READ: 1 Kings 12:26-33
“…the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them…behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” – 1 Kings 12:28
Jeroboam was chosen by the Lord to replace Solomon. Jeroboam, a “nobody”, was picked to replace the hierarchy of Kings David and Solomon; the two greatest kings of Israel. This honour was done to Jeroboam because Solomon had gone after idols and worshipped false gods.
“And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father” (1 Kings 11:31-33).
Somehow, when Jeroboam became the king, he forgot why he was chosen in the first place to replace the great lineage of David and Solomon.
He forgot the most important thing and disobeyed the Lord in exactly the same way Solomon had. Notice the passages, which reveal both the privileged calling of Jeroboam and the subsequent repetition by Jeroboam of Solomon’s sins.