1 Kings 13:14

He was not told to sit under an oak. There was the beginning of it. That was his first failure, and no failure — no ruin — ever happens in one step. There is always a departure from the word of the Lord which exposes us to the power of the devil, and it is not first, I repeat, Satan's power. It is first our own failure, our own sin, our own disobedience. He had been told not to return by the same way he came, so he was meant to get away as fast as possible. A man forbidden to eat and drink was not meant to sit under a tree.

When he stood face to face with an angry king, he stood calmly in faith; when the persuasive voice of a religious "friend" reached his ears, he failed badly. Had he gone straight home, all might have been well, but his seducer found him "sitting under an oak." The Christian life is a race. While our souls are in motion we are safe; but even a short pause may undo us.

In 1 John 2 the family of God is divided into three grades: "babes," "young men," and "fathers." "Fathers" are believers at the highest stage of spiritual growth. Old men, in the spiritual sense, suggest decay… Like Lot before him, he lived in bad surroundings, and "bad company ruins good morals" (1 Cor. 15:33). Large numbers of godly people had given up everything in the Northern Kingdom to get away from Jeroboam's idolatry. They went south into Judah and Jerusalem, where there was still some regard for the law of Jehovah (2 Chron. 11:13-17). But the old prophet stayed in Bethel!

Whether he wanted to be or not, the old prophet was tied to the evil around him. The result was that he, a prophet, was not in the secret of God's thoughts. He learns them from others — from his sons, who repeat the Lord's words to him. God shows neither Himself nor His thoughts to a servant found in an association that dishonours Him. God gave him no revelation and used another man, while this prophet stayed barren for the Lord's work. How could he prophesy against Bethel when he was used to living there?

What was his interest in acting this way against him? It was this: if the man of God listened to him, it would look like God's approval of his position at Bethel… The old prophet gives no thought to the consequences for his brother. He is drawing him into a course of unfaithfulness. A false position makes us selfish and dishonest.

He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" Nothing could seem a more complete recognition of his mission and of his work from God. He was a servant of the Most High God who had, no doubt, come to show them the right way. There was great respect.

It is a severe test, for this old man could plead not only that he was a brother and a prophet, but also the experience of age. On top of that, he shows generous hospitality to a tired and hungry brother. "Come home with me," he says, "and eat bread." Above all, he claims that an angel had given him "the word of the LORD" to bring the man of God back to his house.