A Trick?

1 Kings 13-14

            So, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel. So far, so good. The prophet Amos did the same thing. Apparently relations between the north and the south were still close enough that Judah’s prophets came to prophesy against the shrines of Israel.

            Anyway, this man of God was told by God not to eat or drink on the way to Bethel and he was to return home by another route. No dawdling among the idolaters! He rejects the king of Israel’s offer, and off he goes. But an old prophet along the way persuades the first to stay for dinner. This latter prophet says that an angel of the Lord told him to play the host. The kicker is that while they were eating, the old prophet had a revelation that the first man of God was in violation of the word of the Lord. And the first man of God was killed by a lion!

            I don’t get it. Ok, the obvious lesson is: do what the Lord says. But couldn’t the first guy have thought, “Well, this is a new word from the Lord; better do what this prophet says”? How was the first supposed to know the latter was lying? It almost seems like somebody tricked somebody.

            In Numbers 23, Moses ponders, “Is God a man that He should lie?” And the answer is clearly, “No.” On the other hand, the words we have from God are the Bible, and it’s easy enough to get the Bible wrong. So, what do we make of all of this? Is pretty simplistic, but we rely on the Word of God: we read it; we listen to sermons about it; we listen to scholars who have studied it. And we pray about it. We pray that we have heard God’s voice; we pray that we have applied God’s words appropriately; and we trust the our God, who loves us, will keep us on the right path.