Title As You Will (1 Kings 12:25-33)
Contents
Since people cannot live alone and live together, they must keep their promises and obey the rules for the good of the community. If we do what we want, neither society nor the state can survive.
A contract is said to be a contract that is legally enforced among promises. An important principle in capitalist society is the 'principle of freedom of contract'. Starting with the visible transaction, all life is governed by the free contract of the parties. Even when riding the bus, although a contract is not written, a contract is actually concluded between the bus company and the passenger, and the contract is executed according to the terms and conditions of carriage.
However, if the contract is not fulfilled, various problems arise. In the case of a sales contract, if the buyer violates the contract, the down payment already paid becomes a penalty, which belongs to the seller, and the contract becomes null and void. On the other hand, if the seller violates the contract, the buyer must pay double the down payment and cancel the contract.
This covenant was also made between God and us. In English, the Old Testament is called the Old Covenant and the New Testament is called the New Covenant. Old Covenant means ‘Old Covenant’ and New Covenant means ‘New Covenant’. However, this contract is not just a contract, it is a contract made in blood. It is a contract of life. Thus, a terrifying death will follow for the violators of the contract.
In Genesis 15, when God promised Abraham, “I will give you the land of Canaan and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand of the earth,” Abraham asked for a sign. Then God made a covenant with Abraham.
He commanded Abraham to put the sacrifice on the altar, and to divide the sacrifice in two. Here, ‘splitting the sacrifice’ means to warn that if one party to the covenant breaks the covenant, it will be split like the sacrifice, that is, life will be lost.
400 years after that covenant, when Israel left Egypt and lived in the wilderness, it was replaced with a concrete new covenant through the Law given at Mount Sinai. The content of the covenant was, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” If they obey God's word, God will protect them and give them blessings;
But the Israelites did not keep that covenant. This means that the so-called contracting party did not fulfill the terms of the contract that it was supposed to abide by. It was an act of worshiping other gods other than God, that is, idolatry. A typical example is Jeroboam.
Jeroboam did what he wanted
The kingdom of Israel was divided into North and South, and the northern kingdom, according to the false tradition established by its founder Jeroboam, committed a great sin of making and serving golden calf idols in Bethel and Dan, not in the Jerusalem temple that God had appointed.
When we read the Book of Kings, we read 'walking in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat' (1 Kings 16:31), or 'walking in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat' (1 Kings 22:52), and 'the cause Jeroboam caused Israel to transgress' (1 Kings 22:52). He did not depart from his sins' (2 Kings 10:31). These stories tell us that the successive kings of Israel continued to inherit the wrong tradition of idolatry established by Jeroboam, the first king and a party to the division of the kingdom, and as a result, they could not escape the wrath of God. In this way, Jeroboam, who was the one who caused Israel to break the covenant with God and sin, and incite God's wrath, was taken to the throne. He made it clear that this was the beginning of misery and curses.
If we do not live according to the Word and live according to our own will, there will surely come a time when we will regret it. You may have a wrong past where you think, ‘Why didn’t I do that then?’ or ‘Why did I do that then?’ But there is no point in regretting forever. Now our job is to not repeat that mistake. Let's keep in mind that we should not live like the people of Israel, who continued to uphold false traditions and brought judgment upon God because we did not realize that it was wrong to do our own thing.
The object and place of worship of your own choosing
Jeroboam made two golden calves and placed them in Bethel and Dan, claiming to be the “gods who brought you out of Egypt” and compelled them to serve them (verses 28-29). The reason is that although Jeroboam succeeded in politically segregating independence from Judea, he could not ignore the symbolism of Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom, as a religious center. “If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the heart of this people will return to their lord Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah” (verse 27). . This means that, although Shechem was made the political center, a thorough separation from the southern kingdom was necessary to win the hearts of the people who were turning to Jerusalem, which still serves as a religious center.
The reason Jeroboam made a golden calf and placed it in Bethel and Dan was to prevent the people of the northern kingdom from worshiping at the Jerusalem Temple. So, in the beginning, the golden calf was made not as an object of idolatry, but as a symbol of God's presence. It was common in neighboring countries at that time to symbolize the presence of the gods as animals. Therefore, Jeroboam also made a golden calf to show the people God's presence so that they would not go down to the temple in Jerusalem.
However, even if Jeroboam himself made the golden calf as a symbol of God's presence without the impure motive of idolatry, it was against God's will in light of the commandment, "You shall not make or serve any image." Therefore, whether intentionally or not, the image of the golden calf has become a sin of idolatry. As a result, Jeroboam could never escape the responsibility of letting Israel fall into sin.
We must not live with Jeroboam. I have to let go of my thoughts, realize what God wants me to do, and do my best to do it, even if it hurts me. Please keep in mind that it is very dangerous to think and act on your own terms only for your own benefit.
The reason why the golden calf was made and placed between Bethel and Dan was to provide convenience to the people because Bethel was on the southern border with Judea (south end) and Dan was on the northern border (north end). In particular, because Bethel was too close to the border of Judah, it was still uneasy to make only one Bethel the center of religion.
There have been attempts in the past to move the capital to the south of Daejeon because Seoul is too close to the armistice line. Controversy still continues.
It's just like that phenomenon. In this way, Jeroboam made a huge and irreversible mistake by competing too much for himself and with his brother Judah.
He said, “This thing has become a sin” (30). It means that God considered Jeroboam's act a sin. This is because the second of the Ten Commandments was violated and the act of disregarding the place of worship set by God.
No matter what you think or the opinions of those around you, doing something evil in God's eyes is a sin. If God says it is a sin, we must understand that it is. Therefore, we must not do things that God hates. Under no circumstances should you turn away from God's will and live a life that insists on your own will.
Other sins committed at will
“He also built high places, and made priests from the common people, not the descendants of Levi, and set a festival in the eighth month, that is, on the fifteenth day of the month, similar to that of Judah” (verses 31-32). It was a sin against God's will to make a priest as an ordinary person, not a Levite. The word 'normal' means 'as anyone wants'. Although the Law stipulated that only Levites were to serve as priests (Ex 28:1-4), Jeroboam made the priests ordinary. It was because the pious Levites at that time opposed Jeroboam's policy of the golden calf. Then Jeroboam did this as a reaction against him, even violating the provisions of the law. As a result, pious Levites in large numbers fled to Judah to preserve their purity of faith, and other tribes who followed them to serve Jehovah faithfully returned to Rehoboam, making Judah stronger.
Also, Jeroboam changed the festivals set by God at will. Traditionally, July 15 is the Feast of Tabernacles, a time to give thanks for the year's harvest. But Jeroboam changed it to August 15th. Of course, there was a reason for doing that. This is because the harvest in the north is about a month later than in the south. But Jeroboam did not simply change the date of the feast to fit the seasons, but did so to keep the people from visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles in July. You don't know what a big mistake it is in the sight of God because you violated these important laws and made everything your own way.
When we put on our clothes, if we sew the wrong button on the first one, we will get the other buttons wrong over and over again. Likewise, Jeroboam, who had succeeded in segregation and independence from the kingdom of Judah but was politically and religiously weak, set up false religious traditions at his own will to compete with the kingdom of Judah, and Israel became a rebellious king who fell into idolatry for generations.
It is often said that the 21st century is the era of infinite competition. That is why we say that our competitors are not just one or two people around us, but more than 6 billion people from all over the world. But excessive competition makes everyone unhappy. Therefore, we must abandon excessive competition and strive for coexistence. Efforts for coexistence make everyone a winner. This is the way everyone lives. The reason the Korean Peninsula is in a state of extreme tension these days is due to excessive competition. This is because, so far, efforts have been made only for strengthening the power of the leader and stabilizing the regime rather than for genuine reconciliation and coexistence.
Jeroboam committed three irreversible sins due to excessive rivalry with Judah in the south. And that iniquity became a terrible snare for Israel to break the covenant they had made with God over and over again. Doing your own thing like this makes everyone unhappy. Therefore, I pray that you will be the ones who decide and execute everything in accordance with God's will and in a direction that is beneficial to all of us, rather than 'doing what I want'.