Returning a Different Way

In 1 Kings 13, God sent "a man of God" from Judah to Bethel to condemn the pagan altar and false religion that had been set up by King Jeroboam of the newly established northern kingdom. He said, "O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you'" (vs. 2). After wrangling with Jeroboam, the king finally asked the man of God to come home with him and be refreshed (vs. 7)...but notice what the man of God said...

"But the man of God said to the king, 'If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.'' So he went another way and did not return by the same way he came to Bethel" (vs. 10).

There's a lot more to this story, but I'd like to focus on this idea that the man of God wasn't to return to Judah the same way he had come. I've always wondered, in the back of my head, why God demanded this of the prophet. I could come up with a few possibilities, but just recently, I stumbled upon a possible explanation...in Matthew 2:12.

Approximately 1,000 years later, a virgin named Mary gave birth to Jesus, the man who would be the Savior of the world. At some point following His birth, wise men from the east followed a star to Jerusalem, encountered Herod, and then found Jesus in Bethlehem. When they found Him, they "worshiped Him" and presented Him with gifts (Mt. 2:11).

But here's what grabbed my attention...

"Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way" (vs. 12).

Do you notice the parallel? Now, the reason is given here as to why the wise men returned another way - their lives were in danger because of wicked King Herod - but does this incident help us to better understand the events in 1 Kings 13? I believe so.

I wouldn't hang my hat on this, necessarily, and I wouldn't say that this is exactly why the man of God was told to return to Judah another way, but I do know that the Old Testament is filled with prophecies and foreshadowings of Christ. And so with that in mind, check this out...

Perhaps God sent the man of God home another way in 1 Kings 13 to foreshadow the events surrounding the birth of Christ. The parallels are striking...

• Both the man of God and the wise men were sent by God.
• Both encountered a wicked king.
• In both cases, false religion was rampant in the land of Israel.
• In both cases, there was the promise and/or hope of a coming reformer - someone who would turn the people back to God. In 1 Kings 13, it was Josiah. Of course, in Matthew, the coming reformer was Jesus Himself.

Am I reading too deeply into this? It's possible. But I find the similarities in these two stories too striking to ignore. I see God's foreknowledge and eternal plan at work here. And while there's no grand lesson to draw from this parallel, it's neat (for me, at least) to notice these parallels, to see God's subtle brilliance on display, and to be rewarded (in my own mind, at least) for studying and digging deeper into the word of God.