Translate

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Jeroboam Made Two Golden Calves At Dan And Bethel





1 Kings 12:1-33 NIV







Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam






1Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4“Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”


5Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.


6Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.


7They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”


8But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”


10The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.11My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ”


12Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,14he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 15So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from The Lord, to fulfill The Word The Lord Had Spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.


16When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:


“What share do we have in David,
what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
Look after your own house, David!”


So the Israelites went home. 17But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.


18King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.


20When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.


21When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.


22But this WORD of GOD Came to Shemaiah the man of GOD: 23“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 



24‘This Is What The LORD Says:


Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the 

Israelites. Go home, every one of you, For This Is MY 


Doing.’ ”



So they obeyed The WORD of The LORD and went home again, As The LORD Had Ordered.







Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan





25Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.


26Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27If 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.”


28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, 

“It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 






29One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 

30And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.






31Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. 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. 33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.








Jeroboam’s Golden Calves




Influenced by the words of the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings 11:29-39), Jeroboam began to form conspiracies with the view of becoming king of the ten tribes; but these were discovered, and he fled to Egypt, where he remained under the protection of pharaoh Shishak until the death of Solomon.

On the death of Solomon, Rehoboam assumed the throne. However, the ten northern tribes revolted against his rule and invited Jeroboam to become their king. The conduct of Rehoboam made the ten tribes favor the designs of Jeroboam, and he was accordingly proclaimed "king of the northern Israel.”

He rebuilt and fortified Shechem as the capital of his kingdom. He at once adopted means to perpetuate the division with the southern Kingdom of Judah. He erected at Dan and Bethel, the two extremities of his kingdom, "golden calves," which he set up as symbols of GOD, enjoining the people not any more to go up to worship at Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, but to bring their offerings to the shrines he had erected. Thus he became distinguished as the man "who made Israel to sin." This policy was followed by all the succeeding kings of Israel.

According to 1 Kings 13:1-6, while Jeroboam was engaged in offering incense at Bethel, a "man of GOD" warned him that "a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David" who would destroy the altar (referring to King Josiah of Judah who would rule approximately three hundred years later).

Attempting to arrest the prophet for his bold words of defiance, Jeroboam's hand was "dried up," and the altar before which he stood was rent asunder. At his urgent entreaty his "hand was restored him again" (1 Kings 13:1-6, compare 2 Kings 23:13-16); but the miracle made no abiding impression on him. This "man of GOD" who warned Jeroboam has been equated with a seer named Iddo.





No comments:

Post a Comment