1 Kings 13:26

THE LYING OLD PROPHET BECOMES A BELIEVER

"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 mouth of Jehovah: therefore Jehovah hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled it. And he went and found his body in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the body: the lion had not eaten the body, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet, to mourn, and to bury him. And he laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!"

The most remarkable proof that God had actually spoken through the man of God was seen and accepted at its face value by the old man. He was no longer referred to by the author of Kings as "the old prophet," but is called simply "the prophet" in 1 Kings 13:29. He was, no doubt, filled with remorse and shame that his shameful lie had become the occasion of the death of the man of God.

Whatever the reputation of this old prophet might have been in Bethel before the events of this chapter, he was forever afterward enrolled among those prophesying the end of the regime of Jeroboam and the religious system represented by Bethel.