Jeroboam Misuses Religion

MEMORY TEXT: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” —Galatians 6:7

I KINGS 12:25-33; 13:33,34

WE CAN think of two outstanding sins on the part of Jeroboam in connection with his setting up false places and systems of worship. First his motive was wrong, and then he departed from the true worship which God had outlined for his people. To have the wrong motive in the use of God’s true religion would be very displeasing to him, but in addition to this Jeroboam instituted his own form of worship.

God’s arrangement for his typical people was that once a year they should go up to Jerusalem to worship. Jeroboam sensed that while the people who had made him king had renounced the house of David and of Judah, this religious tie might well draw them away from him and back to Rehoboam, so he set out to establish new places of worship, which were Bethel and Dan. He probably reasoned that he could in this way satisfy their religious yearnings, and at the same time keep them away from Jerusalem, and the people of Judah. Thus, Jeroboam hoped the Israelites would remain loyal to him.

One of Israel’s great sins throughout all the period during which God dealt with this people was their lack of faith in him and in his arrangements. Consider Jeroboam: Apparently he had little or no faith in the God of Israel; otherwise how could he connive and scheme against him? How could he take a course which implied that so far as he was concerned Israel’s God of righteousness and power did not even exist!

This is an important lesson for us to keep in mind. If we have a true and living faith in the God of the Bible, and believe in his wisdom, justice, love, and power, we will realize that he is able to read our every thought; hence the importance of keeping our hearts pure before him. None of us today are in positions of rulership over the Lord’s people, but most of us are associated with some of them, and let us be careful lest for any reason at all we make plans which may injure them along any line, especially in spiritual things, even if there should be some possible advantage to us.

Following the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were frequently reminded of the great display manifested by their God in connection with this outstanding deliverance. It helped to remind them that they were God’s people, and of the great love of their God in caring for them. Jeroboam, in connection with his plan to draw the people away from their true God, made two calves of gold, and said, “Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (I Kings 12:28) Probably many of them were deceived by this ruse, while a few would know that those calves of gold were dead, and had no power to benefit them in any way.

And in this connection faith again enters in. “Faith,” Paul wrote, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) In II Cor. 4:18 Paul again wrote about the ability of the Christian to look upon the things which are not seen. Only the few throughout all the ages have had sufficient faith to look upon and to be inspired by the things which are unseen.

This explains why so many props to faith have been invented—idols, images, sacred cows, etc. The Israelites could see the calves of gold; they could not see their true God. While God did provide Israel with a tabernacle and certain typical services to observe, even these became corrupted, and the majority thought that burnt offerings were the real thing, rather than what they represented.

Our memory verse is suitable to Jeroboam’s experience. He “sowed to the flesh” in the sense that the religious arrangements which he made for his subjects were designed to keep him in power, rather than to serve and glorify God. This was selfishness in the extreme, and this course was the undoing of both himself and the whole house of Israel in due time.

The important lesson to us is that we do not follow a selfish course in our professions of service to God. He knows our hearts, and any hypocrisy which might be there will react to our own injury in due time. Let us “sow to the spirit,” and reap everlasting life.

QUESTIONS

What were two of the wrong things of religious worship that Jeroboam instituted for his subjects?

How did he hope to keep his people from returning to the house of David?

How important is faith in our service to God?

What does it mean to “sow to the flesh”?

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