Second Guesses

What happens when God says one thing and then we think He says another thing, different from the first?
It has happened to me; perhaps also to you. I am inclined to think it a small thing. On the order of misunderstanding a good friend then having to talk it out. Misunderstanding, though, seems a less accurate a term for it than ignoring or dismissing someone altogether. Scripture has an interesting narrative about just this type of situation.
In 1Kings 13 there is an account of a man Of God being commanded to go to Bethel, deliver a message to the king and return to Judah. His itinerary included the interesting instruction to refuse food and water in Bethel. Furthermore, he was told to return home by an alternate route. It almost sounds like an undercover assignment. However his task is anything but private and covert. The man of God is sent to pronounce judgement on the King of Israel for apostasy. That task, though seeming to be daunting, was carried out by the man of God with courage and even grace as he prayed for the healing of the king who had ordered his capture. The exciting and frightening encounter over, the king invited the man of God to his own home for some refreshment and a reward. It is at this point that we hear the man of God state the God given restrictions on his journey; namely the command to refuse refreshment and to return home by a different way. Having refused the king’s offer the man of God left Bethel by another route and started home.
On the way home, the man of God rested under an oak tree and was found by an ‘old prophet’. This man had set out to find the man of God after hearing what he had told the king. The old prophet invited the man of God to return to his home and have some bread and drink. The second offer(temptation) the man of God had in that day. He again refused, repeating the instructions received from God for this journey. Perhaps the old prophet was lonely, or just a jerk, but he lied to the man of God and said;”“I am also a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’”
So the man of God went home with the old prophet. Why did he change his mind and dismiss the clear instruction of God? What led the man of God to believe the lie of the old prophet? Was he lonely, hungry, tired, or just weary? The scriptures do not tell why the man of God disobeyed, just that he did and suffered for it. God gave the old prophet one last word - that of the future of the man of God. And it happened as spoken, the man of God died on his way home after eating with the old prophet.
There is no doubt the man of God knew God’s command to him; he stated it twice. But when the prophet told him an angel of God had given an updated command, he believed it.
To obey a only a little is to disobey fully. Perhaps the man of God figured God changed His mind, or that God meant less than originally spoken. That change, in the man of God’s thinking, lead to his death far from home. The command of God was clear. The command was never changed. The man of God ignored it, believed a lie, supposedly spoken by an angel and ended up dead. Ironically, the man of God was sent to pronounce judgement on the king for changing the clear instruction of God concerning worship. The king had instituted another type of worship of God, one that served his own purposes and aims. He was judged for the sin and his worship changes were cursed by God speaking through the man of God. The man of God stopped obeying the clear word of God even as he was on the journey to curse another for the same thing.
The lesson is to beware of changes in the words of God dressed up in religious words and activities. If God has spoken clearly, listen and believe. He is not going to change His mind and send an angel out with the revised command. He is not going to confuse the matter. No matter how compelling the messenger, know that when God speaks clearly He means exactly what He says.