And behold, there came a man of God from Judah, by the word of Jehovah, to Bethel; and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
Jeroboam has torn ten tribes from the house of David and built his own worship centre at Bethel — his own altar, his own priests, his own feast. Into the king's ceremony God now sends a stranger from Judah, and one phrase governs everything he does: "by the word of the LORD."
The altar in this verse was not one God had asked for. It was part of a system the king thought up himself, copied from the real worship in Jerusalem.
C KnappThis "feast" of Jeroboam's imitated the Feast of Tabernacles, which God had commanded Israel to keep in the seventh month. The eighth was the month Jeroboam "devised from his own heart" — a heart always deceitful and desperately wicked. And how many practices and customs in the Christian world have come out of men's own hearts, with no foundation in Scripture! Instead of "Thus says the LORD," many seem to think that in spiritual things a person may do what is right in his own eyes. It is the thoughts of God's heart, not mine, that I am to heed and put into practice.
The king himself stands at the altar, doing the work of a priest.
H. L. Rossier"Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings" (v. 1). It goes without saying that the man who had invented his own priesthood, and ordained anyone who wanted the job, could not hold that priesthood in high regard. Under royal authority it had become a political tool in his hands. So there is nothing surprising in the king claiming the right to perform its rites as he pleased.
God does not strike yet. He sends one man out of Judah with a set errand, and the same word that told him what to say also told him what not to do.
Hamilton SmithGod, however, raised up a witness against this terrible evil. "By the word of the LORD," God gave this man light about the evil at Bethel. He learned that this evil was so hateful to God that the day was soon coming when God would deal with it in judgment (vv. 1, 2)... God warned him especially not to weaken his testimony by keeping company with the evil. He was to deliver his message, give his sign, and then leave.
Notice how often the phrase repeats through the chapter. It is not decoration; it marks off every area of the man's service.
The Bible TreasuryThe Lord sends a missionary into that land with words of judgment. "The word of the LORD" ordered it all: his commission, his ministry, and his conduct in his ministry. He comes out of Judah to Bethel "by the word of the LORD" (v. 1). He cries against the altar "in the word of the LORD" (v. 2). And "the word of the LORD" lays down how he is to behave while he is in that place doing that service (v. 9)... This provided for everything: he had only to keep to it.
The messenger's own name is never given — and that silence is part of the lesson.
H. L. RossierThe man through whom God gives His testimony counts for so little that the prophet is not even named in this account. He is simply a man of God — but what a title! A man of God is a servant who represents God before men, and on whom God has stamped His own character. Such a man speaks for God; he speaks the very words of God. It is a high and solemn office. But it reduces the man himself to nothing and strips him of all confidence in the flesh.
The chapter opens in strength and ends in tragedy. The turning point is a word from another prophet.
An Outline of Sound WordsWhile Jeroboam was standing beside his idolatrous altar in Bethel, God brought a prophet from Judah to pronounce His judgment against it. The message named Josiah of the house of David as the one who would carry out that judgment. More than three hundred years later Josiah carried it out to the letter (1 Kings 13:1–5; 2 Kings 23:15–18). The man of God then listened to the lie of the old prophet of Bethel and disobeyed, and judgment overtook him for it. This is a solemn reminder of the great danger of listening to men instead of to the voice of God, whatever those men have been and whatever they claim.
- Devised — Jeroboam's altar, priests and feast came out of his own heart, not God's command. The same warning covers any practice with no foundation in Scripture.
- Sent — God answers invented religion with a witness first: one man, out of Judah, on a set errand.
- Word — the same word settles his commission, his message and his conduct; he had only to keep to it.
- Title — the messenger is never named. "Man of God" is enough: a servant who represents God before men and carries His stamp.
- Danger — the man who cried against the king's altar was undone by another prophet's lie. God's voice, not a religious man's, must stay the final authority.
And he cried against the altar by the word of Jehovah, and said, O altar, altar! thus saith Jehovah Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burned upon thee.
Jeroboam has set up a rival worship centre at Bethel. As he stands at his own altar burning incense, an unnamed man from Judah speaks a sentence over it, naming the king who will destroy it three hundred years before that king is born. Two questions follow: why the words strike the altar and not the king, and how God can name a man who does not yet exist.
The words are aimed at the altar, not at the king and not at the idol. One writer explains why:
H. L. RossierThe man of God cries against the altar (v. 2), not against the idol. For man to imagine that he can replace God's altar is more hateful in God's eyes than anything else he can do. God's altar is unique; this He has proclaimed before all. Believers have but one altar, Christ, the Lamb of God (Hebrews 13:10). God will judge wicked men who want to set up another altar alongside His own. A worship set up by man cannot last forever. Divine judgment will fall upon it. But when God destroys it, He will at the same time put the priests of this profane religion to death upon their own altar.
The words sound like pure doom. But one writer sees mercy in them: God sent a prophet at all, to a people who had wandered from Him.
J. N. DarbyGod's testimony and God's judgment did not delay. They came in keeping with His mercy towards His people. Prophecy at once reappears, for God's faithful love to His people never grows weary. His mercy endures forever. The testimony of His word does not fail. Prophecy is God stepping in with a testimony when the people go astray and the ordinary links between God and His people break down... With Jeroboam, the LORD defends the rights of His glory against the king himself and against his altar.
The prophecy names the man who would act, not only the act. One writer sets it beside another named-in-advance king:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe man of God announced the unborn king by name and also what he would do, just as Isaiah announced the unborn King Cyrus and his work. Higher criticism has laboured in vain to destroy this great evidence of prophecy.
Another writer asks a blunt question. Where is the difficulty in this?
W. W. FeredayThis prophecy is very precise. It names the man who would destroy Jeroboam's altar. In the same way the LORD named Cyrus hundreds of years before his birth (Isaiah 45:1). And why not, we ask? Where is the difficulty? Away with the foolish unbelief that would rob us of a priceless gift: the wide range of prophetic truth stored up in Holy Scripture!
Jeroboam had broken away from David's line. Yet judgment on his altar would come from that same line:
W. W. FeredayThe prediction that judgment would reach Bethel by a prince of David's line must not pass unnoticed. The LORD was very displeased with that royal house. Yet He had not abandoned His purposes for it. Josiah, in his work of destruction, is a picture of Christ. All Scripture points to Him. At His appearing He will judge and clear away all evil from Israel, and from the earth as a whole.
Josiah did what the sentence said. At Bethel he made one exception. He spared the tomb of the man who had spoken it:
H. L. RossierHe goes to Bethel and condemns all this evil at its source. So he fulfils the prophecy once spoken before Jeroboam against the altar where that king had offered sacrifices... However, he spares the tomb of the man of God who had pronounced these things. Whatever this man's unfaithfulness had been, he recognises what had been done for God by him... In the same way, every Christian heart acknowledges what men of God in past times have done to serve Him. It respects their work, even though failures have marred it.
This naming reaches further than one king:
An Outline of Sound WordsGod can name His servants long years before their birth. He did so with Josiah. He did so with Cyrus, whom God used to help His people after the captivity (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1). And this is the God who has chosen us in Christ "before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4).
- Altar — The cry is against the altar, not the idol or the king. A worship people invent for themselves cannot stand. God has only one altar.
- Mercy — Sending a prophet at all shows love that does not tire; God still speaks when His people have broken with Him.
- Name — God names Josiah before his birth, as He later named Cyrus. Unbelief has never explained that precision away.
- David — Judgment comes through David's line, a house God had not abandoned. Josiah clearing away evil pictures Christ at His appearing.
- You — The God who named Josiah centuries early is the God who chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world.