Calves of Comfort and Convenience
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· 1 viewOctober 16, 2022 Morning Worship
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome!
This morning, if you will, turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Kings.
That is the one right before 2 Kings, if you are keeping track.
Seriously though, this morning we are going to be looking at a passage from 1 Kings 12, verses 25 through 1 Kings 13, verse 10.
And the passage this morning deals with a time when Israel has been divided into two Kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Rehoboam was the king of the southern kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam was the king of the northern kingdom of Israel.
And, the capital of the southern kingdom was Jerusalem and the northern kingdom at the time was Shechem—but later this changed to Samaria.
However, one of the big problems at the time for Jeroboam was that the temple was located, where??
That’s right in Jerusalem, the southern kingdom.
And we know from our Jewish history that all of the Holy Days, feasts, sacrifices—the entirety of the Jewish religious life, centered around the temple, in Jerusalem.
Which would mean that people would have to travel from the northern kingdom down to the southern kingdom several times a year in order to celebrate the Jewish holidays and holy days.
And this is where our passage this morning picks up.
So, I’m going to read a portion of it to wet our whistle and then we can really dig into it.
So, if you are able to, I’d invite you to stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.
1 Kings, chapter 12, starting in verse 25, the Bible records . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
Passage in Context
Passage in Context
Now, we can see here that Jeroboam had a big problem—or at least he perceived that he had a big problem.
Whether he really did or not is really up for debate.
But going back to the beginning of the passage, we see that the first thing he did was . . .
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel.
So, he built the capital of Shechem and set up his home base.
Then he went and built Penuel, which was more like a fortress city, designed to protect the capital from outside attack.
And after he built these two cities, he got to thinking about some things.
And the Bible then says that . . .
And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
So, basically Jeroboam begins to overthink everything and the devil gets in his head.
Absolutely nothing has happened yet, but in his mind, he knows how important worship is to the Jewish people, and he knows that it is so important that his people desire to, and will go back to Jerusalem and worship, like they always have.
And he further thinks that, they will be influenced and talked into revolting against him while in Jerusalem, and he would wind up dead and his kingdom destroyed.
But again, NOTHING has happened and there has not even been any talk of revolt.
It is all IN HIS HEAD.
However, in an attempt to fight against this, Jeroboam meets with his advisors and they come up with a plan . . .
Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
So the first thing he does, under advisement of his Cabinet or Board, if you will is decide that in order to get the people to not go back to Jerusalem to worship, he is going to set up some places of his own for people to go instead.
He was going to make it convenient and comfortable for them.
Something they were used to and wouldn’t take too much effort.
So, he sets up Bethel and Dan as “worship centers” and instead of building temples there, he has two golden calves built, placing one in each city.
And tells the people, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!
Two golden calves—sound familiar?
Yep, he took a page out of Aaron’s book when Moses was gone too long.
It didn’t turn out too well for Aaron and it won’t turn out too well for Jeroboam either.
In fact, very early on we are told . . .
Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
But Jeroboam did not stop there.
He had these calves but he had to have some way to get the people to actually go and worship them, so . . .
He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
So, he built up these shrines all over the place and then just basically picked whoever he could find that would be willing and made them priests, because all of the Levites, the true followers of Yaweh had cut out and got away from that mess.
He even went as far as to set up his own religious holiday and feasts . . .
Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.
He had flat out made a mess of things and God had had enough, so . . .
And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ” And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”
So, we have an unnamed prophet showing up on the scene pronouncing judgement on Jeroboam and the end of his reign, being replaced by Josiah, who was yet to even be born, who would destroy this false worship and idolatry, and return the people to God.
Josiah would bring change and a return to true worship.
And Jeroboam was standing there listening to all of this and he did not like it one bit.
So . . .
So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
So, Jeroboam tried to get them to seize the prophet and arrest him, his hand withered away and the altar split open.
This got Jeroboam’s attention . . .
Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
So the prophet heals him, and Jeroboam grateful for being healed . . .
Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.
So, it ends with the king offering to take the prophet home, feed him, and give him a reward for helping him.
However, the problem was the king’s attitude and behavior had not change.
His heart had not changed.
So the prophet refused.
Not only did he refuse the king, he refused to even leave the same way he came.
He didn’t want to have anything to do with Jeroboam’s mess.
Application of the Passage
Application of the Passage
Now, that is the passage in context, but what does it have to do with the 21st Century Church?
What does it have to do with the Stanford Church of the Nazarene?
Glad you asked!
Let’s go back just a bit and look at a few of the main points again and see how they fit into our lives.
First, let’s go back to the top of the passage again and look at verses 26-27 in chapter 12 . . .
And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
The first thing here notice Jeroboam said in his heart, he began to internalize things.
He began to take everything personally, like he was personally under attack.
Things were changing and happening that he was not comfortable with, so instead of looking at the big picture, he only thought about how it would impact him and his life.
And his main focus was maintaining his own sense of safety and security.
His own wellbeing and his own comfort.
He was a lot like King Hezekiah in Isaiah 39, when he went around strutting his stuff showing off everything in the Kingdom to the Babylonians, to which Isaiah warned him that it would lead to the destruction of Israel.
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”
And what was Hezekiah’s response to this?
So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”
Hezekiah didn’t care what would happen to future generations.
He was only concerned about the here and now, the current state of affairs.
He did not have a vision of the future and what was possible.
He was only concerned with keeping things cozy and comfortable in his day.
Jeroboam is the same way.
In many churches, it is the same way also.
What you have to decide this morning is, are you like this also?
Are you caught up in the present, unable to see the vision?
Taking every aspect of change as a personal attack because it is different and uncomfortable?
Remember Proverbs . . .
Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
And you know what Satan uses in the Church to keep us feeling cozy and comfortable?
To get us all riled up when we get a little uncomfortable?
Golden Calves.
To get us distracted from true worship, he sets up things that give us a sense of worship but they are false.
Things like:
Religion
Rituals
Rules
Objects (Pulpits, Pews, decorations, etc…)
Worship style preferences
Order of service routines and formats
Preaching styles
The way people “should dress”
All of these things that are personal preferences but have nothing to do with true worship of God.
And I say that because all of these things and an endless number of others mask what worship is supposed to be, which is a connection with God through the Holy Spirit.
We take all of these things and think they have to be a certain way in order to usher in the Holy Spirit, but the reality is, strip it all away, because the Holy Spirit is ushered in by us giving ourselves fully to God.
We cling to these things though because we are used to them.
We are comfortable with them.
They give us a sense of accomplishment.
Because they are easy.
And when someone even suggests taking them away, we begin to panic and begin to take it personally because we want things to be easy.
Jeroboam set up the golden calves, worship centers, celebrations, and handpicked priests to make it easy.
I am going to tell you this with all sincerity, you are going to start the process of finding a new pastor.
Don’t settle for what is easy or what makes you comfortable.
Search out and look for what challenges you to grow in Christ.
Because God doesn’t want the “easy” God wants the authentic.
And if this church wants to continue to be a church—it needs to be seeking the authentic with all it’s heart.
And we need to be examining exactly what is really important because the longer we hold on to our personal golden calves the closer we come being like Jeroboam and Hezekiah, worrying about ourselves more than the mission.
Because when we are focused on anything other than the mission...
When we are operating under any other power than the Holy Spirit . . .
It is false and it is a form of godliness . . .
Paul says . . .
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Which is exactly what the prophet did in the end of our passage . . .
But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
And I challenge you this morning, if there has been anything I have been able to teach you over the last decade, let it be the Great Commandment . . .
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Let this dictate your behavior.
Let this inform your worship.
Let this be your anthem.
And let the rest of all of this go— IT IS NOT WORTH IT.
In fact, take it home with you today.
Set up a shrine in your own house.
But reserve the House of God for the Worship of God and only God.