God promised Jeroboam, leader of the northern kingdom, that if he followed the LORD he would make him as great as David. You would think that would have enticed Jeroboam if only for selfish purposes. But it didn’t happen that way.
Jeroboam took the reigns of leadership of the 10 northern tribes of Israel and then left the Lord. He made substitutes of everything. That meant a substitute temple, substitute priests, substitute sacrifices, substitute festivals and even substitute gods – golden calves and goat-demons (1 Kings 12). It had all the look and feel of the original, but it wasn’t what God commanded.
Worse yet is that he drove out righteousness:
“The priests and Levites from all their regions through Israel took their stand with Rehoboam, for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of Yahweh. Jeroboam appoint his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made. Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek Yahweh their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors” (2 Chr 11:13-16).
What Jeroboam had the appearance of righteousness without the substance. It had the look of God’s ways but it was off from what God had commanded.
Is this not what is happening today? Marriage being redefined because ‘love is love’? A “genderless” society for the sake of ‘inclusion’? Anything and everything goes except that which is righteous must be driven out for “intolerance”?
The sins of Jeroboam are exploding today. Jan 6, 2021.
In ancient Judah as righteousness and wickedness became more pronounced, the people had to make hard choices and cast their allegiance. The priests and Levites sided with Rehoboam who while he was a foolish king, vowing to show his strength greater than his father Solomon and spurning the wisdom of the elders, still had a semblance of faith. For a few years anyway.
It was a difficult hour.
This is a difficult hour.
What happens next with Rehoboam should give us a little hope. And a lot of warning.
