1 Kings 13
13
A Man of God From Judah
1A man of God went from Judah to Bethel. He had received a message from the Lord. He arrived in Bethel just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer a sacrifice. 2The man cried out. He shouted a message from the Lord against the altar. He said, “Altar! Altar! The Lord says, ‘A son named Josiah will be born into the royal family of David. Altar, listen to me! Josiah will sacrifice the priests of the high places on you. They will be the children of the priests who are offering sacrifices here. So human bones will be burned on you.’ ” 3That same day the man of God spoke about a miraculous sign. He said, “Here is the sign the Lord has announced. This altar will be broken to pieces. The ashes on it will be spilled out.”
4The man of God announced that message against the altar at Bethel. When King Jeroboam heard it, he reached out his hand from the altar. He said, “Grab him!” But as he reached out his hand toward the man, it dried up. He couldn’t even pull it back. 5Also, the altar broke into pieces. Its ashes spilled out. That happened in keeping with the miraculous sign the man of God had announced. He had received a message from the Lord.
6King Jeroboam spoke to the man of God. He said, “Pray to the Lord your God for me. Pray that my hand will be as good as new again.” So the man of God prayed to the Lord for the king. And the king’s hand became as good as new. It was just as healthy as it had been before.
7The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal. I’ll give you a gift.”
8But the man of God replied to the king. He said, “What if you were to give me half of what you own? Even then I wouldn’t go with you. I wouldn’t eat bread or drink water here. 9The Lord gave me a command. He said, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water there. Do not return the same way you came.’ ” 10So he took another road. He didn’t go back on the same road he had taken when he came to Bethel.
11An old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and spoke to him. They told him everything the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what the man had said to the king. 12Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13So he said to his sons, “Put a saddle on the donkey for me.” When they had done it, he got on the donkey. 14He traveled on the same road the man of God had taken. He found the man sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he replied.
15So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me. I’ll give you something to eat.”
16The man of God said, “I can’t go back to Bethel with you. I can’t eat bread or drink water with you there. 17I’ve received a message from the Lord. He told me, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water there. Do not return the same way you came.’ ”
18The old prophet answered, “I’m also a prophet, just like you. An angel gave me a message from the Lord. The message said, ‘Bring the man of God back with you to your house. Then he can eat bread and drink water with you.’ ” But the old prophet was telling him a lie. 19The man of God returned with him. He ate and drank in his house.
20They were sitting at the table. The Lord gave a message to the old prophet who had brought the man of God back. 21He cried out to the man who had come from Judah. He told him, “The Lord says, ‘You have not done what I told you to do. You have not obeyed the command I gave you. I am the Lord your God. 22You came back here and ate bread and drank water. You did it in the place where I told you not to. So your body will not be buried in your family tomb.’ ”
23The man of God finished eating and drinking. Then the old prophet who had brought him back put a saddle on the man’s donkey for him. 24And the man went on his way. A lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His body was left lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it. 25Some people passed by. They saw the body lying on the road. They saw the lion standing beside the body. Then they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26The prophet who had brought the man back from his journey heard about what had happened. He said, “It’s the man of God. He didn’t do what the Lord told him to do. So the Lord has given him over to the lion. The lion has attacked him and killed him. Everything has happened just as the Lord’s message had warned him it would.”
27The old prophet said to his sons, “Put a saddle on the donkey for me.” So they did. 28Then he went out. He found the body of the man of God lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it. The lion hadn’t eaten the body. It hadn’t attacked the donkey either. 29So the prophet picked up the man’s body. He put it on the donkey. He brought it back to his own city. He wanted to mourn for him and bury him. 30Then he placed the body in his own tomb. People mourned for him. They said, “Oh, no, my friend! My dear friend!”
31After the old prophet had buried the man of God, he spoke to his sons. He said, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Put my bones next to his bones. 32I want you to do that because he announced a message from the Lord. He spoke against the altar in Bethel. He also spoke against all the temples that are on the high places. They are in the towns of Samaria. What the man of God said will certainly come true.”
33Even after all of that happened, Jeroboam still didn’t change his evil ways. Once more he appointed priests for the high places. He made priests out of all kinds of people. In fact, he let anyone become a priest who wanted to. He set them apart to serve at the high places. 34All of that was the great sin the royal family of Jeroboam committed. It led to their fall from power. Because of it, they were destroyed from the face of the earth.
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1 Kings 13: NIrV
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1 Kings 13
13
God Speaks Against Bethel
1The Lord commanded a man of God from Judah to go to the city of Bethel. King Jeroboam was standing at the altar offering incense when the man of God arrived. 2The Lord had commanded the man of God to speak against the altar. He said,
“Altar, the Lord says to you: ‘David’s family will have a son. His name will be Josiah. The priests of the high places are now burning incense on you, but Josiah will offer the priests on you and burn human bones on you, so you can never be used again!’”
3The man of God gave proof to the people that this would happen. He said, “This is the proof that the Lord told me about. He said, ‘This altar will break apart, and the ashes on it will fall onto the ground.’”
4When King Jeroboam heard the message from the man of God about the altar in Bethel, he took his hand off the altar and pointed at the man. He said, “Arrest that man!” But when the king said this, his arm became paralyzed. He could not move it. 5Then the altar broke into pieces, and all its ashes fell onto the ground. This proved that what the man of God had said came from the Lord. 6Then King Jeroboam said to the man of God, “Please pray to the Lord your God for me. Ask him to heal my arm.”
So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm was healed, as it was before. 7Then the king said to the man of God, “Please come home with me. Come and eat with me. I will give you a gift.”
8But the man of God said to the king, “I will not go home with you, even if you give me half of your kingdom! I will not eat or drink anything in this place. 9The Lord commanded me not to eat or drink anything here. He also commanded me not to go back the same way I came.” 10So he took a different road home. He did not go back the same way he came to Bethel.
11There was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God did in Bethel and what he said to King Jeroboam. 12The old prophet said, “Which way did he go when he left?” So the sons showed their father which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13The old prophet told his sons to saddle his donkey. They put the saddle on the donkey, and the prophet left.
14The old prophet went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked him, “Are you the man of God who just came from Judah?”
The man of God answered, “Yes, I am.”
15So the old prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”
16But the man of God said, “I cannot go home with you. I cannot eat or drink anything in this place. 17The Lord said to me, ‘You must not eat or drink anything in that place, and you must go back on a different road.’”
18The old prophet lied to him and said, “But I am a prophet like you. And an angel from the Lord came to me and told me to bring you home and give you something to eat and drink.”
19So the man of God went to the old prophet’s house and ate and drank with him. 20While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke to the old prophet, 21and the old prophet spoke to the man of God from Judah. He said, “The Lord said that you did not obey him! You did not do what he commanded. 22He told you not to eat or drink anything in this place, but you came back here and ate and drank. So your body will not be buried in your family grave.”
23The man of God finished eating and drinking. Then the old prophet saddled the man’s donkey for him and the man left. 24On the way home, a lion attacked and killed the man of God. His body was lying on the road while the lion stood next to it. The donkey stood nearby. 25Some people came walking by and saw the body and the lion standing by it. They went into the city where the old prophet lived and told people what they had seen on the road.
26The old prophet heard the story and said, “This is the man of God who did not obey the Lord’s command, so the Lord sent a lion to attack him. The lion has killed him, just as the Lord said would happen.” 27Then the prophet told his sons to saddle his donkey, and they did so. 28The old prophet went to find the body lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were still standing near it. The lion had not eaten the body or hurt the donkey.
29The old prophet put the body on his donkey and carried it back to the city to cry for him and bury him. 30The old prophet buried the man in his own family grave. The old prophet cried for him and said, “Oh, my brother, I am sorry for you.” 31So the old prophet buried the body. Then he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this same grave. Put my bones next to his. 32The Lord used him to speak against the altar at Bethel and against the high places in the other towns in Samaria. And what he said will certainly happen.”
33King Jeroboam did not change. He continued doing evil. He continued to choose people from different tribes to serve as priests#13:33 people … priests The Law taught that only people from the tribe of Levi could become priests. at the high places. Whoever wanted to be a priest was allowed to be one. 34This is the sin that caused the ruin and destruction of his kingdom.
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