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Tempting Lies
God’s dramatic intervention at the inauguration ceremony gives the ordinary people plenty to talk about. Some young men go home and tell their father all about the man of God. The father’s name is not given, but we learn that he is old and that he is actually a prophet himself. This old prophet decides to go after the man of God and finds him sitting under a tree.
Read 1 Kings 13:11–19. Compare this passage with the first temptation and lie in Genesis 3:1–5. What similarities are there, and what can we learn from these episodes?
The man of God must have understood something of the urgency of his mission. He was told to give his message to the king and then not to take any time for eating or drinking but to return straight back. However, here he is, sitting under a tree in Israel, taking it easy. He could have walked the 2 kilometers (1.4 miles) and then could have sat under a tree in Judah. By losing his sense of urgency, the man of God was opening himself to temptation.
The old prophet deceives the man of God. We do not know what motivates the old prophet to deceive him. Whatever his motivation, the Bible tells us that “he lied” (1 Kings 13:18, NKJV). In this moment the old prophet becomes an agent of Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Perhaps an even more disturbing part of the story is that the man of God seems so easily taken in. After so obviously being led of God, after so obviously doing the Lord’s will, he just falls for the trick and goes directly against what God has told him to do.
It’s really hard to understand, isn’t it? We would like to excuse him for disobeying God, since he was led astray. But God never excuses belief in a lie when the lie is directly opposed to a clear command that He has given.
Temptation revolves around the choice to disobey God’s revealed will. Temptations don’t change as much as the forms of the temptations do. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was tempted as we are. The same basic temptations we face (albeit in modern disguise) were faced and conquered by Jesus. Jesus promises us insight and a “way of escape” so that we would not be taken in by Satan’s lies (1 Cor. 10:13).
How easily do you allow temptations to lead you into direct conflict with God’s revealed will? What can you do, what choices can you make, to protect yourself from the temptations that so easily trap you?
| WEDNESDAY | December 1 |
God’s dramatic intervention at the inauguration ceremony gives the ordinary people plenty to talk about. Some young men go home and tell their father all about the man of God. The father’s name is not given, but we learn that he is old and that he is actually a prophet himself. This old prophet decides to go after the man of God and finds him sitting under a tree.
Read 1 Kings 13:11–19. Compare this passage with the first temptation and lie in Genesis 3:1–5. What similarities are there, and what can we learn from these episodes?
The man of God must have understood something of the urgency of his mission. He was told to give his message to the king and then not to take any time for eating or drinking but to return straight back. However, here he is, sitting under a tree in Israel, taking it easy. He could have walked the 2 kilometers (1.4 miles) and then could have sat under a tree in Judah. By losing his sense of urgency, the man of God was opening himself to temptation.
The old prophet deceives the man of God. We do not know what motivates the old prophet to deceive him. Whatever his motivation, the Bible tells us that “he lied” (1 Kings 13:18, NKJV). In this moment the old prophet becomes an agent of Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Perhaps an even more disturbing part of the story is that the man of God seems so easily taken in. After so obviously being led of God, after so obviously doing the Lord’s will, he just falls for the trick and goes directly against what God has told him to do.
It’s really hard to understand, isn’t it? We would like to excuse him for disobeying God, since he was led astray. But God never excuses belief in a lie when the lie is directly opposed to a clear command that He has given.
Temptation revolves around the choice to disobey God’s revealed will. Temptations don’t change as much as the forms of the temptations do. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was tempted as we are. The same basic temptations we face (albeit in modern disguise) were faced and conquered by Jesus. Jesus promises us insight and a “way of escape” so that we would not be taken in by Satan’s lies (1 Cor. 10:13).
How easily do you allow temptations to lead you into direct conflict with God’s revealed will? What can you do, what choices can you make, to protect yourself from the temptations that so easily trap you?
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