False Worship

June 18, 2019

“Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”” —I Kings 12:28 NKJV

The kingdom of David and Solomon split in two under the ill-informed leadership of Rehoboam. The unified kingdom had from the beginning been a rather tenuous affair, and with Jeroboam at the head of the northern faction, it completely unravelled. The recently completed temple in Jerusalem was the one remaining unifying factor that posed a threat to Jeroboam’s rule, which he understood completely. Official worship was sanctioned only at the temple, so in order to secure his rule, Jeroboam decided to co-opt the temple by establishing two rival centers of worship in the northern kingdom. His strategy was brilliant. Instead of establishing a rival religion, he had two golden calves commissioned—an appeal to an ancient tradition going back all the way to the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and said, “These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt,” identifying them with the One True God. 

The most pernicious form of idolatry is not the outright denial of God, but the substituting of a lesser, more convenient god that suits our purposes, all the while claiming it’s the One True God. The Church has done this repeatedly through history, and continues doing it today. We don’t like admitting it, but most of us prefer a god who confirms our biases and blesses what we have already decided to do, but a convenient god is no God at all. The Scriptures are our only protection against our proclivity to create God in our image. I am grateful for the guidance and correction they give to all who seek God as he is, instead of as they want him to be.