In 1 Kings 13 there is a man who is often overlooked. It’s not intentional. He is easy to miss. There is not much detail about him. For example, we don’t know his name. All we know is where he came from – Judah. 1 Kings 13:1 describes this unnamed man as “a man of God.” And that’s the most we know of him. But what I can tell you is that he is man who courageously stood against a king who led the nation of Israel into sin by leading them away from the LORD into idolatry.
Jeroboam, who is king of the ten tribes of Israel, in his own free will, created two golden calves to keep the people under his rule from worshiping in Jerusalem. He put one golden calf at Bethel and the other in Dan. Then, Jeroboam “made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites” (1 Kings 12:31). He also held a great feast and made sacrifices on these golden calves (1 King 12:32-33). And even worse, he told the people belonging to Israel that it was these two golden calves that delivered the Israelite’s out of Egypt; thus, Jeroboam made them equal to the one true God and led Israel into idolatry.
But God sent Jeroboam a “man of God” from Judah, which was ruled by Rehoboam, who was Solomon’s son. This man of God cried out against the altar’s that Jeroboam had created saying, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human one shall be burned on you” ( 1 Kings 13:2). This word would come to pass years later in 2 Kings 22-23. And as evidence that God was going to this great work the altar that Jeroboam had built was destroyed that very day, just as the “man of God” said (1 Kings 13:3 & 5).
There is a touch more to this story and I would encourage you to read further if you like, but I want to end by focusing on this man who was sent by God. This man, at the command of God, courageously went from Judah to oppose a king and the people this king was misleading; he was the minority. When I think of this story I cannot help but think followers of Jesus are called to be like this “man of God”. Like Israel then, we continue to live in a land full of idolatry.
Followers of Jesus are to be like this man from Judah. We are called to be different. We are meant to be courageous and bold. We are not called to follow the crowd, but follow Jesus, which is growing more unpopular each year. We should be willing to stand against the majority and speak out against the gods of this world. Remember, the majority is not always right. Don’t be afraid to be different and courageously follow Jesus.