Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel
First Kings 12: 25-33
Golden calves at Dan and Bethel DIG: What human tendency did Jeroboam take advantage of as he started his new religion. When in your lifetime have you seen these tendencies in action? What various commands of God did Jeroboam change when he set up his new religion?
REFLECT: What is wrong with selecting elements from different belief systems that seem like they work well for people in their lives? What is wrong with thinking that all religions lead to God? How do you know that the belief in Yeshua is the only path to salvation?
Sin always costs you more than you want to pay, and takes you further than you want to go.
King Jeroboam I was a doer, not a philosopher; he was a man who first caught Solomon’s attention because he was busy, efficient, dependable, and productive (First Kings 11:26-28). He was the ideal popular leader who knew how to fight the people’s battles and champion their causes. But ask him about his personal faith in ADONAI and his answers might get a little foggy. He had lived in Egypt (First Kings 11:40) long enough to develop a tolerance toward idolatry as well as an understanding of how religion can be used to control people. In that regard, Jeroboam was in kahoots with Nebuchadnezzar (Dani’el 3), Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:19-25), and the Antichrist (Revelation 13 and 17), and today’s latest demagogue. But Jeroboam made three serious mistakes during his twenty-two-year reign.
He didn’t believe in God’s promises: Success in life depends on doing God’s will and trusting in God’s promises, but Jeroboam failed in both. When Ahijah gave Jeroboam God’s message that guaranteed him the throne of the kingdom of Isra’el (First Kings 11:28-39), the prophet made it clear that political division did not permit religious departure. ADONAI would have given Jeroboam the entire kingdom except that He had made an everlasting covenant with David to keep one of his descendants on the throne (see the commentary on the Life of David, to see link click Ct – The LORD’s Covenant with David). This protected the Messianic line so that the Savior would come into the world. YHVH tore the ten tribes away from Rehoboam because he had followed Solomon’s bad example and turned the people to idols. This should have been a warning to Jeroboam to be faithful to Ha’Shem and stay away from false gods. God also promised to build Jeroboam a continual dynasty if he would just obey ADONAI and walk in His ways. What a promise! Yet, Jeroboam didn’t believe it.333
Fear: One of the first pieces of evidence of unbelief is fear. Jeroboam’s fear was that Rehoboam would attack him. So, Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel on the east side of the Jordan River, and thus, much more defensible from an invasion by Judah (First Kings 12:25 NIV). Instead of trusting in God to be his shield and defender, Jeroboam trusted in his own defenses and strategy. Another fear of Jeroboam was that his own people would desert him and go back to Jerusalem to worship. Therefore, he thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to 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 their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam” (First Kings 12:26-27 NIV). All his human reasoning showed a lack of faith from what God promised Jeroboam He would do.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise and thank You for Your steadfast love and your abiding presence in those who love You. Yeshua answered and said to him: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (John 14:23). It is such a comfort to know You are Almighty and All- Powerful, even when there are wars and world tensions and things seem to be falling apart. ADONAI, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand and no one can stand against You (2 Chronicles 20:6).
When I keep my heart and eyes focused on You, I can have peace in my heart. I do not have to fear – no matter how awful the situation is, for You are with me to strengthen, help and to uphold me. Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. . . I will help you. It is a declaration of ADONAI, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Isra’el (Isaiah 41:10, 14b-c). It is a great comfort to know that You, my Holy Helper, rules over all nations, and has paid the promised to redeem me. I pray in the Name of the One sitting at Your right hand. Amen
Substitutes: The easiest solution for Jeroboam was to establish worship centers in Isra’el. But what authority did he have to devise a rival religion when the Jews had received their form of worship from the very hand of God? He certainly couldn’t build a temple to compete with Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, or write another Torah that matched what Moses had received from YHVH, or set up a sacrificial system that would guarantee the covering of sins. He was no Moses, and he certainly couldn’t claim to be God! What Jeroboam actually did was to take advantage of the tendency of the Jewish people to turn to idols, and the desire of most people for a religion that is convenient, not too costly, and close enough to the authorized faith to be comfortable for the conscience. Therefore, Jeroboam made four drastic changes in the true worship of ADOANI.
First, he changed the object of worship from ADONAI to two golden calves. He didn’t tell the people to forget YHVH, but to worship Him in the form of golden calves. Jeroboam’s own words indicate Aaron’s golden calf was exactly what he had in mind (Exodus 32:4). Worshiping the golden calves couldn’t have been more convenient: He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Isra’el, who brought you up out of Egypt.” And the people were more than willing to believe him. If the Canaanites and the Egyptians could worship calves, so could the Hebrews!
Secondly, he changed the place of worship from Jerusalem to Dan and Bethel. One he set up on the furthest southern border of his kingdom at Bethel, just a short distance from Jerusalem, and the other at Dan, on the furthest northern border. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other (First Kings 12:28-30 NIV). He forgot (or chose to ignore) the teachings of the Torah, “I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. You are to have no other gods before Me. You are not to make for yourselves a carved image of any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline. You are not to bow down to them or serve them, for I, ADONAI, am a zealous God (Exodus 20:1-5a). But Ha’Shem didn’t forget!
Thirdly, a religion needs ministers or priests, so Jeroboam built shrines on high places and he changed the priests of worship from Levities to all sorts of people. The only requirement was that each candidate bring with him a young bull and seven rams (Second Chronicles 13:9). God made it clear when He gave Moshe the Torah that only the sons of Aaron could serve as priests (see the commentary on Exodus Fv – The Selection of Aaron and His Sons as Priests) and if anyone from another tribe tried to serve, he would be put to death (Numbers 3:5-10). Even the Levites, who were from the tribe of Levi, were not allowed to serve at that golden altar in the Holy Place on penalty of death (Numbers 3:38). Unauthorized priests and unauthorized temples could never have access to ADONAI or present sacrifices acceptable to God. It was a man-made religion that pleased the people, protected the king, and unified the nation – except for the faithful Levites who abandoned the northern kingdom and moved to Judah to worship God according to the teachings of Torah (Second Chronicles 11:13-17).334
And fourthly, he changed a true God-given festival for a counterfeit festival. YHVH required the Jews to celebrate seven divinely appointed feasts each year (see the commentary on Leviticus Dw – God’s Appointed Times), so Jeroboam instituted a counterfeit festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, to take the place of the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar of his own temple. 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 to the calf that he had made on the altar he had built at Bethel. So, he instituted the counterfeit festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings (First Kings 12:31-33 NIV). Completing his religious innovations, Jeroboam instituted an brand-new annual feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, no doubt rivaling the feast of Booths in the seventh month in Jerusalem. The institutionalization of a counterfeit religion was then complete. A syncretistic mix of Judaism and Baalism was in place. Northerners had to make a special effort just to worship YHVH. Just as there were then two nations, two capitals, two governments, and two kings, there were also two religions.335
Apostasy: Today we live an age when “manufactured religion” is popular, approved, and accepted. The biblical leaders of the blind assert that we live in a “pluralistic society” and that nobody has the right to claim that only revelation is true and only one way of salvation is correct. Self-appointed “prophets” and ministers put together their own theology and pass it off as truth. They aren’t the least bit interested in what the Bible has to say; instead, they substitute their fabricated stories (Second Peter 2:3) for God’s unchanging and inspired Word, and many gullible people fall for their lies only to bring on themselves swift destruction (Second Peter 2:1-2). Jeroboam’s “religion” incorporated elements of the Torah and from pagan nations that the Jews had already conquered. His system was what today is called “eclectic” (selective) or “syncretic” (combining many parts), but God called it heresy and apostasy. When Isaiah confronted the new religion of his day, he cried out: To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20).
Because Jeroboam didn’t believe God’s promise given by the prophet Ahijah, he began to walk in unbelief and to lead the people into false religion. The religion he invented was comfortable, convenient, and not costly, but it wasn’t authorized by the LORD. It was contrary to the revealed will of God in Scripture, and it had as its purpose the unification of his kingdom, not the salvation of the people and the glory of God. It was man-made religion, and God totally rejected it. Centuries later, Yeshua told the woman of Samaria (the former kingdom of Isra’el), You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we know, because salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22). When He made that statement, He instantly wiped out every other religion and affirmed that the only way of salvation is from the Jews. Yeshua was a Jew, and the faith of all believers spring from father Abraham (see the commentary on Genesis Ef – Abram Believed the LORD and He Credited It to Him as Righteousness). Our modern “pluralistic society” notwithstanding, Peter was right when he declared: There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved (Acts 4:12)!336
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