Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from May 31, “Lessons from Lions and Liars”
I share with you from one of those passages of scripture that always puzzled me, It takes place right after the nation of Israel is split into the ten northern tribes under Jeroboam and Judah in the south where Solomon’s son Rehoboam remained king. Jeroboam wanted to cut any ties to Judah, so he set up idols for the people to worship rather than have them going back to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. God sent a prophet to speak against Jeroboam’s altar and predict its eventual destruction, even giving the name of the person who would do it generations later, King Josiah of Judah.
The prophet does what he is sent to do, but then he gets sidetracked. God told him not to eat or drink in that place and to go home by a different route than he came. This was probably for his protection. But along comes another prophet who tells him that God has given him new instructions and he should join the old prophet for lunch. So the younger man disobeyed God and paid for it with his life. Certainly there’s a lesson there, but nothing that isn’t illustrated elsewhere in scripture, so why this story, and what’s with the odd behavior of the lion that killed him? The story is in 1 Kings 13 and we will read just verses 16-22, but to put the event in context you should read all of chapters 12 and 13. Let’s see if we can solve the mystery and learn a few good lessons along the way.
