The Man of God From Judah
13 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
It is at this point that the golden age of the prophets begins. The names of the two prophets in this chapter are not preserved, but they are a perfect example of God’s use of prophets throughout this age, which lasted for about five hundred years (930-400 BC).
The man of God (what better title could a true prophet have?) did what prophets most often did: He brought the word of the Lord to those who needed to hear it, and he proclaimed it boldly and effectively. God sent him at a moment when Jeroboam was caught red-handed (literally, with a bloody offering) in front of his golden calf at Bethel.
It’s an understatement to say that the work of the prophets was always interesting. Rather than address any people, the man of God ignored everyone, even snubbing the king, and instead he called out to the altar itself: Mizbeyach! Mizbeyach! Altar! Altar! Everyone could tell he was from Judah. Few of Jeroboam’s new subjects would speak against him; they liked the new division since it meant lower taxes (for the moment), and they probably could tell by his accent, too (Matthew 26:73).
The man of God made two predictions: First, a distant one. A son named Josiah would be born who would kill the priests of this false worship and would desecrate this altar by burning human bones on it. Josiah came to the throne of Judah in 640 BC, almost three hundred years after the division of the kingdoms and this prediction. This isn’t the only time in the Bible that a man’s name is included in a prophecy about him (Cyrus the Great is another, in Isaiah 44 and 45).
To back up such a distant prophecy, the man of God also proclaimed that the altar would split open and its ashes would be dumped out, desecrating the (pagan) holy ground. Normally ashes were disposed of in a different and specially chosen location; this wasn’t an ordinary fireplace.
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.
Jeroboam had had enough. His royal finger stretched out from his altar toward the man of God, and he shouted Seize him! but he couldn’t do anything else with his hand. It shriveled, and he was unable to pull his hand and arm back. Paralyzed! And at that moment, the altar split into pieces and the ashes spilled on the ground at Jeroboam’s feet. It was as if the finger of Jeroboam was taken over by God, pointing at the only one telling the truth. The pagan altar to the golden calf was in ruins, and nobody cared anymore about the pagan priests or the pagan bull (take that whatever way you want).
I’ve heard attempts to explain the splitting of the altar. An earthquake. A bucket of cold water. A sudden bust of rain—the hot stones (there was a sacrifice going on at that moment, 13:1) would have split naturally. But it never really helps to explain miracles with natural means, since so many of them cannot be explained apart from the hand of God. Could God sometimes have worked through natural means (earthquake, cold water)? Sure. But he didn’t have to then, and he doesn’t have to today, either. And on the Last Day, the miracle you’re most interested in (your own resurrection from the dead) won’t take place by a natural phenomenon, either; not even by some mad scientist’s Revivo-Ray Blaster. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised (1 Corinthians 15:52).
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.
I suppose that we can see all the signs of grieving in Jeroboam’s actions. Anger, denial, bargaining and acceptance. But this isn’t a psychological exercise. Jeroboam didn’t quite switch sides, did he? Pay careful attention to the pronoun in his plea: Intercede with the Lord your God… There it is in the second person singular: Your. The king wasn’t really repentant, but he was scared. As another sign of the prophet’s truth and authority from the only true God, another miracle was allowed: the king got his hand and arm back, “as it was before.”
There is a whole sermon in the Hebrew expression kabarishonah, “as it was before,” but I realize I have said more than enough already (still, someday compare this verse with Jeremiah 33:7 or 33:11). What a treasure house the Word of God is!
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, 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. (NIV)
Finally Jeroboam tried to share a meal with the man of God. Let’s all be friends. But fellowship isn’t to be taken lightly. Just because it’s offered doesn’t always mean it should be accepted. Abraham went through this when the king of Sodom wanted to be pals (Genesis 14), and the man of God here is as wary of Jeroboam and Abraham was of Sodom’s slimy sovereign. Like the Magi, he even took another road home (Matthew 2:12).
There’s more to this story, but we’ll save that for next time…
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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