1 Kings 20.35-36:
| 20.35ואיש אחד | One man |
|---|---|
| מבני הנביאים | from the Sons of the Prophets |
| אמר אל רעהו | says to his fellow |
| בדבר יהוה | by Yahweh’s word, |
| הכיני נא | “Please strike me down.” |
| וימאן האיש להכתו׃ | The man refuses to strike him down. |
| 20.36ויאמר לו | He says to him, |
| יען אשר לא שמעת | “Since you’re not listening |
| בקול יהוה | to Yahweh’s voice,α |
| הנך הולך מאתי | look: You walk away from me, |
| והכך האריה | and the lion strikes you down.” |
| וילך מאצלו | He walks away from his side. |
| וימצאהו | A lion finds him |
| ויכהו׃ | and strikes him down. |
The Sons of the Prophets was an ancient prophetic guild. Some believe it wasn’t a guild so much as it was a school to train prophets—though the people who believe this frequently want to start or run similar training schools to develop Christians in their own prophetic abilities, and are looking for a scriptural paradigm to point to. I’m a bit skeptical of the school-of-prophecy idea, mostly because a lot of these prophecy schools strike me as simony disguised as spiritual growth. Regardless, the scriptures do tend to describe the Sons of the Prophets as working collectively in one form or another, and even if it wasn’t a bona fide school, there was at least some degree of training going on.
Anyone can be a prophet, because anyone can hear God. Not everyone realizes they can hear God. Not everyone has been taught to recognize when He’s speaking to us, or how to accurately determine what He’s saying. He speaks in many different ways, because He customizes His message for the hearer. It’s the same message; but while one person might hear it through a dream, another might hear it while praying, another might hear an audible voice, and yet another might have a brief flash of insight.
The Sons of the Prophets knew this, and part of their reason for working together was likely because they realized their different ways of hearing God were useful when put together. They confirmed one another. Confirmation—comparing messages from God—is how we know we’re all hearing Him correctly. Even though God might give you some details He may deny another, the general message, especially a general message that needs to be proclaimed to someone else, will line right up. It’ll line up with other prophets, with the common teachings of the Church, and with the scriptures. (The Church and scriptures, you recall, are the products of prophecy.)
This being the case, these prophets both heard the same message. We’re not reading a story where God told Prophet #1, “Go get yourself beaten half to death,” yet told Prophet #2 nothing, and left him to be startled and repulsed when Prophet #1 came up to him with his insane-sounding request. Prophet #2 knew what God was telling them, but he didn’t trust his ability to hear God, or Prophet #1’s confirmation that he actually was hearing God. Because God would never ask one of His prophets to beat the crap out of another one. ...Would He?
In this case, yes indeed God was asking one of His prophets to do just that. And this extreme-sounding consequence—getting mauled by a lion—was because God’s prophet was ignoring his gift, and ignoring his Lord, in favor of his extremely limited view of God. His theology was getting in the way of his relationship with God.
Wrap your mind around that idea for a while. I sometimes wonder how often I make the same mistake.
The way I’ve usually heard this story told is that Prophet #2 leaves and soon afterward gets killed by a lion. Not mauled; killed. But since the story uses the very same verb, נכה, in v36, I’m not sure how you can come to the conclusion that it means “strike down” when referring to Prophet #1, and suddenly becomes “strike down to death” when referring to Prophet #2. Unless you’re a really vindictive translator, and like the idea of God overdoing it on His punishments—because you think He’s an angry God or something, at least in the Old Testament—there’s no sense in saying Prophet #2 was killed. He was only mauled.
Not that mauling is any fun either, but if you lack faith in God, a good clawing will provide you with a pretty permanent form of confirmation. Really, this prophet got off easy. Other prophets got themselves killed after being just as dumb and faithless.
α. Lit. “Because what you’re not listening [to is] from Yahweh’s voice.”
