In First Kings, chapter thirteen, verses twenty-one to twenty-two, the story of the unnamed disobedient prophet is an example and a warning to believers today, as in First Corinthians ten, verses one through thirteen. The scriptures stand for the believer’s highest obligation about God’s will for a believer’s life. The words and teachings of recognizable ministers of God or even angels must never accept if they contradict the instructions and standards of written revelation found in the original testimony of Christ and the apostles.
Disobedience to what God has commanded brings punishment, regardless of past faithfulness and service. The most dangerous position of any believer is to maintain a careless attitude toward the Word of God. The worst cause of failure among God’s people is not taking God’s Word as a matter of life and death. God demands the best measure of faithfulness to His commands from those who proclaim His Word, as in First Timothy three, verses one through eleven, Titus one, verses five to nine, and James three, verse one, accordingly. They must be examples of the people of God.
The old prophet’s conduct proves that he was not a godly man. When the change happened under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion. He had a corrupt method to bring the prophet back. It was all a lie. Believers are most in a dangerous position of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretenses of holiness.
We may wonder why the wicked prophet went unpunished while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom: and there is a judgment to come. Nothing can excuse any act of wilful disobedience. The incident shows what they must expect of those who yielded to the great deceiver. They that listen to him as a tempter will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom the enemy now fawns upon, he will afterward fly upon, and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair.