Jeroboam

“You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked Me to anger and thrust Me behind your back.” 1 Kings 14:9
In today’s verse, God makes an astonishing statement. He declares that Jeroboam had done more evil than all who lived before him. He didn’t say ‘than your forefathers’, but ‘all who lived before you’. This includes wicked men like Nimrod, and wicked peoples like the Canaanites and Philistines, who practised child sacrifice and other abominable things. What had Jeroboam done that was so evil?
Jeroboam had been given a word from God several years before he became king. God told him that He was going to divide the kingdom after Solomon died, and that Jeroboam would be ruler over ten of the tribes of Israel. At the time, he was told, “If you do whatever I command you and walk in My ways and do what is right in My eyes by keeping My statutes and commands, as David My servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you” (1 Kin. 11:38). Jeroboam had the chance to lead the people in a godly way. But instead, fearing that the people would revert their allegiance to the house of David because of the requirements to go to Jerusalem for their sacrifices, he deliberately led the nation into the sin of idolatry by erecting golden calves at Bethel and Dan (1 Kin. 12:36-30). While Nimrod, and later the Canaanites, all practised idolatry, they had not had as clear a word from God as Jeroboam did. With this knowledge and revelation he had, came responsibility. Their idolatry was out of ignorance. His was deliberate – to keep the people from coming to God.