God's Truth and Jeroboam's Calf

God’s Truth and Jeroboam’s Calf, 1 Kings 13

Theme
Every aspect of human existence is subordinate to God’s truth. Believers must carefully and accurately represent God’s truth in their witness.
Time: About 931 BC
Background
A previous study dealt with the golden calves that Jeroboam set up in Bethel and Dan from the perspective of his unbelief in God’s Word. This study examines the truth of God and His revelations from the perspective of how truth should be handled by believers.
Jeroboam attempted to secure the throne of Israel (i.e., the ten Northern Tribes) to himself and his house by perverting the truth. Fearing that the people’s observance of feasts in Jerusalem would diminish their allegiance to him, Jeroboam conceived and executed a bold plan: He set up a national religion that feigned links with Israel’s past, but established calf idols as images of the gods who delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage. Jeroboam’s pragmatic political scheming and introduction of calf worship is recounted in 1 Kings 12:26-28.
Overview
Jeroboam’s example was wrong, but how does God expect His people to handle doctrinal truth? Why were the calves wrong from God’s point of view? God commands that His truth be presented and acted upon by men. His expectations regarding man’s knowledge, assent, and belief of theological truth have been precisely defined in Scripture. This study compares the unnamed man of God’s mission and message with Scriptural teachings regarding truth. Then, the study examines how the people of God and individuals should handle God’s Word, in light of the unnamed man of God and the old prophet of Bethel.
God’s truth

1 Kings 13:1-10
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
The unnamed man of God carried out God’s instructions to deliver a rebuke to Israel’s blasphemous worship. God’s judgement in this message was not directed toward Jeroboam, although Jeroboam’s unbelief and scheming had caused him to dishonestly misrepresent God and His glory to the people. The unnamed man of God did not regard Jeroboam, just as Elisha refused to regard Ahab’s son in the desert (2 Kings 3:3,14) and the True Son of David refused to regard Herod the Edomite on David’s throne (Luke 23:9). Because God was most jealous and concerned for the truthful representation of His person, He pronounced judgement against the false calf religion, but Jeroboam’s judgement was not far behind.
The prophecy and subsequent miracles of this account were not merely a show of of God’s power, nor a simple confirmation of the veracity of the message, though they were both of these things.This prophecy stated God’s judgement of the false doctrine and the triumph of truth under Josiah, denouncing the wicked and comforting the faithful. Miracles confirmed and reinforced the content of the man of God’s message.
The issue addressed by the man of God’s mission concerned the true God of Israel, whether what He had revealed about Himself was true, and whether He had changed. Believers today are faced with the very same challenges to their belief and walk in the Lord Jesus Christ: Is God true?
God is true, because He is real
God’s existence is not dependent on any cause; He is self existent. This concept is simply expressed, but it is so foreign to man’s sinful nature that it is impossible for the natural man to grasp apart from God’s grace. Yet, one must either come to the conclusion that material order generated itself from nothing, or that an eternal force without beginning has caused things to be and ordered them. Pointing out the unreasonableness of “spontaneous generation” and the necessity of a preexistent eternal force is superfluous to reasonable men and fruitless to irrational men apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul stated in Romans 1:19-20 that God, His eternal power, and His divinity are demonstrated by creation’s existence and intelligent design. David marveled at God’s power and wisdom as he considered the design of the human body in Psalm 139:14, reinforcing the point that Paul makes in the Romans passage when he said “and that my soul knoweth right well”. Man not only knows there is a God, but he also knows of God’s eternal power and divinity. Calvin notes that all men have this knowledge “manifest in them”, not “to them”, disallowing man from evading culpability before God.
No man’s works or imaginations posses God’s divine qualities. The calves were not, for example, self-existent. All idols are physically or mentally fashioned by men into a god so they all have a beginning. Man rebelliously creates gods in his own image in an attempt to control his own destiny. King Balak (Numbers chapters 22-24) and King Jeroboam both sought to manipulate God’s will through prophets. How foolish to think that any human efforts could accurately represent God, much less control Him in light of who He has revealed Himself to be!
Furthermore, unlike God, these images did not have any capability to make themselves manifest in men’s hearts. No work of man can duplicate God’s power apart from sham and trickery, and certainly cannot demonstrate power and divinity since the beginning of creation.
Since the only thing that man can know of the true God is what God chooses to reveal about Himself, it follows that the ideas of man cannot formulate any truth about God outside of God’s revelation.
God is true, because He is who He has revealed Himself to be
God revealed Himself as the pre-existent, eternal God in Exodus 3:14: “I AM THAT I AM”. He also revealed Himself as the Maker of all things in Job 38-39 and Isaiah 40. He has shown Himself to posses divinity and eternal power. God revealed Himself to be incomprehensible to the human mind apart from His revelation (1 Kings 8:12; Job 11:7-9; Psalm 18:11, 97:2; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Isaiah 40, 55:8-9, 1 Corinthians 2:16).
God expressly forbade man to make any image of Him (Exodus 20:4-5, 23; Leviticus 19:4, 26:1 Deuteronomy 4:15-24). Whoever creates an image exerts control over what that image represents in the minds of those who view it. Our Lord Jesus Christ declared that no man can truly express the image of God since no man has seen God in His glory, except for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (John 1:18). The Incarnation is the only physical image that God has given of Himself, as Scripture tells us in John 1:14, Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3, and 1 John 1:2. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the express image of the Living God, is therefore the only one who can rightfully claim men’s worship as God.
The calves, as with any man made religion, were not able to declare themselves to be anything. Men had to speak for them, since they were not alive. The true God has spoken through man, but He has also spoken to man directly (Exodus19:19; Matthew 3:17, 17:5; Mark 1:11, 9:7; Luke 3:22; Acts 9; Hebrews 1:1-2; all the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Old Testament theophanies). The religions and idolatries of man cannot offer true peace, salvation, or any other benefit; they cannot even speak (Habakkuk 2:18-19). Jeroboam’s invented religion could not even perpetuate his house on Israel’s throne, but God’s Word always accomplishes its purpose (Isaiah 55:11).
God is true, because what He has spoken does not change
God is real and self existent. Because He has represented Himself in this way, men can know that He does not change (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Job 23:13, Psalm 119:89-91, Romans 11:29, Hebrews 6:17-18, James 1:17). Truth must be fully true. It cannot change and remain the truth. God has declared that He is, has been, and always will be constant (Hebrews 13:8). The truth that God has revealed to man is that God cannot be represented by anything made by men. This revelation to man did not change when the Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, since Scripture states that the Incarnation was the work of God alone (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:28-37).
Revelation in Jeroboam’s time concerning Christ was not complete, but the Israelites knew that it was a great sin to represent God by works of their own imagination. Man’s desire to create a god he could control is as prevalent today as it was in Jeroboam’s day, and so is his need to alter received truth to justify his rebellion. Paul warned of this when he commanded the Galatian church to reject any messenger that presented salvation by any means other than the free grace of God totally apart from any work of man (Galatians 1:8-9).
Paul was not hyperbolic when he mentioned “an angel from heaven”. Even today, there are those who claim revelations from angels, altering the instruction of Scripture regarding the nature of God, the basis of salvation, and many other points. One infamous example of this is the false prophet Joseph Smith. Like the old prophet of Bethel, Smith and many others encourage men to return to an accursed dependence on man’s works that is under God’s ban, or anathema. Whatever accursed message is purported to come from angels, from an ecstatic experience, or a erroneous interpretation of Scripture, believers can confidently trust in God’s unchanging truth to guide their journey to the City of the true King.
The handling of truth by the prophets

1 Kings 13:11-34
Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back: And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones: For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
The nation of Israel in 1 Kings 13 illustrates the need for the people of God to handle His truth with reverence and accuracy, applying its life changing message to the heart. Also illustrated is the individual believer’s need to trust in all of God’s Word.
Handling of truth by God’s people
God’s elect have the great responsibility to carefully and accurately minister the entire Gospel truth. Paul stressed the importance of the Church’s doctrine in 1 Timothy 3:15, where Scripture says: “that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Since the truth of God’s glory and salvation is the Gospel, it is evident that the Body of Christ must minister truth with great care and reverence. God’s judgements upon His people in Old Testament history show that He expects His people to live in light of His revealed truth, not their own imaginations.
Old Testament Israel became God’s people by what John Murray calls “Theocratic Election”. By God’s grace they were set apart, charged with portraying His glory before the nations (1 Chronicles 16:24, Psalm 96:3). This Theocratic Election differs from what Murray terms “Soteric Election”, or election unto salvation. Theocratic Election was not unto salvation, as is the Soteric Election that applies to all believers in all times (Paul makes this distinction clear in Romans 9:6), but parallels between these two types of election exist in these points: Both elections are by God’s sovereign grace and choosing, both elections are unchanging, and both elections set their objects apart for a purpose specified by God.
The focus of this point in the study concerns one similarity of purpose between the theocratically elect and the soterically elect. That purpose is to show the entire known truth of God’s glory to the world as seen in Isaiah 43:7: “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” The concept of 1 Corinthians 10:31 is the same: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” These passages are proof texts for the Westminster Confession’s teaching that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
God repeatedly speaks of the relationship between Himself and His people.as a marriage relationship. Marriage forms the allegory of the Song of Solomon and the theme of the book of Hosea. Revelation uses the language of marriage to portray the Church as the bride of Christ. Christians are guided by faith in God’s Word, not by powers of imagination, just as a true and faithful marriage is one in which the bride intimately appreciates the groom for who he is, rather than forming an affection with an object of her imagination. Imaginations in a marriage are condemned as perversions by Christ in Matthew 5:27-28.
Exodus 20:4 prohibits representing God by men’s imaginations and this prohibition is related to God’s marriage allegory in Exodus 20:5. It is well-known that divorce affects children more deeply than the parents. God wrote a bill of divorce for Israel because of Israel’s infidelities with imaginary lovers in Jeremiah 3:6-8: “The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.” The adulterous doctrine that Jeroboam foisted upon a willing people caused untold misery for their children when God divorced Israel and scattered their children among the nations.
Gospel doctrinal truth forms the mission and the strength of the Church. Only in Scripture is the Husband’s image presented. Christ’s Incarnation among men is the only true physical image of God (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23, John 14:8-9, Colossians 1:19 and 2:9, Hebrews 1:3).
God’s people demonstrate His goodness by being faithful to Him. Although the Second Commandment is presented in negative language, it is a positive encouragement to worship God in complete truth, since the commandment ends with the promise of God’s mercy to a thousand generations. May God’s people always carefully attend to the whole truth of God, in light of such a rich promise!
Handling of truth by individuals
The unnamed man of God doubted the revealed nature of God and His purposes. Bethel, to which the unnamed man of God was sent, was under the ban, or set apart for God’s purpose of judgement. The unnamed man of God was commanded not to have any fellowship with the people of Bethel.
Leviticus 27:28-29 describes the ban. Idolatrous Israelite cities were to be put under the ban as discussed in Deuteronomy 13:12-17. God so esteems the truth about His glory that an entire city with all of its inhabitants, livestock, and possessions was to be utterly destroyed for misrepresenting Him. He is justified in doing this, for as Calvin points out, we are created to glorify God. The unnamed man of God knowingly violated the ban he himself pronounced twice.
The unnamed man of God not only ignored the ban pertaining to idolatrous Bethel, but also disregarded God’s unchanging nature. The unnamed man of God knew God’s Word when it was revealed to him and assented to the truth of God’s Word when he delivered it to Jeroboam and Bethel. He saw that Word confirmed in the miracle of Jeroboam’s withered hand. He assented to the truth of God’s Word by refusing Jeroboam’s invitation. But he failed to trust in God’s word and in His immutability when he accepted the old prophet’s invitation to return to Bethel.
The old prophet was guilty of straying from what he knew to be true of God. When the Levites and godly people fled the rule of rebel Jeroboam and his blasphemous cult (2 Chronicles 11:13-16), the old prophet saw nothing wrong with remaining in Bethel. The priest Eli at least scolded his sons for their impiety (1 Samuel 2:23-25), but the old prophet found no fault with his sons’ attendance of Jeroboam’s calf ceremonies. He even seemed eager to hear of the day’s events himself.
The old prophet was under the ban that God had placed on Bethel. Even though the unnamed man of God’s mission and miraculous deliverance from Jeroboam did not cause the old prophet to ponder his apostate ways nor prevent him from falsely representing God’s Word, God’s immediate and severe judgement upon the unnamed man of God did cause the old prophet to assign truth and credibility to God (1 Kings 13:32).
The unnamed man of God and the old prophet displayed false witnesses of God in this account. Paul considered the Church of believers to be the “pillar and ground of truth” and individual believers to be epistles of the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3. As epistles, the testimony that believers bear is not to be in conformity with one’s own imaginations or in conformity to the world, but is to conform only to the Gospel truth presented in Scripture. As Romans 12:1-2 enjoins: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Resources
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Exodus 20:4-5, 1 Kings 13, Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Old Testament, Keil and Delitzsch, Leviticus 27:28-29; 1 Kings 13, C. F. Keil
Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, Second Commandment, Exodus 32:1-5, and Leviticus 27:28-29, John Calvin
Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, Romans 1:19-20, John Calvin.
Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 1 Timothy 1:19 and 3:15, John Calvin
Systematic Theology, Theology - Theism, Divine Attributes/The Truth of God; Soteriology - The Law/The Second Commandment, Charles Hodge
A Commentary on Romans, Romans 1:19-20, Charles Hodge
The Epistle to the Romans, Romans 1:19-20, John Murray
Bible History, Old Testament, Book 5, ch 11, Alfred Edersheim
Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, ch 8 & 9, Josephus
Articles: “Calf, Golden”, “Election” (contributed by John Murray), “Jeroboam”, The Zondervon Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by Merrill C. Tenney

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