Under Solomon’s peaceful reign Israel lived in luxury, attributable at least in part to a heavy tax burden, allowing Israel to militarily and economically dominate the area and control its profitable trade routes. This tax burden eventually generated resentment, and when Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, rejected the advice of his experienced advisors and listened to the younger men, who supported the heavy taxation (1 Kings 12:8-11), the northern ten tribes broke away and formed a new nation, proclaiming Jeroboam their king. Rehoboam was left with only two tribes—Judah and Benjamin— and part of the tribe of Levi.
Jeroboam had been an effective administrator under King Solomon and the prophet Ahijah had revealed God’s intention to make Jeroboam the ruler of the ten tribes to him beforehand: “…Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you … because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David…” (1 Kings 11:31-33).
Jeroboam then ruled over the northern ten tribes of Israel with Ahijah encouraging him to rule according to God’s law (1 Kings 11:37-38), and he was diligent during his first few years until he became apprehensive about his people’s religious life, which centered around the temple and priesthood in Jerusalem, controlled by his rival King Rehoboam. He did not want his subjects to come under the sway of Rehoboam again during their visits to Jerusalem so, instead of trusting in God he devised a cunning plan.
Against God’s specific instructions he created two golden calves to worship, and strategically placed them at the northern and southern ends of the country (1 Kings 12:28-29), promoting idolatrous worship and appointing his own priests who were not from the tribe of Levi (verse 31). He also changed God’s annual Holy Days. Instead of observing the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month as God commanded, he instituted an alternate feast in the eighth month (verse 33).
Jeroboam’s counterfeit religion, with its own priesthood, gods and religious festivals was destined to play a major role in Israel’s downfall. Not one of Israel’s kings who followed Jeroboam initiated the necessary reforms that would have led the nation back to God’s way of worship. Instead all continued in their sins (2 Kings 3:3; 10:29; 13:2) and God eventually allowed them to be taken into captivity by the Assyrians. “Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord… For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam… until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight…So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day” (2 Kings 17:21-23).
The approach and practices Jeroboam set in motion—substituting his own days, methods and kinds of worship for those God commanded—have continued down to this day. God tells us in His Word when and on which days we are to worship. He does not want us to invent our own festivals or borrow them from the pagan practices. God does not give us a choice on how we are to worship Him (Deuteronomy 12:32). He only gives us a choice of whether we will worship Him according to the instructions He has given.
