Honestly Deceived

(Denny Smith)

In 1 Kings 13:1-33 we read of a man of God, a prophet, who came from Judah to Bethel to prophecy against the altar there.  Jeroboam, the king of Israel, was present at the altar.  Jeroboam was the king who had made the two golden calves for the children of Israel to worship one of which resided at Bethel (1 Kings 12:25-33).  On the altar there sacrifices were made to the golden calf that resided there.  As the prophet arrived he found Jeroboam at the altar preparing to burn incense to his idol.

The prophet was sent to Bethel on this mission “by the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 13:1) and given distinct instructions as how to proceed.  He was to eat no bread, nor drink any water, nor return by the way he came (1 Kings 13:9).  Having fulfilled his mission of prophecy in Bethel he obeys God and starts for home on a route different from that which he had come.  However, an old prophet intercepts him on the way and lies to him saying that he too was a prophet (this being true) but also saying that an angel had spoken to him “by the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 13:18) and that the angel said, “Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water”.

The Bible says, however, “he lied to him” (1 Kings 13:18).  The man of God from Judah, a prophet, was lied to and swallowed the lie as the saying goes, hook, line, and sinker.  While eating, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet against the man of God from Judah saying, “Because you have disobeyed the command of the Lord, and have not observed the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, ‘Eat no bread and drink no water’; your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.’” (1 Kings 13:21-22)  On his way home he was killed by a lion.

This is a most interesting account and a little hard for us to understand.  Why?  Because the man of God from Judah, the prophet, seemed very intent on doing God’s will.  When Jeroboam after experiencing miracles at the altar while in the prophet’s presence, miracles that served as a rebuke to him, invited the man of God home with him to refresh himself the prophet replies, “If you were to give me half your house I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.  For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord …”.  (1 Kings 13:8-9)

We have a sincere and honest man seeking to do God’s will and apparently trying his best and yet he is struck down by God for what many of us would be inclined to see as an honest error.  Was it an honest error?  I believe the man of God thought that was the case.  He had been lied to and that by another man of God.  From a human point of view it is certainly easy to understand why the man from Judah did as he did.

Why did God strike the man from Judah down?  The man was honest, trying to do right, resisting temptation from Jeroboam who had previously tempted him to do this very thing.  We might say his only sin was believing a lie from a man that should have been trustworthy.  I am sure many have wondered about this event.

Eve provides another example of one who was deceived.  She says in Gen. 3:3 “The serpent deceived me”.  Indeed he did.  Paul says by inspiration in 1 Tim. 2:14, “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”  This is listed as one of the reasons a woman is not to “teach or exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12).

It is certain God looks with disfavor on our being deceived.  Satan is a deceiver.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 11:3, “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”  In Rev. 20:2 we learn the serpent of old is “the devil and Satan”. 

The problem with being honestly deceived is that it leads to disobedience to God no matter how sincere we may be (Saul of Tarsus is another great example of the very thing we are talking about - sincere but disobedient). Will the honestly sincere and yet deceived be saved when the result ends up being disobedience to God?  Who would dare say yes to that question in view of what the Bible teaches us in the two accounts being discussed?

Was God fair to the prophet from Judah and to Eve seeing as how they were both deceived, even lied to?  Looking at the matter superficially we might well be led to say no but if we dig a little deeper we can come up with the reasons why he was fair and also learn some lessons useful to us today.

God was fair because God’s word can be understood.  Neither the prophet from Judah nor Eve had any doubts about what God had told them.  We must be satisfied with God’s word.  Both the prophet from Judah and Eve got into trouble by going outside God’s word.  Both were guilty of believing what some one other than God told them about God’s will.  There is a big lesson in that for us all.

They both had heard directly from God but chose to later take a second hand report of what God had said for truth itself.  We can read God’s word and believe he said what he meant to say or we can believe some man who wants to tell us how the text does not really mean what it says.  Who are you going to believe?  Will we be another man of God from Judah?

If we read the Bible we ought to be satisfied with what we read.  There is no need and great danger in allowing others to tell us what God’s will is, the very thing the prophet from Judah did and that got him into trouble costing him his life.  We can read it for ourselves.  How many have been and are being led astray because they will not read the Bible and accept that only?  They want to know what the authorities in their religious body first have to say about a verse, a doctrine, before they are willing to accept the word at face value.

There has always been pressure to conform our thinking in a way that is acceptable to others.  The prophet from God wanted to believe the old prophet who lied to him.  It was that or call him a liar and that would not have been a pleasant encounter.  He wanted to believe the man was pure.  Eve wanted to believe the serpent.

Well, are we not to believe the best about others?  Yes.  Are we to judge others motives?  No.  However, when we are told things we can know with certainty are directly contrary to what God has told us we are to oppose such and are merely judging righteous judgment (a thing allowed – John 7:24), a thing that would have saved both the prophet from Judah and Eve had they of done it.  The idea some seem to have that we are to judge no one or no thing is contrary to Bible teaching.

Another lesson we need to learn is that Satan does not and will not play fair.  He is a back shooter and as the Bible calls him - a deceiver.  He will ambush you at the first opportunity.  The prophet from Judah was deceived by one who had himself been a man of God.  Who would have believed it?  Paul says, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”  (2 Cor.11:13-14).

Those who are most dangerous are too often those who seem to be the most tenderhearted and kindest people on earth, the most loving .  The serpent seemingly just wanted Eve to be able to better herself.  The old prophet just wanted to provide hospitality to a weary traveler, just one of God’s children showing kindness to another of God’s children.  Yet, both were agents of evil and sin.

One thing we need to understand is that God’s children will never be considered by the world to be the nicest people around.  Why not?  Because we are intolerant of sin and sinful lifestyles.  Not that we would hurt anybody other than their feelings.  Their feelings are hurt because they want us to fully accept their behavior as godly when it is not.  Only the man who has no real principles can accept all things and that man is an ungodly man, a man who will leave evil alone to do its dirty work.  When I condemn nothing I accept all things and what kind of a man does that make me?

It is, just as one example, easy to accept homosexuality as godly on the basis that God’s love covers all and we ought to be tolerant and loving.  Yet, has God spoken?  Indeed he has (1 Cor. 6:9) “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”  Which will we choose?  Will be believe what God has said or will we believe what man tells us to believe?  Will we be the prophet from Judah?  Will we be Eve?

I might add God’s love does cover all but only on the condition of repentance.  The world wants us to accept homosexuality as being pleasing to God without repentance.  (Yes, I know God loves sinners as well as saints.  That is not my point.  Jude says in verse 21 "keep yourselves in the love of God".  It must be possible therefore to get outside the love of God in the sense in which Jude speaks and in which I am speaking in this article.) 

I used homosexuality as one example of a vast multitude of examples that could be given.  When one wonders into the realm of going beyond what we know to be God’s word one is playing with fire.  Who says God did not really mean what he said?  How do you know he did not mean it that way?  How can I know I can trust you above God’s clear word?  Why should I trust you?  What makes you foolproof in your deductions and conclusions?

One must also learn to want what God wants.  This was certainly a failure with Eve and may likewise have been with the man of God from Judah though less certain in his case.  One will never be able to obey God consistently without learning to love what God loves and hate what God hates. 

Eve wanted for herself what God did not want her to have.  Her will differed from God’s will.  In each of our lives there must be a transformation of our wills.  By nature we desire the things of this world but we must make the turn from being a man of the flesh to a man of the spirit desiring spiritual things above everything this world has to offer.

Pauls says, Gal. 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me … “.  Paul’s life became like that of Christ himself who said in the book of John (5:30) “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me”, that is the will of God the Father.  Again, (John 6:38), “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  Jesus wanted what the Father wanted and says elsewhere “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”  (John 8:29)  Paul says “Christ lives in me” meaning he had developed the same kind of will in his life that Jesus had.  Paul tells us elsewhere, (1 Cor. 11:1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

Thus, Eve sinned, in part, because she had not developed within her being the kind of will that wanted the same things God wanted.  God had his desires, she had hers, and they did not correspond.  This will always lead us into trouble, into disobedience.  Our lives must be transformed spiritually so that like Paul our will is to do God’s will, where we want what he wants. 

Jesus says, “whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:25)  This simply means our will, and therefore our life, is to be what Christ’s will and Christ’s life would be if he was here in our place.  It is a thing hard to do for it means we give up a thought pattern that is common to all men in the flesh.  We are dual beings, part flesh and part spirit, and rather than have the flesh dominate us as is the case by nature we must be led by the Spirit, by the word of God.  In this Eve failed and we all are in danger of doing the same if we are not most diligent in bringing our bodies into subjection as Paul would say.

I close this study with a final thought for consideration.  There is a penalty to pay for disobedience to God.  Eve knew that for God had told her.  Yet, it did not deter her.  Will it deter us?

We ought to learn from what happened to the man of God from Judah and from Eve’s experience.  What kind of an eternal future do you desire for yourself?  What do I desire for myself?  This life is very short, the next one endless.  We have the ability to have the kind of life we want.  Will it be life in this world only?  Will it be a life of acquisition and caring for self, for the desires of the flesh, or will we use this life to make preparation for the next?  We cannot have our cake and eat it too.  We must choose.

(All quotes are from the NASB.)