What was the sin of Jeroboam?

Now, the moral fall of the new king — of Jeroboam — was not long delayed. Judging by human wisdom and forgetting the fear of Jehovah, he made two golden calves, in order that the powerful links of a worship in common might be broken, and no longer attach his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. A new priesthood had to be set up; everything, with respect to worship, was devised of his own heart. Israel's sin was an established rule, and the phrase, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," became the sad designation of their first king.

"For a servant when he reigns." The occupation of a position without the necessary moral qualifications invariably results in a sense of self-importance, and a disregard of true values. This is seen in the history of "Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (1 Kings 12:28-30). He is known throughout history as he "who made Israel to sin," and we are told there what that sin was. He "made two calves of gold, and said … behold thy gods, O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." In short this was a complete denial of the sovereign mercy of God, who by the power of His own hand had delivered His people. The antidote for high-mindedness is to be preserved with a deep sense of sovereign mercy in our souls. An increased appreciation of the "love." the "mercy;" the "grace," and the "kindness" of God as seen in Ephesians 2 would give us to know, with adoring hearts, the way in which our deliverance from Satan's domain has been effected. May we ever be preserved with a deep sense of sovereign mercy in our souls! Resting there, "disquietude" would give way to peace.

In Jeroboam we see the worthlessness and hopelessness of flesh, however divinely favoured. Lifted out of obscurity by the God of Israel, and granted dominion over ten of the tribes, Jeroboam commenced his reign with every advantage. Jehovah promised to be with him, and build him a sure house if he would pay heed to His commandments, and walk in His ways. Solomon had grievously failed in this, and was (with his heirs) chastened by God in His righteous government, Jeroboam should have profited by Jehovah's stern dealings with the King that He loved so well, and upon whom He heaped wisdom, riches, glory, and blessing. But when did flesh ever profit under the hand of God? It is irremediably evil, and the word of God to every man is, "Ye must be born anew." (John 3:7). When Jeroboam became established in his kingdom (for Jehovah forbade Rehoboam to attack him) in his desire to make his throne secure, he devised a new religion for his people. The will of God was nothing to him. Because he feared that if the people continued to go up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah they would ultimately return to their allegiance to the house of David, he appointed new religious centres for them. Yet the word of Jehovah through Ahijah the prophet should have made it clear to him that he had nothing to fear if he kept the commandments of God (1 Kings 11:35-38). Hence his sin was great in setting up golden calves in Bethel and in Dan for the people to worship. Repeatedly we hear the dismal refrain concerning his corrupt successors that they "walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin" (2 Kings 13:2-11). The malign influence of this man reached to the Captivity.

Jeroboam instituted his own religion. It became the downfall of every king that succeeded him in Israel. He made two gold calves, built high places, made non-levitical priests, and ordained a feast "like the feast that was in Judah." Beware of changing, even of modifying the instructions God has given us in His Word!

Events unfold without his having to interfere, but he is mistrusting and says in his heart: "Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David." Not having confidence in God, he weighs over the probabilities and stops there. Faith never stops at probabilities — I would even go so far as to say that it feeds upon impossibilities and is the better for it. Having once admitted the probability that the kingdom would return to the house of David, Jeroboam carries his reasoning even further. It is necessary, he thinks, to prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem and offering their sacrifices there, lest they have contact with the royal house of Judah. The king concludes that this is a matter of life and death: "The heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me." His decision is made: Israel must have a new religion. Out of his unbelief in God's promise, out of his indifference to the worship of Jehovah, comes the establishment by Jeroboam of a national religion, distinct from that worship which God had instituted at Jerusalem. From that moment on that this worship was not a worship of the Lord, what could it be? Idol worship.

To forsake the worship of the true God is to fall into idolatry, whatever form this may take. In religion there is no middle ground. No doubt Jeroboam thought he had found such a middle ground: he did not adopt the false gods of the nations round about; he wanted only to establish a common religion for Israel. Having no heart-knowledge of the God who had spoken to him, he took counsel with himself and made two golden calves. "Behold thy gods, Israel," he says, "which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." He restores to honour that Jewish idolatry which had been practiced by the people at the foot of Sinai and which had brought down upon them the judgment of God. Only he goes further than Israel had in the wilderness: his forsaking of God is more complete. "Behold thy gods," he says, whereas the people had said, "This is thy god" (Ex. 32:4-5, J. N. Darby translation). He does not add as Aaron had done, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah!" The Lord is completely set aside.

Jeroboam is a cunning politician. He sets up one calf at Bethel, on the boundary with Judah, and the other at Dan, the northern frontier of his territory. He patterns his worship after the form of the worship prescribed by the law of Moses. "A house of high places" replaces the temple; the Levitical priesthood is replaced by "priests from all classes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi." As Israel had its Feast of Tabernacles, Jeroboam also established a feast, but a month later than this. He sets up an altar at Bethel corresponding to the brazen altar, setting it up before the idol, and burns incense upon it instead of burnt offerings (vv. 31-33). All this "he had devised of his own heart"!

Thus, despite its misleading external forms, this religion was a complete forsaking of the worship of the Lord, an instrument of polity in the hands of the government. Lulled by false appearances, souls were kept far from the true God, and the king of the line of David became a stranger to them.

Can we not find similar principles in the religions of our day? Are they based upon faith in the word of God or upon practices that only vaguely resemble the worship of God — an arbitrary religion, a voluntary worship, a forsaking of the house of God, the Assembly of the Living God, a denial of worship in the Spirit, priestly functions accorded to such who are not true worshippers, the efficacy of the sacrifice replaced by perfume, so that one worships and pretends to approach God without having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! Doubtless it is not idolatry, properly speaking, as in Jeroboam's false worship, but we know from the Word that before long it will all be part of the lifeless religion characterizing professing Christendom today, and that this latter, left to itself, without ties to Christ, making religion a matter of the intelligence, not of the conscience and of faith, will end up by returning to idols and by bowing down before the works of its own hands.

A man of God, a new prophet, comes out of Judah, where the Lord was yet maintaining a light for David. He comes to Bethel to prophesy against Israel at the very moment that the ten-tribe kingdom has been formed.

"Jeroboam said in heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah." He was afraid that if he allowed his subjects to go up to Jerusalem they would bethink themselves of their old king — bethink themselves of the grand purposes of God connected with Jerusalem What does he do then? He devises a religion out of his own head. "Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

He put it upon the ground of bringing religion to their doors, of helping his people to a religion that would not be too costly or too difficult, in fact, was only seeking to make religion subserve his policy. Accordingly, he did this knowing well that it is impossible for a kingdom — more particularly Israel — God's people — to be strong in the earth, where there is not the owning of God — where there is not the owning of God blended with the government so that there should not be two contrary authorities — or, possibly, contrary authorities in the kingdom. For in fact the stronger of the two for the conscience is religion and not civil obedience.

In order therefore to confirm the strength of his people, he makes the religion to be the religion of the kingdom. That is, he makes both the polity and the religion to flow from the same head — the same will and for the same great ends of consolidating his authority. Hence therefore he thinks of religion. And what does he go to? Not the blotting out of Jehovah: that was not the form that it took; but the incorporating of the most ancient religious associations which he could think of and which would suit his purpose. And he goes to a very great antiquity — not the antiquity, it is true, of that which God had given, but an antiquity that immediately followed; not the antiquity of the tables of stone, or the statutes and judgments of Israel either, but the antiquity of the golden calves. This is what he bethought himself of. "And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. 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."

The reason of Dan being the one that was chiefly cultivated was this: it was at the greatest distance from Jerusalem. Bethel was rather too near. A dozen miles or so might have exposed them no doubt, as he would have thought, to the temptation of Jerusalem, so Dan was the one. Although there were the two, Dan was the one that was chiefly courted. But he was not satisfied with this. He made a house of high places in imitation of the temple, and he made priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the sons of Levi.

Instead, however, of asking God, we read that Jeroboam "took counsel," evidently of men, and the result was the setting up of the two golden calves, one at Dan, in the far north, and the other, as a challenge to the God of Jacob, at Beth-el, of which place Jacob had declared, centuries before: "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." It is remarkable that he repeated the sin of Aaron and the people of Israel at the foot of Sinai, where God had already pronounced the solemn words: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Jeroboam even repeated the words of Aaron: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Had he already forgotten the words of Ahijah, when he promised him the kingdom? This very kingdom had been taken away from Solomon's descendants because the people had forsaken God, and had turned to the abominations of the surrounding nations. Now Jeroboam was committing the same sin. It has been argued that Jeroboam was really worshipping Jehovah, but with the aid of visible images. This is urged to-day to excuse blatant idolatry. The Bible does not support this. It says plainly: "This thing became a sin." God does not require an image to enable men to worship Him. In fact, the very idea is condemned throughout Scripture.

God had said Ye shall worship in the place that I shall choose. Dan and Beth-el were Jeroboam's choice. To-day many seek to serve God and "worship" Him in the manner and the place that suits them, but the New Testament teaches us that the place must be of God's choosing, the place where Christ is in the midst, and where the Holy Spirit is free to lead in true worship. Then again, God had chosen Aaron and his sons to serve him as priests. Jeroboam had no access to God's priests, so he "made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi." Christendom has its counterpart, setting up a "priestly class," often composed of unconverted men (or women!), setting aside the Divine principle of the priesthood of all believers.

Not content with these alterations, Jeroboam even found fault with the feasts of Jehovah, although he had made some brief reference to the deliverance out of Egypt, upon which, to some extent, these feasts were based. How could he hold a Passover, if he had turned away from the God Who redeemed His people by blood, and delivered them by His power? He made his own feast (perhaps on his birthday, or the anniversary of his accession). The Divine record assures that it was "in the month which he had devised of his own heart." We may see a parallel to this in the "Saints' Days" and "Church Festivals" recognised in Christendom, while the regular coming together for prayer, edification and remembrance of the Lord's death is often sadly missing.

After the separation between Israel and Judah, it was impossible that there could be true peace and amity between the two kingdoms. Jeroboam immediately discerned where his danger lay. Judah had the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, where God dwelt between the cherubim, and where alone the perpetual burntoffering as well as the other sacrifices could be presented, and where only the divinely-appointed priests could draw nigh to God on behalf of the people. The ten tribes were aware of this fact as well as their king, and fearing lest the kingdom should return to the house of David, Jeroboam said in his heart, "If this people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (1 Kings 12:26-28.) This was a bold and clever, though selfish, project, but one which, reminiscent as it was of the apostasy of Israel in the wilderness, ought to have excited their determined opposition. But so far from this being the case, they readily fell in with the thought of the king, and straightway they had priests and feasts after the pattern of those which had been divinely instituted. The new religion of Israel was one of imitation, leaving God out of the question. Henceforward there were the two religions side by side — the one founded upon the word of God, and the other, whatever its pretences, simply idolatrous. In the reign of Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, there was war between him and Jeroboam, and on the eve of the battle Abijah appealed to the consciences of the men of Israel, and used with great force the argument, that whilst Israel had forsaken Jehovah, Judah still clave to Him, and had the true priesthood and sacrifices. Jeroboam answered his appeal by strategy; i.e. by seeking, through human methods in the art of war, to accomplish the overthrow of Judah. But Judah cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with their trumpets (see Numbers 10.), and God delivered the Israelites into their hand. (2 Chr. 13:4-20.) The Lord's presence was thus the source of Judah's strength and victory. And it should be carefully noted that no pretensions, however lofty, and no human wisdom, however clever in its method, can either command the presence of the Lord, or deliver in the time of danger.

Jeroboam made Shechem his capital. He also built the ancient Penuel (the face of God, Gen. 32:30; judges 8:8), but he did not meet the Lord there like Jacob. Then the step was done which precipitated idolatry. To protect his kingdom and keep the people back from the true worship of Jehovah, he placed, with the consent of the people, in Dan and Beth-el on the northern and southern boundaries of his kingdom, two calves of gold. Thus with an unspeakable blasphemy he said: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The lowest class of the people were chosen as priests. Then he also offered sacrifices unto the calves that he had made. All was devised of his own heart and God's Word was completely set aside. It corresponds to the great apostasy of Romanism with its wicked, blasphemous rites.

Son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, and king of Israel. He reigned twenty-two years: B.C. 975-954. He had been an officer under Solomon, but Ahijah the prophet, having found him, tore his new garment into twelve pieces, and gave him ten of them, telling him that he should be king over ten of the tribes. Solomon thereupon sought to kill him, but he fled to Egypt and stayed there till the death of Solomon. On the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam was made king of the ten tribes. Fearing that his subjects, if they went up to Jerusalem to worship, would be alienated from him, he made two golden calves, placing one in Beth-el in the south, and the other in Dan in the north; and declared that these were the gods that had brought Israel out of Egypt. Priests of the common people were ordained by him, sacrifices were offered, and feast days devised. Thus the nation through their king sank at once into open idolatry: a warning to those in Christendom who devise out of their own heart their forms of worship, etc.

A man of God came from Judah to cry against the altar at Beth-el, and the king's hand, on being put forth to seize him, was dried up. On the prophet entreating the Lord his hand was restored, but he repented not of his idolatry. He had been told that if he would follow the Lord as David had done, his house should be established; but his dynasty extended only to his son Nadab. Jeroboam is charged with doing evil above all that had been before him, and his doings became a proverb. For Israel to sin "as Jeroboam the son of Nebat," was a mark of consummate wickedness. 1 Kings 11:26-40; 1 Kings 12.- 1 Kings 14., etc.