1 Kings 12:25-33
"25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” 28 So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. 31 He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. 32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. 33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings."
These verses record the response of Jeroboam to the promises of God (see 11:38). Never was there a more disastrous failure. It could, humanly speaking, have been so different with him, for God had been prepared to be with him and build him a sure house. But Jeroboam decided in his heart (26) that God's word was not to be trusted, and took steps, as he thought, to consolidate by subtle strategy what God had freely given him. It did not seem to occur to him that the God Who had separated the two kingdoms in His own wise purposes could keep them so without any connivance from him (27). Jeroboam's solution was fateful, in its conse- quences, for by it he instituted idol-worship once more among the people of God, setting up two golden calves in Bethel and Dan for the people to worship. This was the beginning of a long practice of idolatry which finally brought down the wrath of God upon the chosen peo- ple. Jeroboam has come down in history as the man 'who made Israel to sin', and the next chapters show how thorough he was in that sinister role. The truth is, no-one can estimate the depths to which a man may sink when he fails of the grace of God, and refuses to believe His word, for to do this is to withdraw from the protection even of common grace and finally be given over to the devil. God help us to trust Thy word!