I Kings 12:25-33
Courtesy of: http://flickr.com/photos/thefuturistics/
In I Kings, king Jeroboam did an abominable thing:
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
Jeroboam’s pride led him to pursue idolatry. He had broken the law, “To have no other god.” He even went as far as to set up alternate worship centers in the land. Because of this, he cast a long lineage of sin amongst the northern kings. As a result, his punishment was that his entire line was cut off from kingship.
In modern times, we tend to find alternate replacements for God in our lives. It could be money, power, position, material wealth, or social standing. Although not evil in and of themselves, these things can sometimes replace God in our lives. That’s when it becomes dangerous, and that’s when it becomes sin.
So now we can choose, to go down the path of Jeroboam and stay out of God’s favour, or to have no other God before Him.
