I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 13-14.

    When I read the account of the prophet who prophesied that Josiah would kill the pagan priests in Israel I feel bad for the prophet. He was deceived into violating God’s commands. I, also, resent the old prophet who deceived him. I still feel that way, but today I realized that what happened to the prophet is an encapsulation of what happened to Jeroboam (there is a little more to the lesson than that, but I will get to that in a moment). Jeroboam followed God’s instructions in leading the northern tribes in rebellion against Rehoboam. However, as soon as he gained independence, he went against God’s commands and set up idols for the people to worship. From there he went into ever greater violations of God’s commands. The prophet followed God’s commands and refused to eat with Jeroboam, but shortly after he left Jeroboam’s presence he allowed someone else to convince him to break God’s command and eat before leaving Israel. It is not enough to follow God’s commands at the crisis points in our life, we need to follow God’s commands even when nothing much is on the line.

    As I promised I want to look at the lesson we get from the story of the prophet. When Jeroboam asked the prophet to come and eat with him in return for a gift, the prophet rejected the offer. He did so because God had told him to do so. When the prophet rejected Jeroboam’s offer, everyone was watching. In addition, the prophet knew that Jeroboam had made the offer as a political ploy. The prophet’s rejection of Jeroboam’s offer was also a political ploy. Jeroboam was trying to show his people that he would strive to be reconciled with the prophet and with God. The prophet was making the show that neither he nor God could be bought off by Jeroboam’s superficial gesture. However. when the old prophet invited him to eat, the prophet thought that no one was looking. Therefore, he thought that the “show” was not necessary. The mistake the prophet made was that when God gives us commands, they are not just for show.