Word Weld

Part 2

3. Jeroboam’s Sin (Continued)

Jeroboam’s placement of the idols was also no accident. One sin leads to another, which leads to another. This is why when Christians sin it’s called backsliding, because we don’t tend to just go down one step, we slide. Jeroboam places one of the calves in Bethel. Just as Shechem was important as a political and military place of council, Bethel is a spiritually powerful place. It is the place that Jacob stopped on his way to Laben’s home, and where he had a vision of angels, and where he later built an altar to God. Jeroboam chooses this place to add more legitimacy to his form of worship. Again, notice how false worshippers appropriate the things of God in order to appear holy, while behind the veil they are denying God’s Word. There is a right way and a wrong way to worship. Jeroboam’s heart was not right with God. He was carnal. We should avoid the pitfall that so many have succumbed to, of believing that all kinds of music are ok, all dress is ok. No, everything must be judged by God’s Word.

The second idol he placed in Dan. Now, this is not the original tribal territory of Dan. During the time of the Judges, Dan was displaced from their land by the Amorites and by the continual oppression of the Philistines that lived on the coastal regions. So the Dannites travelled north and founded a new settlement at the very northern tip of Israel near the headwaters of Jordan river near mount Hermon, a city that they named Dan, after their patriarch. You can read about these events in Judges 18. When they founded the city, Judges 18 tells us that they took a reprobate Levite priest with them, and formed a version of their own worship there, making the city of Dan a corrupt religious center for many years. Jeroboam ironically is doing the same thing, though unlike the Dannites, our passage tells us that he further corrupted the Law of Moses by appointing his own priests, along with other, lesser centers of worship to solidify his religious grasp upon Israel.

Furthermore, these two locations were also on opposite ends of Israel, with Bethel in the south very close to Judah, and Dan being far in the north. As Jeroboam had said, it was “too hard” to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship God, so they could just do it wherever they wanted, or rather wherever he told them to.

And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.³¹ And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.³² So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.³³

– I Kings 12:31-33

Jeroboam honestly needs to be talked about more in sermons around this country. Pastors and churches of all flavors and denominations are following in his footsteps. “Christian” leaders and pastors are so often, especially in our country, looking around and saying, “If we do things the Bible way, we’ll lose members! We’ll take in less money! We’ll have to have smaller staff, and I’ll have a lower standard of living!” And so, like Jeroboam, they close all spiritual eyes, and then they “take counsel.” They consult “what works” and what’s “popular.” Sermons slowly become self-help sessions, then Ted Talks, or eventually the glorifying sin itself. Worship moves away from what brings honor to God, and to what brings glory to man, and finally becomes synonymous with the world itself.

Notice what the Bible says about the feast day that he made. It says he proclaimed a feast just like the one in Judah, but to his liking, “even in the month which he had devised in his own heart.” That is modern worship in a nutshell. It’s not interested in what brings glory to God. It’s about what was devised in men’s hearts. If we are not filtering every decision through God’s Word, if we aren’t willing to bow to what the Scriptures tell us God expects, then we might as well get on Amazon and order up a couple of golden cows. Skip to the end. That’s where all of this heads ultimately. It starts with finding something in the Word of God that we personally don’t agree with, or that conflicts with our lifestyle, or “doesn’t work for us,” and that departure from the Word leads us to another, and to another.

I would also like to mention, before we move on, that there is an another parallel here to Saul. The first king of a united Israel also decided to bend God’s Word. I Samuel 13 tells of Saul, who was waiting for Samuel, deciding that he had waited long enough, and offered a sacrifice to God himself, being not a Levite and thus breaking the Law. Saul had been in the middle of a military campaign, and the people were weary and afraid, and Saul decides not to trust in God, but to do what he felt was right, what he devised in his own heart, and thus sacrifices the offering himself. Jeroboam follows in his footsteps, not just appointing priests who were not Levites, but taking upon himself to offer offerings in his corrupt high places and before his golden calf in Bethel.

And again, while we can point the finger at the churches down the road with their trendy names, and their LGTB support services, and their textual criticism, and their “Christian evolution,” and rightly so; what about us? Don’t we do this too? Don’t we look at our surroundings and say, in our hearts, “I can’t wait for God on this. I have to do something now.” We see our circumstances and say, “I can’t tithe, it’s going to affect my lifestyle. I can’t refuse to join the work group at the bar, it would hurt my witness. I can’t confront my homosexual relative and tell them my kids can’t be around them anymore, that would cause waves in the family.” You fill in the blank, and I will too. And when find out that we’re in real trouble, we look up from our praying and realize we aren’t in God’s House, we’re right there in front of a golden calf we made, and God is far away.

Chapter 13 adds close-in view of Jeroboam’s sin., though ultimately, it isn’t about Jeroboam as much as it is about the prophet who comes to confront him. God sends a man from Judah to speak to Jeroboam in Bethel. He cries against the altar and the perversion of worship that Jeroboam is actively participating in, and foretells that the altar will be destroyed by a future king of Judah. We will see that this prophecy will be fulfilled when Josiah takes the throne and institutes his reforms, restoring much of the original worship according to the Word of the Lord. This is found in II Kings 23.

Back to Jeroboam though, who at the time the prophet arrives is standing and offering upon the altar, breaking numerous aspects of God’s law and performing sacrilege openly before the people. The prophet from Judah, who is never named in Scripture, claims that all of the priests of the high places, who performed Jeroboam’s corrupt worship, will themselves be burnt upon the altar, and cleansed away. It is an indictment directly against Jeroboam, though the prophet speaks only to altar itself. Realizing this, Jeroboam points to the prophet and orders him to be arrested. God Himself then steps in, and causes Jeroboam’s entire arm to dry up.

And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.⁴

– I Kings 13:4

The Hebrew word used there also means to wither, but it is commonly used of the drying up of river beds. It is used of the floodwaters drying up during Noah’s day, and of the condition of the Red Sea after God parted the waters. Suddenly, Jeroboam’s arm became as if all the water in it was removed, and it became immovable. At the same time, the altar is cracked, and the ashes upon it are spilled on the ground, as a sign that God had sent this message. In a panic, Jeroboam begs for the prophet to pray for him. Notice again the parallel to King Saul. I Samuel 15:30, after Saul disobeys God and is rejected, he begs Samuel to worship with him, which Samuel initially refuses, but ultimately relents. Similarly, the prophet of Judah prays to God for Jeroboam, and even now God shows him mercy, restoring his arm. Jeroboam offers the prophet rewards at his own house, but the prophet refuses, explaining that God instructed him not to do so. The rest of Chapter 13 focuses on the prophet and his unfortunate end after disobeying God’s orders. It is a worthwhile story, and an example of not following what others tell you of God’s Word, but following the Holy Spirit first and only.

And so Jeroboam, a man promised by God to have a house and rule and bloodline as great as David himself proves himself to be a man unable to humble himself before God, but follows in the footsteps of Saul, and dooms the northern kingdom centuries of idolatry and corrupt worship. The last two verses of Chapter 13 let us know that Jeroboam ignored this sign

After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.³³ And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.³⁴

– I Kings 13:33-34