How a Prophet Was Tricked Into Disobeying

The prophet was about to return to Judea, when Jeroboam said to him, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”RR 37.4

“If you were to give me half your house,” the prophet replied, “I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’” 1 Kings 13:7-9.RR 37.5

While traveling home by another route, the prophet was overtaken by an aged man who claimed to be a prophet but who lied to him: “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” Again and again he repeated the lie until the man of God was persuaded to return.RR 37.6

God permitted the prophet to suffer the penalty of transgression. While he and the one who had invited him were sitting together at the table, the false prophet “cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ... your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.”’” Verses 18, 21, 22.RR 37.7

This prophecy of doom was soon fulfilled. “So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him. ... When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road. ... Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, ‘It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord.’” Verses 23-26.RR 38.1

If the prophet had been permitted to go on in safety after disobeying, the king would have used this to justify his own disobedience. The split altar, the withered arm, and the terrible fate of the one who dared disobey an express command of the Lord—these judgments should have warned Jeroboam not to persist in wrongdoing. But, far from repenting, Jeroboam not only sinned greatly himself, but “made Israel sin”; and “this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it.” 1 Kings 14:16; 13:34.RR 38.2