I invite you to turn tonight to the Book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 12, and if you're looking for that, you will find that in your Bibles on page 345, 345 tonight. I'd like to back up and read at verse 16, and we will read through our section tonight. This is the word of the Lord.
"And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, what portion do we have in David? For we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David. So Israel went to their tents. But Rehoah Boam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoah Boam sent Adoram, and who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoah Boam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
"And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none found that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only. When rehoah boam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180 000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
"But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people: Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your relatives, the people of Israel. Every man shall return to his home, for this thing is from me. So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again, according to the word of the Lord.
"Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to rehoah bohem king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to rehoah bohem king of judah returned to him
"So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, you have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of egypt And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.
"He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among the people who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the 15th day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the 15th day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for before the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.
"And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make set offerings. And the man cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, oh altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you And he gave a sign the same day, saying, this is the sign that the Lord has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be torn down and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out
"And when the king heard the saying of the man of God which he cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, seize him And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up so that he could not draw it back to himself. The altar also was torn down and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God, entreat now the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may now be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before.
"And the king said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward And the man of God said to the king, if you give me half your house, I will not go with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall neither eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel."
May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His word. And all Scripture, all Scripture old and new, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable in all ways for teaching and instruction.
Well, maybe one of the things that you have struggled with about Christianity is all of the division that has occurred among us and the sad divisions. When you look out, it just seems like division after division. And we say up front, well, it should not be this way; it should not be this way. The Bible calls us, you know, to unity a unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and we should walk together in agreement, say the Scriptures.
And a lot of people have not understood what really is the root cause of division. They've not really listened to the Lord on this point. And that's why I think this particular passage is so helpful tonight. We rarely think about what brought about division and why division occurs. And you take something like the reformation it was the Roman Catholics who said the the reformation and the Reformers were schismatics. Rarely did they think about why there was a division, why did these divisions happen?
Why do divisions happen? It might surprise you that the Scripture says very openly that divisions are necessary. And Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11, says he expressed that factions or divisions must exist. Why? So that those who are of approved character may be clearly recognized in this life. So that's why divisions happen, because He pulls out and shows what is true. And that's important for us. Factions are inevitable, with the goal of proving what is true, and often what is right.
But we have to say it's not that division itself is a good thing. They're saying something, divisions, about the state of things to us. Division says something about the state of things to us. Where there is unity and where there is peace, there is evidence of great blessing from the Lord. How good and pleasant is the sight, Psalm 133, when brethren make it their delight to dwell in sweet accord.
You think of that Psalm that Israel sung out, and then you have a story like this. And you have to sort of ask important questions: of Why these things happen? When you have division, it should cause everyone to ask, "Why did that happen? What led to that? And what are those things that are secretly lurking that leads to such divisions?"
And tonight we have a powerful text, I think, that helps us with that and shows us one of the root causes of division in the kingdom of God and why it occurs And how that division? continues. And what is the remedy to that division It's immensely instructive because division often exposes a very simple but clear problem that is shown to us all throughout the Scriptures, and it is simply this:
Division is the result of people doing what is right in their own eyes and not listening to the word of the Lord.
So at the heart of division, which I intend to show you here, is a great sin that is singled out, a great sin that is showcased to us, a great sin that we have to take seriously. because it matters so much to our Lord. That's why we have to take this seriously. And it is the problem of idolatry. Any moment of division, the call is to seek the Lord and to think carefully about what a return to Him looks like, the work of Christ for us, and what kind of idolatry needs to be rooted out from us.
I've always been fascinated, and I've never preached on Jeroboam in my almost 21 years now of ministry and his golden calves. And I believe in light of things that I had written for Table Talk and wrestling with this problem of idolatry, I believe this story is such an important one for us because the intention shows something good here for the Lord's desire to purify His people and to unite us together as one. And that's why we need a true king. That's why we need a Savior. That's why we need a king who will lead us in righteousness and a king who will unite us in truth. And that's what we'll end up seeing by the end of this.
The sad division we see here is captured for us in the story of Jeroboam. I want to look tonight briefly at his counsel, his plan, and his folly, and then to lead us to the shining light that the Lord never gives up on His people. even through all this mess throughout the Old Testament, all this sin. The Lord never gives up. The Lord always gives a way forward. The Lord shows His compassions, and He continues to this day to preserve His people through all of this division. It's really remarkable.
The situation that we enter here is a fascinating one. King David was promised. Remember great King David? He was promised that there would always be a king on his throne and that that throne would be established forever. But sadly, after David had died, Solomon arose to power. The great King Solomon, in all of his wisdom, you can read Ecclesiastes, a great portion of that, and something devastating happened. Chapter 11 records all of this. You kind of have to get into some context here to understand what led to all this.
Chapter 11 records this of Solomon's folly, not wisdom. And one of the specific commands that the Lord gave His people always was so important still to this day that we do not break His covenant by entering into marriage with those who are unbelievers. That matters so much to Him. It's a traitor to the Lord to marry a non-believer. And we see this play out here. The reason was for this: "For surely they will, now listen, this is Chapter 11, turn your heart they will turn your heart away. And they will turn your heart after their gods."
Now you read something shocking about Solomon that we still can't grasp for this day. And it's meant to make us shocked. Solomon had 700 wives. princesses, 300 concubines. And then the shocking record about Solomon, this great king of David, the son of David: "When he was old, his wives did just what the Lord said they would do. Turned his heart away, and he went after other gods. And his heart," and I quote, "was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David."
And that's always a sad consequence when we try to tell our young people: marry well, marry really well. This is a consequence, often, of marrying outside the covenant. The emphasis here is on the heart. The heart was not wholly true, and that's what idolatry does that's what idolatry does in life.
And notice that that sexual morality was woven into this of turning the heart of turning away the heart from the Lord. And I think we're meant to feel the weight of how that king's sin affected the whole nation. If you go through king after king after king, I think what's surprising in these stories is how many times it says, "But their heart was not wholly faithful to the Lord," and how many times it says that they did not remove the high places from Israel. That should make us pause. Those high places is where there were sacrifices to other gods. And in Israel, they tried to combine that worship and left a high place. And very rare do we ever find a king who had the courage to come in and confront the sacred cow. Very rare did we have a king with great courage come in and say and know what kind of challenge it would cause and tear down the sacred cow and kick that elephant in the room. They worshipped, but The high places remained. The high places were places of continued idolatry in Israel. It always marvels me how connected the sin of those in authority how in the Old Covenant it demonstrates to us how it affected the whole nation.
But I believe one of the main points to consider here is that sin deep in the lives of God's people in idolatry pulls our hearts away It pulls our hearts away from Him. And that has serious ripple effects. It's something that is important: that when we choose to have some sin we're serving and we're running to, that you can be sure that at some point that sin is ruinous to your life. But it's not just ruinous to your life; it's ruinous to those whom you love.
I mean, how many times do we have to prove this about history? How many times I have to prove it today? And and then you feel the weight of these kind of passages of how needy we are upon the Lord. And that's why this is so important: sin is never an isolated thing. It it deeply hurts others. And sadly, those closest to us. Our idolatry hurts those closest to us our idolatry hurts the kingdom of God.
What we find in verse 9 of Chapter 11 is that the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away. And this was the consequence: this was the consequence I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant." And He said, "I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it from your son that's Rehoah Boam and I will preserve one tribe for him. Benjamin would be attached to that."
The consequence was that the entire kingdom would be divided between the North and the south. Jude and Benjamin And then the 10 tribes of Israel. And here we have that captured for us. Solomon's son was Rehoboam. And if you follow this text, and if you want to spend some time in it later, as soon as Rehoboam the king takes power, the Lord raises up Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, as an adversary. And from this entire kingdom, a split occurs, and the ten tribes now align with Jeroboam. There's the division.
And this leads to a great rebellion in Israel. This leads to what you might call great succession in Israel that amounted to what was about to be civil war. And Rehoah Boam and think of the mess of this Rehoah Boam gathers 180,000 chosen warriors. These are men, these are warriors, to go out and fight his brethren. I mean, you talk about a sad moment in Israel's history! Judah and Benjamin under Rehoah Boam go to war.
And this is where we end at the end of verse 24, before we get into our text: "You shall not," says the Lord, "go up and fight your relatives and the people of Israel. Every man returned to his home. Here it is: for this is from me."
That's a stunning statement: "This division's from me. This division is from me. You are not going to war. Go home right now." And they do.
It was a division prompted as a judgment for idolatry. I think we have to stop and ask about divisions, then. The consequences of divisions that people experience often has to do with people turning away from the Lord in idolatry and holding on to high places.
And the surprising thing is what is said to Jeroboam. In the midst of all of this, this wasn't even the Davidic line. Judah was the line in Judah under Rehoaboam. The Lord says to Jeroboam: "Under this, if Jeroboam now this is so amazing of the Lord's mercies here if you will listen to my word and my command and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes, not on your own the Lord promises, surprisingly, to Jeroboam, not of the Davidic line that we I will be with you, and I will build you a sure house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you."
There was always a call to remain loyal to the Lord, wherever, whenever we face divided times. That call always remains, doesn't it? That His people's hearts would turn back to Him, that His people's hearts would consider, and then that great mercies would follow, and that there would actually be healing. There would actually be unity.
But what do people do? They rule by the dictates of their own hearts. The great danger at moments like this.
Now, all that sets this up tonight. The question is: What does Jeroboam do after all that call and after this division? What a moment for the leader to unify Israel! What a moment to return the people to the Lord, to break free from Solomon's sin! And that's what makes what happens totally surprising.
Instead of deep humility, instead of repentance for saying, "How did we get into this mess He had a moment to unite them and bring them back to the Lord. And that is just as relevant today.
And here's where the Spirit puts the spotlight. We read in verse 25 that "then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. Here it comes. Here's the big phrase: And Jeroboam said in his heart.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. What? Whenever you turn inward and you seek your own heart, there is the path of folly. It's all throughout the Scriptures.
It should have said, "And then Jeroboam sought the word of the Lord." Completely absent. He does one of the worst things he could have done. He sought counsel where? Within himself.
Beloved, that's always a telltale sign of a great sin happening in Israel: when everyone is doing what's right in their own hearts and in their own eyes. And that's why the kingdom's divided. That's why we got to where we are.
Jeroboam knows the hostility and the problem that's in front of him: "I've got a divided kingdom. I don't know what to do." What the Lord had just promised was, "If you follow me with your whole heart, Israel will be established." But he turns to his own heart and he begins to reason there. It's pragmatism at its best. "What will work now? The kingdom is going to turn back to the house of David. If I send my people into Jerusalem to go to the temple because that's where worship happens if they go to the temple if they go to jerusalem to offer sacrifices their hearts will turn to Rehoboam."
Now, in the midst of this division, God had never appointed a different place of worship. The temple was holy ground. It was not to be a war zone. No king would have dared done that. And if they did, they would have been in trouble.
But you see the dilemma. "I can't have them going there."
Notice that there was no regard in going to Jerusalem. That the people's loyalty here, what was he concerned about? That the people's loyalty telltale sign, He was worried was to either Rehoboam or to him. He had no sense that the people's loyalty belonged to the Lord, to the Lord, not him, not Rehoboam. Essence of idolatry.
So it says "he took counsel, and here's what he did. He made two calves of gold, and he said to the people, you've gone up to Jerusalem long enough. That's it. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of egypt the house of bondage is the language."
If you trace this passage, what you'll notice is it says over and over and over: "he made, he made, he made, he made." It was this is a great study in the moment of the human heart and of the problem of idolatry.
You know what idolatry is? We read it tonight in the Heidelberg: it's anything that you set up. It's anything that in all of these difficulties of life, in all these hardships, where you take counsel in your heart and you begin to devise your own way and you follow that. I mean, we sang the song in the 90s: "Listen to Your Heart." Bad song. Anything you trust. And when there are divisions, we should ask: "Which way are we turning? What idolatry is being exposed? What are we holding on to?"
And what we see is that he takes a worse course of action. He essentially creates, beloved, a religion of convenience a man-made religion. It's it's remarkable what you see here.
There's so much to learn: when people hold on to sin, when people's hearts are not loyal to the Lord, the telltale sign is to create something that mirrors true religion. You can see this all throughout history to this day. It mirrors the true. It's formed around the true, but it's not shaped and formed according to the word of the Lord. That's the crucial point about, and that's how you determine all true worship. It avoids at all costs the call to return to Him with a whole heart. It's to create what Paul calls a form of godliness that denies its power. A form. A man-made form.
So here's what happened. Isn't this remarkable what it shows? He made new gods. That's a chilling verse: that he took these gods of gold and he set them up on the borders of his territory from Dan all the way to Beersheba. It's the borders of the land so they wouldn't have to go into Rehoboam's territory for worship. And it became sin, it says.
Notice that because of what he proclaimed. And here's what he proclaimed: "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
Do you know where that's from? Those are Aaron's words. Remember when Moses was up on the mountain and they took all their gold off and they threw it in the furnace and Israel out pops a golden calf and Aaron says, "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." Jeroboam now makes two of them with the same language.
He goes further. And what that's saying to us is is that the natural tendency of our hearts is to set up something that replicas the true. and to offer it that's safer to us so that people don't have to return to the Lord. Jeroboam made new gods, and then notice what he did. He made temples, And he made new priests, new feasts to replica Israels, and he made new sacrifices, And Bethel becomes the sort of new Jerusalem, and all these sacrifices take place there on new feast days that he commissioned, and he instituted a feast parallel to the prescribed feasts. The Feast of Booths was to be celebrated in the seventh month.
Now notice these are important details. Was to be celebrated in the seventh month. Jeroboam made his feast to be celebrated in the eighth month. There's nothing wrong with throwing it off a month, is there? See? And the altar, given like Aaron's, was devised after his own heart.
And this is where I say it challenges us, that this is no different today. Do you realize you could have a worship service that is entirely devised after your own heart today? You ever think about that? Devised by the heart with complete disregard for the word of the Lord? And that then launches all the people, the leadership, into false worship. And you've effectively been able to do this, void of the word of God. But it so parallels true religion that if you criticize it, people can't see it.
I worry about that. The forms of worship. You could really set up the church to be a theater. You could preach a sermon, but it has little interest in God's word and really diving into His inspired word. It's entirely backed by the ones of the people. You've never truly heard the word of God proclaimed to you. You've had a form of worship that's happened that has completely bypassed sin and judgment of the Holy Spirit's great conviction, sin and judgment, right?
And you can make a message today that never really gets to your real needs in life. It's just handcrafted and hand-tailored to pander to what you want. And it's light, and it's easy, and you're never really confronted with the holiness of God. You never really have to bow your head in repentance and faith. You never have to confess any sin. You never have to look to Jesus. And it has a great form of worship and godliness. It's an alternate religion. And people think they're worshiping God.
And then they wonder why there's division all around us, right? The division came from God because of this stuff.
And it's in the midst of this that God sends a prophet. He always does this. is how wonderful He is. He always sends a prophet to call people back. As Jeroboam is worshiping, this man of god uh the pastoral epistles pick this up when they talk oh "man of God," talking about the minister he picks it up. This is sent servant. Oh, the man of God comes and cries out! Still scott stretches out his arms: "Oh altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: behold a son shall be born to the house of David, and who is mentioned here josiah by name and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places and make your offerings and you you will be the sacrifice of judgment. Human bones shall be burned on you
Josiah was the great king of reformation. And remember what happened? hilkiah one day, this is just amazing all these years later, Hilkiah is in the temple doing some work in the temple, and he says to Shaphan, the secretary, "Look, I found this book in the temple. It's dusty. It's covered in dust."
And Shaphan, the secretary, told the king, "Hilkiah, the priest, has given me a book." And Shaphan opened it and read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he ripped his clothes. "Great is the wrath of the Lord kindled. That's why we're all divided up. We've not listened to His word at all."
And Josiah is a highlight in the history of reforming the church back to the word of God. And the Passover was again celebrated. That hadn't been celebrated in years. Isn't that something? They didn't even have a value for the Passover. It's kind of like today when people have no value for the Supper. Something's gone wrong.
Second Kings, this is what happened when Josiah came: "Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam, the son of Nabot, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and he burned it, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.
"And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount, looking at Jeroboam's. He sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them, just as this is pronounced here, burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed who had predicted these things so many years previous."
The king cries out. Jeroboam sees him. His hand goes, dries up. Judgment had fallen. And then you read the rest of this story, shows the power of the word of God to restore his hand. But it's not a good ending here.
Now, do you see why all that tonight? To close this out: why the Bible wants to give attention to the problem of idolatry under the guise of worship. What are we holding on to? You could go through the list right human ambition, covetousness, sexual morality What What are we bowing to money what are we serving what is it that we're proud about?
Now, all of this tells us tonight: "You say, what's the hope here?"
Well, that we need a good king. That we need a true king. That we need a king whose righteousness would deliver the people, right? To save us from all this idolatry in our lives and deliver us from it.
And we're about to enter a season of celebrating the birth of Christ. And you open up Matthew, and what is the great celebration? The king has come from the Davidic line, promised to David. And the good news that's announced is: He will turn the hearts of His people back to Him. And you see, that's what we need. We need a true king whose heart is loyal to the Lord. We need a true king whose righteousness covers the people.
It's amazing how the sin of leaders affects the people. It's amazing how the sin of Adam got us in all this mess. It's amazing how the righteousness of one delivers us from it all. And that was the promise. And that the Lord in the new covenant would turn hearts that are true to Him.
Remember what He said to the woman at the well? "I'm not seeking for you anymore to go to Jerusalem or on that mountain. I am seeking. God is seeking worshipers who do what worship Him in Spirit and in truth."
And you see what that means? Is is That what is internally in us is true that we're honest worshipers that we're worshiping in truth, which means according to His word. And the great work of the Holy Spirit in this age even though we see much division and these same judgments happen is that those true worshipers in Spirit are one body, one faith, one baptism, with Christ at the head.
And that when Jesus prayed the High Priestly Prayer, that we would be one, you're going to see this fulfilled in glory, where there's no more division anywhere. And that that was His work in bringing together a people of all tribes and tongues and nations and uniting them together. And we will enjoy the land and worship Him in the new heavens and new earth with no more of this.
What is true on the inside, when we've come to the Lord and listened to Him, is a truth that is according to His Word in worship. That's the key. Is His Word the center of our lives in worship? Does His Word guide us and instruct us? That means we have to blow the dust off the Bibles in our lives, right?
Did you notice the judgment pronounced on Jeroboam? The sacrifices would be on him for judgment. You know what your King did? He became that for you. He was laid on the altar for you. He was punished for you to forgive all your rebellion. That means you're set free from idolatry. And that shows in your worship. And that shows in giving and coming to the Lord and turning from these things. Stop putting our trust in these things.
May we learn what our divisions say, and ensure that we have turned from our idolatry to worship the living God, considering Him. And He promises He will restore us. He will build up Jerusalem as a people who worship in Spirit and in truth.
You know how the book of 1 John ends? Since this matters so much to the Lord, sometimes people say, "Oh, it's the Old Testament." You know how the book of 1 John ends? "Little children, keep yourself from idols." It matters to Him.
May we worship God according to His word and honor Him in truth and by the Spirit. Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for instructing us in righteousness and in truth. Keep us from these things that we run to by seeking counsel in our hearts. There's a million idols we bow down to. And sin has great consequences. We are so grateful for the righteous King. Grateful that you fulfilled your word and sent us a King perfect in all His ways, without sin, who was laid on the altar and suffered the punishment due to us, that he, that the Father might, through that great work, seek for and find true worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth, who give great care to the word of God. Help us, O Lord, in our weakness. And as that call comes in response for gratitude for such deliverance, keep us, O Lord, by Your Spirit in our lives from idolatry and idols. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Thank you.