Worshipping Calves

          Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

          After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other. (I Kings 12:25-30)

          Jeroboam thought he had a problem. God had told him that he would be king, but if the people kept going to Jerusalem to worship, they’d likely feel some loyalty to the ruler who lived there. Or, Rehoboam might deny his people the right to worship unless they moved to Judah or otherwise capture his people and force them to remain. It was a matter of national security that Jeroboam keep the people God promised to him away from Rehoboam and Jerusalem, or so he thought.

          So, he made a pair of calves, and told the people that they were the gods who brought them up out of Egypt. He put them in Bethel and Dan, to make them more convenient. In essence, he told them, “you don’t need to go to church to be a good believer.” The calves would work just as well to serve as a focus for the people of Israel. (You did note that we’re talking about calves, again. Wasn’t a calf what tripped up the people of Israel in the wilderness? Yep, but… somehow this is different. Do I need to say, “Oops!”?)

          We hear the same story today. “You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.” Some even go so far as to say, “It doesn’t matter what you worship, as long as you’re sincere and it makes you feel good.” Some people claim to “find God” in nature, or in beauty, or in drugs. I understand. I decided as a kid that because my parents didn’t go to church, I didn’t need to either. I didn’t need all those kids who seemed to merely tolerate my presence in order to be a Christian. I didn’t go to church for about ten years. I missed out on a lot of blessings.

          Even now, I’d much rather go sit somewhere natural, away from people, with the Bible or even another book that provides thoughtful material on which to meditate and a notebook (and a camera, just in case.) But the questions need to be answered: what am I worshipping when I decide for myself what, where, and how I am going to worship? How long can I sit among the trees, or on the beach, or wherever pleases me before I’m worshipping the pleasure, or the trees, or the beach? How long does it take for something about my worship, like the calves, to become the focus of my worship?

          The thing that we claim we don’t need: going to “Jerusalem” to worship in the place and in the manner ordained by God is dangerous because there are other people there who can point out when we’re being like Jeroboam, or that we’re worshipping calves.