Jeroboam: The popular but evil leader raised up by God
The king was oppressing his people. He did not listen to their pleas, and made life miserable for them. They lamented the loss of their nation, their heritage, and their religion.
And so they turned to a champion for them, one who had advocated on their behalf. They made him their king, and he acted like a servant of God and reinstituted their worship.
If you were there, whose side would you be on? How much would you praise and lionize the leader who fought for you and restored your faith? Would you not say, this is God’s man, God’s anointed, God’s king?
In a way, you would be right. But in another way, you would be on the wrong side of history, and horribly so.
The people’s champion was Jeroboam. He was the first king of the northern tribes of Israel as they broke away from the southern tribe of Judah, ruled by cruel King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon and grandson of David.
Jeroboam’s story is told in 1 Kings chapters 11 through 14. It’s a shocking story because he was indeed chosen by God, but he became the most wicked king that Old Testament Israel ever knew.
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Jeroboam’s rise
His intentions may have started well. Chapter 11, verse 28 calls Jeroboam “industrious” and “a mighty man of valor” who skillfully led a labor force. He was a blue-collar man of the people, a populist.
God first called him when King Solomon fell into apostasy. The Lord told wayward Solomon, “I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant” (1 Kings 11:11) — meaning Jeroboam, whom Solomon had put in charge of the workers of the house of Joseph (11:28).
The prophet Ahijah came to Jeroboam and told him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you’” (11:31). “I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel” (11:37).
Obviously, there can be no doubt that God raised up Jeroboam.
When Rehoboam took the throne upon Solomon’s death, Jeroboam’s initial intention was loyalty; he and the people of Israel approached the king and said, “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you” (12:4). But Rehoboam did the opposite: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!”
The people were devastated, crying out, “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.” And so the northern tribes made Jeroboam their king. He was much like Saul, the first king of Israel, who the people demanded and who was also personally chosen by God.
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Now that they had separated from Judah, traveling to Jerusalem to worship at the temple would be at best awkward and at worst dangerous. So Jeroboam instituted a system of worship so the people wouldn’t have to do that (more on this below). He became not only their political leader, but a religious figure.
Again, if you’re one of them, you’re thinking, this guy’s great. He’s our liberator. He speaks for us. He’s making it so we can worship. He’s making the nation great again. Rehoboam was the tyrant, and Jeroboam the hero. And God explicitly placed him in power. If he were alive today, his name would be ubiquitous on signs, flags, T-shirts, and memes.
But here’s where we can apply Proverbs 14:12 — There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Jeroboam’s fall
In chapter 12, verse 27, we see that Jeroboam’s motive for giving the people a closer place to worship wasn’t benevolence, but self-preservation: “If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” He was thinking of himself first.
That wasn’t a good sign, and what Jeroboam did next crossed the line into abomination. He made two golden calves and told the people, “Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (12:28). That echoed what Aaron and the Israelites did at the foot of Mount Sinai in Exodus 32. Both times, it wasn’t their intention to worship other gods; they made images of what they thought was the one true God of Israel, in violation of the second commandment. They decided how they wanted to experience the Lord and assumed it would please Him.
Once you disobey God in one aspect of worship, you’ve opened the door to false religion. That’s what Jeroboam created — his own religion. He made shrines on the high places. He ordained priests who were not of the tribe of Levi, including himself. He instituted a feast on a day of his choosing. He offered sacrifices to the golden calves. All of this, of course, was horrifically sinful, because it was all according to his word and not God’s. It was the highest treason and blasphemy against Him.
And so, regardless of anything he did politically, and no matter how bad Rehoboam was, God pronounced awful judgment on Jeroboam and his house. Chapter 13, verse 34 says, “And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.” In chapter 14, He sent Ahijah to tell Jeroboam:
“9 … but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back — 10 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. 11 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!”
God’s judgment against Jeroboam lasted many generations, for the entirety of the northern kingdom’s existence. Israel never had a “good” king, like Judah sometimes did. (God used Jehu as an arm of His wrath, but he did not end well.) With every wicked king of Israel, Scripture mentions the evil of Jeroboam. Not even monstrous Ahab received that magnitude of condemnation. That’s the legacy of a leader who thought he could represent God.
A word for us
Again, this is a man God Himself chose and the people wanted. What they thought was the Lord’s blessing was actually Him giving them over to their idolatrous hearts.
Remember Jeroboam when you want to lift up a man to deliver you from the evil of the other side, who fights for you, who says he’ll make it easier to worship. His end, like Jeroboam’s, may be the way of death.
Because God has given us one Deliverer. He’s given us one Name. The purpose of the Old Testament monarchy was to prove its failure and point to the only Man worthy to sit on the throne. Jesus is our King and Champion, and He already has all authority in heaven and on earth. We don’t need a David, or Moses, or Cyrus, or Jehu, or Jeroboam.
