You always have three options. There is Jeroboam’s path, Rehoboam’s path, and Josiah’s path.
Jeroboam was the first king of the Northern Kingdom. He worried his people would desert him and return to Rehoboam (Solomon’s son who was now king only of Judah). To keep his people loyal to him, Jeroboam built idols and altars, one up north in Dan and another down south in Bethel. His plan worked—Israel began to worship Jeroboam’s golden calves, 1 Kings 12:25-31. Jeroboam got rid of the Levitical priests and ordained his own priests. “He ordained him priests for the high places, for the devils, and for the calves which he had made” 2 Chronicles 11:15.
God punished Jeroboam. One prophet came to foretell the doom of Jeroboam and all his descendants, 1 Kings 14:6-16. Another prophet came to speak destruction over Jeroboam’s pagan altar, an event that would not happen for 300 years:
“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” 1 Kings 13:2.
This meant the absolute end of Jeroboam’s altars, because even idol worshippers considered the presence of a dead body a desecration from which there was no recovery.
Jeroboam chose the path of evil.
King Rehoboam lost eleven tribes of the kingdom due to the sin of his father Solomon, as foretold in 1 Kings 11:11-13. But Rehoboam held onto the territory and people of his own tribe, Judah, and he welcomed the return of the Levitical priests. Sacrifices and worship continued at Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. Rehoboam tried to follow the Lord, more or less. But Rehoboam used bad judgment: he listened to the foolish advice of his young counselors, he tolerated idolatry, he married foreign (idol worshipping) wives, and more. King Rehoboam negotiated with evil, made deals with evil, and compromised.
“And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord,” 2 Chronicles 12:14.
Rehoboam chose the path of compromise.
King Josiah became king at the age of eight, and “began to seek after the God of David” in the eighth year of his reign, 2 Chronicles 34:3. At 16, Josiah did what Rehoboam did not, he “prepared his heart to seek the Lord.” Soon he was fulfilling prophecy: “He burnt the bones of the [pagan] priests upon the altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem … and [soon] he had broken down the altars … and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel” 2 Chronicles 34:5,7.
“And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” 2 Kings 22:2.
Josiah chose the path of obedience and faithfulness to God.
The fork in the road before you presents three paths: Which will you choose?
(1) Jeroboam’s path of evil,
(2) Rehoboam’s path of compromise, or
(3) Josiah’s path of one who “prepared his heart to seek the Lord”?
Search our hearts, God. Show us what you find there. Are we lukewarm? Do we compromise with the evil around us? Make us more like Josiah. Help us to hate evil and to fight for what is right. May we strive every day to be holy as you are holy, 1 Peter 1:16.
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