1 Kings 13:17
For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
The verse gives the direct order the man of God had received from the Lord, that he was to eat no bread and drink no water at Bethel and was not to return by the way he had come. At first he correctly repeated that order when he refused the old prophet's invitation to turn back. The old prophet then falsely claimed that an angel had brought him a different and contrary message from the Lord telling him to bring the man back. Believing that lie and turning back to eat and drink was disobedience to the command he had received and a departure from duty.
A later claimed prophetic message does not cancel a command God has already clearly given, and the man remained responsible to obey God's original word rather than the contradiction. His choice to follow the falsehood brought him under condemnation and led to his death, confirming the seriousness of disobeying the Lord's word. His death in turn reinforced the truth of the prophecy he had spoken against Jeroboam.
The episode illustrates the pattern in which a servant of God is accused of causing the nation's troubles, which applies to faithful people who are blamed for calamities because they uphold God's commandments. The account of the disobedient prophet in this chapter has been wrongly applied to dismiss a later messenger as honest but deceived, a charge that fails without evidence that she has disobeyed God.