1 Kings 13:33

"Seize him," cried the angry king. But the hand he stretched out withered by God's judgment. "Pray for me," said Jeroboam in alarm. Sadly, the unhappy man had never learned to pray for himself. In this he reminds us of Pharaoh in Exodus 8:8, and Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8:24. He had felt the power of God at work, and it should have led him to repentance. But flesh learns nothing. He felt the consequences of his sin, but not the evil of it.

He could plead with the prophet, the man of God, and the man of God could plead with the LORD — and an answer came. But it had no effect on his conscience. Nothing good is done unless the conscience is reached in the presence of God.

But no testimony stops the idolatrous career of Jeroboam (vv. 33-34). He sets his heart on the religion he has invented more than on the word of the LORD. Yet that Word cannot fail, and it had told him everything in advance through the prophet Ahijah. Events had proved it true. He had received its blessings, and his soul was no better for them. Now he was about to meet its judgment.

"Any who would, he ordained." It was not only Jeroboam's will that was at work, but anybody's will, everybody's will.

Of course the man who had made his own priesthood, and had ordained anyone who wished to be one (v. 33), could not hold that priesthood in very high esteem. It now answered to the king, and it had become a political tool in his hands.

All ministry in the house of God, whether in Old or New Testament times, is of divine appointment. Scripture knows nothing of human authority appointing anyone to the ministry. Nor does it know of a ministry a man takes up for himself. None but God can make or appoint a minister of any sort or description. In Old Testament times the LORD appointed Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, and if an outsider dared to meddle with that holy office, he was to be put to death. Even the king himself dared not touch the priest's censer. Uzziah, king of Judah, went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense, and he was a leper to the day of his death (2 Chronicles 26).

God had chosen Aaron and his sons to serve Him as priests. Jeroboam had no access to God's priests, so he "appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites." Christendom does the same thing. It sets up a "priestly class," often made up of unconverted men (or women!). That sets aside God's principle that every believer is a priest.

This glaring sin would bring down God's solemn judgment. It would wipe out the house of Jeroboam from the face of the earth (v. 34). After this Jeroboam became known as the king who made Israel sin (ch. 14:16).