And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.
Jeroboam stood at an altar of his own making, and a stranger from Judah announced its doom. The king pointed and ordered his arrest. The arm he raised then stopped working in mid-air.
The Word Carried Its Own Power
The king moved to silence the message by arresting the messenger.
William KellyThe moment Jeroboam hears this he wants the man arrested. He stretches out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." But the power of God was with the word of God.
The Same Hand That Built the Altar
The hand was not chosen at random. It was the hand that had made the whole false system, now caught in the act of trying to protect it.
H. L. RossierJeroboam set up this hateful system with his own hand. That same hand stretched out to seize the man of God. It dried up at the very moment the king thought he could silence the witness of the Lord and of His Word. He could not pull it back. It stayed stretched out in its threatening gesture against the man of God and against God Himself — a monument to his powerlessness.
A Public Verdict on the Calf
It happened in front of everyone, at the altar and calf Jeroboam had made.
The Bible TreasuryAt the altar he had built, in front of the calf he had made, the LORD showed His power. His arm stayed stretched out, showing what he wanted to do. But he had lost control of it. It is a striking picture of how helpless man is when he sets himself against God. That day the LORD made everyone see that He stood above the idols and was nothing like them.
Jeroboam's own request showed how little he trusted what he had built.
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.Jeroboam had set up a religion he invented himself for his people. But clearly he had no real confidence in it. When his outstretched hand dried up, he asked the man of God from Judah to pray to "the LORD your God" that his hand might work again… His own religion might be useful for his political goals. But it was no use when his own body or his son's life was at stake!
A King Who Forgot an Old Warning
The message named the priests, not the king. Jeroboam took it as aimed at himself, and ignored an older warning to kings.
C KnappIt was a bold message, but delivered faithfully. It was aimed not at the king but at the priests, though the king seemed to feel that it applied to himself… Jeroboam had forgotten, or ignored, the warning God gave to kings almost a thousand years before: "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm" (Ps. 105:14-15).
One writer sees in this rescue a promise for everyone God sends.
H. L. RossierGod shows here that He is God indeed. He keeps His loved ones, His witnesses, and defends them… We have nothing to fear when God sends us. No one on earth, however high his position, can seize us. If anyone is ever allowed to, it is only as far as God carries out His purposes through him.
The Messenger's Response: Silence, Then Prayer
The man of God said nothing back. When God struck the king who had threatened him, he prayed for him.
Hamilton SmithThe enraged king orders his servants to seize the man of God. The man of God is silent in the face of threats. When God strikes the man who threatened him, he acts in interceding grace.
Punished, Healed, Unchanged
God healed the hand as fast as He had struck it. What it taught, and what Jeroboam took from it, were two different things.
Leslie M. GrantThe man of God did so, and in grace the Lord answered at once and healed his hand. What a lesson for Jeroboam — God is both a God of truth and a God of grace!
Yet the king asked for prayer without ever praying for himself.
W. W. Fereday"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 (Ex. 8:8) and of Simon the sorcerer (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.
Summary
- The hand acts. Jeroboam reached out to silence the witness of the Lord and of His Word.
- The hand freezes. It stuck in its threatening gesture, in front of everyone — a monument to his powerlessness.
- The hand is powerless. God made everyone see that He stood above the idols — and Jeroboam's own plea proved he never trusted them.
- The hand is healed. The prophet prayed for the man who had threatened him, and God answered at once: a God of truth and a God of grace.
- The heart stays hard. He felt the consequences of his sin, but not the evil of it. Feeling God's power is not the same as repenting.