King Solomon was known for being the wisest and wealthiest king out of all the kings of Israel. This wealth came at a price however. He enslaved his people, requiring them to spend 1/3 of each year in forced labour camps to help construct his megaprojects. Solomon raised a labour force of 180,000 men for hard labour. Cutting down and sawing trees, quarrying out massive stones and moving all these to the desired location. These were required to slave away for four months every year for Solomon, while the other eight months they would be permitted to catch up on farming. The foreign peoples whom Israel had subjugated were even less lucky and did not get any break from their work for any months of the year. Even in the months Israel rested from forced labour there was never any escape from the oppressive taxation throughout the kingdom. It is no surprise the people wanted an escape from this heavy burden. But none would dare challenge the wise king Solomon. Solomon’s authority was undisputed. Any challenger would have been first humiliated in verbal confrontation by his wit before being subsequently destroyed. So Israel waited patiently, enduring the hard labour while also enjoying the land’s prosperity as Israel was in its golden age under Solomon.
Solomon’s son Rehoboam was nowhere near as clever as his father. Rehoboam inherited dictatorial nature of Solomon, yet without the governing wisdom that made it tolerable. After Solomon retired and crowned Rehoboam king, the people realized the time was right to organize themselves and demand relief from the forced labour and heavy taxation. Rehoboam first asked advice from his father Solomon’s councillors. These advised that if the king would speak gently and show sympathy with the people’s concerns that they would serve him forever. Still uncertain the king next asked his young friends their advice. They suggested he take a dominant approach to look strong in front of the people. Rehoboam gave an arrogant speech telling the people he would be ten times worse than Solomon and increase their already heavy burdens. This was the chance Jeroboam had been waiting for. He spoke assertively on behalf of the people, that they would no longer serve the king, he was on his own. The king did not seem to get the message and sent a tax collector to the region. This tax collector did not make it out alive. The rebellion had begun and Solomon’s son only ruled over one tribe now while Jeroboam took ten tribes under him.
1 Kings 12:26-30
And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jerusalem temple was under control of Rehoboam, Jeroboam’s rival. As the Israelites would travel to Jerusalem, their offerings at the temple felt like a tribute to a foreign power, tribute to Rehoboam. Now instead of making the long journey to Jerusalem, worshippers could conveniently sacrifice to one of the two calf idols in their own country. When making the southern journey the temptation would have felt too great for some of them while passing by the calf to stop early and just sacrifice to it rather than continuing on the much longer route to the proper location, the temple of YHWH in Jerusalem.
Subsequent kings are often spoken of as having not departed from the sins of Jeroboam.
2 Kings 10:25-31
And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal. And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.
However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jehu put in a major effort to eliminate Baal worship from Israel, killing all their priests and demolishing their temple. Despite all of this good, he is still given only a mixed review by God with the mention that he did not follow God with his whole heart and did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Jehu did not destroy the two calf idols at the northmost and southmost points of Israel. Like Jehu we can be full of boldness in serving God in some areas of life, while downplaying out pet sins in other areas.
2 Kings 15:8-10
Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. Then Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck and killed him in front of the people; and he reigned in his place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Besides earlier kings, Zechariah and the next four kings in chapter 15 are also mentioned as having “not departed from the sins of Jeroboam.”
1 Kings 17:21-23
Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day.
The “sins” being the two golden calves he built at Dan and Bethel, the northmost and southmost cities in Israel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Golden Calf
Jeroboam’s golden calves hearkens back to the original golden calf in the book of Exodus. The Israelites had escaped from Egypt and were surviving by faith in the wilderness, depending on miraculous provision for even the basic necessities such as food and water. Moses had to leave the group and consult with God alone on the mountaintop for 80 days. With their leader gone the people began to panic. Trusting an invisible God required faith and with his prophet Moses also gone without a set time of return the people began to panic. They wanted a visible sign of strength that they could look upon and trust in. An Ox was a sign of strength and prosperity. A powerful beast which helped plow fields ensuring food year round. The horns represented power against enemies and the gold made the object look divine. Instead of trusting God to provide manna day by day, the calf signified accumulation of produce from the plowed field so faith would not be required. By creating a golden calf the people now had something tangible to look upon to feel powerful and protected, even though deep inside they knew it was a lifeless lie.
Even today there is a bronze bull at Wall Street in America. The bull naturally appears at the center of finance; an image of human hopes for prosperity. When the stock market rises it is called a “bull market.” Anytime we hoard wealth to avoid living by faith we build the golden bull in our hearts, needing to look upon the tangible accumulation of our gold and feel safe because we do not really believe God will actually come through. We believe God for salvation of our souls but have not made him God of all our life and thus cannot give God the faith he deserves. When Aaron hoarded the gold given to him, he told Moses the pile of gold turned itself into a calf on its own. It may seem Aaron was telling a lie but the truth is that wealth automatically becomes an idol when it is hoarded and not used to give life. When we create a pile of gold, it will turn itself into a calf of idolatry even without our intention.
Exodus 32:1-5, “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.””
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interestingly Aaron says “THESE are your gods” even though there is only a single calf. He also says “Tomorrow shall be a feast to YHWH.” Aaron added the calf as an additional god alongside YHWH and proclaimed a feast to YHWH. He somehow convinced himself that the calf idol was not a competitor to God but more of a footstool of or representation of God. When we want something badly enough we can convince ourselves to participate in any lie. Aaron was too cowardly to resist the people and have them accept they must worship an invisible God. Faith however, requires that we believe the unseen. If we wait for something to be visible it will usually be too late. At Christ’s second coming it will be too late to repent once he returns to the earth in fire. The time to make peace with the invisible God is now. Let us not be stubborn like the Israelites in the wilderness who needed to be reminded again and again to believe, despite seeing miraculous provision daily.
The sins of Jeroboam is to only serve God if it is in a convenient manner which does not require faith or extra effort. Rather than go all the way to worship God properly, we stop short at one of the calves and drop our offering there. Jeroboam created the golden calves out of fear that the people would otherwise rebel. Aaron did the same with his golden calf, fearing the opinions of the masses. The golden calf is a warning of what happens when we lack faith to serve the invisible God and when we stop short, requiring something that is visible and convenient.