You cannot trust the man of God. Many people waver or lose faith in God, when a “man of God” fails. Men of God fail all the time. We have a recent example of an immoral failure of the leader of one of the largest Christian colleges and churches in America.
In my lifetime alone there have been countless high profile men of God caught in one sort of scandal or another. Ask yourself, how many fail and it does not become public knowledge for various reasons? Roughly 2,600 years ago, very soon after the reforms of good King Josiah of Judah, Jerimiah the prophet uttered the following words concerning the “men of God,” which counseled all the evil kings that followed Josiah: Jerimiah 9:4 “Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. 5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.”
Three hundred years before good King Josiah was born another “man of God” was caught up in a scandal of his own. Shortly after King Solomon’s death, the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, due to the failure of Solomon to heed God’s commandments. After Solomon’s death, as God promised, the Davidic Kingdom was divided into two kingdoms.
The Southern Kingdom headed by Solomon’s son Rehoboam consisted of their ancestral tribe of Judah plus the one tribe of Benjamin. The Northern Kingdom was headed by a usurper named Jeroboam and consisted of the ten remaining tribes.
The kingdom of Judah retained the holy city of Jerusalem as its capital and because Jeroboam feared that people would want to return to worship in Jerusalem, he set up golden calves in Beth-el and Dan for the people to worship.
While Jeroboam was making an offering at his altar in Beth-el, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord and prophesied that a child would be born to the house of David. His name would be Josiah and that he would destroy the priest which made offerings to the manmade gods, plus tear down those altars and even burn the ashes of all the false priests.
The man of God went on to show proof that he was a man of God, by predicting that Josiah’s offering would by miracle be overturned and the ashes poured out. This came to pass immediately, at which Jeroboam thrust out his hand ordering the man of God be bound. Jeroboam’s hand suddenly became withered and paralyzed, upon which he begged the man of God to intreat God to heal his hand and it was healed. Jeroboam offered the man of God a reward, which he refused, because God had told him to leave immediately, take no meal and go home a different way.
So, he left, and on his way home he encountered an old lying prophet, which also offered him a meal. The man of God at first refused until the lying prophet falsely prophesied that the Lord had sent him, so he went back with him. Then the word of the Lord actually did come to the old prophet and he prophesied the death of the man of God for disobedience to the word of the Lord. Additionally, he prophesied that he would not be buried in Judah, but there in the North. And it came to pass after the man of God left for Judah he was killed by a lion, which stood guard over his corpse until the old prophet came and buried him in his own grave. Before the old prophet’s death, he requested to be buried in the same grave as the man of God, because the man of God’s prophesy would come true.
I recounted all that story found mostly in 1 Kings 13 and 2 Kings 23 to relay these points: 1) Don’t put your faith in the “man of God.” 2) We need to know enough about the Word of God that we recognize a lie when we hear it. 3) God uses imperfect people. 4) Prove the man of God by the Word of God. 5) You can’t always trust the man of God, but you can always trust the Word of God. 6) All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 7) Forgiveness is as much for you, as it is for the other person. 8) God chastens those that he loves.
Finally:
2 Timothy 3:17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 18 “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”