The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The people of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it." – 2 Kings 23:17

Today's Scripture Reading (July 7, 2026): 2 Kings 23

It happened in the early days of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The northern tribes had rebelled against Rehoboam, Solomon's son. The rebellion eventually led to the Northern tribes' decision to separate from Judah, which was ruled by the House of David. But they had a problem. The Tabernacle had disappeared from the nation's religious experience, and the brick-and-mortar Temple that had become the nation's worship center had been built in Jerusalem, a city within the boundaries of the Tribe of Benjamin, which had decided to stand with Judah. As a result, the northern tribe had been left without a place to worship.

Jeroboam, the new King of the Northern Kingdom, felt he had to come up with an answer. The people couldn't continue to travel to Jerusalem, or he might risk losing them forever. His solution? Build two golden calves, and place them in the city of Dan in the north and Bethel in the south. Then, King Jeroboam would tell the people that these were the gods of Israel; come and worship in Dan and Bethel instead of Jerusalem.

And then a prophet from Judah appeared in Bethel.

By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: "Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you'" (1 Kings 13:1-2).

We don't know who the prophet was. Almost 350 years later, there is a King named Josiah who is on the throne of Judah. Israel, Jeroboam's Kingdom, had long ago been destroyed. Josiah has the bones of the priests that had been buried in the area, dug up and burned on the altar that Jeroboam had created three centuries earlier. But as Josiah comes to one tomb in the area, he asks, "To whom does this grave belong?" And the people proudly declare that it is the burial site of this unknown prophet, the one who had declared that Josiah would come. We don't remember his name, but the people of Bethel still remembered the prophet who had once journeyed there to confront Jeroboam. And they honored his presence in their city with a memorial and a story that was to be passed down through the generations. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 35