Study Desk

At the same time a wide crack appeared in the altar, and the ashes poured out, just as the man of God had predicted in his message from the Lord .

The king cried out to the man of God, "Please ask the Lord your God to restore my hand again!" So the man of God prayed to the Lord , and the king's hand was restored and he could move it again.

Then the king said to the man of God, "Come to the palace with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift."

But the man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place.

As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came home and told him what the man of God had done in Bethel that day. They also told their father what the man had said to the king.

The old prophet asked them, "Which way did he go?" So they showed their father which road the man of God had taken.

Then he rode after the man of God and found him sitting under a great tree. The old prophet asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "Yes, I am," he replied.

Then he said to the man of God, "Come home with me and eat some food."

So they went back together, and the man of God ate and drank at the prophet's home.

He cried out to the man of God from Judah, "This is what the Lord says: You have defied the word of the Lord and have disobeyed the command the Lord your God gave you.

After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet saddled his own donkey for him,

and the man of God started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

When the prophet heard the report, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord 's command. The Lord has fulfilled his word by causing the lion to attack and kill him."

So the prophet laid the body of the man of God on the donkey and took it back to the town to mourn over him and bury him.

Afterward the prophet said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the Lord , the God of Israel: ‘I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you ruler over my people Israel.

All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the Lord , the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam.

He committed the same sins as his father before him, and he was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had been.

But for David's sake, the Lord his God allowed his descendants to continue ruling, shining like a lamp, and he gave Abijam a son to rule after him in Jerusalem.

This was done because Jeroboam had provoked the anger of the Lord , the God of Israel, by the sins he had committed and the sins he had led Israel to commit.