Saturday 12 Feb 2022

February 12: 1 Kings 12:26-32

Key Verse: 1 Kings 12:28
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

Devotion:
I used to wonder how people could be persuaded to worship statues of animals… but then you see people worshipping statues of people, and then you see people worshipping animals… it all seems to come down to who has the best, easiest or most unique things going!

Jeroboam did not want the people to go back to following the king of Judah which was Rehoboam. He took counsel from others to see what the people were most likely to follow or believe – probably the only wise thing he did! The advice he got back seems to make me think the people he asked had no real grasp of what people were like! The same can be said for our modern world too; we have some people in government who have no idea how others live because they are from such a privileged society they believe everyone must be like they are!

So, Jeroboam went overboard and built shrines on high places. The builders of these shrines were not the Levites as God had ordered; they were ordinary people. They were not building something to worship God through or with but shrines dedicated to the golden calves he had made and placed in recognised places. They even had a big feast and sacrificed to these so called gods. This is when I question what the people must have been thinking…

But when you look at the society at those times, they had been brought up to follow and trust their kings because it was God who had first instituted them having kings, not because He wanted them but because the people had demanded them as a way of having something tangible to follow. They had trusted God and now were trusting their kings without question… When Jesus came, He informed the people they should question things and make sure what they were being asked to do followed the scriptures – which is what we need to do with everything we are asked to do in our lives!

Points to Ponder:
Do you simply obey your leaders?

Do you see if they are following God’s examples and requests?