1 Kings 12:25

JEROBOAM ESTABLISHED HIS IDOLATROUS KINGDOM

"Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and he went out from thence and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now will the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he 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. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi. 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 went up unto 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 that he had made. And he went up unto the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up unto the altar to burn incense."

"Jeroboam built Shechem" (1 Kings 12:25) This was one of the two capitals that Jeroboam established for his kingdom. It was not only rich in the traditions and history of Israel, but it was a control point on the trade routes to the East. The other capital was Penuel, a "Trans-jordanic city on the bank of the Jabbok river."[14] It has been supposed that Jeroboam built this capital east of Jordan as a protection in case of an attack from Egypt.

However, Jeroboam was worried about the religious situation more than any thing else, and he decided to switch Israel to outright idolatry. Thus, Solomon lost the kingdom by idolatry, and Jeroboam sought to establish his on idolatry. It is a mark of Jeroboam's cleverness that he recognized the widespread tolerance already existing in Northern Israel, especially at Dan, where a syncretism with paganism had already existed ever since the time of the Judges.

This writer rejects as absolutely untenable the dictum of some scholars to the effect that the calves which Jeroboam made, "Were not intended as substitutes for the Lord but as traditional symbols of him."[15] There is absolutely nothing in all the Bible that supports any such notion. The comment that, "The bull images set up by Jeroboam were traditional symbols of Yahweh's strength,"[16] cannot possibly be correct.

"W. F. Albright has built an excellent case on archaeological grounds showing that bull images were not images of Jehovah, but pedestals upon which the invisible God of Israel stood,"[17] as Gates noted; but he added that, "Even that use of images was a throwback to the idolatry of the Canaanites; and it was not only specifically condemned by Moses, but also by the prophets Hosea (Hosea 8:5-6; 13:2-3) and Amos."[18] That Jeroboam himself recognized those bull images as mere idols instead of anything pertaining to Almighty God is proved by his use of the plural, "O Israel, these are the gods that brought you up out of Egypt." Some have even tried to render this place God instead of gods; but that is impossible because both here and in Exodus 32:4, both the verb and the noun are plural.[19]

"Jeroboam's bulls were pagan images after the pattern of the Egyptian idols Apis and Mnevis."[20] When Jeroboam offered sacrifices, he offered them "to the calves" not to God, "sacrificing unto the calves" (1 Kings 12:32). Christian commentators need to rethink their false conclusions about the permissibility of anything on the order of Jeroboam's pagan bull images. The excuse that Solomon had them in the Temple is not applicable, because that was also a sin against God even when Solomon did it. It was idolatry, for which he lost his kingdom. Another excuse is that those bull calves had wings resembling the cherubim over the Mercy Seat, but we cannot find any authority that identifies Jeroboam's bulls as having wings; and, even if they did have wings, they were still pagan bull images, condemned in the Decalogue, by all the prophets, and denominated in this very passage as "sin." Hosea wrote that, "Israel became a trafficker (a Canaanite)" (Hosea 12:7); and right here is where it started with Jeroboam's reintroduction into Canaan of the very paganism for which God had replaced the inhabitants with Israel. Of course, Jeroboam knew exactly what he was doing!

"Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:29). Here Jeroboam quoted verbatim, the words of Aaron following his making the golden calf at Sinai (Exodus 32:4,8). In both instances of this idolatry, the word "gods" forbids any notion that either Aaron or Jeroboam was thinking of Jehovah. God struck three thousand Israelites with death for that lapse into idolatry, and it is impossible to suppose that God was pleased with it here.

To paraphrase what seems to be a conviction among many of the present-day scholars, here is what they say:

Jeroboam was not turning Israel to Idolatry, he was merely saying, "Look, these calves are the gods that brought you up out of Egypt, just as Aaron said in the wilderness." This is no new religion, at all, we are merely returning to some old symbols that our people used long before David and Jerusalem!

We do not accept that viewpoint at all. We appreciate the opinion of Hammond who said that, "Jeroboam could not have claimed to be reintroducing calf-worship, unless he had designed an open defiance of the Most High."[21]

Hammond's argument was that Jeroboam could not possibly have done anything like that, but this writer believes that, HE DID EXACTLY THAT; INTRODUCING INTO CANAAN THE VERY SAME PAGANISM THAT WAS THERE WHEN GOD THREW OUT THE OLD CANAANITES AND REPLACED THEM WITH ISRAEL.

"And Jeroboam made priests from among all the people" (1 Kings 12:31). All the people, that is, except Levites. The law of God specifically limited many religious activities to the Levites alone, and here Jeroboam violated that law with impunity. What we cannot understand is why some commentators feel that Jeroboam could not also have reintroduced the pagan idolatrous calf-worship. Any man who could have done either of these sinful things Could have done both, exactly as did Jeroboam! This passage shows that Jeroboam himself even officiated as a priest.

"And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month" (1 Kings 12:32). The feast of Tabernacles was held in the seventh month; and Jeroboam designed this one to compete with the true Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:24ff). It would be difficult indeed to find another example of an Israelite who had any less regard either for God or for his word than did Jeroboam.