The Temptation That Comes When All Is Going Well

A prophet from Judah comes to Bethel and boldly proclaims the word of God before the king. The judgment comes to pass there and then, exactly as spoken: the altar is split apart and the king’s hand withers. The prophet firmly refuses the king’s invitation to a meal and, as he was commanded, sets off home by another road.

Yet when the old prophet of Bethel falsely invokes the name of God to call him back, the man who moments earlier had stood unshaken before the king gives way all too easily. Relieved at having finished a great task, and swayed by the authority of one who was a prophet like himself, he watered down the word with his own reasoning. People are most easily brought down not in the place of fear, but in the smooth stretch where they believe they have done the work well.

In the end he is killed by a lion on the road home. The word he delivered was fulfilled to the letter, yet he himself failed to obey to the last. For those who have received the word of God, faith is measured not by knowledge or long experience but by whether they live that word out, and whatever temptation or hardship they meet, they must not turn back from the way they were going.