1 Kings 13:11-22 - The Man Of God Disobeys

11 Now there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel, and his sons went to him and told him everything that the man of God had accomplished that day in Bethel, including the message that he had delivered to the king. 12 "Which way did he go?" their father asked him, since his sons had observed the way that the man of God had taken to return to Judah from Bethel. 13 "Saddle my donkey for me!" he ordered. So they saddled the donkey for him 14 and he rode off after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. "You're the man of God who came from Judah, aren't you?" the old prophet asked him. "I am," he replied.

15 "Come home with me and have a meal," he told him.

16 But he replied, "I can't go back with you to your home, be in your company, or even eat food or drink water with you in this place, 17 because I've been given a command in the form of this message from the LORD: "You are to eat no food, drink no water, and do not return to Judah by traveling the way by which you go there.'"

18 "I'm a prophet like you," the old man replied, "and an angel spoke to me and delivered this message from the LORD: "Bring him back with you to your house and give him food and water.'" But he was lying, 19 and the man of God accompanied the old prophet back to his house, ate some food, and drank some water.

20 Later, while they were sitting down at the table, a message from the LORD was delivered to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 so he cried out to the man of God from Judah: "This is what the LORD says: "Because you disobeyed a command from the LORD and haven't done what the LORD your God commanded you to do, 22 but instead you returned to eat and drink in the very place that he told you "Eat no food and drink no water," your body will not be buried in the same grave as your ancestors.'"


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