Death by Lion for not Punching a Prophet (1 Kings 20:35-36)

[A Guest Card Talk by *Anthony Russo of thebibleisfunny.com]

People in the Bible regularly got some pretty strange instructions. Most of the time the instructions were followed and the results were good. 

For example,when a guy had leprosy, Elisha (a prophet) told him to bathe in the Jordan River seven times, and he was healed (2 Kings 5:1-14).

Or when God told the Israelites to power walk around the city of Jericho once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day (plus, some trumpet playing and general ruckus), they did it and the formerly impenetrable walls of the city crumbled (Joshua 6:1-20).

Other times the instructions are not followed and the results are less good.

In 1 Kings 20 King Ahab directly disobeyed instructions from God (a classic King Ahab move). An unnamed prophet got instructions from God that he was to condemn the king, a condemnation that would be delivered by pretending to be a wounded soldier on the side of the road. 

Perhaps God believes in the pure performance that comes from method acting, or perhaps God knew that this particular prophet was a bad actor and wouldn’t be super convincing otherwise. Regardless, God instructs this prophet to have another prophet–a colleague of his–hit him in the face so that he’s actually wounded as he pretends to be a wounded soldier.

At the command of the Lord a certain member of a company of prophets said to another, “Strike me!” But the man refused to strike him. (1 Kings 20:35)

God had a plan for how this whole King Ahab condemnation/roadside performance art piece was going to go down, and this other prophet didn’t want to play his part. Probably because, outside the confines of some kind of prophet fight club (which we would never know about because of course no one would have documented it. Rule #1 of Prophet Fight Club is . . .) this whole thing seems pretty bizarre.

Conventional wisdom says that you should probably not hit your friend in the face if you wish to remain friends with said person. Maybe this fella was trying to preserve a friendship. 

Maybe he was afraid he would hurt his hand. 

Maybe he was afraid he would get a reciprocated punch in the face. 

We’ll never know.

The point is, not following God’s plan can seem downright responsible - but the results are less than ideal:

Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, as soon as you have left me, a lion will kill you.” And when he had left him, a lion met him and killed him. (1 Kings 20:36)

The neat thing is we don't have to do what God's asking us to do. We don’t have to jump in a muddy river seven times, stroll around a city for seven days, or punch our friends in the face.

We have free will. That's how God made us. 

But God also made lions.

So choose carefully.

* About Anthony Russo: Anthony is 1/2 of the improv comedy team, Isaac Improv (isaacimprov.com). Isaac travels the country doing improv comedy at churches, camps, colleges, basically any location that starts with the letter "c". Isaac is also the team behind the blog The Bible Is Funny  (www.thebibleisfunny.com).