5 Smooth Stones

1 Kings 13:23 “So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. 26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, " It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him." Now isn’t it strange that the lion killed the man and not the donkey, and it did not eat either. Additionally, the donkey did not run o ff after having a lion a tt ack its rider and kill him. None of these acts are natural, so there had to be some supernatural power which had authority to act. A number of things should be gleaned from this record. First is that gifting is not proven ministry. The young man was clearly one of the most powerfully gifted men of God in the Old Testament, yet he is only known as “the disobedient man of God” 1 Kings 13:26 (perhaps another oxymoron). He was not yet proven in his ability to obey God through testing, although his ministry was great and his intentions were good. Often when the devil recognizes great anointing, or calling, he will fi rst a tt empt to destroy it at its inception where possible. He did this with Moses, as an example, and with Jesus, a tt empting to kill the promise by killing all the male children around the same age as the promised messenger. When this did not work he a tt empted to divert it by launching it prematurely. This happened to Moses when he a tt empted to bring the promised calling upon his life to pass through his own means. The result was his forty years in the wilderness until he turned aside to see the burring bush and received his call directly from the Lord. The devil also a tt empted this with Jesus in the wilderness. Ma tt hew 4:8 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." This temptation is so subtle. Jesus came to take rulership of all the kingdoms of the world (Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:27, 15:4, 19:16). When the devil o ff ered this to Jesus it was no idol proposal, nor was it of insigni fi cant interest to Jesus, as this was His calling to accomplish. As a ma tt er of fact, the devil had o ff ered Jesus the goal of His ministry at the beginning of His ministry, if He would only do it some other way than God’s chosen way. This was a signi fi cant temptation, and had Jesus accepted it, in one scene 132