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TH E KING’S BUSINESS
modern theological terminology, Jeroboam would be called a “liberal," or a “new theol ogy man,” or an “advanced thinker,” and doubtless many said approvingly, “Jeroboam has become a very broad-minded man.” Jeroboam pretended that he was simply con cerned for the welfare of the people, but in reality he was wholly concerned with his o\yn interests. When, the Deyil and evil men try to get men to do wrong, they will always pretènd that they are working for the interests of those whom they are tempt ing. Solomon himself had prepared the way in the hearts of the people for all the abom inations that Jeroboam was introducing (ch. 11:4-8)-. It was not ostensibly the worship of a new god that Jeroboam was introduc ing, but a new way to worship the God of their fathers. When the Devil undertakes to introduce a new religion, or a new theol ogy, he always tries to hoodwink the people by getting them to think that it is the same religion as that of the Bible, only with a modernized way of stating it. The most dangerous errorists today are those who use the old time words, but put a new meaning into them. Even Mrs. Eddy, with her abom inable “Christian Science” errors, blasphe mously used the word “atonement,” but by the word she meant something entirely dif ferent from what men of God had meant by it for cènturies. It was simply the old Jeroboam devilish-cunning over again. Jero boam sought to dothe his calves with »the glory of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, and presumptuously and blasphemously said, “Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Our modern innovators seek to clothe their man made religion with the glories of Christian history. v. 29. “And he set thé one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.” Jeroboam was cunning, as he set up his false gods in places hallowed with sacred memories (cf. Gen. 12:28; 28:19; 35:1; Judges 18:29-31; Deut. 34:1). He also chose places that would be accessible from both ends of the territory over which he reigned.
cause (Prov. 29:25). Jeroboam’s fear that the people would depart from him seemed reasonable, but in reality it was utterly un founded, for he had God’s word for it that, if he would obey, God would be with him and build him a sure house, and give Israel to him (ch. 11:37, 38); so we see that unbelief lay at the. root of all Jeroboam’s mistakes: indeed unbelief lies at the root of all sin. If men really believe God, they will obey Him, and leave all difficul ties with Him. We should note carefully that it was “in his heart” that Jeroboam gave utterance to his unbelief and fear. Many a man says a thing in his heart that he would not say openly. It was ajl right for Jeroboam to “take counsel,” but he took it with the wrong person: he should have taken Counsel with God (Jas. 1:5; Isa. 31). We are not told whether he “took counsel” with his own heart or with the world. In either case the counsel he got was thor oughly bad; it led him to violate the, ex press command of God (cf. Ex. 20:4, 5). He got the idea of the calves, and what he said about them, from Aaron’s action in the wilderness (cf. Ex. 32:4-8). We see here how the sin of one is quite likely to show itself in another a long time afterwards. The destructive critics of to day are simply following in the footsteps of errorists in former days; quite as regardless of the barrenness and judgment that over took them, as Jeroboam was of the judg ment that overtook Aaron and his accom plices in the wilderness. But both Aaron and Jeroboam had gotten their ideas of calf-worship originally from Egypt (see v. 2). Even the professing church today often goes down into Egypt for “improvements in the mode of worship.” The excuse that Jeroboam made to the people for his change in the mode of worship was, that it was "too much fo /’ them, to go way up to Jeru salem to worship. People are constantly seeking some easier way than God’s, but in the final outcome Jeroboam’s way turned out to be a much harder way than God’s way. Men always find their own way hardest be fore they get through (Matt. 11:30). In
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