Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bd@hp-ses.sde.hp.com (Bob Desinger) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: 1 Kings 13 Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 89 04:06:56 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 84 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In soc.religion.christian, you asked about 1 Kings 13: > 1) Are we to take this story as it stands, or is it reasonable to postulate > that it got garbled sometime before the writer of Kings set it down? Since it's part of the Bible and "all scripture is inspired of God," according to 2 Timothy 3:16, we can take the story as it stands. > 2) If the story is taken as it stands, who was the true prophet? Foo? Bar? > Both? Neither? 1 Kings 13:18 says that the older prophet (Bar) lied to the younger (Foo). Of the seven things mentioned in Proverbs 6:16-19 that God especially detests, two of them involve lying: "a false tongue" and "a false witness that launches forth lies." John 8:44 calls Satan "the father of the lie," so lying is linked very closely with God's chief enemy. Revelation 21:8 says that liars will receive the second death, everlasting destruction. Given that God especially hates liars, the second prophet must not have been a true one. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 defines two aspects of a true prophet: he speaks in God's name and his prophecies come true. Deuteronomy 13:1-4 adds an additional acid test: his prophesying must be in harmony with God's commandments and promote true worship. The older prophet not only lied, he contradicted God's earlier commandment to the younger prophet about not eating. The younger true prophet disobeyed a direct order from God not to eat or drink while he was on his mission. That's why he was killed. The older false prophet saw that God's word was carried out with regard to this younger prophet, and realized that he was indeed a true prophet. > 3) I think Foo could justifiably claim that he had been "set up" (if he had > still been alive, that is). But if so who set him up? Bar? Or God? Given that God hates lying, it was the second prophet. James 1:13 adds that God doesn't tempt anyone with evil things, so we couldn't really be correct in saying that God sets anyone up. > 4) Quite apart from what may actually have happened, what did the writer of > Kings think he was writing about? Surely the ambiguity of the episode must > have been apparent to him. Well, internal evidence points to a prophet being the writer: the books of 1 and 2 Kings emphasize the prophets, especially Elisha and Elijah. 1 and 2 Kings have similarities in language, composition, and style with the book of Jeremiah; some Hebrew words appear only in the books of Kings and Jeremiah, but in no other Bible book. Jewish tradition also confirms the prophet Jeremiah as the writer. So the writer, being a seasoned man of God, probably wasn't confused by what he was writing. Romans 15:4 says that the OT was written for our instruction, so the account was evidently recorded to teach us something. The lesson is revealed by studying the context around 1 Kings 13. The kingdom of Israel had just `seceded from the union.' Jeroboam, the king of Israel, was worried that his people would go back to the rival kingdom of Judah to worship at the original temple in Jerusalem. So Jeroboam erected two altars for calf worship, one in northern Israel at Dan and one in the south at Bethel (1 Kings 12:27-29). Compounding the injury to true worship, Jeroboam appointed priests from people who were not of the priestly tribe of Levi. He also manufactured his own festival dates (1 Kings 12:31-32). The older prophet lived in the city of Bethel, once renowned for being a place of true revelation by God. With its altar for calf worship, it was now a symbol of big-time apostasy from true worship. God expressed His disapproval by sending the younger true prophet, whose prophecy against the altar came true. But the younger prophet allowed himself to be swayed by an old apostate prophet who claimed the exact opposite of what the young one was told by God. After he was killed, the old false prophet saw how God's word had been fulfilled and wanted to be buried at the same site. The lesson of the account? There are a few: * God's word certainly will be fulfilled (1 Kings 13:32). * The reason for God's low opinion of Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:34); God was justified for abandoning the Jews after they abandoned Him. * The bad results of listening to people who claim to have the word of God even though their counsel flies in the face of what you know to be true. We need to be open-minded, but still to weigh what people say like a judge weighs the evidence of a case. Hope this helps, bob desinger