7th November 2022 – 1 Kings 13:33-34

1 Kings 13:33-34

"33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth."

 

Jeroboam did not learn wisdom from the warning God sent him. These verses show the extent of his evil ways. We need not be surprised at the extremity of wickedness recorded of him. It is inherent in spiritual issues that if a man does not grow better, he will grow worse. No-one can remain stationary in this sphere of life. Shakespeare speaks of the tide which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, but it is another story when the tide is missed. Opportunity recedes with it and sometimes all is lost. It was so with Jeroboam; he went back from the promise of blessing to the depths of wickedness, as if intent upon outdoing his former evil habits. It is only too true that one of the penalties of sin is that we are driven to continue sinning, and sin begets sin until it reaches terrifying proportions. Jeroboam's sin verged on the blasphemous; he deliberately desecrated the holy priesthood and made a mockery of it in the institution of the priesthood of the high places. It may be a measure of how near godless Communism is to the judgment of God to realise that in East Germany, Russia and China, a 'rival' Gospel aping the things of God in pagan ribaldry has emerged, complete with blasphemous slogans and symbols. It is the insult to the divine majesty by arrogant atheism that is spelling the doom of that anti-God system, as surely as Jeroboam's blasphemy brought about the cutting off and destruction of his house from off the face of the earth.