1 Kings 13 · a question people ask
Why was the man of God judged, when the chapter tells of no judgment on the prophet who lied?
The chapter says plainly that the old prophet lied: "He lied to him" (13:18). The LORD's word that came at the table gave the reason for what followed as the man of God's own act: "Because you have been disobedient to the LORD’s word, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you" (13:21), "but came back, and have eaten bread and drank water in the place of which he said to you" (13:22). The chapter doesn't say why the old prophet lied, and it tells of no judgment on him; it tells that he came to mourn the man of God (13:29-30) and asked to be buried beside him (13:31). In Deuteronomy the LORD had said of a prophet "who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak" that "that same prophet shall die" (Deuteronomy 18:20). Christians read the chapter's answer in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree that the chapter doesn't excuse the lie (13:18), that the man of God had heard the command himself and said it twice (13:9, 13:17), and that the LORD's word named his disobedience as the reason (13:21-22).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Hold to the word you were given
Those who read it this way start from what the man of God himself knew. He had the command by the LORD's word, and he said so to the king (13:9) and to the old prophet (13:17). His own word had been shown true that same day, when the altar split "according to the sign which the man of God had given by the LORD’s word" (13:5); the old prophet's claim came with no sign. In Deuteronomy, even when a prophet's sign comes to pass, if he says, "Let’s go after other gods" (Deuteronomy 13:2), "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet" (Deuteronomy 13:3), for he has spoken "to draw you aside out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in" (Deuteronomy 13:5). The old prophet spoke of no other gods; those who read the chapter this way take from Deuteronomy only that a word turning someone from what the LORD commanded is not to be followed, whoever brings it. Paul writes, "But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed" (Galatians 1:8), and John, "don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). On this reading the lie didn't take away the command he had heard for himself, and the chapter shows that the LORD's word is to be kept even when someone who claims to speak for the LORD says otherwise.
1 Kings 13:9 · 1 Kings 13:17 · 1 Kings 13:5 · Deuteronomy 13:1-5 · Galatians 1:8 · 1 John 4:1
A sign that the word will surely happen
Those who read it this way start from how the chapter itself explains the death. The old prophet says, "the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has mauled him and slain him, according to the LORD’s word which he spoke to him" (13:26), and then draws the lesson about Bethel: "For the saying which he cried by the LORD’s word against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen" (13:32). The chapter then turns straight to Jeroboam, who "didn’t turn from his evil way" (13:33). On this reading the man of God's death is told as proof that the LORD's word does exactly what it says, even to the one who carried it, and so the word he cried against the altar in Bethel will be kept too (13:32), as 2 Kings tells: "according to the LORD’s word which the man of God proclaimed" (2 Kings 23:16). On this reading the chapter's question is less what became of the old prophet than whether the LORD's word can be set aside, and its answer is no.
1 Kings 13:26 · 1 Kings 13:32-33 · 2 Kings 23:16
The verses
“He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the LORD’s word, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him.”
“and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “The LORD says, ‘Because you have been disobedient to the LORD’s word, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but came back, and have eaten bread and drank water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread, and drink no water,” your body will not come to the tomb of your fathers.’””
“The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn, and to bury him. He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” After he had buried him, he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.”
“The LORD said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.””