By J.G. Bellet
1 Kings 12: 25 - 1 Kings 13.
The inspired commentary on Idolatry, which we find in Romans 1, teaches us to know that it had its source in the corruption of the human mind. The haughtiness of the intellect became the parent of it. (verses 22-25.) The Apostle tells us also, that the "heart of unbelief" is an "evil" one. (Heb. 3: 12.) And at the opening of this scripture, we find that it was the love of the world that erected the idolatrous altar at Bethel. Jeroboam thought it was the only way by which he could secure the kingdom.
He corrupted the religion of the people. He did not, in infidel scorn, deny it--because he owned that God's people had been brought out of Egypt--but he corrupted it--as guilty a thing; for it was turning it to his own account, or making it serve his own ends.
We learn, at the opening of 1 Kings 13, how the Lord deals with this corruption. It is according to His usual method. He sends His servant, under a fresh communication of His mind, and a fresh anointing of His Spirit, from the land of Judah, to the altar at Bethel, to denounce it, to deliver the judgment of God against all who had connected themselves with it; with a stay of the execution of that judgment until the time of Josiah the future King of the house of David. But
He also gives a present pledge of such execution--for the altar was rent at the moment, and the ashes that were upon it were poured out.*
*The judgment here pronounced was executed to the very letter. (2 Kings 23) Josiah was prophesied of by name, as Cyrus afterwards was. (Isa. 44)
This is His common way. He pronounces judgment, but delays the execution of it, giving present pledges of it. The interval is called "His long-suffering"--and we know it is "salvation," a time for gathering and quickening. (2 Peter 3: 15) Enoch pronounced the judgment of the ungodly, and we know from Jude that that judgment is still to be executed--but the Flood was as a pledge-fulfilment. The Lord pronounced the judgment of Jerusalem in Matthew 24, and we know, from the very terms of that sentence, that it is still to be executed--but the Roman invasion was as a pledge-fulfilment of it.
Jeroboam was indignant at the man of God who had pronounced this sentence against his altar, and he stretched out his arm, as commanding his servants to lay hold on him. But the hand of God laid hold on him, and his outstretched arm became rigid and withered. Then his mind is changed--he repents himself--to be sure he does--he is gracious when pangs come upon him--and he sues the man of God to pray for the restoration of his arm. This is done; and he invites the man of God to come home with him to his palace for refreshment and rewards. But he lets the king know, in the spirit of a Daniel, that he may keep his gifts to himself and give his rewards to another. He leaves the scene of God's curse, and sets himself on the way back to Judah, having done the business committed to him by "the word of the Lord." The altar and its priests are left to meet the judgment of God in its season.
Now, however, and from hence to the end, the scene changes. We have no further sight of the man of God and of the King together, but we are to see the man of God in company with an old prophet who at that time lived at Bethel.
We are exposed to special temptations, if we live on borderlands, or in equivocal circumstances and conditions.
The old prophet, saint of God as he was, lived (something in the way of a Lot in Sodom) near the altar. The devil uses him; and with a lie in his mouth, that he was bidden by an angel to do so, he brings the man of God back from the road that was leading him down to Judah, to eat and drink with him in his house at Bethel.
