To avoid this disaster, Jeroboam made two calves of gold. He set one up at Bethel, and the other at Dan, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” He was the first king of whom we read who set up a religion of his own to support the throne, but he has had a multitude of followers; for this is the real purpose of every State religion down to the present day. He also appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in imitation of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held in Jerusalem on the same day of the seventh month; and on the first day of that feast he went up to his new altar to burn incense for the first time.
God was of course beholding these proceedings, and He sent a prophet out of Judah, who arrived in Bethel just in time to witness this first burning of incense. He made his way through the great crowd, close up to the king, who stood before the altar, and cried out, “O altar, altar, thus saith Jehovah: Behold, a child shall be born in Judah, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall they burn upon thee.” And he gave a sign that these words should be fulfilled, saying, “Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.” The altar was immediately rent asunder, and the ashes, including the incense, we suppose, were spilt upon the ground.
The king in great wrath put forth his hand, and exclaimed to those about him, “Lay hold on him.” But the moment he uttered the words he felt a stiffening of his arm, and realized that he could not draw it back to his body. The bystanders saw this, and not one of them dared to lay hands on the prophet. The king’s tune changes. He says to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored.” The Prophet did so, and the hand was restored as suddenly as it had been stiffened.
The prophet is now a wonderful man in the eyes of the king. Wrath is turned into admiration, and he says, “Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.” What a surprise to the poor prophet! Invited to dine, and to receive a reward, yes, a royal dinner and a royal reward, where he had reason to expect only hatred and threats! How glad he would have been to go! What a feast he would have enjoyed, what a reward he would have received, and what honor he would have had in the eyes of the people! But he answered, “If thou wilt give me half thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread or drink water in this place: for so was it charged me by the word of God.” He turned on his heel, and started home by a different road.
Now here is a man to be admired. He was so courageous that in obedience to the command of God he defied the power of the king. He was so free from ambition as to resist the flattering invitation of the king. And he was so unselfish as not to be influenced by the king’s money. He was proof against fear of danger, against flattery, and against avarice. The way in which he resisted the temptations of flattery and avarice is the more remarkable from the consideration that he certainly could not have seen a reason why he should not eat and drink there if he was hungry. Moreover, if he had been disposed to resort to pleas of expediency, he might have thought that the unexpected invitation of the king should be accepted as a step in the direction of gaining his good will and thereby winning him back to God. But with the plain command of God before him, he made no parley with expediency. Implicit and unquestioning obedience was evidently his rule of life. A man with such a rule may be a hero; a man without it never leaves the world better than he finds it.
View on YouTube
Conspiracy Daily Update 