Did God Really Say?

Captain's Log: Table Time ~ Thursday, September 18th, 2025 ~ Vespers

⁸ 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. 

We read the Lord’s promise to Jeroboam that his false worship would be destroyed (1-10). We lingered on the inevitability of judgment upon false worship. This is a word that God’s people have always needed to hear, because idolaters often look very happy in their idolatry. It appears that all are free to worship as they wish. And they are in a sense. But the Lord will not be mocked, and He will judge false worship. 

The story of the two prophets in the remainder of the chapter is gripping. We paused multiple times to check what the children thought was going on and what would happen next. This is a very helpful tool for reading the Bible (especially narrative) with kids. They will either be surprised when things don’t go the way they expect, or encouraged when they do - that they’re following the story well. 

The central idea I pointed us to was the issue of contradictory words from God. Words that the man of God should have been able to distinguish between and act accordingly. The children could see immediately that the man of God disobeyed and that the old prophet lied. But we pushed into the issue. “How could the man of God have known that the prophet’s word was not from God?” Interestingly, the suggestion came more than once that he should have asked God. He should have double-checked! 

This led us on to our main point. The man of God actually didn’t need to inquire of the Lord. Why? Because he already had a clear word from God. And more importantly, he had a word from God that the old prophet’s word contradicted. Doesn’t this remind us of Genesis? Eve had a clear word from God. A word that was subsequently contradicted by the serpent: “You will not surely die.” The Man of God has the words of God repeated to him in a twisted way. He's lied to, and his life is at stake. We couldn’t help noticing that judgment comes from the jaws of a lion. Satan is described elsewhere in Scripture as a lion who prowls around looking to devour God’s people. 

‘This is the central challenge of a life of faith: will we trust the words of God or not?’ I exhorted us to discern well when people say “God says.” He has said so many clear things to us that we are more than equipped to identify words that contradict Him. 

We were a little pressed for time this evening. It would be good to return to this story, since the characters are so instructive. I can imagine us finding many examples of when the words about God in the world contradict the words about God in the word. There might even be a series in this… “Did God Really Say?”

We said Contentment, said the resolution, and Lydia prayed.