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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for November 3, 2010
“Beware the Way of Jeroboam”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
What did King Jeroboam do that was so bad?
His name comes up often in the Old Testament, and with about as much love as the name Hitler.
So what did he do that so thoroughly destroyed his legacy?
This is a guy that First Kings 11:28 calls “a mighty man of valor.” There are only a half dozen men in all the Bible who get that title, and Jeroboam is one of them.
He worked for King Solomon, and Solomon saw that Jeroboam was “industrious,” so he put him in charge of his labor force.
Then a most amazing thing happened. Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem one day and was met by a prophet who told him that God was going to split Solomon’s kingdom and give most of it to Jeroboam.
Why? Because Solomon and the people had disobeyed God and worshiped idols.
Through the prophet, the Lord said to Jeroboam, “You shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel.”
God made even greater promises to Jeroboam, with a condition – if he walked in the Lord’s ways just like King David.
So Jeroboam, the mighty man of valor, and vice-president of labor under King Solomon, now had a powerful prophecy of kingship from God Himself.
Had the future ever looked brighter? Had a pathway ever been so beautifully paved for someone as it was for Jeroboam? All he had to do was walk in God’s ways and the world was his oyster.
Well Solomon found out something and decided to kill Jeroboam, so he fled to Egypt, and stayed there until Solomon died.
Then Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king, decided to crack the whip on the people, and they rebelled. And who did they turn to? Jeroboam.
Next thing you know, Jeroboam was king, just as the prophet foretold. Now all he had to do was walk in the ways of the Lord and God had promised him a dynasty.
But then he started getting paranoid. “How am I going to hold on to this power? How am I going to keep these people on my side?”
He started worrying that when the people returned to Jerusalem to worship at Solomon’s temple, they would change their mind about him and return to Rehoboam.
Now stop and think for a second. It was prophesied that Jeroboam would be king at a time when there was no way he would ever be king. God told him it would happen, and it did happen. That should have been a big faith builder.
But Jeroboam got jittery and concocted a scheme. To keep the people from returning to worship in Jerusalem, he created his own places of worship. And for some dumb reason, he didn’t even have them worship God. He created two golden calves instead and proclaimed, “Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
He put one calf in Bethel and one in Dan and told the people to go worship. He created his own feast, his own priests and his own sacrifices. He was making stuff up, and the people did it!
That led to a big showdown with another prophet. Jeroboam was at Bethel, offering incense to his made-up god, when the prophet showed up with a word from the real God. Jeroboam said, “Arrest him!” but while his hand was stretched out toward the prophet, it withered; and the idol altar split in half just as the prophet said.
How many more signs do you need?
But Jeroboam never got the point. He never returned to the Lord. Other judgments came upon him, but he never returned. He left the idols set up at Bethel and Dan, and the people continued to worship them.
And now look at this phrase in First Kings 14:16. Judgment fell on the nation “because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin.”
Jeroboam died and his son Nadab took over and the Bible says, “He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.”
That was a big deal…making Israel sin. And king after king did it, walking in the ways of Jeroboam in which he had made Israel sin. There was Baasha, and Zimri, and Omri, and Ahab and Ahaziah and Jehoram and even Jehu, who destroyed other idols, but inexplicably left the golden calves.
Kings came and kings went, but they continued to walk in the ways of Jeroboam until the people were finally taken captive to the land of Assyria.
When you read about the northern kingdom of Israel, you’ll find that Jeroboam’s sin was brought up throughout the nation’s history. So what was the great evil that Jeroboam was guilty of?
It wasn’t just that he sinned, though that was bad. It was something else, mentioned repeatedly in the Bible.
And it’s something we better not be doing ourselves.
It’s something we need to watch out for in our own lives and the lives of those around us.
It’s something I see people doing, and I am grieved.
And it’s something that is sure to bring harsher judgment and condemnation, just as it brought to Jeroboam, and here it is.
He caused others to sin.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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