A Short Sermon | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 40.

A Short Sermon.

TEXT.—“He lied unto him.” 1 Kings 13:18.

WHEN Jeroboam was king of Israel, a man was sent by God to Bethel to prophesy against the king, and was strictly charged by God to eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the way that he came; and so he returned another way, though strongly urged by the king to tarry and eat and drink with him. Now there dwelt in Bethel an old prophet who, being told of all the things that the man of God did there, went after him and found him sitting under an oak. The prophet of Bethel urged him to return and eat and drink with him, but the man of God refused, giving as his reason the word of the Lord. But the prophet of Bethel said to him: “I am a prophet, also as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drink water. And it came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back; and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread and drink no water; thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulcher of thy fathers.” In accordance with these last words, soon after the departure of the man of God from Bethel, a lion met him in the way and slew him.

An examination of this history reveals the following facts: 1. A plain command to the man of God as to what he should, and should not do. 2. A lie told by the prophet of Bethel. 3. A belief of the man of God that the prophet of Bethel had spoken by command of the Lord. 4. The punishment of the disobedient act.

Jeroboam first invited the man of God to go home with him, but he could not be persuaded to do so because he felt the necessity of doing just as the Lord had commanded, and not till the prophet of Bethel told him that the Lord had told him thus and thus, did he consent to return with him. He believed he was doing the will of the Lord in thus returning. Wherein, then, was the sin of the man of God for which he received the punishment of death? There can be no doubt but he desired to obey God. His words and actions prove this. His motive was right. He knew what the Lord had spoken to him, but he believed the Lord had afterwards instructed him through the prophet to do the opposite. His sin could only have been in his acting upon the authority of man instead of God. After God had spoken, he should have taken neither the word of man nor prophet, and he sinned and died because of this. After God had spoken, he had no right to listen to the voice of any but God himself. Though prophets may claim to voice the words of God and say, “Thou shalt make to thee graven images and bow thyself down and serve them,” yet if we do this, we still sin, notwithstanding we act upon the claim of divine authority. No such claim has any right to obedience, when opposed to God’s words. Though the universal church should tell us to make images and worship them as gods instead of the Lord Jehovah, claiming that the Lord had so directed, we shall sin greatly if we obey the words of the church rather than the plain spoken words of the Lord. When God speaks, we must obey or suffer the penalty.

And yet how many there are to-day who are committing the sin of the man of God who went down to Bethel? The Lord has spoken in clear and unmistakable words, “The seventh day, is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” They were spoken, not through man or prophet, but by his own voice in the hearing of all the children of Israel. Any other words which speak contrary to these, though they come from priest or prophet, from the pope of Rome or the church of God, are like the words of the prophet of Bethel, “when he lied unto him,” and any who obey such words will sin as did the man of God.—Sabbath Recorder.