The people of the ten tribes who refused to crown Rehoboam for their king, gathered in another great meeting and chose a ruler for themselves. They chose Jeroboam, and he set up his kingdom at Shechem. Jeroboam remembered the words that the prophet Ahijah had told him!, and he knew it was God who caused the people to choose him for their king. He remembered, too, that the prophet had said God would bless him very much if he would try to rule the people wisely and if he would seek to do right as David had done.
But Jeroboam had never trusted God so fully as David trusted him. He believed he should try to help himself as much as possible without expecting God to help him when he helped himself. He had seen the idol-temples that Solomon built for his heathen wives at Jerusalem. Perhaps he even knew that sometimes Solomon himself went into those temples to worship. Then when he had fled from Solomon to hide in Egypt he saw the worship of the Egyptians. “These people, you remember, worshiped animals, and believed that cattle and cats and such things were sacred. They built large temples for sacred oxen, and worshiped them with sacrifices.
Jeroboam was afraid to let his people go down to Jerusalem to worship God in the beautiful temple, which Solomon had built. He thought they might wish to become one nation again with the people of Judah if they should go often to the temple. So he thought he would try to change their religion.
First he collected much gold; then he had it melted together into one great mass. From this mass he had two images of calves molded. These he set up before the people. Then he said, all the long way to Jerusalem to worship God; you may worship him here in your own land. I will build two places of worship; one at Bethel, in the southern part of the land, and the other at Dan, in the northern part of the land. And I will set up one of these golden calves in each place, for these are the gods which brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt.”
Then Jeroboam built houses for the golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan. He made altars at those places to offer sacrifices to the gods; and he chose men to be priests, just as the Levites were chosen to be priests in the worship of the true God. He also appointed feast-days at the same time of year as the feasts were held at Jerusalem, because he did not want his people to go down to worship at Jerusalem at any time.
This was a great sin, and God was much displeased with Jeroboam. He would have kept the people of Israel from uniting again with the people of Judah even if they had continued to go to worship at Jerusalem. But Jeroboam had not trusted God to keep the kingdom, he was trying to keep it for himself.
God sent a prophet to Bethel to cry out against the evil that Jeroboam had done by causing the people to worship the golden calves. When the prophet came, Jeroboam was offering a sacrifice upon the altar that he had built at that place. The prophet came bravely up to the altar and told about some dreadful things that would happen upon it some day. He said that God would give a sign to prove the words were true that he had spoken about the altar. The sign was to be that the altar would suddenly fall apart and the ashes would pour out upon the ground.
Jeroboam became angry when he heard the prophet’s words, and he commanded his servants to catch the man. He, too, reached out his hand to seize the man of God, but when he did so his hand became stiff and the flesh dried onto the bone. He could not move the hand at all. Just at that moment the stones of the altar fell apart, letting the ashes pour down upon the ground, and Jeroboam knew that God was causing these things to happen.
Now the wicked King of Israel was very much frightened, indeed. He forgot that he had wanted to hurt the man of God, and he began to beg earnestly that the prophet would call upon the Lord and pray that his withered hand be made well. When the prophet prayed, God was merciful to Jeroboam and caused his hand to be restored as well as it had been before.