Ver. 1. And, behold, there came a man of God.] A prophet, (1 Kings 13:18) but whether Shemaiah, as Tertullian saith, or Joel, or Theodoret, or Iddo, as Josephus, or some other, it is not known. Out of Judah.] Who “yet ruled with God, and was faithful with the saints,” (Hosea 11:12) though shortly after the faithful city became a harlot, a very Poneropolis. (Isaiah 1:21) By the word of the Lord.] Or, With the word of the Lord. Unto Bethel.] Now become Bethaven: where at that mock feast of tabernacles (1 Kings 12:33) was a great assembly, and so the fitter opportunity for a prophet to warn this backslidden people: but they were revolted and gone. (Jeremiah 5:23) Once they quarrelled the erecting of but a new altar by the Reubenites, and were ready to kill and slay, (Joshua 22:10-34) but now it was far otherwise. Oh, where is our ancient fervour and forwardness? and why is our “silver become dross, our wine mixed with water” (Isaiah 1:22)
Ver. 2. And he cried against the altar.] Directing his speech to it out of detestation of such an abomination: and as having no hope to prevail with Jeroboam, who stood by it, and was more insensible than that altar, or than the heap of stones that Bede once preached unto. Behold, a child shall be born.] Above three hundred years hence. Future events—such as are contingent—are known to God only. For prophecies this rule is given; when the prophets foretold things ut futura in seipsis, then they always fell out; but when they foretold them only as in their causes, they might fall out, or not, as Isaiah 38:1 1Ki 21:20 Joh 3:4. And men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.] Other men’s bones beside priests’. Jeroboam’s likely, who upon this prophecy should have made all “the stones of his altars as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder: this is all the fruit, to take away his sin,.” (Isaiah 27:9)
Ver. 3. Behold, the altar shall be rent.] To foreshow the downfall of that idolatry. So the veil of the temple rent at Christ’s death, (Matthew 27:51) to show that there was an end of the Levitical liturgy. And so, about the beginning of the Reformation by Luther, a great solid stone fell down upon a brass image of Peter in Rome, that had those words fairly embossed upon it, Tu es Petrus, &c., You are Peter &c., and so shattered it to pieces, that nothing was left legible, but only those words, Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, I will build my Church. This might be a foretoken of Rome’s ruin: which God hath already begun, and will surely perfect.
Ver. 4. That he put forth his hand.] To apprehend the prophet, or for a sign to others to do it. “Hear and give ear,” saith the prophet, “be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken it.” (Jeremiah 13:15) But “ Corde stat inflato pauper honore dato. ” Jeroboam—a poor widow’s son, (1 Kings 11:26) or, as the Septuagint hath it, a harlot’s son—being advanced by God to a kingdom, rebelleth, and becometh a ringleader of rebellion against him putting forth the same hand against the prophet, that he had lifted up before against his prince. (1 Kings 11:26) But what came of it? And his hand which he put forth against him dried, &c.] A fearful stroke, had he well considered it: but his heart was as hard as his hand withered. Jeroboam had as great a miracle wrought before him herein, as St Paul had at his conversion; but without the Spirit’s concurrence neither miracle, nor ministry, nor misery, nor mercy, can in the least measure mollify the heart of an obdurate and obstinate sinner. Valens, the Arian emperor, would have signed a sentence of banishment against Basil, but could not, by reason of a sudden trembling of his right hand, so that he could not write one letter of his own name, but for anger tore the paper in pieces, and let Basil alone. There is a story of one of our late innovators, who, turning with the times, and beginning to bow toward altars, never went upright more: and of another, who, hearing perjury condemned by a godly preacher, and how it never escaped unpunished, said in a bravery, “I have often forsworn myself, and yet my right hand is no shorter than my left.” These words he had scarce uttered, when such an inflammation arose in that hand, that he was forced to go to the surgeon, and cut it off, lest it should have infected the whole body; and so it became shorter than the other The Jews tell us, that when Jeroboam’s hand was dried up, the false prophets told him that this happened by chance, and so kept him from thinking of God who had smitten him. Let the saints learn to put their confidence in God: for if he deny concourse and influence, the arm of all adverse power shrinketh up presently. Nullum spicem complere potuit. -Hist. Tripart. Mr Clark’s Mirror, 204.
Ver. 5. The altar was rent.] But not till the violence intended against God’s prophet was revenged: so dear to him are such, and so tender is he of their safety. According to the sign.] This might have convinced and reclaimed those idolaters, had not their necks been possessed with an iron sinew.