1 Kings chapter 12 and verse
25, and we're going to be speaking about a man called Jeroboam. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in
Mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein, and went out from thence, and
built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, If this
people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem,
then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their
Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill
me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king
took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them,
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin,
for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high
places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were
not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the
feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did
he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had
made. So he offered upon the altar
which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month,
even in the month which he had devised of his own heart and
ordained a feast unto the children of Israel. And he offered upon
the altar and burnt incense. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We've mentioned Jeroboam before. And let me just give you a quick
overview. We've been studying for some
weeks and months now the kingdom that David formed, that Solomon
then took over as David's son. And we learned that when Solomon
died, his son Rehoboam became king over the Israelites. land of Israel or at least he
wanted to be king over the whole land, to take over the whole
kingdom that Solomon had ruled over. But we learned last week
that Jeroboam led a rebellion against Rehoboam. So here are
two men with two very similar names. And one retains the kingship
of Judah, that's Rehoboam. And the other rebels against
him and becomes the king of the 10 tribes of Israel. So that's
Jeroboam. So that is the two individuals
that we've been thinking about in recent weeks. Rehoboam, king
of Judah, and Jeroboam, now king of Israel, or the 10 tribes,
with the exception of Judah and some of Benjamin. So as I say,
we've mentioned this Jeroboam before. As a young man, Jeroboam
had caught the eye of Solomon when he was still alive. And
Solomon had given Jeroboam a really good job. He had elevated him
to a position of importance in the 10 tribes. But the trust
that Solomon had placed in Jeroboam was not repaid. And the young
man used his position to plot against Solomon. Solomon discovered,
we don't know entirely how, but he discovered that this man was
speaking against him and he learned of the betrayal. And so Jeroboam
had to flee to Egypt. He was married there and he made
a life there for a while. As he was going, God's prophet
met him. And God's prophet tore his cloak
into 12 pieces and gave Jeroboam 10 of the parts, indicating to
him that God planned to divide Solomon's kingdom upon his death
and give Jeroboam 10 of the tribes, that Jeroboam
would one day be ruler over the northern tribes, the 10 northern
tribes, and that Rehoboam would retain influence and rule over
Judah. And when Solomon died, that's
what happened. Rehoboam, his son, expecting
to be crowned king over all the people, discovered rather that
Israel refused to be ruled by him. Indeed, they refused to
be intimidated by him because he threatened to rule them harshly. And they looked for another leader.
That other leader was Jeroboam and he returned from Egypt to
lead the rebellion of the ten tribes and become the first king
of Israel. Now we speak about Saul as the
first king of Israel but that was over the whole nation. This
is Jeroboam, I hope I'm not going to get mixed up with that. these
two similar names too much today, but this is Jeroboam who is now
the first king of the northern tribes, or the ten tribes. And he reigned for 22 years,
so it was quite a long reign. But he has gone down in history,
the history of Israel, as an evil king who caused Israel to
sin. Now actually, we don't know too
much about his reign, except that for most of it, Judah and
Israel appear to have been engaged in low-level conflict. We do know that he rebuilt and
he fortified Shechem as the capital of his kingdom. So this is Solomon's
divided kingdom now. Rehoboam, he ruled in Jerusalem,
where Solomon had ruled. But Jeroboam, he fortified Shechem,
a town in the northern tribes, and he made that his capital. The only major battle that is
recorded in the scriptures actually occurred after the death of Rehoboam
in Jerusalem and in this battle Jeroboam was beaten by Abijah
and Abijah was Rehoboam's son. Jeroboam never recovered from
that defeat. It was a significant blow to
him and he died shortly afterwards. There are only three major incidents
recorded about Jeroboam. And I'm going to mention each
of those and draw an application from each one today. And here's
the first one that I want to mention to you. Jeroboam was
too clever for his own good. Jeroboam's reign over the 10
tribes was spoiled by what he likely imagined to be an ingenious
plan. He realized that he could not
maintain separation from Judah if the people continued to travel
to Jerusalem in order to worship at the temple there and make
their offerings to God in Jerusalem where Rehoboam was king. Jeroboam
realized that he needed to separate the people from the temple worship
of God. That was where David had reigned
and Solomon had reigned. So he did not want the people
going back and acknowledging Jerusalem to be the centre of
their religious lives. So what he did was he set up
two golden calves as symbols of Jehovah. One in the north
of the kingdom and one in the south. And he effectively established
an idolatrous religion. He set a different group of priests
to be in charge. He expelled the priests who had
served at the temple. and he altered the priesthood
by bringing in a common people to be priests where these two
calves were located. He ordered the people not to
travel anymore to worship at Jerusalem, but to bring their
offerings to the shrines that he had erected. And his practice,
we learn, was followed by all the succeeding kings of Israel.
And as a result, Jeroboam became known as the man who made Israel
to sin. He brought it into idolatry. And that idolatry was never truly
shaken off. Jeroboam understood the importance
of religion and he understood the importance of faith in the
society. It gave the people a sense of
identity and purpose and meaning. but he could not afford to let
them go to Jerusalem to worship God. He'd replace the temple
worship at God's altar with an alternative. To Jeroboam, it
wouldn't matter what that alternative was so long as the people had
faith and so long as the people believed in something. Any faith
would do. But you see, it did matter. God
had established the temple worship. God had ordered and set in place
precisely how that worship was to be conducted, just in the
same way as he had ordered the tabernacle worship in the days
of Moses, in a very careful and precise way. It was all designed
to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. God told Moses and Solomon, Moses
when he built the tabernacle, Solomon when he built the temple,
to be careful to do all that he had said when they constructed
their various places, their respective places, for him to dwell amongst
the people. Jerry Boham thought, as long
as the people are sincere, as long as they believe something,
as long as they bring their offerings, it doesn't matter where or how
or when they do it. Make it up as you go along, he
thought. It will all be the same in the
end. But of course it wasn't, and
it isn't okay to do that. Temple worship, the blood sacrifices,
according to God's pattern and God's appointing, looked forward
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that worship continued in
Judah at Jerusalem. But Jeroboam led the people of
Israel into idolatry. Now let me bring that to our
lives. You and I will meet lots of people
who tell us it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're
sincere and as long as you're consistent in your faith. That's exactly what Jeroboam
said when he led the people into idolatry. And I'm afraid that
that is not true. God has specified the only way
in which he will be approached. And that way is in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The Old Testament and the blood
sacrifices pointed to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his death on the cross. And where that system of Old
Testament worship was messed with, so it detracted from the
proper recognition of God's way of salvation and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Actually, there's a notable rider
to this event in Israel's history. And I'm sure that all of us have
heard about the woman at the well in the New Testament. It's
in the Gospel of John. Jesus met this woman, this woman
of Samaria, in the land of Samaria, a place called Sychar. And people think that that is
the same as Shechem. Be that as it may, he met this
lady and she asked him specifically about this question of where
it was right to worship. She said, is it necessary to
worship in Jerusalem or can that worship be done anywhere? So
that you see the consequences of Jeroboam's actions were still
being felt a thousand years later. And Jesus' reply to that lady
is still valid for you and me today. This is what he said. Woman, he was speaking to this
lady at the well. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem,
worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what.
We know what we worship. because there was still that
recognition of the true worship of Jehovah. For salvation, says
the Lord, is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know
that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When he is
come, she said, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee am he. The woman was right, when
Jesus came he taught them all things and he was teaching that
lady about true worship there and then as she came to draw
water at the well. What Jesus was saying is this.
True worship isn't outward, physical, or constrained by a particular
location. Not anymore. Yes, Jerusalem was
important in past times because temple worship pointed to Christ.
But the symbols passed away when Jesus, the reality, the fulfillment,
came into the world. so that we now worship Christ
in our hearts. We worship Christ spiritually
by faith. True worshipers worship the Father
in spirit and in truth. To worship God properly, that
is how it must be done. And we approach God by faith
in Jesus Christ. Here's another thing that we
learn of Jeroboam's life. He ignored God's warnings. After Jeroboam established an
altar at Bethel and Dan. Bethel and Dan were the two places
where he set up these calves. After he established the altar
at Bethel, he went there to worship. And as he made his offering,
He was offering incense at the altar there. A prophet from Judah
appeared with a warning from the Lord. And he denounced what
Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam angrily pointed at the
prophet in order to have him arrested. But then when he tried
to lower his arm, He couldn't and he was left pointing at the
prophet and he couldn't drop his arm. His hand had dried up
and the altar before which he now stood split open and spilled
out its ashes. Jeroboam pleaded with the prophet
that his hand would be restored again. And it was. The prophet prayed for him to
God and his hand was restored. But that miracle made no lasting
impression on Jeroboam. He continued to do what he had
done. And I think this is very interesting.
People tell us that they would believe God if he did something
miraculous to prove that he existed. Then they would believe. But
they're telling lies. Jeroboam received multiple proofs
from the Lord and they made no difference to him because his
heart was set against the Lord. He acted in the same way, he
did the same things, he thought the same way. God has spoken to this world. He spoke when he sent the Lord
Jesus Christ to die for sin on the cross. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only sign that we shall be given. Believe him
or don't believe him. There is no more revelation going
to be given. Christ is God's final word. His death for sin and his resurrection
to life is God's final witness. John says, we know that the Son
of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may
know him that is true. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. It is by faith in Jesus Christ
that we know the true God and that we have eternal life. And then just very quickly, the
third thing that we know about Jeroboam is this. Jeroboam also
had a son whom he also called Abijah. So I made a point about
seeing how Rehoboam and Jeroboam's names were similar. One was the
king in Israel. The other was the king in Jerusalem
or in Judah. Well, do you know they both had
sons and they both used the same name for those sons, which was
a little bit interesting. But he had a son called Abijah
as well. But Abijah Jeroboam's son was
a sick child and the king was anxious for his life. So he sent
his wife to ask the prophet Ahijah if he would recover. The Prophet
told her that this son alone amongst Jeroboam's family would
come to his grave in peace. That was a terrible declamation
of Jeroboam and his family. This woman went to see whether
the son would survive and the Prophet said, Not only will he
not survive, he will be the only one who dies in peace. All the
rest of Jeroboam's family are going to die violently. After this child died, Jeroboam's
whole family would die violently, and indeed they did. As his mother,
the mother of this young man, crossed the threshold of the
door returning from the prophet, the young man died, and we're
told that all Israel mourned for him. I think there's a sad
lesson here. Many years before, God told Jeroboam,
by this same Ahijah, the prophet, Thou shalt reign according to
all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. And
it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee,
and wilt walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my
sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my
servant did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house. As I built for David, I will
give Israel unto thee. And now Jeroboam hears God's
judgment by the same prophet. Thou hast done evil above all
that were before thee, for thou hast gone and made thee other
gods and molten images to provoke me to anger and hast cast me
behind thy back. What a contrast! I would have
built you a sure house, but you cast me behind your back. Today I want to urge you who
are young, do not cast God behind your back. The Lord will do you
good if you follow him. He will bless you if you trust
him. He will save you if you come
to him. God has opened the way to life
in Jesus Christ. Do not cast him behind your back. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Amen.