Kings of Israel #5
“Jeroboam Causes Israel to Sin”
Key Verses: 1Ki 12:25-33
Our old man will make us sin if he is not brought under the subjection of Jesus Christ within us. That is such a simple yet powerful truth and one our story of King Jeroboam will bear out today and, in the weeks ahead as we begin studying the kingship of Jeroboam, the first king over the Northern Kingdom in a divided nation of Israel. We should always be reminded that the kingdom of God is not outside of us somewhere but instead is within you (Luk 17:21) as are all of these events that God’s Elect are living out. Jeroboam represents our naturally rebellious and contentious flesh that wars against the doctrines of Christ (Judah).
Before the division of Israel, Jeroboam was a servant of Solomon (1Ki 11:26) meaning Solomon had dominion over his carnal mind and fleshly lusts. Yet Solomon apostatized, and Israel reaped (and we reap what we have sowed).
1Ki 11:9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
1Ki 11:11 Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.
The result of our apostasy is our becoming servants of the old man which consumes us in carnal and lustful passions.
Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
As God’s Elect, we will live through a divided Kingdom fighting wars as our flesh (Israel) wages war against the Word (Judah). These wars will continue until we are given the fullness when we receive our spiritual bodies.
1Ki 14:30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rebellious flesh is naturally SELF-serving and always seeking to enlarge its borders and make a name for itself. Out from the dominion of Christ’s doctrines, it does not take long for us to begin worshipping our own gods and perverting judgment. Jeroboam went right to work doing what flesh does best in using his own hands in building idols and strongholds to expand and protect his kingdom and kingship.
1Ki 12:25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.
1Ki 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
1Ki 12:27 If these 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.
1Ki 12:28 Whereupon the king (Jeroboam) 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.
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
1Ki 12:31 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.
1Ki 12:32 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.
1Ki 12:33 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.
Jeroboam’s focus instantly turned to retain power and control. It is the opposite of faith when we fear men and do not trust the Lord nor submit to Him working all things in our life. The laws of warfare are written about our war against our own flesh and lusts that wage war against the ways of God in our hearts and mind.
Deu 20:4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Jeroboam, as our old man, is made to be destroyed and will resist dying and submitting every step of the way.
Rom 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross (dying to self) is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
While these Scriptures say Jeroboam did these things after the “devising of his own heart”, we know that truth is subject to a much greater absolute truth which is this.
Pro 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water (your thought life): he turneth it whithersoever he will.
Pro 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
It is the Lord who is doing all the causing, even causing Jeroboam and us in our day to commit these besetting sins (Isa 63:17).
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Jeroboam life and actions are innate to all flesh. His deeds live on in Bible infamy being cited at least 21 times and in 15 of the 18 successor Northern Kingdom kings here being just one example.
2Ki 13:6 Nevertheless they [Israel during Jehoahaz’s reign] did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had made [is making] Israel sin, but walked in them; and the wooden image also remained in Samaria.
The life of Jeroboam and his evil deeds are an example of our evil deeds and have been written down for us to learn from and help in our process of overcoming.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world come.
It is impossible for flesh to please God (Rom 8:8) and the Jeroboam spirit will continue to plague Israel all the days in our flesh. The sins of Jeroboam are our sins that we all are struggling with until we are matured in our judgment and trials. Now we look some more into what is called “the sins of Jeroboam” for wisdom in identifying these sins and finding ways to overcome them.
Worshipping a false god and creating graven images: Jeroboam quickly sins against the Lord in violating both the first and second commandments (and others).
Deu 5:6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Deu 5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
Deu 5:8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Our flesh will seek to share the glory with the Lord but He is having none of it (1Co 1:29). Jeroboam will soon be rebuked by a prophet speaking words of fire and his kingdom will not be long-lasting as the next study will cover.
These besetting (persistent) sins are ingrained in all flesh and lead to other sins against the Lord’s commandments. The old man aka man of sin, cannot subject himself to the ordinances of God and will persistently create a god unto himself until that man of sin is destroyed. Only then will Israel be reunited as One with God.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Jeroboam was a friend of Egypt’s King Shishak (1Ki 11) and these false gods are given birth from our spiritual fornication and adultery with the mindset and ways of this wicked world. The new man within us cannot commit this sin. If we see this within ourselves we can know it is a manifestation of our old man who is to be reckoned dead instead.
1Jn 5:18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
1Jn 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Calves are nearly full grown cows and in Scripture signify a sacrificed life being laid down in service to the Lord which is the reasonable divine service of God’s people (Rom 12:1). Jeroboam like all flesh is SELF FOCUSED whose thought life is about preserving his life and kingdom. This is what leads us to worship our own ideas and self-exaltation (our god, the image to our beast)
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Thankfully, we know our beastly nature will be destroyed and our attempts to preserve the way of the old man will come to naught in due time. Believe these words of the Lord!
Luk 17:33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Isa 42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
The history of Jeroboam also tells us where he placed these golden calves in Israel.
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
Jeroboam wanted dominion over Israel and their exercise of faith which we are commanded not to have over anyone (Rom 14:4, 2Co 1:20). His plot to keep his subject from going to Jerusalem including placing these two idols in two strategic locations. Bethel, meaning House of God refers to our worship and was in the southernmost part of Israel. Dan which means “judge”, is in the far north which is the spiritual direction from which judgment always comes. How we worship and how we judge are both essential and we have many Scriptures and studies that reveal to us how to worship in truth and how to judge righteously. If we are in the flesh as is the mind of Jeroboam here is the result.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Before Christ comes we are worshipping a false god and making a graven image in our self-absorbed delusion that we are in control of our own free will. Such is the STRONG DELUSION that all men are given which causes us to reject the true love of God as we persist in unrighteous behavior.
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
Continuing with Jeroboam’s action in prescribing worship for Israel we read this.
1Ki 12:31 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.
1Ki 12:32 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.
1Ki 12:33 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.
While we are not told specifically with whom Jeroboam took counsel with to devise the worship plan for Israel, we do know he was an ally of Shishak the King of Egypt (1Ki 11:40) which tells us Jeroboam is a friend of the world as Egypt symbolizes the world. We also know there were no longer any true priests left in Israel.
2Ch 11:14 For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the LORD:
Jeroboam kicks out the true priests and replaces them with idolatrous priests not of the tribe of Levi as commanded of the Lord (Num 3:1-6). Without the priests to be the multitude of counselors, there is no safety (Pro 11:14) and our old man can easily lead us astray and corrupt the pure food and service at the Lord’s table.
Heb 13:16 (JUB) Do not forget to do good and to fellowship (communicate KJV); for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
1Co 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
This act of our old man is another besetting sin that will keep us from worshipping in truth and being saved from our sins. We are saved from our sins as we are able to walk in the light that is the Body of Christ (Mat 5:14) who are also the kings and priests of the Lord in the making (Rev 5:10). The light of Christ is also the same as the fire that is saving us and burning up the false images of God we make as carnal men.
1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
We have many Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments warning us about whom we keep company with and with whom we eat and digest spiritual food. We are to be watchful for those that have not the Truth nor obey the Truth and not be partakers with them.
2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
On the same vein, we are not to idly bring strange priests and those teaching false doctrines into our fellowship and communion.
Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
Heb 13:10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
Jeroboam in our exalted strong delusion thinks he is doing God a service by ordaining a feast that appears to closely mimic the Feast of Tabernacles (15th day of 7th month). This was no doubt done to further the motive in preventing Israel from going up to Jerusalem as the Law of Moses commanded.
Exo 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD (in Jerusalem)
Our old man is much more comfortable being isolated from the fiery fire and bright light that is exposing our deeds of darkness in the house of God where judgment now dwells. Forsaking the assembly and merely warming ourselves by the fire is not enough to burn out our besetting sins. We need to be directly in the fire.
Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
The taking of the true communion often in Jerusalem (a type of New Jerusalem, aka the Body of Christ) is how we die daily and Christ grows within us.
1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
But like orthodox Christianity and carnal men everywhere, Jeroboam is taking the things of God and perverting them; adding too and taking away from the Word; even making up holy days on his own devising. The three feasts of the Lord in the Old Testament are all shadows of the Lord savings us by the process of judgment (the number three). The Elect live this out in Spirit now, in our day of the Lord, and all mankind will fulfill those feast days in the Lake of Fire.
The false gods, the perverted priesthood and even the man-made feast days are all an abomination to the Lord and only invite the Lord’s wrath to destroy Jeroboam.
Amo 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Amo 5:22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Outwardly there is to be no keeping of days, times or seasons. It takes judgment to come to be able to approach the Lord in truth and in spirit. Before then we will be serving up false gods with our keeping of days, times and years as the world does.
Gal 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
The Lord is getting our obedience (LOVE) by destroying the Jeroboam mindset that keeps us separated from our brethren and the true doctrines of Christ.
Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love (obey is love – 1Jo 5:3) the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
As we look at the remaining 18 kings of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam always seems to be in the picture (2Ki 17:22-23). That is true because it is these besetting deeply ingrained sins that only our overcome as we are able to lay down our life in service and humility.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
In the next study, we will continue with Jeroboam’s reign as a man of God is sent to rebuke the disobedient king and prophesy of the impending doom and rejection of his idolatrous worship.
1Ki 13:1 And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
1Ki 13:2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.
1Ki 13:3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.