“An old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons told him everything the man of Elohim did in Bethel that day and the exact words he had spoken to the king…The old prophet asked him, ‘Are you the man of Elohim who came from Judah?’ ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘Come home with me, and eat a meal,’ the old prophet replied. The man of God said, ‘I’m not allowed to go back with you. I’m not allowed to eat or drink with you. When Yahweh spoke to me, he told me not to eat or drink there or go back on the road I took to get there.
The old prophet said, “I’m also a prophet, like you. An angel spoke the word of Yahweh to me. He said, ‘Bring him home with you so that he may have something to eat and drink.’” (But the old prophet was lying.) The man of God went back with him and ate and drank in his home. When they were sitting at the table, Yahweh spoke his word to the old prophet who had brought back the man of Elohim. Yahweh also called to the man of Elohim. He said, “This is what Yahweh says: You rebelled against the words from Yahweh’s mouth and didn’t obey the command that Yahweh your Elohim gave you. You came back, ate, and drank at this place about which he told you, ‘Don’t eat or drink there.’ That is why your dead body will not be allowed to be placed in the tomb of your ancestors.”
After the old prophet had something to eat and drink, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. The man of Elohim left. A lion found him as he traveled on the road and killed him. His dead body was thrown on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing by the body…When the old prophet who had brought the man of Elohim back from the road heard about it, he said, “It’s the man of Elohim who rebelled against the words from Yahweh’s mouth! Yahweh gave him to the lion. It tore him to pieces and killed him as the word of Yahweh had told him.” 1 Kings 13:11-26
This isn’t one of the most popular stories in the Bible, but it still holds important lessons for us today. Sometimes we may be tempted to think that because we have believed in God for many years that we are entitled to dictate what God’s will is for someone else. But just because God didn’t direct you to do or not do something doesn’t mean you can safely assume God did not direct someone else differently. On the other hand, we may be tempted to put more confidence in the opinions of those who have more life experience or a strong reputation than what God told us to do personally which is also a mistake.
We all have our own walk with God that we cannot outsource to someone else nor should we position ourselves or another person as the ultimate authority of God’s will.
We all need to be very careful not to misuse our faith as experienced believers in God to discourage others from following God’s will for themselves and try to pass off our personal advice as inspired from God just because their convictions are different from our own. Remember that another person’s walk with God doesn’t have to look exactly like yours to be authentic. And just because someone is a professed believer that doesn’t mean we can trust them to be our spiritual guide in all things. We need to be wary of both arrogance in assuming we can direct others and a lack of confidence in our ability to follow God for ourselves.
