Jeroboam’s Mistakes
There were many different factors that led up to the
division in Israel that left that nation split in two. We read of this split in
1 Kings 11-12. There were the usual
attempts to make the northern ten tribes to be convinced that they were right.
They were wrong, but they tried to justify their new divided state and what
they were now doing.
In the New Testament John mentioned that those that “went
out from us were not of us”. In other words, they had been in a mental and
spiritual drift away from us long before they decided to relocate their bodies
away from the faithful brethren. There
are brethren today like that. Some have
left for liberal churches, and some have left to join denominations. Some are
still physically among us but their heart is not with the authority and
teaching of God’s word and with brethren who seek to maintain the authority of
scriptures and the commitment to “prove what is acceptable to the Lord”. They will be leaving soon but they want to
see if they can take whole groups with them.
Please notice the parallels to be seen in the division in Israel and the
divisions among spiritual Israel today.
Jeroboam made the following mistakes:
1.
Trying to appear legitimate by outward honor of
special historical places. 12:25
2.
Cutting off the house of David. V.26
3.
Cutting off exposure to truth. V.27
4.
Making his religion more appealing, liberated,
and convenient. V.28
5.
Ignored the “example” of David, the nature of “specific
authority”, and hated the idea of seeking authority first before acting. V.31,33;
13:33-34; 14:7-10
6.
Employed the doctrines and commandments of men. V.32
How
can the people be led to worship with a different place of worship, with a
priesthood that is not from Levi, and in the manner so different? How does such a change become accepted? I can see that all it would take is to lead
the people to question the “old hermeneutic” and those who interpreted the
scriptures incorrectly all this time did so because of “traditionalism” and “legalism”.
The change agents can keep criticizing the old practices as “traditionalism”.
The old “traditionalism” of worshipping at Jerusalem was because the “legalists”
had been very arbitrary in WHICH examples they followed. Because of “traditionalism” and the blindness
of the old hermeneutic and being so arbitrary in which examples to follow, they
had neglected these important places like Penuel and Shechem.
The
10 northern tribes can say, “We will not
be legalists and traditionalists that think their traditionalism is the only
way. If others were more open-minded they would realize that we should have
never neglected places like Shechem, Penuel, and Bethel. Here are some examples
that they have not been keeping. They are so inconsistent with which examples
are binding”. In view of the way
change agents today are operating, I can begin to see more clearly how such a
large segment in Israel could have gotten swept into the change and justified
it in their own minds.
Today
there are change agents that use Facebook and other social media to gather “friends”.
But, like the northern ten tribes, they then begin “cutting off” brethren who
might question their views on this media. These brethren grow their number of
friends, appealing to the weak and undiscerning, cut off dissenting voices as “traditionalists”, “Pharisees”, and”
legalists”, gathering sympathy from the undiscerning, blocking friends who do
not agree with their views. By cutting
of dissenting voices and keeping only those who approve or will say nothing
negative, and feeding prejudice against faithful brethren by such terms as “legalists”,
“Pharisees”, and “traditionalists”, the crowd they keep on their list are now
swallowing the Kool-Aid. Those are points two and three in Jeroboam’s program
of justifying his promoting and maintaining the division in Israel he was now
leading.
Look
at the six mistakes listed above again. Point three is cutting off exposure to
truth. To maintain a sense of
legitimacy, Jeroboam could not afford to let his people be exposed to the truth
taught by the old traditionalists in Judah. So, he cut off the opportunities for his
friends to see and hear discussions where his views could now be
challenged. It is easy to say the
Levites in Jerusalem were “traditionalists” using a faulty hermeneutic, but
that cannot hold up well is actual discussion where the change agents have to
prove their own hermeneutic is correct and where they are actually called on to
“prove what is acceptable to the Lord”.
Prejudice does not work as well when someone can answer them. So, the change agent must always back away
from actual discussion and debate with the old “traditionalists”. They could
never stand up in the kind of discussion and “much dispute” seen in Acts 15.
They know it too, and so their mode of operation must always be to cut off
those voices of truth that might expose them.
The
modern change agents cut off any on their “friends” list who might expose the
weakness of their teachings, or those who might give their readers a different
impression of the change agent. Thus, they create a cult of personality and use
the old “promise liberty” routine that false teachers have long used in the
past (2 Pet.2) to “allure” people into the changes. The change agents promise liberty from
misguided, hypocritical “traditionalism”, and they have their “friends”
swallowing the bait and regurgitating it to each other as they now have little
or no voices on their list who might reel them in and provide a needed
scriptural rebuke and effort at correction.
Look
at the list of mistakes Jeroboam made again.
We have seen parallels in those first three items. There is an amazing
similarity between the mistakes of Jeroboam and the modern change agents. I
hope you can see what is happening now and how it is moving among brethren in
so many congregations. The bodies may still be together, but soon those who
have influenced them the most through social media will have convinced them to
change the local church or move out from those close-minded traditionalists. The devil has been at work. He is seeking to devour you and any church
that still believes in “proving what is acceptable to the Lord”. We will consider the last three items on the
list in our next post. Please, give it
careful attention. Terry W. Benton
