Title: Partial Obedience is Disobedience/ Topic: Obedience

Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 13; 1 Kings 14; 2 Chronicles 12; Philippians 3

Scripture: 1 Kings 13:7-24
7 The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have something to eat, 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 fathers.' "
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 thrown down on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

Observation: This is one of the strange but instructive stories of the Bible. The prophet of God from Judah has been given firm instructions by the Lord as to what he is to do. He does it, but he stops to rest on the way back to Judah (this was his first mistake). This allows the second prophet from Israel to catch up with him and ask him to his home to eat. The first prophet repeats his instructions from God, but the second prophet lies to him saying God told him to tell the prophet to come back with him. The first prophet makes his second mistake of not checking with God himself to see if this was correct. I'm sure the first prophet wanted to believe the second one. It's a long trip fro Judah to Israel and he was probably hungry and thirsty. He acceded to the lying prophet's request because it appealed to the needs of his flesh and sounded as if God was okay with it. The result is his destruction.

Application: The application is simple: When God gives you a clear Word, don't deviate from it because it's difficult or because another person who knows God says you can ignore it. Don't allow anyone to tell you you can take the easy way out of something God told you to do.

Prayer: Father, teach me to never compromise your clear instructions to me, even if they are difficult. If I obey, you promise reward and blessing (happiness and fulfillment). The end is worth whatever sacrifice I must make in the short term.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.