And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom may return to the house of David:
27 "If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!"—1 Kings 12:26-28
Jeroboam feared that the people of the northern kingdom would be influenced by Rehoboam when they went to Jerusalem to worship and cause them to turn back to him.... Jeroboam was not assured even by word of the Lord that came to him through the prophet Ahijah saying that 10 of the tribes would be his to rule. The conditions and promise given to Jeroboam from the Lord were similar to the ones God gave to David. (1 Kings 11:37-38)
Sadly, Jeroboam walked in the fear of man and not God. He trusted in his own ways to maintain control of the kingdom God had graciously bestowed on him rather than trust God and take Him at His word. He chose idolatry and led Israel to sin against the second commandment.
When the man of God came to Jeroboam and spoke against the idolatrous worship at Bethel his words were apparently heard by an old prophet who was living in that city...at the very center of the false system of worship Jeroboam had devised to protect his subjects from being influenced by King Rehoboam WITHOUT speaking out against it.
The lie this old prophet spoke to the man of God (vs 18) came from the prophets own heart that wanted something other than what the Lord wanted, but the true prophecy (vs 21-22) came from the Lord.
“And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command that the LORD your God commanded you,
but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"
And as he (the man of God) 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.
The donkey and the lion behaved unnaturally. The donkey should have run and the lion did not attack the donkey or eat the man of God. Clearly this turn of nature was from the Lord as a testimony that unlike the disobedient old prophet, the beasts obeyed God.
The old prophet found the body, brought it back to the city to mourn over him and buried him in his own grave asking at that time to be buried beside the man of God when he died saying...
For the saying that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass." (1 Kings 13:32, ESV)
I liked that the old prophet appears to have repented and aligned himself with the message that the man of God had given against the worship at Bethel.
But sadly Jeroboam did not...
After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. (1 Kings 13:33-34 ESV)
