"Then Jeroboam built Shechem." (1 Kings 12:25)
He enlarged and fortified the city, and made it his capital. Shechem is one of the most noted places mentioned in the Bible. It was the first place at which Abraham stopped, when he departed out of Haran and came into the land of Canaan; there the Lord appeared to him and made him the promise of the land; and there he built his first altar in the land of Canaan. "And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto your seed will I give this land: and there he built an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." (Genesis 12:6-7)
When Jacob came out of Mesopotamia, on his journey back to his own land, he pitched his tent before the city, and "bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent." (Genesis 33:19)
In this "parcel" of ground at Shechem, the children of Israel buried the bones of Joseph, which they had brought out of Egypt. "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph." (Joshua 24:32)
On each side of it, on Mts. Gerizim and Ebal, stood all the people after crossing over Jordan, when the blessings upon the obedient, and the curses upon the disobedient, were pronounced. "And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel." (Joshua 8:33)
Here all Israel assembled to make Rehoboam king; here they rebelled and chose Jeroboam; and thus it came that he made it his capital. It was near the town that the Saviour, "being wearied with his journey, sat thus," (John 4:6) on Jacob's well, when the woman of Samaria came to draw water. (See John 4:1-42) Shechem was thirty-four miles north of Jerusalem. "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." (1 Kings 12:26-27)
There probably was some truth in this observation. For, as all were to assemble in Jerusalem three times in the year especially, besides the many other important occasions of worship; and as the Levites that were in all the cities would have to go up from time to time to fill the order of their course in the temple service; the chief religious interest would be at Jerusalem, and therefore the interests of the whole nation would be centered there, and Jeroboam's rule would be to a certain extent only nominal.
Even if all this were so, it could only be for the best interests of the nation in every way. But that was nothing to Jeroboam. Like every other professional politician, his own personal interests must take precedence of everything, even to the usurpation of the prerogatives which God had reserved to himself. "Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold." (1 Kings 12:28)
These calves were the images of the Egyptian gods. Jeroboam had learned about them and their worship, during his sojourn in Egypt, when he fled from Solomon. The worship was of the same degraded nature as that of the gods of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Zidonians, with the exception of burning the children in the fire. "And he set the one in Bethel." (1 Kings 12:29)
It was, no doubt, an easy task to turn the people to Bethel instead of Jerusalem to worship, for there Abraham had built an altar and had worshiped, both before and after he went to Egypt: "And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord." (Genesis 12:8) "And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord." (Genesis 13:3-4)
There the Lord appeared unto Jacob, and there Jacob set up a pillar, and called it God's house; (Genesis 28:10-22) there Jacob built an altar when he returned with all his substance from the house of Laban, and there the Lord appeared to him again, and renewed to him the promise made to Abraham and Isaac. (Genesis 35:6-15) In the troubled times of the judges there was the ark of the covenant, and there the people came to inquire of the Lord; (Judges 20:18-28) and there Samuel went in his circuit once a year to judge Israel.
So when Jeroboam built an altar there, and established a system of worship, idolatrous though it was, he could appeal to them upon all these sacred memories, as against Jerusalem, and especially when by the cry: "These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt," (Exodus 32:4) he would palm off upon them the idols as simply representations of the God of their fathers. "And the other he put in Dan." (1 Kings 12:29)
Dan was already the place of an idolatrous worship by the tribe of Dan. When the tribe of Dan sought for an inheritance in the land, they first sent out five men, who, in their search, came to Laish, and found a place where there was "no want of anything that is in the earth," (Judges 18:10) and returned and told their brethren. Then the tribe sent 600 armed men to take the place. As they were on the way, they came to the house of Micah of Mount Ephraim, and there they found a graven image, and ephod, a teraphim, and a molten image, and a Levite whom Micah had hired as his priest in the worship of these his gods, and the Danites took priest, idols, and all, and carried them with them to Laish. They attacked and destroyed Laish, and there they built a new city and called it Dan, and established their idolatrous worship there, and maintained it till the captivity of the ten tribes.
It was easy enough, therefore, for Jeroboam to set up his golden calf at Dan, and to turn the people there to the worship of it, not only because the people were prone to idolatry, but because they were actually practicing it.
And so with one place of worship in the northern, and another in the southern, part of his kingdom, he could present very forcibly his next appeal: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem." (1 Kings 12:28)
Yes, "It is too much for you to go to the place that the Lord himself appointed, and to worship Him as He has directed. It is too hard for you to obey the Lord, you can obey me, that will be much easier. It is too hard for you to travel away down to Jerusalem, here is a place to worship almost at your own doors as it were; this will be ever so much easier for you.
"These are your gods, anyhow, that brought you out of Egypt. You worship the same gods here that they worship at Jerusalem, only in a little different way; but then everybody cannot see alike; there is unity in diversity; we are all only branches of the same church; we are only different departments of the same army; the Lord is the one great Commander!"
Yes; Jeroboam could thus offer them ease, and that is the one thing desirable with many who pretend to worship the Lord. They will willingly worship if they can only do it in their own way. But such people don't worship the Lord, they worship themselves.
But was Jeroboam the last one who ever held out to the people such inducements? Hardly. We need not go very far to find the same thing today. When the Sabbath of the Lord, and the coming of Christ, are now presented to the people, and their holy claims urged upon them, there are plenty of would-be leaders, who, like Jeroboam, will appeal to their love of ease.
"Oh," say they, "it is not necessary for you to keep the Sabbath. Just think, you will lose your position, and your standing in society and in your church. And oh, worse than all, those people who keep the Sabbath, and are looking for the Lord, don't have any church fairs, nor festivals, nor 'mum' socials, nor fish-ponds, nor grab-bags, nor sleeping-beauties, nor kissing-bees, nor gambling--why you cannot even put up your young ladies at public auction, and sell them to the highest bidder! And that is 'too much for you,' just stay where you are. We worship the same God that they do, only in a different way. Of course we don't do as He has commanded, but all cannot see alike, you know."
But in all this as in that of old, "This thing became a sin." (1 Kings 12:30)
It is not the service of God at all. All such are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God," (2 Timothy 3:4) and He commands, "from such turn away." (2 Timothy 3:5)
This is what was done by a great many in that time, for we read: "And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him [Rehoboam] out of all their coasts. ... And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers." (2 Chronicles 11:13,16) "And he made a 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." (1 Kings 12:31-33) "And He [God] shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin." (1 Kings 14:16)
And from that day forward neither Jeroboam, nor Israel, ever knew safety. What he and they supposed the easiest way proved the hardest possible way. So it has ever been, and so will it ever be with every one who chooses his own way. Man's way leads direct to perdition; the Lord's way leads straight to paradise. Man's ways is the hardest way; the Lord's way is the easiest of all ways. Christ said: "My yoke is easy." (Matthew 11:30)
And the only easy way is to deny self, take up the cross and follow Him. There is no other.--Signs of the Times, July 2, 1885--Notes on the International Lesson, July 12--1 Kings 12:25-33
A.T. Jones