There’s a story in I Kings, Chapter 13 (see whole passage at the end of this message), about a “man of God” that was sent to to a very bad king of Israel, Jeroboam, to warn him about the evil he was doing and the punishment that was about to follow. Now the story makes it clear that this young man, who is unnamed, was sent by God for a divine purpose. He performed miracles that could only have come from God, he prophesied about the truth as to what was about to happen in Israel, and he appears to have been fearless….totally devout and sold out to God.
But by the end of the chapter, the young man was dead—killed by a lion that God sent. It’s a very sad story, but it tells us at least lessons about life that we need to heed. He was a good man, doing a good thing. But he made two mistakes, and the Holy Spirit inspired the record of this event for our benefit! We must pay attention to this young prophet’s mistakes!
1. He disobeyed God. That’s the entire sermon, I suppose. Be obedient children of God or look out for lions! Now, as a Christian, you and are not under condemnation or fear of being thrown into hell because we disobey, but it’s absolutely fool-hardy to think that God does not discipline us when we ignore Him. So, ask yourself: do you obey God, or are you living in a way that’s disobedient? God’s not anxious to send a lion into our life, nor does He lack unbelievable patience, but this story was recorded for our sake—He will get our attention, if only for the sake of those watching us if we choose to disobey Him! This young man was a good person and he did what God asked him to do, except for one detail. He was not careful to do all that God told Him to do—-and again, I can’t make this point clear enough: this was recorded, 4000 years ago, for our benefit!
He was ordered by God: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ You might ask why God told him to do this? And I have not spent anytime at all researching that—-because it does matter. God said “don’t”, so DON’T. He has no need for our opinion and does not entertain the lame excuse that we only have to obey if we understand the reason for His dictates and directions—-He demands our obedience. If we would be good parents, we would raise our children to come to accept the same standard and obey those in authority over them. We err, I think, when we fall into the trap of arguing with teenagers—or any child—as to “why” they should or should not do something. Hopefully, if we’re righteous parents, we would never waste pain or suffering on our children by giving bad directions or foolish rules—-so they should trust us! The same with our heavenly Father. Either we trust Him….or we think we have a better idea.
Our obedience to Him might run contrary to the rest of the world—-in fact you can bet on it! The more I read the news, the more I am convinced that most folks believe in the wackiest things and the entertain the most insane notions! But “when the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” (Lewis). Lose your mind for Jesus Christ today! If you never take risks, (by choosing radical obedience) you'll never accomplish great things. Everybody dies, but not everyone has lived. Start obeying Him today—-and start taking the risks associated with submitting to, and obeying Him.
But we don’t like to talk about blindly obeying God, do we? We think that because Jesus took the blame and paid the price for all of our sins at Calvary, we’re free to do whatever we want. But that’s not biblical at all! God is a loving and patient Heavenly Father, but will discipline us. His discipline is not something we should doubt, it is an assured promise!
We’re told in Hebrews, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son” (Hebrews 12:5–6). Discipline is coming…. for each of us—-and more so the more He blesses you. He expects total obedience and submission to what He wants—period. He’s not our heavenly grandfather——He’s our heavenly Father!
This is where we, as fathers, have a chance to give our sons and daughters a life more blessed inheritance when we’re gone! Teach them to obey—and don’t give in to their whining and demanding an explanation. And when they don’t obey be courageous, strong and determined enough to discipline—-that is what we must do, if we’re wise fathers. God is the perfect father and He does not hold back from giving us what we need, in terms of discipline, to get us on the right track! The Bible says, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all” (Hebrews 12:7–8). He told David this about his son: “ I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod…. with floggings inflicted .… But my love will never be taken away from him…”. That’s how it’s supposed to me, my friends, regardless of what modern day child-rearing experts might have to say to the contrary.
God only disciplines you and me because He loves us. And, if we love our children, so we must discipline our children! We have to be valiant enough, for their sake, to say “no”; we have to punish and at times provide the appropriate “negative re-enforcement” because we love them. If we don’t, we’re not really loving them. We’re hoping that they love us by our turning a blind eye to their sins and inappropriate actions. That’s very sloppy and ungodly parenting.
Lazy parenting and cheap grace go together. Bonhoeffer said that, “‘cheap grace is marked by formalism; it means “going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn’t really matter much how you live”. Costly grace, on the other hand, involves “costly sacrifice” and maintains that “if God was willing to go to the cross and endure such pain and absorb such a cost in order to save us, then we must live sacrificially as we serve others” In Bonhoeffer’s eyes, anything less than unwavering obedience to God “smacked of ‘cheap grace’” The same holds true with real, tough-love parenting, versus the permissive, “anything-goes” type.
So how does God discipline us? Well, when you get to heaven you can ask that young prophet, or you can read the Bible and see how God dealt with people like Jonah, when he refused to go Ninevah, or Moses and Aaron, when the struck the rock in arrogance, or Adam, when he ate the forbidden fruit. Bad choices lead to bad consequences. In 2025 God uses various methods of discipline….trouble at work, a lack of peace at home, or problems with your best friends and even fights in church! God may send physical ailments or even death, as the church of Corinth learned.
So if we are His, if He has chosen us, redeemed and prepared a place for us in heaven, why does God discipline us? Because He is a good Father who wants what’s best for His children. None of our sons and daughters will ever even approach what God wants to give them—-no matter how much we pray for them—without discipline. I could present quite a few adult examples of what happens when the parents never their children—their lives are ruined.
What will happen if we submit to God’s discipline ? We will approach holiness and the mirror the very life of Jesus. James said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”
2. The second thing to consider in this story is the danger of listening to and trusting in a man that tells you to do something that you know is wrong. This young man was told by an older prophet, a true man of God as well, a lie. Did you hear that? A man of God, this older prophet, one who knew God and knew right from wrong, lied to this younger prophet —it led to this man’s death.
Just because a man is a preacher, or an older Christian, or a one who knows the Bible from cover to cover, is no reason to do or believe what he says if it is contrary to God’s law or what He has clearly told you to do. The young prophet should have talked to God first, and received some sort of confirmation, but he didn’t, probably because the old prophet told him someone he was happy to hear….he was thirsty, tired and hungry! That’s one sign the counsel you’re getting is not from God or the preacher is not ordained by God to preach. If the counsel you receive is to take the easy path, or to suggest to you that God has changed His mind, run away from that man! You listen to that nonsense at your own peril!
We’re not supposed to be living for ourselves, but for Christ, who lives within us! Shine for Jesus by copying His obedience to the Father. And don’t shine so that others can see you. Shine so that through you, others can see HIM.
Do you recall what happened at the end of the story? A lion killed the man, and when people walked by they saw the lion and the donkey sitting on the side of the road. The lion didn’t kill the man to eat him, nor did the lion attack the donkey and the donkey did run away in fear. It was an unmistakable statement that God caused this to happen. But the lesson learned was not for the dead young prophet—-the lesson was for you and me, who just heard the story again.
We can't go back and change the beginning of our lives, nor can we undo the disrespectful things we committed against God, or His redeemed, but we can start where we are, right now, and change the ending…. and not end up dead on the side the road.
You have been saved by God for good things—He wants to bless you and me. But as He sends us out into the world for the divine purpose of shining as true sons and daughters—be careful that you don’t listen to the wrong one and lose your way. Be careful and wise.
I don’t want to suggest that being obedient to God and submitting to Him will always be easy or make you a popular dad or an esteemed preacher. The young prophet took the easy path and gave in to his appetite and thirst. But the hardships associated with being an obedient child of God prepares a rather common person for an extraordinary destiny.
13 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he replied. 15 So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”
16 The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”
18 The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.) 19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”
23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.”
27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth. I Kings 13:1-33, NIV
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