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Ver. 6. Intreat now the face—seek the favour for me—of the Lord thy God.] He could not say, My God, for he had chosen other gods, forsaken his own mercies, and was miserable by his own election. And the king’s hand was restored again.] Such is the power of prayer. (James 5:16) A like example we find in Nicephorns and Cedrenus, of a certain profane painter in Constantinople, who, assaying to paint Christ in the form of Jupiter, had his hand in like sort dried up and withered. But upon humble confession of his fault, he was healed again, at the devout prayer of Gennadius, bishop of that city. And became as it was before.] But his heart continued as hard and inflexible as ever. See on 1 Kings 13:4.
Ver. 7. And I will give thee a reward.] He could do anything sooner than repent; (Romans 2:5) his face he had made harder than any rock, he refused to return. (Jeremiah 5:3)
Ver. 8. If thou wilt give me half thine house.] We must not be bribed out of our innocency; but reject the devil’s offers, though never so large; as Luther did a cardinalship, and as Pellican did the bishop’s silver bowl, sent him for a token. “ Hem! Germana illa bestia non curat aurum! ”
Ver. 9. Eat no bread, nor drink water.] Figura haec erat Ecclesiasticae censurae et excommunicationis, say Cyprian and Rupert; this figured out the censure of the Church against heretics, and other foul offenders, (1 Corinthians 5:11) “with such a one, no, not to eat” or consort, “that they may be ashamed.” (2 Thessalonians 3:14) Nor turn again by the same way.] God thought the worse of the way to that wicked place, where Satan’s throne was.
Ver. 10. So he went another way.] This was well done, though afterwards he failed and flinched; as did likewise Gropperus; who first refused a cardinal’s hat, and yet afterwards was a turncoat. So did Speiserus at Augsburg, in Germany, A.D. 1523, and Brissomettus at Meldas, in France, about the same time. Non praestitit constantiam, et ab incepto destitit, saith mine author, he stuck not to his principles. Scultet., Annal.
Ver. 11. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel.] A prophet of God, likely, but corrupt, resty, vicious. Prophecy doth not always presuppose sanctification. The Chaldee here calleth him Michal, the false prophet; Josephus, Rupertus, Cajetan, and others hold the same. See reasons to the contrary in Junius upon the text. And his sons came and told him.] Had this old prophet been so good as he should, why dwelt he at Bethel? Why came he from Samaria to dwell there? (2 Kings 23:18) and what make his sons at Jeroboam’s idolatrous worship?
Ver. 12. For his sons had seen what way the man of God went.] As well they might, for he went away immediately after he had delivered his message, which also was such as they had reason to look after him; though better they had not, since by that means their father fell into so grievous a sin.
Ver. 13. So they saddled him the ass.] Children must cheerfully obey their parents; and not stick at any service within their power.
Ver. 14. Sitting under an oak.] Or, An elm, as some render it; Insignem arborem significat, saith Vatablus. He was hungry and weary, as was likewise Elias when he sat under the juniper. God oft holdeth his best children to strait allowance here, and causeth them to suffer hardship.
Ver. 15. Come home with me, and eat bread.] This was cruel courtesy, cut-throat kindness, such as the world is full of.
Ver. 16. Neither will I eat bread.] Though I have need enough, yet I must be resolute, because God’s charge was absolute.
Ver. 17. For it was said.] Heb., A word was. Tremellius rendereth it, Verbum edixit mihi ex verbo Iehovae, and expoundeth it of the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, declaring here the will of his Father. And some other divines hold, that wherever in the Old Testament God is brought in speaking, we are to understand it of the second person in Trinity.
Ver. 18. I am a prophet also.] A prophet, and yet tell a lie! What a foul business is that! It was wont to be said, Sacerdos est, non fallet: Christianus est, non mentietur. But afterwards it became a proverb, ‘A friar a liar.’ And an angel spake unto me.] Lie and all; unless it were an angel of darkness, such as Pisanus reporteth spake to John of Alvern, a friar, when in a rapture, indeed in a diabolical delusion, he was elevated above every creature; and his soul swallowed up in the abyss of the divinity. By the word of the Lord.] This Bethelite boasting himself of a false gift, was like clouds and wind without rain, as the wise man hath it. (Proverbs 25:14) That he may eat bread.] This, to a hungry man, was a sore temptation, and soon yielded unto. But he lied unto him.] And thereby cheated him into the lion’s mouth: so do sect masters simple men and silly women, into the devil’s danger. Nothing is so apt to deceive as the fairest semblances, as the sweetest words. We cannot be deceived, saith a reverend writer, if we believe not the speech for the person, but the person for the speech. A good man, saith another, may act for Satan, and not discern it. (Matthew 16:23) Mr Archer, a holy man, did hold and broach hellish opinions. The temptation lieth in this, when angels from heaven, men of singular parts and piety, preach other doctrines. (Galatians 1:8) Ex lib. conformitat.
Ver. 19. So he went back with him.] He was too light of belief, and too easily entreated; his male suada fames might prompt him thereunto. Gregory thinks he might be self-conceited at his precedent doings and good success: to humble him, therefore, he is thus suffered to fall. Or it may be, saith Martyr, God was offended with him because he stayed by the way, and made no more haste back again. If he had prayed for direction, and paused a while upon this pretended countermand, he had not, likely, so miscarried.
Ver. 20. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table.] Where this prophet was eating and drinking against God’s express charge, there doth he hear his doom denounced by the same mouth that had seduced him; Ut inde poenam veraciter sumeret unde culpam negligenter admisit, saith Gregory, that the punishment might answer to the sin. That the word of the Lord came,] sc., By some internal inspiration, or prophetic ecstasy.
Ver. 21. Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed.] Thus this old impostor was forced to condemn himself for deceit, as well as the other prophet for disobedience.
Ver. 22. And hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, &c.] There is in the “Acts and Monuments of the Church,” a memorable story of Bishop Ridley, who offering to preach before the Lady Mary, and being repulsed, he was brought by Sir Thomas Warton, her servant, to the dining place, and desired to drink: which after he had done, he paused a while, looking very sadly, and suddenly broke out into these words, Surely I have done amiss! Why so, quoth the knight? For I have drunk, said he, in that place where God’s word offered hath been refused: whereas if I had remembered my duty, I had departed immediately, shaking off the dust of my shoes for a testimony against this house. These words were by the said bishop spoken with such a vehemency, that some of the hearers afterwards confessed the hairs to stand upright on their heads. Thy carcass shall not come.] Thou shalt die ere thou come home. This was a gracious warning, that he might repent of his sin before he died. Act. and Mon., fol. 1270.
Ver. 23. That he saddled for him the ass.] So courteous he was and officious now to him; whom before he had betrayed into the hands of divine justice: so thinking to make him some amends. But why did he not go back with him, whom he had fetched back? Surely for fear he should taste of the same whip with him. Thus the mischievous guides of wickedness leave a man when they have led him to his bane; as familiar devils forsake their witches, when they have brought them once into fetters. Dr Hall.
Ver. 24. A lion met him by the way, and slew him.] Oh, the severity of God against sin in his very own! Neither can all their obedience bear out one disobedience, against a particular express command especially, as in our first parents, Moses, Jonas, &c., may be seen. Abhor therefore that which is evil, (Romans 12:9) and fear Almighty God—as those mongrels did (2 Kings 17:33) -if but for his lions. The Bethelites might well see in this dreadful execution how much God abhorred them, and easily forsee what heavy judgments would be inflicted upon them for their abominable idolatries. See 1 Peter 4:17 Eze 24:24. And his carcass was cast in the way.] Not devoured by that ravenous beast, whose mouth was by God both opened to slay the prophet, and again shut, to show his power, dum praedae factus est praedae suae custos, while the lion becomes a guardian to the prophet whom he had slain, and a means to make the ass stay there in a readiness to bear his dead master to the burial. Who seeth not in all this an overruling command, and sweet providence of God, such as is still frequently seen in permitting and restraining the rage of unreasonable men? The lion also stood by the carcass.] His not meddling with the carcass, as his nature inclined him, showed that God sent him. So when men can deny themselves in doing God service, &c.
Ver. 25. And they came and told it in the city,] i.e., Bethel; the inhabitants whereof could not but hear this sad news with aching and quaking hearts, if they had any sense left. For they could not but hereby see that he was indeed a prophet of God—whose hand was so heavy upon him for not persevering to obey this command—and that therefore whatsoever he had foretold, should in due time be fulfilled, as the old prophet also herehence concluded. (1 Kings 13:32)
Ver. 26. Who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord.] Still his sin is styled disobedience, though he were tricked into it. It was no good excuse of our grandame Eve to say, The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.
Ver. 27. And they saddled him.] See 1 Kings 13:13.
Ver. 28. And found his carcass.] See on 1 Kings 13:24. Nor torn the ass.] Heb., Broken; though lions love to devour asses. All creatures are at God’s beck and call. The ass stands untouched, the man of God is torn, or broken.
Ver. 29. And the prophet took up the carcass.] Which the lion, belike, left to him, and went away. And laid it upon the ass.] Which was kept alive for such a purpose. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn.] As good cause he had, not more for the man of God, who was Dei frumentum leonis dentibus commolitum, as Ignatius said of himself at his death, than for himself, who had seduced him to such an untimely end.
Ver. 30. In his own grave.] Which was ready made, it seems. See the like, Matthew 27:60. Charles V carried the materials of his tomb with him up and down in his warlike expeditions.
Ver. 31. Lay my bones beside his bones.] So David Pareus would be buried in the same sepulchre wherein were laid up the bones of his master Hier. Zanchius, A.D. 1591. Parei vita operibus praefixa.
Ver. 32. Which are in the cities of Samaria.] So called here by anticipation. It seemeth of old to be called and belong to Shimronmeron. (Joshua 11:1,3 12:20) Shall surely come to pass.] Heb., Being, shall be. Jehovah, the great essentiator, shall give being to his word assuredly. “Every morning doth he bring his judgments to light, he faileth not.” (Zephaniah 3:5)
Ver. 33. After this thing Jeroboam returned not.] All these wonderful accidents, as God’s hammers, did but beat upon cold iron. Wicked men grow worse and worse, till they have filled up the measure of their sins, and so wrath come upon them to the utmost. See Popelings. (Revelation 9:21 16:9,11) Whosoever would, he consecrated him.] Heb., He filled his hand; that is, Jeroboam’s hand, as some sense it, they filled with money, to be made priests. Omnia Romae venalia. But it seemeth rather to allude to the custom of censecrating the Levitical priests, by filling their hands with sacrifices and gifts. (Exodus 29:9,10) Faciunt et vespae favos; simiae imitantur homines: wasps also have their honeycombs; and apes, that scorn of nature, do imitate men.
Ver. 34. And this thing became sin.] This his obstinacy and pertinacy in his abominable idolatries, became his utter ruin. Fugite ergo, reges, eiusmodi exitum, fugiendo huiusmodi flagitium, saith Ambrose, “Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings,” and overturn not your houses by “lifting up your horns on high” against God. De Naboth Jezrael, chap. xi.