When David was fleeing and wandering, the prophet Gad advised him not to abide in the stronghold but to go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22:5). When David sinned against God by numbering the people, the word of God came to Gad who then told David that God offered him three calamities, and that he must choose one that God might do it to him. After the three days’ pestilence had passed, Gad came to see David and told him to go up and build an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David built there an altar unto God and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; thus the plague was stayed from Israel (2 Sam. 24).
The word of God came to Nathan the prophet when David the king set his heart to build a house for God. Nathan told King David that God would make a house for him and would set up his seed after him; his seed would build a house for God’s name, and God would establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7:1-17). This prophecy was first fulfilled for a time in Solomon and then completely fulfilled in Christ (Luke 1:32-33). When David sinned, God sent Nathan to rebuke him of his sin, telling him that God would raise up evil against him out of his own house and that the sword would never depart from his house (2 Sam. 12:1-15). When David begot Solomon through Bathsheba, God sent word through Nathan and named Solomon “Jedidiah” (meaning “beloved of Jehovah”), because God loved him (2 Sam. 12:24-25). When David was old and stricken in years, Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself and plotted to usurp the throne. Nathan and Bathsheba devised a plan which caused David to swear that Solomon would be the king and thus foiled the scheme of Adonijah (1 Kings 1).
First Kings 13 records the story of an old prophet. The agedness of the old prophet does not mean that he was spiritually experienced, but that he was already old, aged, and useless in the hands of God. When God wanted to speak to Jeroboam, He could only use the man of God, not the old prophet.
Furthermore, the old prophet also used his title to deceive people. He had already lost fellowship with God, yet he made false claims saying that an angel had spoken to him by the word of Jehovah. It was when they were sitting at the table that the word of Jehovah came to the old prophet. This does not mean that the old prophet had become spiritual, but rather that God was going to deal with the man of God who had disobeyed His commandment. God had put no demand upon the old prophet and had put him aside. The old prophet was just waiting to die (1 Kings 13:31).
Solomon followed his foreign wives to worship idols and did evil in the eyes of God. Hence, God was angry with Solomon and decided to rend the kingdom from him and give it to his servant Jeroboam. One day when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way. Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and rent it in twelve pieces, and he told Jeroboam to take ten pieces because God would rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and would give ten tribes to him. Thus, God predicted through Ahijah that the kingdom would become divided (1 Kings 11:29-39).
When Jeroboam became king, because of his ambition, he built the high places and set up another center of worship, thus creating division and provoking God to anger. God prophesied again through Ahijah, saying, “I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweepeth away dung, till it be all gone” (1 Kings 14:1-18, ASV).