Jeroboam – La Vista Church of Christ

Jeroboam’s Golden Calves

Jeffrey Hamilton — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 18:24:28 +0000

by Clay Gentry

Imagine God handing you immense power, a kingdom, and a divine promise of an enduring legacy. What would you do to keep it? Would you trust His word, or would you take matters into your own hands, even if it meant compromising the truth? This isn’t a modern political thriller; it’s the ancient story of Jeroboam, a man divinely appointed to rule the majority of Israel. Yet, though God gave the throne, it felt precarious. Jeroboam saw a threat to what God had promised. His fear led him to devise a solution – a religious system of his own making – that he believed would secure his reign. The story of Jeroboam’s golden calves serves as a stark warning about how a lack of faith can breed idolatry, resulting in generational sin and national ruin.

Jeroboam’s Rise to Power:
1. God raised up Jeroboam as an adversary to sinful Solomon (I Kings 11:1-10, 26-43).
2. God promised Jeroboam an everlasting kingdom like David’s (I Kings 11:29-39).
3. God made Jeroboam king through Rehoboam’s folly (I Kings 12:1-15).
Jeroboam’s Golden Idols: (I Kings 12:25-33)
1. Founded on a lack of faith in God’s promises. (I Kings 12:25-27; cf. I Kings 11:38).
  1. Jeroboam’s actions reveal a profound distrust of God’s ability to uphold His word without Jeroboam’s manipulative intervention.
  2. When we lack faith in God’s promised security, we often create “golden calves” out of our careers, finances, relationships, or even our own cleverness.
  3. Are you relying on these things more than on God’s unwavering character and word?
2. Represented the God “who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (I Kings 12:28; cf. Exodus 32:1-6).
  1. Echoing Aaron’s sin, it’s a clear attempt to substitute the true God with an idol, while still claiming to worship the God of Israel.
  2. Just as Jeroboam claimed his calves represented the God of the Exodus, we can subtly “Christianize” things that are not of God – cultural trends, personal ambitions, or even distorted doctrines.
  3. Are there areas where you’re trying to fit God into your mold, rather than conforming to His truth?
3. A religion for political stability, not spiritual integrity. (I Kings 12:29-31; cf. 1 Kings 8:12-21)
  1. Jeroboam’s localized altars and self-appointed priests were a direct affront to this divine order. His religion was convenient, but not consecrated.
  2. Jeroboam’s shortcut for political stability led to spiritual ruin for generations.
  3. What might be the long-term spiritual cost of “convenient” choices in your life that lack genuine consecration to God?
4. Mimicked the real religious practices of God (I Kings 12:32-33; cf. Leviticus 23:33-44).
  1. Perpetuating the lie that the golden calves brought the people out of Egypt, Jeroboam mimics the Feast of Booths with his own holy day.
  2. The danger isn’t always overt rejection of God, but the “almost” – almost biblical, almost true, almost obedient.
  3. Are there areas where you’ve settled for a close imitation rather than the genuine article from God?
Jeroboam led Israel into generations of sin before God, then captivity (II Kings 17:6-23).
1. What began as a strategic political maneuver blossomed into the pervasive “sin of Jeroboam” (mentioned 20+ times), which became the spiritual hallmark of the Northern Kingdom for over two centuries.
2. His legacy was not one of enduring power, but of spiritual corruption and national ruin.

Jeroboam’s story is a profound warning. Despite God’s clear promise, his fear and lack of faith caused him to engineer a self-serving religious system. His greatest failure wasn't in ruling, but in his utter distrust of the God who elevated him. We, too, face pressures that tempt us to create our own “solutions,” compromising faith for false security. Don’t let fear drive you to counterfeit spirituality. Instead, embrace God’s call to radical trust. Lean wholly into His unwavering promises, His perfect character, and His timing. Only then can we truly honor the God who never fails.

The Problem with Jeroboam II

Jeffrey Hamilton — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 13:25:00 +0000

by Matthew W. Bassford

In any secular history book, Jeroboam II would look like a successful king. He reigned for 41 years in an age when the length of a reign correlated with political power. Militarily, he was one of the greatest commanders among the monarchs of Israel. During his reign, he brought the seesaw wars between Israel and Syria to a victorious conclusion. By the time he was done, Jeroboam II had conquered not only the Syrian capital of Damascus but even the city of Hamath, 100 miles further north. Not since the reign of Solomon had Israelite power reached so far.

However, there was a problem. Even though God had used Jeroboam II to deliver Israel from Syrian oppression, he himself was not a righteous man. I Kings 14:24 reports that he was every bit as idolatrous as his namesake, Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

As a result, even though Jeroboam II's success was impressive, it wasn't lasting. His son and successor Zechariah only reigned for six months before being assassinated in a palace coup. None of the subsequent kings of Israel came close to Jeroboam II's success, and during the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrians carried the Israelites off into captivity. Under Jeroboam II, Israel prospered for a time, but because they didn't build on a foundation of godliness, they did not endure.

We do well to remember that this same principle applies today. Everywhere around us, we see people and institutions that are apparently prospering despite their rejection of God's will. Men who love money more than anything else build thriving businesses. Churches that have abandoned the New Testament have thousands of people in attendance on Sunday mornings. Those within our nation who advocate turning our backs on God appear to be growing more powerful every year.

However, as was the case with Jeroboam II, success without God only sows the seeds of later disaster. Men who sacrifice their families on the altar of business ambition generally come to regret it on their deathbeds if not before. Churches that thrive because of a charismatic pastor and a fast-and-loose approach to the Scriptures hardly ever continue to prosper after the pastor exits the pulpit. Similarly, those in our nation who take their stand against the Lord will do no better than similar challengers have for millennia.

Sometimes, it's hard for us to bear with the success of the wicked, especially when in our own judgment, we ourselves aren't succeeding nearly as well. However, a longer-term perspective will reveal the truth. As Psalm 1 puts it, the wicked are like chaff that the wind drives away. Only the righteous will endure like a tree planted beside a stream. At best, the wicked can hope to be like Jeroboam II, but even being like Jeroboam II isn't very good.

Where is the passage that says dying young spares the person from evil?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 16:37:35 +0000

Question:

In the Old Testament, I can't remember the book, there was a passage where God was answering a question from the prophet, and God said the reason why the righteous die young or is taken is to spare them from the evil that is up ahead. Where in the Old Testament is that passage?

Answer:

After posting an answer, the reader found the passage for which he was looking for. "The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness" (Isaiah 57:1-2).

This passage finds direct application in King Jeroboam, the first king of northern Israel. He led Israel into sin by creating a false religion. When his son, Abijah, became ill his wife disguised herself and sought out a prophet of God for help. Of course, God saw through the disguise. To her, the Lord declared, "Therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the LORD has spoken! And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam" (I Kings 14:10-13). Because of Jeroboam's evil deeds, his entire household would perish, but his son would die first because the Lord saw that he was the only one in Jeroboam's house worth saving.

This passage also was fulfilled in King Josiah. Josiah worked hard to turn the southern kingdom of Judah back to God, yet all his work would not be enough. But in reward for the effort he put in on God's behalf, God told him: ""Concerning the words which you have heard - because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says the LORD. "Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place."" (II Kings 22:18-20).

It is the nature of mankind to move from righteousness to evil. "Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men" (Psalm 12:1). Or as Micah bemoaned, "The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net" (Micah 7:2). While the wicked are unconcerned by these trends, Isaiah noted that at least the righteous are spared from seeing the evil caused by the wicked.

In speaking of the difficulties of living under oppression, Solomon said, "Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, But they have no comforter - On the side of their oppressors there is power, But they have no comforter. Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead, More than the living who are still alive. Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, Who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3). This is the misery Job expressed. He lost so much that he thought life was not worth living. "Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me! I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave" (Job 10:18-19). This is also the same attitude Jeremiah expressed having to live to see the destruction of Israel. "Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! Let the man be cursed Who brought news to my father, saying, "A male child has been born to you!" Making him very glad. And let that man be like the cities Which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning And the shouting at noon, Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me. Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?" (Jeremiah 20:14-18).

Returning to Ecclesiastes, Solomon also speaks of the lack of contentment in a person's life as something that ruins a life. "If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he - for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man" (Ecclesiastes 6:3-5).