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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Kings 13:23–34, “And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones: For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.”
When the younger prophet had finished eating, he saddled his ass for travel and set out to go back to his home. As the prophet travelled to his home a lion came out of the scrub and killed the prophet. The Lord warned him that he would suffer the consequences of his actions and he did. After that the old prophet went out to find the younger prophet’s body. The lion that killed the prophet from Judah made no attempt to eat him or even to maul the ass. The older prophet found the lion, the ass and the body of the prophet from Judah together. This was a miraculous message from the Lord. When a lion kills it does so to eat but this lion killed and made no attempt to eat the prey. The ass, as a prey animal, should have run away but it didn’t. Even though the Lord punished the prophet from Judah for disobedience, there was a broader lesson for all the nation of Israel that day. The Lord made this quite clear when Moses was leader of Israel many years before that. (Num 32:23, “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”) There was a clear message to Jeroboam and all the breakaway kingdom of Israel. The Lord knew that they had gone astray from the Law and would ensure that they faced the penalty clauses of the contract after they had fair time to repent.
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