God speaks in many different ways; in the Bible, we see Him speaking to people through angels and dreams, as well as through prophets and visions. But, as we work with the young people, we often tell them that the three most common ways God speaks to us are:
- through the Bible
- through prayer
- through other people
It's this third way - through other people - that we need to be careful with. God often chooses to speak to us through the wisdom of other people: through a preacher in church, through a friend who prays for us, through a prophet who gives us a "word"...
But we simply can't afford to be indiscriminate in following the counsel of others. We need to "test" what we've heard, checking it against the teaching of the Bible and against what God has been speaking to us personally. Words from others are almost always a confirmation of what God has already been saying to us; they are very seldom something brand new and different. Paul tells the Thessalonians not to quench the Holy Spirit and not to despise words of prophecy... but always to test them to be sure that they are really from the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 5 vs 20 - 21)
Nowhere is this more dramatically illustrated than in the Old Testament story I read this morning in 1 Kings chapter 13.
The story takes place just after the kingdom of Israel has been divided into two. The southern kingdom is called Judah, and it retains the city of Jerusalem as its capital, together with the recently built Temple for worshipping the Lord. The northern kingdom keeps the name Israel, but its king sets up golden calves and an alternative religious system for the people. (He's afraid that he might lose the people's allegiance if they keep going down to Jerusalem to worship.)
As 1st Kings chapter 13 begins, God sends a "man of God" from Judah to the northern kingdom of Israel, to denounce the pagan altar that King Jeroboam has set up in Bethel. We're not told how old this man is, but he obviously knows how to hear God's voice because part of what he prophesies (that the altar will split apart) happens right there and then, and we know from later scriptures that the other part of his prophecy (the birth of a child king named Josiah) also comes true.
So sure is he of what he has heard from the Lord, that he refuses the king's invitation to stay for something to eat and drink, and he begins to head straight home to Judah, exactly as God had told him to.
But, for reasons we're not told, an older prophet pursues him and lies to him, telling him that an angel has brought a command from the Lord - for the man to eat and drink at the older prophet's home. The man from Judah complies, perhaps reasoning that the other man is "older and wiser."
In doing so, he disobeys what God has specifically spoken to him, and later he pays for it with his life - killed by a lion that he wouldn't have run into if he had gone straight home earlier like God told him to.
It's a sober warning for us. We're probably not going to have deceptive older prophets lying to us, but it's very likely that we'll regularly have well-meaning people giving us their opinion on what they think we should do. We need to respond in humility - taking that input from others and "testing" it before the Lord, as Paul told the Thessalonians to do.
It's encouraging when someone gives us a word that confirms something God has already been showing us... but indirect revelation can also be a trap for us. We always need to remember that God will hold us personally accountable for whether we've obeyed what He Himself told us ... and not what we heard "second hand" from others.
