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Was Jeroboam thankful to the
prophet who prayed God to make his hand well again? Yes, Jeroboam
said to him, "Come home with me, and rest thyself, and eat bread at
my house, and I will give thee money." But the prophet said,
"No, I must not go back with thee. God commanded me not to eat
nor drink in this place, but to go away directly by another
road." So the prophet went away, and Jeroboam returned to his
house alone. There was an
old man who lived at Bethel, who was a prophet too, but he was not a good
man. When his sons came home that day, they told him the wonderful
story of the prophet who came from Judah, and prophesied about Jeroboam's
altar: and of the king's hand withering when he tried to lay hold of
the man of God; and how it was cured when the prophet prayed to God.
The old man wondered very much to hear these things, and said, "I
should like to see this prophet, and talk to him; where is he
gone?" The sons showed their father the road the prophet had
taken; and then the old man saddled his ass, and rode after him, to seek
him. Did he find him? Yes, at last he saw the prophet sitting
under an oak tree. Then the old man went to him, and asked,
"Art thou the prophet, who came from Judah?" He said,
"Yes, I am." Then the old man said, "Come home with
me, and eat bread." But the prophet answered, "No, I must
not; God commanded me to eat no bread and drink no water here, and I can
not disobey Him." But the old man said, "I am a prophet
too; and an angel appeared to me, and told me to go to thee, and bring
thee home, and give thee bread to eat, and water to drink." Was
this the truth? No, but the prophet did not know it was a lie; he
believed all the old man said, and went home with him to his house.
Was this right? No, it was disobedience to God's command. The
prophet ought to have asked God, "Is it true what this man tells
me? Shall I go with him?" But the prophet believed the
old man more than he believed God; and when he was tempted to do wrong, he
did not ask help from God, and therefore, he began to sin against Him. There
are now many wicked people who try to tempt us to sin; and our own sinful
hearts too often make us wish to do wrong, and not right. We
all love sin better than we love holiness, if God's Spirit is not in us to
teach us aright. What must we do when we are tempted? We must
pray God to help us to resist sin; we must ask Him to keep us in the right
way; and pray every day we live, "Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:13. The
old man and the prophet went home together, and sat down to eat and
drink. And now punishment came upon the disobedient prophet.
God had seen all he did. His eye is always upon us. Wherever
we go, whatever we do, He knows all. When we obey and serve Him, and
trust in Him to guide us in all our ways, then His blessing follows us,
and we are safe wherever we go. But if we are disobedient to Him,
and forget or rebel against His commands, then we sin against Him, and His
frown is upon us, and not His smile. God
sent a message to the old man, while they were all sitting at table.
It was a very sad message. The old man cried to the prophet,
"Thus saith the Lord; because thou hast disobeyed the command of God,
thou shalt not go to thy home again; but thou shalt die by the way, and
thy body shall not be buried in thy father's tomb." The poor
prophet saw now how dangerous it is to disobey God. When
they had finished eating, the prophet saddled his ass, and went
away. He looked up, and saw a lion in the road coming to meet
him. God sent that lion: it came to punish the disobedient
prophet; and it rushed upon him and killed him in a moment. But the
lion did not hurt the ass, nor devour the dead body of the man. The
people who passed by, soon came and told the sad story to the old
prophet. He knew why the man of God was slain, and he felt very
sorry, and went directly to the place where the lion had killed him.
What did he see there? The poor prophet's dead body lying on the
road, and the lion and the ass standing by it. The old man took up
the dead body, and laid it on his ass, and carried it home. Then he
put it in his own tomb, and mourned over it, and cried, "Alas! my
brother." He said to
his sons, "When I die, bury me by the man of God. Lay my bones
by his bones. I know that what he prophesied about the altar of
Bethel shall all be found true." The old prophet believed the word of
God now.
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