But he lied unto him - It is always to be remembered that the prophetic gift might co-exist with various degrees of moral imperfection in the person possessing it. Note especially the case of Balaam.

An angel spake unto me - That he lied unto him is here expressly asserted, and is amply proved by the event. But why should he deceive him? The simple principle of curiosity to know all about this prediction, and the strange facts which had taken place, of which he had heard at second hand by means of his sons, was sufficient to induce such a person to get the intelligence he wished by any means. We may add to this, that, as he found the man of God sitting under an oak, probably faint with fatigue and fasting, for he had had no refreshment, his humanity might have led him to practice this deception, in order to persuade him to take some refreshment. Having fallen from God, as I have supposed, 1 Kings 13:11, his own tenderness of conscience was gone; and he would not scruple to do a moral evil, if even a temporal good could come of it. Again, is it not possible that the old prophet was himself deceived? for, though he lied unto him, it is possible that he was not conscious of his lie, for Satan, as an angel of light, might have deceived him in order to lead him to deceive the other. He does not say, as the man of God did, It was said to me by the word of the Lord; no: but, An angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. And I think it very likely that an angel did appear to him on the occasion; an angel of darkness and idolatry, in the garb of an angel of light, who wished to use him as an instrument to bring discredit on the awful transactions which had lately taken place, and to destroy him who had foretold the destruction of his power and influence.

And he said unto him,.... That is, the old prophet said to the man of God:

I am a prophet also as thou art; meaning, that he was a prophet of the true God, and not of any idol deity; that he not only believed in him, and was a worshipper of him, but had revelations from him, and of the same things this man of God had, and that he believed that what he had prophesied of would certainly come to pass:

and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the Lord; was sent and dispatched by the order of the Lord with the following message:

saying, bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water; and so be refreshed, and be fit to proceed on in his journey:

but he lied unto him; no messenger nor message being sent to him by the Lord, but was wholly a device and stratagem of his own to persuade the man of God to return with him, that he might have his company and conversation.

He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an {h} 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.

(h) His fault is here double, first in that he did not permit the prophet to obey God's express commandment, and next that he pretended to have a revelation to the contrary.

Margin and an

An impressive illustration of Gal 1:8,9.

Margin angel

See Scofield Note: "Heb 1:4".

18. an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord-This circuitous mode of speaking, instead of simply saying, "the Lord spake to me," was adopted to hide an equivocation, to conceal a double meaning-an inferior sense given to the word "angel"-to offer a seemingly superior authority to persuade the prophet, while really the authority was secretly known to the speaker to be inferior. The "angel," that is, "messenger," was his own sons, who were worshippers, perhaps priests, at Beth-el. As this man was governed by self-interest, and wished to curry favor with the king (whose purpose to adhere to his religious polity, he feared, might be shaken by the portents that had occurred), his hastening after the prophet of Judah, the deception he practised, and the urgent invitation by which, on the ground of a falsehood, he prevailed on the too facile man of God to accompany him back to his house in Beth-el, were to create an impression in the king's mind that he was an impostor, who acted in opposition to his own statement.

13:11-22 The old prophet's conduct proves that he was not really a godly man. When the change took place under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion. He took a very bad method to bring the good prophet back. It was all a lie. Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness. We may wonder that the wicked prophet went unpunished, while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom; and there is a judgment to come. Nothing can excuse any act of wilful disobedience. This shows what they must expect who hearken to the great deceiver. They that yield to him as a tempter, will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom he now fawns upon, he will afterwards fly upon; and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair.