"After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
-- 1 Kings 12:28
After Solomon died, his kingdom was split. Through the prophet Ahijah, God told Jeroboam that he would be king over 10 of the 12 tribes. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, would get one tribe so that David's line would not die out. There was a condition, of course. Jeroboam was to follow God and obey Him and worship only Him. Sounds like an easy rule to follow, doesn't it?
Did Jeroboam listen? No. He was afraid that Solomon's son would win back the tribes when they went to worship God at the temple in Jerusalem. He could have trusted God -- the very One who had given him everything in the first place -- to handle the situation. He didn't. Jeroboam ordered two golden calves to be built and presented them as gods to the people. Bad mistake. If he'd studied a little history, he would have known that Aaron did something similar in Exodus 32. God gets very angry when His people worship golden calves.
It's easy to chuckle about this now. We would never bow down and worship a calf made of gold. But don't we? What's the difference between the money we crave and the golden calf? We may not literally kneel before a stack of money but we sure do spend a great deal of time seeking it. Too bad we don't spend that much time seeking God.
I get frustrated when people think the Bible, especially the Old Testament, doesn't have relevance. It contains so much wisdom. We just have to open our minds and our hearts to hear what God is trying to tell us. Forget the golden calves. Put God first. He'll take care of everything else, including His children who stray time and again.
1 comment:
Great word.
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