June 2, 2025

Opening the Door to Calamity

In 1 Kings 13:21–25, God provides us with quite an unusual story,

And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

Notice that the lion did something very unnatural. The guy disobeyed, the lion killed him, but the lion didn’t go after the donkey. The donkey didn’t run away, but the lion didn’t try to kill the donkey, nor did it drag the guy off to eat him.

And to top it all off, now people start to walk by. Look, people do not walk by wild lions! But here they are: the donkey, the lion, the dead guy, and people are walking by.

What is God up to here? He is giving a snapshot, something He wants indelibly burned into their understanding: Disobedience opens the door to calamity.

If you choose to disobey God, know you have opened your life to calamity!

Read previous devotionals

June 4, 2025

The Reward for Obedience

There are two verses I want to point you to in today’s devotional. The first is Isaiah 1:19, where God says, “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat...

June 3, 2025

The Cost of Disobedience

In our last devotional, we read the story from 1 Kings 13 about the lion that killed the prophet for his disobedience. We learned how that story illustrates for us...

June 2, 2025

Opening the Door to Calamity

In 1 Kings 13:21–25, God provides us with quite an unusual story, And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD:...