The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 279

Obristians ooneider religion ine.ppropriate to business competition and to political movements. In this they resemble the son of Nebat. 2. It violated the fwnila,.. mental law of the Decalogue. If the first command was not actually broken, the second was, necessarily. Had these calves merely been the outward symbols of Jehovah, they were amongst the forbidden" images." Jeroboam knew this. He remembered the calf Aaron made, for hie words were an echo of those of the first high priest. He knew that only the intercession of Moses then saved the people from destruction, yet again he defiantly disobeyed. Show the peril of allowing images, crucifixes, banners, the elements in the sacrament, &c., to take a false position in Christian worship. Even if the initiated worship God through these, they break (in spirit) the second command; while the more ignorant are with equal certainty led to the violation of the first. 3. It involved and necessitated other sins. (1) The people worshipped in the place God had not chosen, as He bad chosen the temple. (2) They bad no ark of the covenant on which rested, and because of which was promised, the real presence of God. (3) The priests were chosen by the king in opposition to the ordinance of God (vers. 31, &c., ex universo populo. (4) The national feast of tabernacles was changed from the seventh month (Levit. xxiii. 84) to the eighth, not only because the harvest was later in the north than in the south of Judah, but to widen insidiously the breach between the kingdoms. So in all ages and in all spheres one sin leads to another. It would be better to die as Abigail (eh. xiv. 13) than to reign as Jeroboam.-A. R. Vers. 26-80.-Tiie Golden Galves. Jeroboam here earns for himse1f that name of evil repute-" the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." As the leader in the revolt of the ten tribes he was simply fulfilling a Divine purpose. " The thing was from the Lord,"-the ordained penalty of Solomon's transgression (eh. xi. 31, 33). But this setting up of the golden calves, this only too successful attempt to sever the sacred bond that bound the people of the whole land in one common allegiance to the temple and the great invisible King who sat enthroned there, bore a widely different character. This was not "from the Lord." It was wholly evil. "The thing became a sin," and the sin of Jeroboam became the prolific source of sin in Israel through all succeeding generations (see eh. xiv. 7-16). This transaction illustrates- !. THE FATAL PERVERSITY OF A LAWLESS AMBITION. This was Jeroboam's ruin. God, by the prophet Ahijah, bad promised to establish him in the kingdom on certain conditions (eh. xi. 88). There was no wrong in the mere fact of his seeking to verify this prediction. His sin lay in the nature of the means he adopted. He thought it needful in order to his having a " sure hoUBe " that the people should be kept from going up to sacrifice at Jerusalem. In other words, he would strengthen his house at the expense of doing deep dishonour to the "House of the Lord." His own petty kingship was more to him than the In.finite Majesty of Jehov[lh. Thus we see how a carnal ambition (1) is subject to needless fears; (2) trifles with or ~efies a power that it finds to be infinitely stronger than itself; (3) thinks to secure its ends by means that actually defeat them; (4) is deceived by its seeming successes. History is full of examples of the way in which men have sought power for them- selves, either by the abuse or the degradation of things sacred, or have thought to serve ends right in themselves by unrighteous means. This was one form of Sut[lnic temptation to which our blessed Lord was subject. "All these things will I givo ~bee," &o. (Matt. iv. 8, 9), and his professed followers have too often fallen beforo 1t. II. THE ARTIFICE OF A WICKED PURPOSE. This is seen in the way in which Jero• boam practised craftily upon the religious sentiment of the people in the service of his own ambitious designs. (1) He pandered to their idolatrous propensities. The "golden calves" may have been intended as a memorial rather than n representa- tion of the Deity. But they were too suggestive of the base, sensuous worship of Egypt, and violated the second commandment if not the first. (2) Ho mtule pre- tence of consulting their ease and convenience. "It is too much for you," &c. (3)  282 'IRE FIRS'r BOOK OF :KINGS. [cII. XIII. 1-10,