Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this first Monday of May.
Have you ever watched a person make a very bad decision, and then fairly quickly follow it with several more bad decisions, and soon that person found themself in a terrible mess? The dead end dark alley at the end of those several bad decisions are places like prison or addictions or divorce or even suicide!
Yesterday we watched a good man, a man who had a powerful encounter with God, make a very bad decision. His name was Jeroboam and he was a leader in Israel during the best of times, the reign of King Solomon. (1 Kings 11:28) The encounter with God was life changing with unlimited potential. (1 Kings 11:29-29-31, 37,38)
But Jeroboam made a terrible leadership decision which nullified all the potential God had laid before him when Jeroboam chose to pursue his own path to glory by actually turning the people of Israel away from going to Jerusalem to worship God and rather going to Bethel and Dan to worship golden calf idols Jeroboam had fabricated. Jeroboam had even declared these golden idols to be the gods who had delivered the Hebrew slaves from Egypt! (1 Kings 12:26-30) I know of nothing Jeroboam could have done which would have blasphemed God more and aroused the anger of God more!
Bethel was an ancient Israelite city about 10 miles north of Jerusalem. It was here Jacob had two encounters with God which confirmed that God’s Abrahamic Covenant of Land and People would be continued through Jacob, (Gen. 28:10-19) and also here that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel! (Gen. 35:9-15) Even though those two events had happened about 1100 years BEFORE Jeroboam made his terrible decision, fabricated two golden calves and put one of them in Bethel, this town had been revered by the Israelites, during all those centuries, as a sacred place in their unique heritage as a people of God. Can you see why it was so despicable that Jeroboam would choose Bethel to build an altar to a gold calf and call it god!?
Dan was one of the northernmost cities in Israel, very near the border with Lebanon. The historic remains of this city still stand today. I took this picture of the entrance to that city, when I last visited it, in September ’23.
In that city is clear evidence of this large altar area where Jeroboam placed the golden calf idol he had fabricated. Three times in my life I’ve had the opportunity to visit this place. I must admit it’s repulsive to me, almost making me physically sick when I go there. To understand that a man, who’d had an encounter with the living God, turned away from God and fabricated a golden calf idol, calling it God and demanded that Jews in that region abandon Jerusalem and its great Temple, coming instead to this place and offer sacrifices, giving their worship to a man made idol!! Here’s a picture I took during my last visit there a few months ago.
Now friends, as terrible as it was that Jeroboam rejected God and built these places of idol worship in Israel, the record of 1 Kings 12:31-33 tell us Jeroboam also appointed new priests and declared new special holy days of worship for the Israelites at these decadent idol altars! But God was NOT silent and His response is graphic, powerful and a great warning for ANY leader who turns God’s people away from God and to idol worship.
1 Kings 13:1-5 describes a shocking event in which a ‘man of God’ came to this idol altar in Bethel at the time Jeroboam was there. Courageously he stood by the altar and shouted so Jeroboam could hear him: “Altar, altar! This is what the LORD God says: A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you!’ That same day the man of God gave a sign: ‘This is the sign the LORD has declared: This altar will split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.” It should not be difficult for us to imagine the shock on everyone’s face as they hear this judgement proclamation. Of course everyone turned to look at Jeroboam to see what he would do!
The record tells us clearly, are you ready? “When Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and shouted: ‘Seize him!’ But the hand Jeroboam stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back! Also, the altar suddenly split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God according to the word of the LORD.” (1 Kings 13:4,5)
Everyone stood frozen, almost breathless. What had they just witnessed? God had spoken and judgement had been poured out immediately! These were Israelites and they knew the history of their ancestors. They knew God had once opened the ground and swallowed Korah and all his family and belongings alive because he led a rebellion against God. (Numbers 16:31-34) At other times God had sent plagues such as snakes (Numbers 21:4-9) or even fire (Numbers 16:35) or other sudden death causing plagues. (Numbers 16:48,49) Jeroboam and all Israel knew it was a dreadful, fearful thing to mock Holy, Almighty God.
Let’s pause right here. Have you and I learned the heavy price of mocking God with your life or turning other people away from God? As we look around the world, do we see nations paying the heavy price of leaders who are mocking God in various ways? Remember what Jesus said about how He views those who turn children away from God? (Matt. 18:1-7)
Tomorrow we’ll look to see what happened next to Jeroboam and if that prediction of Josiah ever came true. For today, here’s a very powerful song, a famous song, of deep reflection on the amazing mercy and love of God, even in the lives of people like Jeroboam! Perhaps you’ll find yourself singing along as I did, maybe with arms uplifted in praise to God!
Today’s Scripture: 1 Kings 12:31-13:5.
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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