1 Kings 12:25 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the beginning of Jeroboam’s reign. He built up Shechem first, then Penuel, strengthening and beautifying both places, and likely setting up a palace in each for himself (1 Kings 12:25). Shechem was in Ephraim, and Penuel was in Gad, east of the Jordan. That may have been a sensible political move, but he soon made a far worse plan, one that damaged religion in his kingdom.

Jeroboam wanted to keep the people loyal to him and stop them from returning to the house of David, Rehoboam’s royal line (1 Kings 12:26-27). He seems to have feared the people, worried that one day they might kill him and go back to Rehoboam. Many leaders who rise through unrest are later thrown down by the same kind of unrest. He could not trust the people’s love for him, because power gained by wrongdoing cannot be enjoyed with peace or security. Beneath all this was a practical unbelief in God’s care. He did not trust God’s promise that, if he stayed faithful, God would build him a secure dynasty (1 Kings 11:38).

The way he chose to protect his kingdom was to keep the people from going up to Jerusalem to worship. Jerusalem was the place God had chosen to put his name there. Solomon’s temple stood there, and God had publicly taken possession of it in a cloud of glory, in the memory of many who were still alive. The Lord’s priest served at the altar there, all Israel was to keep the feasts there, and there they were to bring their sacrifices.

Jeroboam feared that if the people kept going to Jerusalem, they would eventually return to the house of David, drawn by the splendor of both the royal court and the temple. If they kept their old religion, he thought, they would go back to their old king. He was not mainly afraid that they would be forced back by power, but that they would go back willingly. He likely could have arranged safe travel for himself and his people to Jerusalem at feast times, so his fear showed how weak his trust really was.

So he tried to turn them away from Jerusalem by appealing to their comfort: “It is too hard for you to go so far to worship God” (1 Kings 12:28). He treated the journey as a heavy burden that it was time to throw off. In effect, he told them they had gone to Jerusalem long enough, and that the temple no longer seemed as glorious or sacred as it once had. What looks impressive at first often loses its force in people’s minds over time. He also told them they should free themselves from one more burden, as if worship had become just another rule to escape.

Then he tried to support their worship at home. After consulting his advisers, he decided to set up two golden calves, meant as signs of God’s presence. He hoped the people would feel they could stay home and sacrifice before these calves instead of going to Jerusalem before the ark. Some have tried to excuse this by saying the calves may have represented the mercy seat and the cherubim over the ark, but it is more likely that Jeroboam borrowed from Egyptian idolatry. He had lived in Egypt for a time, and the Egyptians worshiped their god Apis in the form of a bull or calf.

He was also unwilling to spend what Solomon had spent on the temple, so two golden calves were the best he would provide. He no doubt meant them to stand for the true God, the God of Israel who brought them up out of Egypt, as he plainly said (1 Kings 12:28). So in his mind this did not break the first commandment, but only changed the second. He knew many people were fond of images, and he counted on that desire to draw them away from God’s temple, where images were forbidden.

He set up two calves so that people would slowly get used to the idea that God was not one, which would open the door to the many-god religion of the pagans. He placed one at Dan, on the far northern edge of his land, and the other at Beth-el, toward the south, as if they were protectors of the kingdom. Beth-el was near Judah, so it could tempt some of Rehoboam’s subjects over to Jeroboam, while Dan served those who lived far away. He may also have chosen Dan because Micah’s images had once been set up there, and people had long shown them great respect (Judges 18:30-31). Beth-el means “house of God,” which gave the scheme a false appearance of holiness, though the prophet called it Beth-aven, “house of vanity” or “house of wickedness.”

The people went along with him and were eager enough for the new thing. They went to worship before the one, even to Dan (1 Kings 12:30). They may have gone to Dan first because it was the first one set up, or because even though it was far away, they still chose it. Those who thought it too much trouble to go to Jerusalem and worship God as he commanded were willing to travel even farther to Dan to worship in their own way. Or the wording may mean they went to the calf at Dan because Abijah, king of Judah, later recovered Beth-el within twenty years (2 Chronicles 13:19), and likely removed the calf there or stopped its use. Either way, this became a sin, and a great one, because it went directly against the second commandment.

God had sometimes allowed worship in more than one place, but he never allowed his worship to be done through images. By this, the people were really defending their fathers’ sin in making the calf at Horeb, even though God had already shown his anger against that sin and warned that he would visit it in judgment (Exodus 32:34). They treated God’s wrath with contempt as well as his law. In this way, they added sin to sin. Bishop Patrick notes a Jewish saying: until Jeroboam’s time, Israel had only one calf to suck from, but after that they had two.

After setting up the gods, Jeroboam also provided buildings and arrangements for them. The source says he departed from God’s appointed order in certain ways, which suggests that in other respects he copied what was done in Judah as closely as he could (1 Kings 12:32). This shows how one wrong idea quickly multiplies into many. He made a house of high places, or a house of altars, one temple at Dan and another at Beth-el (1 Kings 12:31), and in each place many altars. He may have complained that Jerusalem’s temple had only one altar, as if that were an inconvenience. Some people have treated many altars as a sign of devotion, but God judged it differently through the prophet Hosea: “Ephraim has multiplied altars to sin” (Hosea 8:11).

He also made priests from the lowest class of people. In his eyes, they were good enough to serve his calf gods, and that was already too much honor. He chose them from all parts of the country and sent some to live among their neighbors, so they could teach people his new religious system and make it seem acceptable. In that way they were spread out like the Levites, but they were not from the sons of Levi.

The priests of the high places, that is, the altars, were ordered to stay in Bethel, just as the priests at Jerusalem stayed there for public worship (1 Kings 12:32). Jeroboam also moved the Feast of Tabernacles, which God had appointed for the fifteenth day of the seventh month, to the fifteenth day of the eighth month (1 Kings 12:32). He chose a month of his own making to show his control over religious matters (1 Kings 12:33). He may have kept Passover and Pentecost at their proper times, or may not have observed them at all, or only with much less ceremony than this new feast.

Since he had taken authority to appoint priests, it is no surprise that he also took over the priests’ work himself. He offered sacrifices on the altar. This is mentioned twice (1 Kings 12:32, 1 Kings 12:33), and it is also said that he burned incense. God overlooked this in Jeroboam because it fit with the rest of his disorder, but when King Uzziah did the same thing, God immediately punished him with leprosy.

Jeroboam did this himself to make himself look great in the eyes of the people and to seem like a devout man. He also wanted to add honor to the celebration of his new festival, and likely he joined it with the dedication of his altar. In doing all this, Jeroboam sinned himself, though he may have tried to excuse himself by saying he was not as bad as Solomon, who worshiped other gods. But he also led Israel into sin. He turned them away from the worship of God and passed idolatry on to their children. In this way, they were also punished for abandoning the throne of David’s house.

The learned Mr. Whiston, in his chronology, suggests something else as well. To line up the history of Judah and Israel, he thinks Jeroboam changed the calendar so that the year had only eleven months. On that system, the reigns of the kings of Israel were measured until Jehu’s revolution and no farther. If that is right, then during this period, eleven years in Judah’s records would match twelve years in Israel’s.