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was a religious sin, a sin against the Holy Spirit. As a leader of the people and a master in Israel, he, for worldly ends, debased the worship of God, and substituted for the ordinances of the Most High an easier and pleasanter, man-made religion, acceptable to all classes. With the eye of a politician and statesman, Jeroboam saw that if the people continued to worship God in the right way, his hold on them would be weakened and his power and position seriously jeopardized. “ Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David if this people go up to sacrifice at Jeru salem, and they shall kill me.” Jero boam has had multitudes of successors. It has always been the way of crafty politicians, subtle statesmen, and men of the world, to make religion serve their own ends. “ So Jeroboam took counsel . . . and made two calves of gold, and said, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem— behold thy gods, O Israel. And this thing became a sin.” “ Moreover, he made priests—which were not of the sons of Levi— and sacri ficed unto the calves which he had made, on the altar which he had made, even in the month which he had de vised of his own heart.” There is in this old-world story a marvellous and striking analogy to much of the religion of today; man made, State-controlled, devised and regulated oftentimes b y . men of the world without the slightest pretension to spiritual knowledge. Religion must be made easier for the people. The Bible lays upon them bur dens too grievous to be borne. The stern Puritanism of our forefathers, their rigid adherence to the letter of Scripture, their searching cross-exami nation of all who wished to become members of their churches, and all the narrowness and intolerance of a too
One is naturally curious to know wherein Jeroboam so exceeded the wick edness of other kings, that he has thus been pilloried for all times in the sacred page. There were many wicked kings before and after him: Áhab, of whom it is said, “There was none like Ahab, which did sell himself to work wicked ness. And he did very abominably;” or Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, “ which the Lord would not pardon,” and had “ done wickedly above all that the Amorites did.” Why not Ahab? Why not Manasseh? Why not many others who also com mitted gross abominations? There must have been something pe culiarly evil about Jeroboam’s sin for the Spirit of God to single him out as the progenitor in wickedness of all these evil and idolatrous kings. There is no gross crime laid to his charge. On the contrary, we read that he was a mighty man of valour, and in dustrious, and that wisest of men, Solo mon, made him ruler over the house of Joseph. His kingdom was, moreover, given him by God. “ I will give it to thee— even ten tribes—and if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and walk in My ways, *I will be with thee.” Moreover, he did much for re ligion, and was no doubt immensely popular. “ He made an house of high places, and made priests . . . and ordained a feast . . . and offered upon the altar.” Yet this man stands out pre-eminent ly above all others as the man who made Israel to sin. Curiosity alone might cause us to ask why this should be so, for we may be sure that meaningless redundancy has no place in the Scrip tures, and the very frequency of the phrase suggests that for some reason the Holy Spirit regarded the sin of this man as being of a worse character than that of such evil-doers as Ahab and Manasseh. And the reason is that his
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