a little bit, with some of our theology. Not everything is as easy to categorize as true prophet and false prophets. There are true prophets who tell lies, like Cletus. There are false prophets that everything he says is technically true, like Balaam. And so stories like this take a little longer to sort through and pick apart, but it’s worth the effort because our understanding of spiritual reality becomes richer and more practical when we take the time to do it.
So to recap our main ideas from today:
Primarily hear from God yourself, not through others; and then: what God says goes.
Roscoe had the right answer at the beginning of the story when King Jeroboam invited him over for a meal. Roscoe was right on to turn it down. He says, “God told me not to stop and eat, he said keep right on going, and what God says goes, so that’s what I’m going with.”
But then Cletus asks Roscoe to stop for a meal. At first Roscoe resists, but then Cletus says this in verse 18: I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house…’”
See, Cletus didn’t even speak as if it was from the Lord. He said an angel told him to change what God said. Now, let’s say for the sake of argument that Cletus actually had heard from an angel. He was lying, but let’s say it were true. That still wouldn’t supersede what God says, because an angel cannot overturn what God has declared. And no angel who is truly sent from God is going to overrule something that God has already determined.
Galatians 1:8 even addresses this, where Paul says
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Paul says even an angel should be disregarded if he preaches a false gospel; any gospel other than what the Bible says.
I wish the followers of Joseph Smith had paid more attention to that verse. They believe an angel named Moroni came and delivered this new Gospel to Joseph Smith, and that’s where Mormonism or the church of “Latter Day Saints” comes from. Listen to what else Paul said in that chapter: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Roscoe the young prophet went to Cletus’ house because he wanted to please man. And he paid for it. The fear of man will get between you and God and His will for your life. Don’t try to please man. What God says goes.
So, in reflection, let me speak from my own theology background: I’m a pentecostal Christian. I believe in the spiritual gifts. I believe in I Corinthians 14 where it instructs all Christians to seek the gift of prophecy. I take the Bible at its word and I don’t put an expiration date on what God said.
While not all believers are called to be prophets, all believers can prophesy, which means to directly hear from God. Also see I Corinthians 2. The Holy Spirit within us can receive revelation from God and speak it directly into your spirit and your mind.
But we should only declare a word from the Lord when we have spent enough time with the Him and the Bible that we can accurately discern His voice.
Sometimes we try to shortcut knowing God’s will because we’ll listen to people who hear from God. And we’ll rely on them and trust what they say and not spend as much time trying to hear from God ourselves.
But that’s Plan B. We should only need Plan B when we aren’t properly executing Plan A, and Plan A is to hear from God ourselves. Primarily hear from God yourself; and then: what God says goes. And don’t let anyone else contradict it.
My pastor made a comment recently that really struck a chord with me, because I’ve found it to be true so often in my own life. And I’ll share it here because our church puts its sermons online:
[comment about how a word of prophecy just confirms what you heard from God already]
Get God’s direction for your life directly from God. Don’t go after substitutes and shortcuts.
Your prayer time is where you should get the road map for your life. You are not to wait for someone else to come and prophesy to you. Start spending more time in word and prayer, and hear from God for yourself.
So if you think hearing from God is weird, I hope you’ll try to be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time.