A prophet comes from Judah to Israel to denounce Jeroboam. Interestingly, we do not get this prophet's name. The prophet finds Jeroboam at the altar of Bethel. (Jacob dreamt of the stairway to heaven outside Bethel).
The prophet tells Jeroboam that a future king of the Davidic dynasty, Josiah, will sacrifice pagan priests on the bones of Jeroboam and that a sign that this will happen is the altar will leave in two. Jeroboam orders his arrest, but his hand became paralyzed. The altar also cracks in half.
The prophet does not say that Jeroboam will be cut off or that the dynastic offer is gone. This happens later. Here, Jeroboam still can repent.
Jeroboam asks the prophet to pray for his hand to be healed, which happens. Jeroboam invites the prophet to come eat. It is not stated whether this shows repentance on the part of Jeroboam.
The prophet declines because God had told him not to eat or drink anything while on the trip to the north. Why did God do this? It is not stated, but it could have been that God wanted to limit the interaction between the prophet and the northern people. This is totally my speculation and it is based on what happens next.
The prophet heads back to Judah, but another much older prophet finds him along the way and offers him to come and eat. The southern prophet declines because God told him not to eat. The older prophet then told him that an angel had told the older prophet to tell him that God said it was OK to eat with him. This was a lie. The younger prophet eats with the older one and is killed by a lion immediately afterwards. The lion does not attack the man's donkey, just him. Later, the lion stands guard over the body, never harming the donkey. Eventually, local people put the body on the donkey and take it away for burial.
I always found this one of the strangest stories in the old testament. What was the younger prophet thinking? It sort of reminds of me of Moses striking the rock when God told him to speak to it. God prevented him from entering the promised land on account of that disobedience. Both show that prophets did disobey God from time to time and there were consequences to them.
So, why did the older prophet insist on eating with the younger one? My guess is that he was a washed up old prophet who had rejected God. By this time, all the Levites in the north and anyone who still followed God had left to go south. So, who is this guy and why does the Bible refer to him as an old prophet? I guess, but don't know, that he was a former prophet who is now following Jeroboam's pagan religion and he wanted more supernatural or to reclaim his former lost supernatural power.
It would also explain why he had to lie about the angel, although we don't know which part of that was the precise lie. Ambiguity in the text leaves open the possibility that the old prophet may have had a supernatural encounter and thought he was dealing with God's angel, but instead received a lie. The alternative is that the old prophet made up the whole thing.
God's reaction to kill him with the lion seems harsh, but I think it is in line with the precedent of Moses not entering the promised land or when God tried to kill Moses because his sons were not circumcised. God expects a higher level of obedience with His representatives and messengers on earth.
It would have also had religious and political implications as it confirmed the message of the prophet.
The story also represents an attempt by God to use the south to reclaim the north for God. God does not send the army, but rather a solo man. God does not seek to conquer the north and force it back to submission, but rather they get a verbal warning and powerful confirmation. In some ways, the messenger was martyred to bring the message to the north.
The northern people, including Jeroboam, can choose what to do next.
The final verses of the chapter show that Jeroboam did not turn away. Jeroboam maintained the pagan shrines and interestingly, God is angry that non-Levites are chosen to be priests for the pagan religions. All this was a great sin to God and reason to wipe off Jeroboam's dynasty.
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