Reflections

1 Kings 13: 23-24 “And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.”

I read commentary the other day on the story of the unnamed man of God and the ‘old prophet’ in the book of 1 Kings chapter 13, that was eye opening.  Whenever I would read these passages of scripture, the imagery of the lion and donkey standing beside the dead man of God always stood out to me.  I always pondered what the lion and the donkey represented or what they were symbolic of.  The commentator stated the lion represents believers, when walking in obedience to God.  In obedience, we walk in His power and authority as Lions, but the donkey represents when we doubt the Word of God and become stiff necked. I never heard it explained from that perspective. Throughout scripture, donkey’s usually represent stubbornness. God gave a direct command, “For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest” (1 Kings 13:9)

The man of God started out strong in obedience to the Lord, but later on down the line succumbed to the lies of the ‘old prophet.’  In his first attempt to deceive, the old prophet tried to get the man of God to eat with him.  Seeing this approach was unsuccessful, he took another route. The old prophet was crafty.   After the first failed attempt, he countered the man of God again and this time stated, “I am a prophet, just like you and an angel spoke to me by the Word of the Lord that it was ok to have bread.”  The man of God let his guard down, to his unfortunate demise.  The old prophet successfully got the man of God to doubt the true Word from God.  He did not pray to the Lord about the word he received, but he accepted it as truth.  The man of God had two choices, to walk in the ways of God (Lion), or to disobey God and doubt His Word (donkey). Satan has been using this tactic since the beginning in the garden. His objective is always to get us to doubt God’s Words. It’s sobering because this disobedience cost the man of God his life.

The bible says to test every spirit.  The devil is the Father of all lies and will use those in the church house (especially) to distort truth.  Lord, fill me up with Your discernment to know what is of You, and what isn’t.  Allow me to test the spirit to know if it is from You or not. Let me not be stubborn, walking in disobedience, but allow me to walk in Your ways.