1 Kings 12:11-32
"11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it.14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” 18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” 23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” 27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”"
This is a striking and solemn story. The man of God who had so fearlessly braved the wrath of king Jeroboam in prophesying against him and refusing his hospitality (8, 9) falls in disobedience through the trickery of the old prophet of Bethel, and paid for this costly lapse with his death. It is an incident full of instruction on the perils to be met in spiritual life in the first place, we must at all costs learn what it teaches us about false guidance. The prophet had already been warned by God not to take food or drink in Israel (9), and this counsel had taken him safely away from Jeroboam's palace. But now the old prophet of Bethel came to him with the false message purporting to be from the angel of the Lord and beguiled him out of obedience to His will. Many Christians become a prey to conflicting guidance of this nature, and are led into serious error, if not spiritual disaster and shipwreck. What we must learn is that God does not contradict Himself in the guidance He gives us. Leadings which purport to come from an angel or other seemingly impressive or spectacular source needs to be very carefully sifted by 'spiritual rational' standards before we. In any case, 'unusual guidance' ought always to be proved before action is taken, Jesus said, 'My sheep know My voice, and a stranger will they not follow'. Why should we think that the Lord Who has promised to lead and guide us would suddenly and inexplicably speak to us in a different voice from that in which He always speaks to us? To think He would is to charge Him with trickery, which is un- thinkable. Experience should teach us that on those occasions when we have been unmis- takeably led by Him, He has spoken to us in His usual way, not by any angelic intervention.