There is a slightly humorous saying that I have heard a few times in the last few years of ministry: “God loves you and people have a great plan for your life.” This, of course, is a spinoff of the true adage that God loves you and that He has a great plan for your life. In your life today there are well-intending (usually) people who want you to live in accordance with what they believe you should be doing. They serve as distractions from God’s will for you. Their presence is a test in this season of your journey – will you buckle to their expectations or will you remain resolute in what God has previously impressed upon you? One of the strangest passages of Scripture in the bible holds this lesson before our eyes.
“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, 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.'” 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. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.” – 1 Kings 13:16-19
There is a younger prophet and an older prophet in this biblical account. The younger is heading home after boldly confronting wicked King Jeroboam. He preached his fiery message, pronounced judgment upon the unrepentant king and started traveling back to his own place (1 Kings 13:1-5). Jeroboam enticed him by offering to pay him if he would stay with him, be friends and play nice. The young prophet refused and testified that God had previously spoken to him and told him to preach his message and then to immediately get out of town. No dinner, no refreshing beverage, co casual conversation. After the young prophet obeyed God by refusing to stay with the king, the older prophet finds him and makes the same offer: share a meal, sit a spell, talk some theology and enjoy some fellowship. That is when the words in 1 Kings 13:16-19 are played out. For some unspecified reason, the older prophet lied and talked the younger prophet out of doing what the Lord had said and, in the place of that, persuaded the young prophet to go a different way. Maybe the younger man felt intimidated by the older man. Maybe he was trying to be respectful of his elders. Maybe the younger was intrigued by the supposed special revelation that the older received via the angelic messenger. Whatever the reason might have been, the young man caved in and abandoned the clear word of God for the intrusive word of man. Bluntly put, he allowed a human to talk him out of God’s plan.
This can happen to you. This can happen to me. God sometimes looks for people who will seek Him, hear Him, commit to Him and obey Him along pathways that other people will resist. Remember…God loves you and people have a great plan for your life. Sometimes, if you will be faithful, God will call you to walk a certain road and not prepare everyone else in your life to understand why or how He is leading you as He is. You may not have a dozen people cheering you on. Sometimes these people who withhold their approval and offer their resistance will have age, experience and position that you do not. Most times they will be convinced they are doing you a favor when they offer their input. If you are breaking ranks on some sacred tradition which they hold dear, they may even heighten their resistance by suggesting you are sinning. The old paths are littered with idols and many have walked them so frequently that they cannot see that they no longer ask where the path is leading them – it is the goal just to remain upon it. God may call you to step off this path or never to get on it. Will you obey Him? The fear of man is a snare and, when God is developing His people, He will inevitably test you in this area to see which approval means more to you: His or the older prophet’s? Whereas we may successfully stand against some clearly unholy Jeroboams in our lifetime, the bigger challenge is whether or not we will remain faithful to God’s calling when someone in our own ranks challenges us. Intimidation is a powerful force and, whether we admit it or not, most of us want people to be happy with us. The younger prophet gave in to the pressure, stepped out of God’s will and lost his influence in a moment. He lost his life the next moment, by the way.
May God raise up some men and women who will tarry before Him, secure a word for their lives from God, commit to that pathway and remain resolute not to be knocked off course. No Jeroboam is worth forfeiting our influence. Neither is some old prophet who decides that he knows better. Let God be true and every man a liar – live by that and watch for God’s hand to establish your lifework. In case there are any reading this who lean toward the presumption of the old prophet in the story, please know that your influence is a powerful force and you must steward it prayerfully and with precise wisdom. Let God lead His own. He is sovereign and reserves the right to work completely differently in another’s life than He has worked in yours. Reformation in the church will require younger prophets to be brave and, occasionally, older prophets to be quiet.
This reminds me of something Oswald Chambers said: “Never make a principle out of your own experience; always let God be as creative with others as He has been with you.”