Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Leadership transition is a very serious and delicate time for any organization or even nation, isn’t it? America is in the early stages of another presidential election cycle and soon the world will again watch as Americans vote, the voting process is tabulated, and the election results are enacted which will likely include some changes of many people in leadership. I’ve spent the last several days in another nation which has recently gone through leadership election and transition and that’s Israel.
Yesterday we began looking at one of the most significant, strategic and dreadful leadership changes in the history of this great and Biblical nation of Israel. It was the end of the glorious era of the reigns of kings David and his son Solomon. Yesterday we witnessed a shocking conversation between a prophet named Abijah and one of Solomon’s most trusted and able leaders, Jeroboam. Today let’s look closely at what happened for it is one of the most significant events in Israel’s long leadership history and may have some important lessons for us today.
1 Kings 11 concludes with the brief account of king Solomon’s death. He had many sons, but the one selected to succeed King Solomon was Rehoboam. Rehoboam had of course grown up watching the rise of Jerusalem to be one of the great cities of the world at that time, and his father Solomon one of the most respected leaders in the world. But Rehoboam disregarded the leadership advice given to him by his father Solomon’s advisors, and instead gathered around him new young voices who saw a radically different potential future for Israel.
That leadership transition decision proved to shape the downfall of king Rehoboam for near civil war broke out in Israel and Jeroboam quickly rose to power as an alternative leader for the people. Remember Jeroboam was well known as one of King Solomon’s trusted leaders, and perhaps it was presumed he would likely lead the nation in following the same path Solomon had charted.
The entire north of the nation of Israel, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel, rose up against Solomon’s son Rehoboam and rejected his prideful leadership, calling for Jeroboam to be their leader, and the great nation of Israel split into two nations. The ‘northern kingdom’ of 10 tribes, was led by Jeroboam and declared Samaria as its new capital.
The other two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, remained faithful to king Solomon’s son Rehoboam and retained Jerusalem as their capital. God sent another prophet to Solomon’s unwise son Rehoboam, declaring to him that they should NOT go to war against their fellow Israelites, but allow the division of the kingdom, for this was God’s doing in response to Solomon’s leadership failure near the end of his life.
1 Kings 12&13 continue the narrative following the story of new king Jeroboam and the leadership transition decisions he made which changed the course of Israel. Knowing how significant the great Temple in Jerusalem was to all Jews, and how significant their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Passover and other great festivals were in defining Israel as a nation united by their worship of Almighty God,
Jeroboam decided to establish an alternative for this annual Passover event by identifying the city of Dan and another city Bethel as alternative places the people of the northern kingdom could go to worship. The record describes for us Jeroboam’s reasoning: “Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘the kingdom will now likely revert to be united again as the house of David, if these people go up to offer sacrifices at the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. They will again give their allegiance to king Rehoboam…” (1 Kings 12:26,27) Leadership from a position of jealousy or fear is bad leadership isn’t it my friends? Leadership disregarding God or turning people away from God is also very bad and dangerous leadership, isn’t it?
So, Jeroboam not only identified two alternative PLACES for the people of his northern kingdom to go and worship at their annual festivals, Jeroboam did something even worse. The record says: “After seeking advice, king Jeroboam 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 golden calf idol King Jeroboam set up in Bethel, the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship these calves at Bethel and Dan.” (1 Kings 12:28-30) From the days of Egyptian slavery, God had made it very clear to the Hebrews that one of their distinctives, as God’s chosen people, would be that they would worship ONLY the one, true, living, Creator, Almighty God and that they would never fabricate any image or statue to which they would bow down and worship or call it their god.
Idolatry was the ultimate rejection of God, the ultimate defilement of His holiness, the ultimate blasphemes of His majesty. Do you see the terrible leadership decisions Jeroboam made and how he was positioning himself, and his new leadership administration, in full opposition to Almighty God, the God of the Hebrews?! There is nothing Jeroboam could have done to more definitively seal his fate or his horrible fame in history!
As I walked through the huge entrance gate to the ancient city of Dan, passing the raised platform area where the city leaders would have sat to govern their city, I was struck by the shocking fact that the one major archeological restoration they have attempted in their layout of this ancient city, is the restoration of the altar of the golden calf Jeroboam had placed in this city Dan.
I stood there amazed. 1000 years from now, if historians want to raise up something which tells the story of your city, my friends, I wonder what that would be? What will your city be famous for generations from now? While I have no doubt some wonderful things happened in the great ancient city of Dan over the centuries, from today’s perspective, there is only one major historical event which defines this great city… idolatry!
The intentional construction of a place of worship and golden calf idols declared to be the gods of the people. Oh my, what a terrible legacy this city has been given. I imagine for generations when people from Dan were first meeting new friends and they discussed where they were from, it was with great shame those people had to admit they lived in Dan, the city of king Jeroboam imposed idol worship!
1 Kings 13 has a very powerful conclusion to this story as another man of God came to Dan and proclaimed verbally God’s judgment on this altar and the idol worship taking place there. Some miraculous things happened as recorded in that chapter, and then more than 250 years later in 1 Kings 23:15 we can find the account of God’s fulfillment of His judgement prophecy made about the Dan altar when King Josiah was bringing spiritual revival to the land of Israel. So, my friends, as we close today, I’m urging us to consider the strategicness of our time, not only America but so many places in the world where leadership elections are taking place and leadership legacies are being shaped.
I urge you to listen to the dramatic audio Bible reading of 1 Kings 11,12,13 and invite the Holy Spirit of God to speak to you with wisdom regarding the strategicness of leadership in our day and God’s evaluation of it.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Kings 12,13.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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