Continued from yesterday. Then the king said to the prophet, "Come to the palace with me and rest awhile and have some food; and I'll give you a reward because you healed my arm."

   But the prophet said to the king, "Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn't go into it; nor would I eat or drink even water in this place! For the Lord has given me strict orders not to eat anything or drink any water while I'm here, and not to return to Judah by the road I came on."

   So he went back another way. As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons went home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.

   "Which way did he go?" the old prophet asked. So they told him. "Quick, saddle the donkey," the old man said. And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he rode after the prophet and found him sitting under an oak tree. "Are you the prophet who came from Judah?" he asked him. "Yes," he replied, "I am." Then the old man said to the prophet, "Come home with me and eat."

   "No," he replied, "I can't; for I am not allowed to eat anything or to drink any water at Bethel. The Lord strictly warned me against it; and He also told me not to return home by the same road I came on." But the old man said, "I am a prophet too, just as you are; and an angel gave me a message from the Lord. I am to take you home with me and give you food and water."

   But the old man was lying to him. So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man's home. Then, suddenly, while they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the old man, and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, "The Lord says that because you have been disobedient to His clear command, and have come here, and eaten and drunk water in the place He told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers."

   After finishing the meal, the old man saddled the prophet's donkey, and the prophet started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. To be continued.

Taken from I Kings 13, The Living Bible. For free Lifescope book,
write to Box 1575, Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.