Alas My Brother

If you will give me your time, friends, and attention, and loan me your patience as I read a long passage of Scripture to you which, for the sake of continuity, cannot be disturbed by commentary, I will then relate to you the truths in this striking passage as they relate to our situation today in the Church. My text is taken from 1 Kings 13, beginning in verse 11. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon.

And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.

And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way which thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also, as thou art.

And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.

And it came to pass, as he sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread, and drunk water in the place of which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come again unto the sepulture of thy fathers. And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back.

And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him, and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass, and behold, a man passed by, and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass, and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord.

Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his son, saying, Saddle me the ass, and they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass.

The lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back. And the old prophet came into the city to mourn, and to bury him.

And he laid the carcass in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother, I will stop there. First, this passage speaks about the death of a man of God. I want to underscore that, friends, that this man spoken here was torn and killed by the lion, was a true man of God, called by God to serve God.

Secondly, he was trained as a prophet. Samuel had instituted a school for prophets for two purposes. One, to disseminate religious knowledge, and secondly, to write the chronicles of religious history.

This man was from that school. He had the knowledge and training, but not the discipline and the obedience. And thirdly, he was disobedient to his calling, and it cost him his life.

Lastly, he was mourned over by his brethren, saying, Alas, my brother, I believe, friends, that there are a lot of good men in ministry out there today who were called by God into the ministry for him. They started out good and on fire for God, but somewhere in their serving they stopped off to indulge themselves with the offering of a free meal, and that translated into their life and hindered their service to God. They enjoyed the table more than the tabernacle, and they became disobedient to their initial calling and ensnared in the things of this world.

And instead of going out and preaching hard against sin and warning men of their danger of dying in their sins, instead of preaching up a cross and a bloodstained Christ who demands repentance and obedience to him, they lingered at the table of comfort and ease, and they died long before they were put into a coffin and laid into the ground, and would stand over their corpse and lament, Alas, my brother.