1 Kings 13:18-22 — He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back: and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

This story in 1 Kings 13 is a bit confusing. God sends the young prophet to the king with a message, and tells him to take no food or drink, and to return by a different way. On his way home he’s met by another, older, prophet who persuades him to come home, eat, spend the night … and then tells him that God, angry at his imperfect obedience, has condemned him! What’s to learn from all this?
First, there’s the young prophet. He started so well. He delivered the message to the king, declined his offer of hospitality and was on his way home by another route. Then he got “off mission” — literally. He allowed himself to be fooled into disobedience. God has to punish him, because partial or imperfect obedience is no better than disobedience. The punishment was severe, appropriately for one honored with an important and high-profile mission.
So much for the young prophet — although I will have one more thing to say about him when I’ve dealt with the old prophet.
The first question we might ask about the old prophet is “why didn’t God choose him for the mission?” We can only speculate — but perhaps he had grown lazy, and no longer burned with the passion he once had.
The second question might be “why did he mislead the young prophet?” Again, it’s only guesswork — but maybe it was jealousy. Maybe he felt, despite his weaknesses, that he should have got the important mission. Whatever the reason, it was disastrous for the younger man.
I did some pretty stupid things when I was young. I remember that there was a time when an older friend and I would roam the countryside “exploring”. One day we came across a big old glasshouse seemingly in the middle of nothing. My friend thought it would be fun to see if we could through stones through the remaining glass. I wasn’t so sure, but he was older and more “experienced” and I let myself be persuaded. Of course it was wanton vandalism, but we were lucky, and never got caught or had to deal with any consequences. If I’d been caught, perhaps I would have said “I was led astray”. Of course it wouldn’t have done any good. When it comes to wrong doing, we are responsible for our own wrong doing …
All this, it seems to me, places a great responsibility on those of us who might be in a position to influence younger “prophets”. We can’t get lazy, we can’t get jealous. We can’t take the risk of leading them astray. We must not become the old prophet …