Discerning the Will of God, Part 2

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, and the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously. Thou shalt not be afraid of him. So that seems neat and tidy and straightforward. If it doesn’t come to pass, then he’s a false prophet. And then you have Isaiah prophesying about Jesus, who wouldn’t come for another, what was it, thousand years.

And it suddenly becomes not quite as useful, because people listening to Isaiah’s prophecies aren’t going to live long enough to know whether it’s going to come to pass or not. So there’s a problem. There’s another complication. Let’s read the junior Bibles to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24 verse 22, we’ll start reading verse 22. And this is Jesus speaking. It says, And except those days should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved.

But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, inasmuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. So when the Bible says if it were possible, I take that to mean that it is possible, because at the beginning of that passage, he says, for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

And if they weren’t shortened, no flesh would be saved. So it is possible for false prophets in Satan’s power to do signs and wonders. We saw the Egyptian false prophets. They did signs and wonders, and to the degree that they could even deceive Christians. So that really complicates matters. We did cover one rule of thumb last time that still applies, and that is that God’s will can never contradict God’s Word.

God never contradicts Himself. And even in the time of the prophets, they had Moses writing. They had the Pentateuch. So they had a basis to compare things to. There’s one more passage I want to cover before getting into our main passage, and this is kind of a longer passage, so I’m going to comment some as we go through it, but I’ll more or less read straight through it, and that’s in Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy chapter 13.

And you might want to just go ahead and bookmark this passage, because the story that I’m getting to really relates to this passage. It’s not from here, but you’ll see the correlation very strongly, I think. Alright, so Deuteronomy 13, we’ll read verses 1 through 16. If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.

Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So here God tells his people that even if a false prophet comes and gives signs and wonders and those things come to pass, even if they can’t explain it, they’re not called on to explain it, just to ignore it.

And I think that’s important because, I don’t know the exact year, but I would say it was in the 80s, 90s that the evolutionary theory of origins became very pushed in the states, and a lot of Baptists or different stripes of Christianity started to espouse the thousand year day theory. They were trying to explain things so that the Bible could match science. That’s not our job. The Bible is accurate.

We’re called on to believe it. You have to understand it properly, correctly, but the Bible says the evening and the morning were the first day. That’s problematic for a thousand year day. That would be a lot of darkness. But you don’t have to explain everything like pastors covered recently. There are things that cannot be explained, but we are to believe the Bible. So he shows this false prophet, shows signs or wonders, but contradicts the Bible, contradicts God’s given word.

So picking up in verse 4, If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, namely the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, and if that’s not all encompassing enough, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.

Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him, to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And pause right there. I want to say, again going back to the will of God, if you’re trying to discern the will of God or just know it in general, you have to be walking with the Lord.

We covered that too. He’s not going to communicate his will to you if you’re not walking with him. And here in the South, it’s very strong, the blood is thicker than water, I think it exists everywhere, but especially here in the South. But you read this passage and you think, wow, would you really? If you could really imagine yourself in that situation, would you really turn in your own sibling, your parent, as I say turn in, would you throw the first stone?

But that’s what God demands. Do we take sin seriously enough? To God, sin is serious. Verse 11, and all Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. If Israel had obeyed that commandment, they would have saved themselves a lot of misery. Verse 12, if thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known.

Then thou shalt inquire, and make search, and ask diligently, and behold, if it be true, and the things certain, and such abomination is wrought among you, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God, and it shall be in heap forever, it shall not be built again.

So like I said, go ahead and bookmark that passage. But God takes false prophecy very seriously, and it’s not just false prophecy, but the theme running through here is turning away the hearts. So to make it more applicable to our day, there aren’t very many people. There was Joseph Smith, somewhat recent. They’re not nonexistent, but more commonly is just false teachers, people who misinterpret the Bible. And the Bible elsewhere says it’s better than a millstone being hung around their neck.

So for instance, when I get up here, I get nervous. I think I better be right. Whatever I’m saying, you better be correct because it’s a lot of responsibility. God takes this very seriously. So now the story that I was hoping to cover, and that’s found in 1 Kings 13. So turn to 1 Kings 13, and this is where we’ll be for most of the remainder of our time.

This story demonstrates a lot of what could be, if Israel had followed the principles that we just read that were given, what was, what actually did happen. Like I said, there’s a lot packed in this story. I probably won’t do it justice, but it’s interesting. I don’t know why it’s not covered more often. So let’s start. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

We know he wasn’t burning incense to Jehovah. And this prophet came, says, by the word of the Lord, so he was coming to speak God’s will. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee he shall offer the priest of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.

And he gave a sign that same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken. And behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes thereupon it shall be poured out. So like we saw already, false prophets can give signs, but I would still say it’s good rule of thumb, especially when a prophet gives a sign. You know if it doesn’t come to pass, you can stop right there.

What he’s saying isn’t true, ignore him. So if it does, well, keep on listening and watching, because it’s not a guarantee. What he says needs to be biblical as well. But we see what he says comes to pass very quickly. He says, And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him.

And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it again to him. And the altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. So the sign came to pass right then and there. Here again, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but we’ll see that the people don’t really pay attention, and there are people standing watching.

We could assume that because the King Jeroboam is here, and where the King is there’s normally a crowd, but we don’t have to assume in this case, because farther on in the passage we’re told that there were people present. And so it reminds me of Elijah, doing miracles in front of the people, great things, God moves, God answers, and then nothing happens, which also reminds me of, though one rise from the dead, they will not hear.

God reveals His will. Sometimes He reveals His will to people that He knows will not act on it, simply to judge them. That’s scary. But also, He reveals His will to those who are willing, and these people were not willing. They were not willing to hear. Where was I? Okay, verse 6. And the King answered and said unto the man of God, entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, he recognizes that it’s different from his God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again.

And the man of God besought the Lord, and the King’s hand was restored him again, and it became as it was before. And the King said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the King, If thou wilt give me the half of thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water in this place.

For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way he came to Bethel. And we can pause here again. So what the prophet is saying is, I’m not going to do this because God told me. That’s different from the written word of God.

Not contradictory, but obviously he didn’t find it in the Bible or in Moses’ writing that you can’t go and prophesy and leave by the same way or eat or drink. That was something God revealed to him specifically. So if God, if and when, God reveals something to you specifically, only God can change that. Now you better be sure, you ought to be very sure that it was in fact God that revealed it to you and that it matches his will.

You need to be careful about that. But if he’s leading you somewhere, then you don’t have the authority and neither does anyone else to change that. An example of that would be Abraham with Isaac. God told him to offer Isaac. The only person that could change that and did change that was God himself. So back to the passage, verse 11, Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, and the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they also told their father.

And Scripture doesn’t tell us why this prophet is going to do or does what he’s going to do. His sons did tell him all the words, and all the words includes, God told me not to do thus and thus. So why does the prophet then contradict that? I have no idea. Just be very honest. I have no clue. Fortunately, that’s not the point of the story. So that’s just one of those things.

I don’t know if we’ll ever know this side of eternity. When their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak.

And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am. Pause here. I looked it up. Bethel in Israel was 12 miles from Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, but it was only 1.4 Roman miles from the border of Judah. So assuming he took the shortest route there, he went about a mile and a half. Now we know he took a different route back, so maybe it was longer, because it was a separate route, so maybe two miles.

Point is, it’s not super long. It was probably hot. He was probably thirsty, because we don’t know how long he was there, but we know it’s hot in Israel, and he hadn’t drank any water. So it’s reasonable to assume he was thirsty. My point in bringing all this up is that when you’re in the way of temptation, he was still in Israel, don’t park there. Don’t rest.

Don’t keep yourself there. He does, and temptation found him. In a weakness, Satan finds him. Alright, back to the story, verse 15. Then he said unto him, Come thou home with me, and eat bread. And he, the prophet, said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.

So he’s doing very well so far. He’s given a consistent answer three times now. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art. And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him. So again, what possessed the prophet to do this is beyond me.

But the man of God falls for it. This other prophet gives him credentials, makes it sound good. I’m one of you. I’m a prophet and an angel spoke unto me, a messenger of God told me this. He could have, the man of God could have prayed right there, Lord did this happen? Is this so? He takes the man’s word for it and goes back with him. So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drink water.

And it came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord. And stop right there. That goes back to another thing that we covered and that is that sometimes God speaks his will through people that are not his servants.

We have Balaam who was also a false prophet but blessed Israel, spoke God’s will. So God is capable of using any instrument he pleases and he does right here. But consistent with God’s word, what this prophet is getting ready to say matches what the man of God was told initially. Verse 21, he cried against the man of God that came from Judah saying, Thus saith the Lord.

Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the Lord did say unto thee, Eat no bread and drink no water. Thy carcass shall not come again unto the sepulcher of thy fathers. And it came to pass after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back.

And when he was gone, a lion met him in the way and slew him, and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass. So here again, the Bible doesn’t give us details that I wish it did, but it doesn’t give us the reaction of the man of God from Judah. Did he fear? It says after he had eaten.

So he finished his meal. Maybe he didn’t believe the other guy. He finished his meal, ate, drank, went on his way. Maybe he was resigned to his fate. I don’t know. But it’s a sad ending to the story because clearly a man of God, he prophesied God’s Word. It came to pass in full, in part initially, and then later on the king was born and did what he said he would do, offered false prophets on that altar.

So all of that came to pass, but it ended badly because he disobeyed. And again, we have the example of sin. He disobeyed a direct commandment to him from God, and God does not tolerate sin, especially in leaders or those who are setting an example. And this man was very much in the public eye. His name is not given. We don’t know who he was, but there was a crowd there.

They remembered when his prophecy came fully to pass later on, it was brought up again. There was a prophet that prophesied this very thing, so it was not forgotten. Similar to David’s sin, there were big consequences because it gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord. So I think that story is a good one. There are a lot of principles that I can give from the Bible, and it’s a good story to look at and see how they are actually applied in real life.

If he had gone straight home, hadn’t stopped, hadn’t lingered, he wouldn’t have faced the temptation that he ultimately fell for. There are a lot of ifs, a lot of ways it could have gone otherwise, and arguably should have gone otherwise. That is it for tonight. I decided to keep it rather short.