Reading through Kings so many of their lives contain what appears to be a footnote and it
goes like this, "But nevertheless he did not depart from the sins of
Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin."
This summation is at the end of almost every King of Israel's story. "He
did some good stuff, but he walked like Jeroboam." No matter how many
things they did for YHWH, military victories, and accomplishments of their
reign, if they lived like Jeroboam that's
the defining theme of their lives in Scripture.
If you aren't familiar
with him, Jeroboam was the first king of the Northern House of Israel, which
first gets mentioned in 1 Kings 11 after the ten tribes of Israel split away from the tribe of Judah. While Israel refers collectively to all twelve tribes
from Genesis up through the reigns of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon, after the
split under Solomon's son Rehoboam, the term 'Israel' refers to the ten
northern tribes.
What did Jeroboam do that
made his name one of the biggest insults in Scripture? Generation after
generation YHWH traced the blame for Israel's sins to this man. You might be
surprised by how innocuous his offensives seem in our culture.
Jeroboam:
-made two golden calves
-set up temples in high places
-decided himself who could be a priest
-moved the feast dates
I certainly don't want to
downplay how he transgressed against YHWH, but those things seem fairly low-key
don't they? He is not described as a murderer or war hungry. He did not make it
illegal to worship YHWH in his kingdom. In fact, 1 Kings 12:28 tells us that he
was trying to make worship of YHWH more convenient for his people as, "it
is too much for you to go to Jerusalem."
(You can read about
Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:26 - 12)
So Jeroboam: did the same
thing as Aaron by creating golden calves; set up a house of worship according
to what he felt like doing; used his own standards for who would work in this
ministry; moved the date of a Biblical festival. Do these things sound
eerily familiar? A leader has decided that the things YHWH has asked are too
difficult for the people, so he announces his alternative ideas, as if they
were commandments. That can be seen in every pastor that teaches YHWH's
instructions are too hard and every rabbi that says a chicken is an appropriate
Yom Kippur sacrificial substitute.
They are going to do what they see is
best, while ignoring the word of YHWH.
It's interesting that 1
Kings 12:32 describes Jeroboam's feast "like the feast that is in
Judah." He did not create a new feast to worship a false god or himself.
He simply decided to move the feasts of the seventh month (Yom Teruah, Yom
Kippur, and Sukkot) to the eighth month of the year. This seemingly unimportant
adjustment is hugely offensive to
YHWH. Rescheduling something that YHWH instructed caused Israel to sin for
generations. In light of that, it is extremely important for Christians to
evaluate the holidays that they keep. In many ways how Easter is celebrated in
churches is very similar to Passover. It's like the feast that
happens in Scripture, but traditions are valued more than the word of YHWH. Christmas is somewhat like the
festival of Sukkot, except it's not YHWH's idea. Do we want to have something in common with a man who caused all of Israel to walk in sin?
In the first golden calf
story in Exodus 32 Israel did not mean to turn away from YHWH. They simply
decided for themselves rather than following YHWH's instructions how they would
worship. In verse five it says that all the golden calf business was meant to
be "a festival to YHWH." Like Jeroboam, their plan wasn't to jump
ship entirely and worship a false god. They just wanted to decide how they
would serve the Living God.
But YHWH has not left that up to us.
Jeroboam did not stop at
offending YHWH with his disobedience. He made the culture of Israel one where
it was easy to sin. He created a lifestyle of defying what YHWH said, while
having it be close enough that people could think they were on the right track. Probably all of us were born into
circumstances like that, where the decisions of those before us caused us to
sin. A culture of celebrating Easter instead of Passover. Of worship on Sunday
instead of Shabbat. Church potlucks serving ham. We were made to sin by those who came before us. We were born
into traditions we never realized we should question. Like Israel's kings who
had their walk after Jeroboam, YHWH wants us to turn away from that.
The story of Jehu is
striking. Israel's 11th king lead a military coup against a corrupt ruler, put
to death the infamously wicked Jezebel, killed all the relatives of perhaps
Israel's most evil king Ahab, staged a coercive operation to destroy the temple
of Baal and it's worshippers, and tore down graven images of Baal. YHWH was
pleased with his actions and even said that Jehu "did well in executing
that which is righteous in my eyes." But then, just one sentence later, in
2 Kings 10:31, it says, "But Jehu took no heed to have his walk in the
Torah of YHWH Elohim of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the
sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin."
That sentence speaks a
strong truth of YHWH that we often forget: he's not that interested in our resumes.
Tales of grandeur are not what he's after. You can fight amazing battles, and
accomplish the bravest of feats, and still hear, "Nevertheless, he didn't
turn away from simple sins. He walked like a man who wasn't even willing to
attend a party when I wanted." That sentence of not departing from
Jeroboam's ways is used something like 17 times in Kings because YHWH wants us
to see that no matter what he wants us to live according to his instructions. This is the point Samuel made to King Saul when he said, "Obedience is better than sacrifice." To depart from the sin of Jeroboam's walk we need to follow YHWH's paths.
.JPG)
