| I Kings 13:24
| And when he was gone, a lion found him in the way, and killed him, and his body was cast in the way: and the ass stood by him, and the lion stood by the dead body.
| Killed him. Thus the Lord often punishes his servants here, that he may spare them hereafter. For the generality of divines[theologians] are of opinion, that the sin of this prophet, considered with all its circumstances, was not mortal. (Challoner) --- He had received a positive order, and ought to have tried the spirits, whether they were from God, 1 John 4:1., and Galatians 6:18. Every prophecy which contradicts the word of God, comes from an evil principle. (Calmet) --- The prophet might suppose, however, that some cause had intervened, which authorized him to eat with this his brother, (ver. 30.) whom he probably revered as a true prophet. Many of God's commands are conditional. (Haydock) --- Serenus observes, that God often inflicts death for the smallest faults. (Cassian 7:26.) (St. Gregory, Dial. 4:24.) --- St. Augustine (cura, C. 7.) doubts not of the prophet's salvation. --- Body, without even hurting the ass, ver. 28. (Haydock) --- God protected the relics of his servant, by stationing the lion for a guard. (Procopius) (Menochius) --- How impenetrable are the counsels of God! He suffers Jeroboam, and the prophet who had seduced his servant, to live; while he punishes the latter for a fault which he had committed undesignedly. But he thus purified him from guilt, (Calmet) while he reserved Jeroboam for more lasting torments in another world. (Haydock) --- Nothing could prove more forcibly the existence of future rewards and punishments. (Calmet) --- Not only the deceiver, but he also who is deceived, so as to transgress God's orders, must be punished. (Worthington)
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