Lessons From Betrayal

by Greg Neely, Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Category: Lovers Of God's House | Jul 1999

Israel divided

God promised to tear the kingdom from Solomon and give it to Solomon's servant because having turned away his heart from the Lord Solomon went after other gods.

Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen (1 Kin. 11:12,13).

Solomon's servant to whom the kingdom would be given was Jeroboam, a valiant warrior. But he was already a rebel. The prophet Ahijah told Jeroboam that the ten northern tribes would be his over which to reign as king. God would be with him if he obeyed the Lord and would build an enduring house for him as He had built for David. What a promise! But Jeroboam promptly forgot it! Meanwhile, as Solomon's successor, Rehoboam, Solomon's son, took the throne in Jerusalem. He rejected the counsel of his elders, treated his subjects with harsh discipline and lost their loyalty. They said: 'What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; to your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!' (1 Kin. 12:16). Israel was divided as God had said it would be! Jeroboam was made king and lived in Tirzah. Rehoboam remained in Jerusalem, king over Judah and the tiny tribe of Benjamin. God's word had been fulfilled.

Jeroboam was put on the throne over Israel by God's hand. He could never have achieved such a position by right, nor by inheritance. It was God's miracle in his life! But he quickly betrayed that trust. Jeroboam thought the hearts of the people would return to Rehoboam if they travelled to Jerusalem. So he made two golden calves, one for Bethel in the south and one for Dan in the north. 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt' (1 Kin. 12:28). The long slide away from God had begun. They should have known better from their history. After the exodus from Egypt, while Moses was up the mountain receiving the pattern for God's house and God's worship, Aaron crafted a calf down in the valley and brought about the death of many of the people as a result (Ex. 32:4,28). Jeroboam's words echoed Aaron's as he presented the idol of their destruction.

The place of the Name

'But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!' So exclaimed Solomon years earlier as he dedicated the newly finished Temple in Jerusalem. He recognized its importance: '... that Thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which Thou hast said, "My name shall be there"...' (1 Kin. 8:27,29). He appreciated that the infinite God of the highest heaven chose to dwell among His people in Jerusalem, the place where He had put His Name. Jeroboam missed the point! God chooses where He will dwell; God chooses what sacrifices are acceptable; God chooses how and when He will be worshipped; men do not! And all the good intentions in the world do not make up for an inaccurate and insubordinate plan of service. Not then! Not now! 1 Kings 12:30 makes that clear: 'Now this thing became a sin...' And having missed the mark on the importance of the place of God's name, that first error led to others: priests from any tribe, but Levi; a new feast to imitate Judah's feast '... which he had devised in his own heart' (12:33). It is no wonder that he instituted methods of service that were in gross error. The apostle Paul referred to the same problem when he wrote the second epistle to Timothy:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths (4:3,4).

If we miss the importance of the place where God dwells, the place where He who cannot be contained in the highest of heavens chooses to place His Name, then we've gone wrong at the very first step of our disciple path. And thus Jeroboam, who should have known better, led the people astray.

God's word to Jeroboam, through Ahijah the prophet to Jeroboam's wife, shows how God felt about his sin:

I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israel... you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back - therefore behold, I am bringing calamity on the house of Jeroboam... I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone (1 Kin. 14:7,9,10).

God has given us a kingdom in which we do well to obey:

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28,29).

Idolatry leads to captivity

In contrast, it is marvellous to see the mercy of God in relation to Manasseh, two and a half centuries later, when he reigned over Judah in Jerusalem. He is introduced as one who did evil in the sight of the Lord. In fact, he was arguably Judah's worst king, erecting altars for the Baals and making Asherim, offering his sons as sacrifices, practising witchcraft, divination, sorcery! What betrayal! Tradition has it that Manasseh was the king in whose reign the prophet Isaiah was killed, being sawn in two inside a hollow log. Manasseh placed a carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, '...of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I have put My name forever"' (2 Chr. 33:7). The idolatry that was prominent during his reign caused God to declare: 'I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight...' (2 Kin. 21:14,15). As a result, 'the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon' (2 Chr. 33:11).

Ezekiel 33 describes a principle we see in action in Manasseh's case. Verse 11 and following describe the attitude of the Lord:

'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn away from his way and live' ... But when I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die', and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness... he will surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him.

Manasseh, in his distress, entreated the Lord and humbled himself.

When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God... he built the outer wall... he also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD... he set up the altar of the LORD... and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel (2 Chr. 33 13-16).

His profound repentance moved the heart of God to restore him again to his place on the throne. Notwithstanding his former atrocities in the house of God, he turned from his wicked way, and served the Lord. And God accepted him!

Right position - wrong condition

Jeroboam was raised up by God to a position he did not deserve and could never have attained in his own right. He turned his back on the Lord to go after his own ambitions and to make a name for himself. He forgot the value to God of the place in which He had put His Name, the place in which He dwelt, the place to which His people were to come to Him. Manasseh, on the other hand, evil king that he was throughout his reign, lived in Jerusalem and served in the house of God. He was in the right place, but his condition was such that God was angry with him, and even in such close proximity to the house of God, he went completely wrong. In mercy, God brought him into circumstances that restored him to correct service in the correct place.

God still has a house where He dwells among a people whom He has chosen for Himself, 'whose house we are, if...' (Heb. 3:6). There is a place. There is a correct condition for service. It is imperative for us to ensure that we do not get led away from God's place, as did the people under Jeroboam, to a more convenient place. Convenience is no excuse for error! Jeroboam brought sin on the people by leading them away from the place of the Name. We must ensure that being in the right place does not give licence for wrong practice in a poor spiritual condition.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance

Like Manasseh, when we return to God in repentance for sin committed, 'none of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him' (Ezek. 33:16). Paul told the Church of God in Corinth what applies to us as well:

I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us (2 Cor. 7:9).

May we learn from the betrayal of Jeroboam that there is no licence for error, however well intentioned; and from the repentance of Manasseh that 'perhaps God may grant... repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth' (2 Tim. 2:25).

Biblical quotations from the New American Standard Bible.

Greg Neely, Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Jul 1999
Lovers Of God's House