1 Kings 13:18-22: a reflection

18He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the LORD’s word, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him. 19So he went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water. 20As they sat at the table, the LORD’s word came to the prophet who brought him back; 21and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “The LORD says, ‘Because you have been disobedient to the LORD’s word, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, 22but came back, and have eaten bread and drank water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread, and drink no water,” your body will not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

A man of God had been given clear instructions from the LORD: deliver his message and return home a certain way, eating and drinking nothing in that place. But on his way home, an old prophet stops him and invites him to come eat. When the man of God repeats his clear instructions, the old prophet lies: I too am a prophet, he says, and an angel told me by the word of the LORD to bring you back to eat. And the man of God, persuaded, goes back and eats, disobeying the clear word God had given him. And it costs him his life.

Notice how he was led astray. He had a clear, direct word from God, and he knew it. He was talked out of it, not by an obvious temptation, but by a plausible-sounding spiritual claim, another prophet claiming a new revelation from an angel. The claim was a lie, but it sounded spiritual, and it contradicted what God had plainly told him, and he let it override his clear instructions. He trusted a spiritual-sounding voice over the clear word he already had.

There is a real warning here. We can be led away from what God has clearly said, not usually by blatant temptation, but by plausible, spiritual-sounding claims that contradict it, someone claiming a special leading, a new insight, a revelation that just happens to permit what God has forbidden. The man of God's mistake was letting such a claim override God's clear word. When someone, however spiritual-sounding, tries to talk you out of what God has plainly said, do not be moved. Test every claim against God's clear word, and do not let a plausible voice override what God has already made plain.

Lord, the man of God had your clear instructions but was talked out of them by another's plausible, spiritual-sounding lie, and it cost him dearly. Guard me from being led away from what you have clearly said, not by blatant temptation but by claims that sound spiritual and just happen to permit what you have forbidden. Help me hold fast to your plain word, and to test every claim against it. When someone tries to talk me out of what you have made clear, keep me from being moved. Anchor me in your clear word.