Art Reading Scripture
- trinitymilaca
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
A man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer incense. 1 Kings 13:1
There are hundreds of paintings of the Creation, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, among other popular biblical themes. The painting of the Disobedient Prophet is unusual to say the least. An image search does turn up other pictures, most of which depict the prophets fate after his disobedience had been exposed, "a lion met him on the road and killed him." Landscape with the Disobedient Prophet by Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1646 (also at the Swedish National Gallery) is an example. But that is getting ahead of the story.
Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom of Samaria after the death of Solomon and the division of Israel into Judah and Samaria. Jeroboam set up two golden calves at the shrine of Bethel and appointed priests to serve there. One day Jeroboam offered incense to the idols. An unnamed "man of God" came from Judah, the southern kingdom, to call him out for idolatrous worship. He proclaimed that God would send a righteous king, Josiah (who would not reign for another 300 years), who would sacrifice the idolatrous priests on the altar Jeroboam built. Jeroboam ordered the man seized. But when Jeroboam reached out to seize him Jeroboam's hand "withered so that he could not draw it back." The altar was torn down and Jeroboam in distress begged to have his hand restored. It was. The grateful king invited the man of God to come and dine with him, but the man of God declined because the word of the LORD commanded him not to eat or drink and not to return on the same road by which he traveled from Judah to Bethel.
On the way back by another road he was invited by an old prophet of Bethel to dinner at the old prophets home. At first he again declined according to the word of the LORD, but the old prophet of Bethel deceived him, in order to test him, by saying, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, 'Bring him back with you into your house so that he may eat food and drink water." The prophet of Judah consented. At table the prophet of Bethel rebuked him for failing to heed to the word of the LORD, "your body shall not come to your ancestral tomb." The painting is of the moment of this confrontation. The man of God from Judah set out for home and along the way was killed by a lion. The lion left the man's donkey alone and stayed by the body until the old prophet from Bethel came to bury it. Finally the old prophet of Bethel acknowledged the inevitability of the word of God against Jeroboam. Even so, "Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil way."
The story is obscure. Not typical Sunday School fare like Samson or David and Goliath. The story focused around matters of idolatry and disobedience, though the presence of the old prophet of Bethel's deception raises other concerns. We no longer burn incense to idols, but matters of idolatry, those values of our lives that functionally put God in second or third place, still affect us, lure us, deceive us. Disobedience to the way and word of God is a matter of discernment which we attempt and claim to keep but which is often transgressed without the consequences of being killed by a lion. Many biblical stories conclude at the point where human idolatries and disobedience are exposed: Adam and Eve, "Where are you? ... Who told you ..."; Cain, "Where is your brother..."; David, "You are the man!"; Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry..."; Peter, "Then Peter remembered ... And he broke down and wept."; Saul/Paul, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?". Maybe the story calls us to confess what we might no longer acknowledge (idolatry) or shrug at certain acts of disobedience, and even become defensiveness, (the man of God from Judah might object that he was deceived and did not deserve his meeting with the lion.) Even so, we confess this broken and fallen world and our complicity in it and pray for mercy, grace and forgiveness. The story of these prophets does not end with mercy, but scripture takes us there again and again. Each time we are exposed or come to admit our idolatries and disobedience God meets us and walks with us back to the way.
Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.
Pastor Tim Bauer