What The What?

This morning my Bible reading was in 1 Kings 13. If you're interested in strange stories of the Bible this passage ranks right up there. The nation of Israel has fractured into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The king of Israel is afraid that his people will rejoin their brothers in Judah because the temple is there for worship, so he sets up places of worship in his own territory to keep them local. But the temples he sets up are headlined with Golden Bulls and he declares it is because they are the gods that delivered the people from Egypt. (Forgive me, but what a bunch of Bull.)

God, the true God, is angered and sends a holy man to one of these places to prophecy that a king in Judah will come one day named Josiah, and tear all of this stuff down. (He does years later.) When he's finished he gives a sign that it will come true, the golden cow is going to fall apart, which it does. Everyone is amazed and the holy man is welcomed to eat with this wicked king, but God has given the holy man specific instructions from God Himself, "Don't eat a crumb, don't drink a drop, and don't come back the way you came." The holy man refuses the invitation of the king, but on his way home he encounters a situation that makes me scratch my head. Another prophet intercepts him on his way home, and lies to him. He tells him that God has said it is ok now for this holy man to come and eat with him at his house. The holy man takes the prophet at his word and eats with him. Only to have the prophet prophecy that he is going to die, and he does the next day.

Here is the meaning of the story: Don't listen to someone else tell you that God has changed His mind about something you heard directly from God.

Here is something else to learn: Just because people have spiritual gifts doesn't make them holy.

Just some thoughts out of my Bible reading today.
--Ben