October 6th, 2010
35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him.
36 Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.
37 Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him.
In 1 Kings 20, a prophet orders his neighbor to hurt him. Apparently, it was a bad idea for his neighbor to refrain from fulfilling his masochistic wishes, because the prophet got a lion to slay him. Then, he found another person who did obey the prophet and hurt him.
The act of someone ordering another to harm one’s self, as well as to threaten death when the order isn’t carried out, is absolutely hilarious. Most of all, it is immoral. In this instance, the nice guy is the one who is punished. Why is it that the person who refuses to harm his neighbor is the one who is devoured by a lion? It doesn’t make any sense.