Re: Close To The Bone David Legge.pdf
Josephine Heathershaw
Now we're turning in our Bibles to 1 Kings 13, and beginning to read at verse 1. We're taking a break this morning from our studies in Mark's gospel - if you're a visitor, we've been going through Mark's gospel for some 17, 18 weeks over the past Sunday mornings, and we're still in chapter 3. I felt led of the Lord this week - and I know that is a term or a statement that can be misused, but I did feel compelled regarding this portion of Scripture that it had something to say to me, and I searched and searched to see what it had to say to me. After I found out what it had to say to me, I realised it probably has something to say to us all, and I felt the Lord was wanting me to bring it to you this morning.
So we begin at 1 Kings 13 verse 1: "And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. 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. And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, 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. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
"Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back: And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
"And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass: the lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones: For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth".
I've entitled my message this morning, 'The Tale of Two Prophets'. Some of you may be familiar with Dickens' work, 'The Tale of Two Cities', which begins: 'It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times', and you could say the same for these two prophets. The best and worst features of their age in which they served the Lord are found in both of their characters. Of course they were different in many aspects: they were different ages, one was old and the other was young. They were at different stages in their prophetic career: one was at the beginning, the other was at the end. But what is far more clear and full of lessons for us today is the difference that there was between the young and the old prophet in their spiritual conditions.
If you take the young man, for instance, in verse 1 and again throughout the passage, he is called 'the man of God' - a man of God. We see why this is: he was obedient, and the phrase 'the word of the LORD' occurs seven times within this portion of Scripture, and many of the times it appears we see that that young prophet was obedient to it. He was functioning according to God's command, personally in his life - and because he was obedient, God's power was manifest in his life and in his ministry. We saw in the account that the power was evident, because after he delivered the message God gave him to King Jeroboam, the sign in verse 3 that he spoke that would happen was that the altar would be rent and the ashes that were upon it would be poured out - and of course the fulfilment of that sign is found in verse 5. The altar was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar 'according to the sign which the man of God was given by the word of God'.
But God's power was demonstrated as well in verse 4, because after making the announcement of the sign would take place, King Jeroboam pointed his finger at him and gave an order that he be taken out of his presence. In verse 4 it tells us that as Jeroboam stretched out his hand it withered, God supernaturally struck Jeroboam - a sign of the power that was in the ministry of this young man. Of course, he had power in prayer, for we see that Jeroboam implored the young man: 'Pray for me, that my hand is healed and restored', and of course in response to this young prophet's intercession, Jeroboam's hand was healed.
He was obedient, the power of God was manifest in his life. Verses 7 and 8 show that he was also uncompromising, for because of this good deed toward him, Jeroboam the King invited the young prophet back to feed him and to reward him, to share a meal with him. Now you've got to understand what this meant in the contemporary age of where we are this morning, the Old Testament. To share a meal with someone was to imply intimate fellowship with them, and this young man - though he had mercy in praying for Jeroboam, and God obviously showed grace towards him in healing his hand - he not only was uncompromising in not going back to eat with him, to have fellowship with him, but he was discerning in that he realised that to do such would in some way show, perhaps, that God was accepting Jeroboam's behaviour, and was being lenient on Jeroboam's deviant worship and idolatry.
So he was obedient, he demonstrated the power of God in his ministry, he was uncompromising, he was discerning, and he had integrity. He would not be bribed, as verse 9 says. He says: 'It was charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest'. He would not be bought. To add to all that, he was courageous, which perhaps would be a summary of all his behaviour there. He delivered the God-given message that was given to him to give to the King, a message that would be fulfilled literally about 300 years after this time by King Josiah, who - as this prophet prophesied in verse 2 - would take the prophets of Baal, the idolatrous priests, and burn them on the very altar that he was speaking against - 2 Kings 23 is where we find that narrative.
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