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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Lessons From A Nameless Prophet

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the time we have together.

And as we're about to now open your word together, may you please guide us, O Lord, with your Holy Spirit.

Lead us, O Father, we pray in Jesus' name.

The title of our message this morning is Lessons from a Nameless Prophet and we're going to be focusing on 1 chapter in the Old Testament.

And let's start right there in verse 1, shall we?

The Bible says, And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense." So what we see here is this man of God who comes out of where?

And the span and the influence of his life is only found in this chapter alone.

But he comes in a time when King Jeroboam is reigning.

Well he is the first king of the northern tribes after the kingdom split from Solomon.

And Solomon's son was reigning in the southern tribes.

And so how did it come to this point where the kingdom would split?

Well a prophecy was given that Jeroboam would be the king of the northern tribes but the reason was foreordained although, but yet we see in the decision of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, you see Israel would come and they would ask Rehoboam, please don't be like your father.

You know, although he was a good king at the beginning, he became sort of a tyrant king towards the end of his rule and was oppressing the people and so they asked for lighter burdens but what would happen?

Rehoboam would listen to the counsel of his buddies, his friends that were of the similar age of him rather than listening to the old counselors that ruled or that not ruled that were counselors to Solomon while he ruled and he made his burden their burdens heavier and so eventually they would turn away and follow Jeroboam, 10 tribes, whilst only 2 tribes would follow Rehoboam.

But since he was the ruler of the northern tribes, they didn't have a temple to worship God.

You see, in Jerusalem, was in the southern tribes where Rehoboam was, the sanctuary was there and so he was afraid that the people when they go and worshiped 3 times a year in the temple there, their hearts would be softened, they would cleave back to King Rehoboam.

What would Jeroboam do since he was afraid of losing his subjects, the people that were following him?

Let's go back 1 chapter to 1 Kings chapter 12 and look at what it says here from verse 26 to 31.

Jeroboam said in his heart, now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.

If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

Whereupon the king took counsel and made 2 calves of gold and sent to them.

It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And he set 1 in Bethel and the other he put in Dan.

And this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the 1 even unto Dan and he made an house of high places and made priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the sons of Levi.

He made 2 calves of gold and he got the people to worship them and he set up high places and put in them not the Levites, the priests, to burn incense and to sacrifice.

And so what seemed so promising at the very beginning, when he came as a ruler into the kingdom, he really was bad.

He caused the whole of Israel, the northern tribes, to worship different gods and it became a snare and a sin to them just because he was so afraid of losing people to go back to King Rehoboam.

And it is at this time, right at the very beginning when Jeroboam first becomes king, It is at this time that the man of God, the nameless prophet in 1 Kings 13, verse 1, he comes and stands before King Jeroboam.

And he gives this denunciation, this cry.

And so let's go back to 1st Kings chapter 13 now starting there in verse 2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said O altar altar thus saith the Lord behold a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name.

And upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.

And he gave a sign the same day saying this is a sign which the Lord has spoken behold the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out and it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God which cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him.

And his hand which he put forth against him dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

The altar also was rent, the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again and the man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was restored him again and became as it was before.

So this man of God stands before Jeroboam and he says, look there's going to be this king in the future, Josiah by name, who's going to offer, he's pretty much going to set the kingdom aright again.

And what Jeroboam is doing, he is going to undo.

He put forth his hand to grab the man of God, but in doing so, while he was doing that, his hand dried up, it withered up, it became useless.

And so he was so shocked and he asked the man of God, please pray for me, restore my hand.

The altar was rent just as the man of God said it would be.

And the man of God being merciful and loving and kind, he prayed to God and asked for the king's hand to be restored.

And so he was willing to pray for King Jeroboam and his hand to be restored whole again.

He worked through this prophet, a mighty prophet, though a nameless prophet.

And so these signs and these miracles were performed.

It was evidence that God was with this man.

The king said to the man of God, Come home with me, refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

And the man of God said to the king, if that will give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.

For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord saying, eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

So he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel." You see, friends, the Word of God was guiding this man of God.

And he would not even go in and eat with the king at his place even if the king gave him up to half his house.

The half the house of the king or half the riches of the king, the man of God said, I will not even go and eat or drink with you.

God was the 1 that instructed him, said, don't eat or drink with anybody and even go back a different way.

Don't go back the same way that you came.

Don't eat or drink with anybody and don't go back by the same way.

He doesn't want to eat with the king, even though the king wants to give him this thankfulness, to thank him for what he'd done.

And he goes back a different way obviously but let's continue what happens next verse 11 now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

And their father said unto them, What way went he?

For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass.

So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak.

And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah?

And he said, I am." So this old prophet, he is living in Bethel, the very place where this altar has been set up, the very place where this man of God has come and has had this encounter with King Jeroboam.

And it was obviously not done in private.

There must have been other people around because the sons of this old prophet saw everything that took place and they also saw which way the man of God went.

And so the old prophet gets on his donkey and he goes and chases after this man of God.

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Lessons From A Nameless Prophet

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