Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Good evening and welcome back!
If you would like, start turning in your Bible’s to .
Tonight we are going to continue our travels with Elisha but we are going to take a detour to a passage we were able to just scratch the surface at this morning.
Tonight we are going to revisit Bethel and the roots of their abandonment of God that prompted both their jeering of Elisha that we read about this morning and God’s response to that jeering.
And like we talked about this morning, by the time Elisha got there, Bethel had became one of the leading, if not THE leading center of idolatry in all of Israel.
And the time had came for God to deal with Bethel, which he did through Elisha.
But, just how did it get that bad?
Why did they end up the way they did?
After all, Bethel wasn’t always this place of sin and idolatry.
And they didn’t just wake up one morning either and decide, “today, I’m going to walk away from God.”
No, it was a slow erosion of their relationship with God that led to their downfall.
Satan didn’t just come and knock on the door one day and then they decided God wasn’t enough.
No, Satan slowly and methodically lulled them to sleep and lulled them away from God.
Fed them lies and deceptions that slowly convinced them that they didn’t need God and that they could take care of everything themselves.
Exactly what James talks about . . .
James 1:13-
Temptation gives way to desire.
Desire gives way to sin.
Sin gives way to death.
Kind of reminds me of what Paul said, the wages of sin is death.
But, people are deceived and convinced that “that happens to other people, not me!”
No, if we are not following God it happens to all of us.
And it sneaks up on us and we become prisoners.
We then say things like, “I can’t help it so God understands.”
Paul says though . . .
Romans 6:1-
And we need to realize that we have been set free from the bondage of sin.
We are not the prisoners of sin and we are not subject to it.
Sin only has power over the Christian if they allow it.
And these people in Bethel had allowed sin to become their master.
And they were led there by their king.
So, if you have found 1 Kings 12, stand with me as we read verses 26-33.
Again, that is .
Scripture Focus
Background
Now, this morning we talked about some of the excuses that King Jeroboam used to establish the golden calves and his alternative religious system, but we didn’t really talk about the background behind why he did what he did.
At the center of all of this was a church split of massive proportions.
At the time Reoboam, who was the son of Solomon was the rightful king, but earlier Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s officials had fled to Egypt and later returned with a plan to divide the kingdom.
The result was a split with 11 tribes going with Jeroboam forming the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who’s capital was Samaria and then Judah forming the Southern Kingdom.
So from the very beginning those in the Northern Kingdom had already began to abandon God and go their own way.
As Jeroboam began to firm up his kingdom and the boundaries, something began to bother him.
In verse 26 of our text the Bible tells us ...
1
1 kings 12:26-
he began to get scared that people would abandon him and go back to Judah, primarily because the Temple was in Jerusalem and they would have to go there to worship.
So, he began to get scared that people would abandon him and go back to Judah, primarily because the Temple was in Jerusalem and they would have to go there to worship.
he began to get scared that people would abandon him and go back to Judah, primarily because the Temple was in Jerusalem and they would have to go there to worship.
And if enough of them returned to Judah, he would be powerless against them and they would kill him as a traitor, so he has to do something about it.
“Expert” Advice
And this is where things begin to really get interesting and they stray completely off the track.
He goes and seeks advice.
The Bible doesn’t tell us who he is seeking advice from, but from other examples in the Old Testament is is probably form a soothsayer, false prophet, or could have even been a witch.
What we do know is that this advice was not from God.
Instead of praying and asking for God’s will, he went down to see Miss Cleo instead.
And why not, they had already been disobedient to God and were slowing turning away from God.
So his advisors, whoever they were told him to make some idols, so he made two golden calves.
And once he had made these calves he had to sell it to the people, because unless they were on board it was a complete waste of time anyway.
And what he does here is play on their need for convenience.
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
It’s too far, too hot, too cold, “too this,” “too that...” Every excuse in the world for the people to NOT go to Jerusalem, NOT go to the Temple, and NOT worship God.
And the people bought it hook, line, and sinker.
After all this is their King!
They didn’t want to bother with a little inconvenience, so the king took care of it for them!
Instead of going to worship God, “I offer you this alternative!
Two Golden Calves!”
And the reason golden calves was because they were symbols that were familiar to the other tribes of other people that the Israelites were co-mingling with .
Those that God had told them to drive out.
Jeroboam was an equal opportunity idolater.
And to make it really convenient, you don’t even have to leave town.
Won’t it be so much fun!
And to calm any fears about God and worshipping God, these calves are going to replace God....Here your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.
And so people wouldn’t have to travel far from their home he set one up in Bethel in the southern part of the kingdom and one up in Dan in the northern part.
He had it all figured out but God wasn’t on board with his plan . . .
1 Kings
And this sin was not just Jeroboam’s sin, it was the sin of all the people, because if they hadn’t approved and participated, it would have never happened.
So, they were all responsible for what was going on.
But Wait, There’s More!
So, setting up the idols was the first step, which was designed to serve as a replacement for the Ark.
But what about the temple, the sanctuary of God?
Step #2 . . .
1 Kings 12:31
He had that covered too.
He built these shrines and appointed priests from all sorts of religions, but like we said this morning, there was not one single Levite.
And there were no Levites because they refused to abandon God.
In fact they all left and returned to Judah.
No problem, he would just substitute some of his own!
But there is one more piece to this puzzle.
He had to do something to account for the Jewish festivals. . . .
1 kings 12:32
Now, even though this festival was held on a day of Jeroboam’s choosing, it was conveniently held exactly one month after the Jewish Day of Atonement.
But I am sure that was just a coincidence.
Just like ti was a coincidence that during this festival they offered sacrifices to these golden calves, just like they did on the Day of Atonement.
The Great Counterfeit
Do we see what is going on here?
Jeroboam had take the Jewish religion and carefully fashioned a counterfeit religion that was just like Judaism except for one thing.
Instead of worshipping God they worshipped the idols.
And the people were so fractured from God they did not even realize what was going on.
Their worship of God had been reduced to religious routines that they did out of convenience and out of obligation, but they were not connected to God.
And all Jeroboam had to do was throw something in there that they were familiar with and they were on board.
And the only thing it accomplished was leading them further and further away from God.
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