Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 13:18
He said unto him, I [am] a prophet also as thou [art]; and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied unto him.
18. He said unto him ] The Hebrew has the conjunction ‘ And he said’: there is no reason for its omission in the English.
I am a prophet also ] The order of the R.V. is to be preferred. ‘I also am a prophet’ i.e. as well as you.
an angel spake unto me ] The old prophet does not lay claim to so solemn a message, as that which the prophet of Judah had received directly ‘by the word of the Lord.’ And in this the Judan prophet’s sin lay that he did not seek as much confirmation for the reversed order as he had for that which came to him at first.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But he lied unto him – It is always to be remembered that the prophetic gift might co-exist with various degrees of moral imperfection in the person possessing it. Note especially the case of Balaam.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ki 13:18-19
He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art.
Truths about conscience
I. Conscience, of itself alone, is not a sufficient guide for life. Every night, set in the front of the locomotive as it dashes on through the darkness, gleam the rays of the headlight, piercing the gloom for a mile ahead. So, say many, man is himself luminous. Surround him with whatever darkness, and at once it is pierced and thrust aside by a blaze of inherent radiance. But neither Scripture nor experience sustains such notion. Yet conscience is a guide for life. Still, simply in itself conscience is not a sufficient guide for life. For, conscience does not possess the power of origination. It cannot make right right, or wrong wrong. It is only our power of recognising the distinction already made, and as eternal as the heavens. And, just as a blind eye cannot distinguish between night and day; just as a guide-board wrongly written may send the wearied and famished traveller from the warmth and help of home; so may a blinded, misinformed conscience lead toward wrong instead of toward the right. And therefore, if a man would do the right, he must not only follow his conscience, but he must follow a conscience educated into a knowledge of a higher law; of a standard higher than itself; a conscience conformed and bending to some exact and supremely reigning rule. This, then, is the all-important question–where may the conscience find such enlightenment and education? The answer is immediate. In the Bible and especially in the character of Christ, standing out from the pages of the Bible, gathering up into Himself the vigour of its law, the loveliness of its mercy, the winningness of its invitation. God manifest in the flesh is the real standard and education for the conscience.
II. Learn the danger of making feeling, rather than an enlightened conscience, the test for life. Feeling is not to rule. Conscience, educated by the Divine command and teaching, is always to rule.
III. Learn the danger of a conscientious error. It is no less error. It is not less surely sin. The prophet was conscientiously deceived. That did not hinder the Divine retribution. It does make all difference what a man believes. It does make all difference if a man conscientiously hold to what is false. God has not only given conscience; He has also given light for conscience. It is a mans duty to hold his conscience in the light which God has given. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
The way of the tempter
I. That the tempter of our race assails the best of men. The man who now became the victim of temptation was no other than a prophet of the Lord. He was Heavens appointed delegate. While in this world we are on the tempters ground. His agencies thickly play around us, and try us in every point of our character. If invulnerable in one part we are tried in another. Through them the best of men have been overtaken in faults. Once they turned the meek Moses into a creature of stormy wrath; the spiritually minded David into a hideous adulterer; the bold indomitable Peter into a contemptible coward. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
II. That the tempter of our race invariably acts through the agency of man. How did the tempting spirit appear to this prophet of Judah now? Not in the form of a serpent, as he appeared of old in Eden, nor in the form of an angel, but in the form of a man. The devil comes to man through man–acts on man by man. Look for the devil in man. Man is the tempter of man. The fact that man is the tempter of man shows:
1. The moral degradation of human nature. Man has become the tool of Satan. The false religionists, the hypocrites, the infidels, the blasphemers, the carnal, what are they? The instruments of the devil, to seduce and corrupt their fellow-men. Who shall destroy his works? There is One who can, and to Him we look, and in His all-conquering strength we trust. The fact that man is the tempter of man shows:
2. The necessity of constant watchfulness. In social circles be ever on your guard; be cautious as to the companionships you form, as to the books you read, as to the guides you follow.
III. That the tempter of our race always assumes the garb of goodness. The temptation came to this old prophet not only through a man, but under the garb of piety.
O that deceit should steal such gentle shapes!
The fact that the tempter ever assumes the garb of goodness teaches:
1. The latent sympathy with virtue that still exists in human nature. If men had a natural sympathy with error as error, wrong as wrong, the devil need not disguise himself so. All the mis-showings, hypocrisies, hollow pretensions, in this false world, are a practical homage rendered to that sympathy with virtue and truth which still exists in human nature. The devil himself appeals to this in order to succeed. The fact that temptation works under the form of goodness teaches:
2. The importance of cultivating the habit of looking through appearances. Things are not what they seem. Every man walketh in a vain show. Brush off the varnish and examine the wood; ring the coin and test it; melt the metal and ascertain its worth. Believe no man because he says he is a prophet; trust no man because he says he is a Christian; yield to no man because he professes to love you.
IV. That the tempter of our race generally becomes the tormentor of his victim. This tormenting conduct of tempters is:
1. A matter of necessity. A tempter is a sinner, and no sinner has any consolation to offer to a sinner.
2. Prophetic. It shows what must be the case for ever. The response of every appeal in the future world of misery, of the infidel to his agonised disciple, of the seducer to his tormented victim will be What is that to us? see thou to that.
V. That the tempter of our race once yielded to may accomplish our ruin. In the physical fate of this prophet we are reminded of two things:
1. The course of justice. That dead carcass lying in the wayside is an eloquent homily against sin. In it the voice of justice declares, with telling emphasis, that compliance even with the most plausible temptation is a sin, and that sin even in a good man, and a true prophet, must be punished. In the physical fate of this prophet we are reminded of:
2. The interposition of mercy. The ravenous lion, contrary to his instincts, instead of devouring his victim, stands over it as a kind guardian. Justice made that lion do so much, but mercy restrained him from doing more. Mercy triumphs over judgment. The philosophy of all human history is symbolised here. Justice goes with nature. It was the nature of the lion to destroy. Mercy interrupts the course of justice. It was contrary to the nature of the lion to guard rather than devour its victim.
VI. That the tempter of our race is compelled to do homage to the virtue he has assailed. There is not a being in the universe, even the prince of tempters, that is not bound by the laws of conscience to respect the virtue he seeks to destroy. (Homilist.)
Disguises of sin
It is said that a few years ago a detachment of forty Russian soldiers–part of an advanced guard of reconnoitrers–crossed the Yalu river, Korea, to an island in the middle of the river, and there changed their costume, so that they might appear as civilian settlers instead of military invaders. This is said to have been one of the many features of the invasion of Korea compelling the recent strife between Japan and Russia. So sin and error often come in friendly guise, when their intention is very aggressive and destructive. We need much Divine wisdom to recognise the cunning devices of our enemies.
Evil under the guise of good
Sir Charles Follett, the chief of H.M. Customs, speaking on the clever tricks of smugglers says: We have had many extraordinary dodges come under our notice. For instance, innocent looking loaves of bread, when accidentally examined, were discovered to have every particle of crumb removed from them, and the inside crammed with compressed tobacco. This is only one example of manifold specimens of cunning to bring in prohibited goods. How cunning is our great enemy to bring into our souls his contraband. Evil thoughts, desires, and deeds, covered with the most innocent and harmless-looking excuses; so that we need the wisdom from above if we are not to be unmindful of his devices. (H. O. Mackey.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. An angel spake unto me] That he lied unto him is here expressly asserted, and is amply proved by the event. But why should he deceive him? The simple principle of curiosity to know all about this prediction, and the strange facts which had taken place, of which he had heard at second hand by means of his sons, was sufficient to induce such a person to get the intelligence he wished by any means. We may add to this, that, as he found the man of God sitting under an oak, probably faint with fatigue and fasting, for he had had no refreshment, his humanity might have led him to practise this deception, in order to persuade him to take some refreshment. Having fallen from God, as I have supposed, 1Kg 13:11, his own tenderness of conscience was gone; and he would not scruple to do a moral evil, if even a temporal good could come of it. Again, is it not possible that the old prophet was himself deceived? for, though he lied unto him, it is possible that he was not conscious of his lie, for Satan, as an angel of light, might have deceived him in order to lead him to deceive the other. He does not say, as the man of God did, It was said to me by the word of the Lord; no: but, An angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. And I think it very likely that an angel did appear to him on the occasion; an angel of darkness and idolatry, in the garb of an angel of light, who wished to use him as an instrument to bring discredit on the awful transactions which had lately taken place, and to destroy him who had foretold the destruction of his power and influence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not with evil design against him, but out of curiosity to know all the truth and circumstances from his own mouth, and to express his kindness to him, and to relieve his pressing hunger; whereby possibly he thought to please God, and to compensate for his miscarriages. But his sin was great; for he did not only tell a premeditated lie, but also made God a liar, and to contradict himself, and all this without any pretence of necessity, or benefit to himself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. an angel spake unto me by theword of the LordThis circuitous mode of speaking, instead ofsimply saying, “the LORDspake to me,” was adopted to hide an equivocation, to conceal adouble meaningan inferior sense given to the word “angel”tooffer a seemingly superior authority to persuade the prophet,while really the authority was secretly known to the speaker to beinferior. The “angel,” that is, “messenger,”was his own sons, who were worshippers, perhaps priests, at Beth-el.As this man was governed by self-interest, and wished to curry favorwith the king (whose purpose to adhere to his religious polity, hefeared, might be shaken by the portents that had occurred), hishastening after the prophet of Judah, the deception he practised, andthe urgent invitation by which, on the ground of a falsehood, heprevailed on the too facile man of God to accompany him back to hishouse in Beth-el, were to create an impression in the king’s mindthat he was an impostor, who acted in opposition to his ownstatement.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto him,…. That is, the old prophet said to the man of God:
I am a prophet also as thou art; meaning, that he was a prophet of the true God, and not of any idol deity; that he not only believed in him, and was a worshipper of him, but had revelations from him, and of the same things this man of God had, and that he believed that what he had prophesied of would certainly come to pass:
and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the Lord; was sent and dispatched by the order of the Lord with the following message:
saying, bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water; and so be refreshed, and be fit to proceed on in his journey:
[but] he lied unto him; no messenger nor message being sent to him by the Lord, but was wholly a device and stratagem of his own to persuade the man of God to return with him, that he might have his company and conversation.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) An angel spake unto me.The lie was gross, and ought to have been obvious to one who had received a plain command, and must have known that God was not a man that He should lie, or the son of man that He should repent. It was believed, no doubt, because it chimed in with some secret reluctance to obey, and, by obedience, to give up all reward and hospitality. Hence the belief was a self-deceit, and, as such, culpable. It is inexplicable that the condemnation which it drew down should have been thought strange by any who understands human nature, and knows the self-deceiving colour which our wish gives to our thought. (See the famous Sermon of Bishop Butler on Self-deceit.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. I am a prophet also “The door of his heart seems to have been standing ajar, almost half-opened already, to the invitations of the old man. Otherwise surely he would have said: Thou a prophet! How is it, then, that thou dwellest at Beth-el, the house of Jeroboam’s corrupt worship? If thou hadst been indeed a prophet of the Lord thou wouldst have denounced that worship, and I should not have been sent from Judah to lift up my voice against it.” Wordsworth.
He lied unto him Whatever may have been the conflicting emotions and controlling motives of the old prophet of Beth-el, his impious falsehood shows how fallen and depraved was his spiritual state.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 13:18 He said unto him, I [am] a prophet also as thou [art]; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied unto him.
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.
By the word of the Lord.
That he may eat bread.
But he lied unto him.
a Ex lib. conformitat.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
an angel spake. A solemn warning for all who listen to any revelation outside Scripture which purports to come from God, even though an “old prophet” asserts it. Compare Gal 1:1, Gal 1:8, Gal 1:9. Of all such it may be said “he lied unto him”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and an An impressive illustration of Gal 1:8; Gal 1:9.
angel (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
an angel: Num 22:35, Jdg 6:11, Jdg 6:12, Jdg 13:3
But: Gen 3:4, Gen 3:5, Isa 9:15, Jer 5:12, Jer 5:31, Jer 23:14, Jer 23:17, Jer 23:32, Jer 28:15, Jer 28:16, Eze 13:9, Eze 13:10, Eze 13:22, Mat 7:15, Mat 24:24, Rom 16:18, 2Co 11:3, 2Co 11:13-15, 2Pe 2:1, 1Jo 4:1, Rev 19:20
Reciprocal: Gen 27:19 – I am Exo 18:17 – not good Lev 19:11 – lie one Deu 13:1 – a prophet 1Sa 2:24 – ye make 1Sa 21:2 – The king 1Ki 20:35 – in the word 2Ki 5:22 – My master 2Ki 18:25 – Amos I now Pro 11:9 – An hypocrite Isa 36:10 – General Jer 28:11 – Thus Mic 2:11 – a man Rom 3:7 – if the truth Eph 4:25 – putting 1Th 4:15 – by the 1Ti 4:2 – lies
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 13:18. But he lied unto him And yet, probably, not with any evil design, but out of curiosity, to know from his own mouth the truth and all the particulars of the message which he had just delivered to Jeroboam; and to express his kindness to him, and relieve his hunger and weariness, whereby, possibly, he thought he should please God. In this, however, he greatly erred, and involved both himself and the prophet from Judah in guilt and wrath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:18 He said unto him, I [am] a prophet also as thou [art]; and an {h} angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied unto him.
(h) His fault is here double, first in that he did not permit the prophet to obey God’s express commandment, and next that he pretended to have a revelation to the contrary.