No Turning Back, 1 Kings 12:28-29

This post concerns people leaving God and His word.

At that point, the only mental option in their minds becomes no turning back.

‘No Turning Back’ describes what Jeroboam did to cause the ten northern tribes to leave the worship of God, 1 Kings 12:28-29. “…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.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.”

The people did not rise up and insist on continuing correct worship of God at the temple in Jerusalem. Jeroboam had set up a convenient alternative way to worship which they now readily accepted.

Perhaps, the earlier horrible example of King Solomon worshipping idols at the end of his life left too deep an impression on the people. They somehow readily followed King Jeroboam into idol worship. Unfortunately, although through the years God sent many prophets to try to lead them back to correct worship. They never returned and were ultimately carried away into foreign captivity.

This is a solemn lesson for us today. We must insist on careful and strict worship of God in the church established by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Easily we can drift a little and let foreign practices enter into worship. We may imagine that in the future we will abandon the foreign practices and again strictly follow the New Testament pattern. However, once we get used to allowing unauthorized practices, they become standard practices. Then we often find ourselves at a mental point of no return. In short, we do not want to return.

So, what did we learn?

1.The ten northern tribes readily accepted the idol worship set up by Jeroboam for the convenience of not going to Jerusalem. They could never mentally return to worshipping in Jerusalem.

2.We must be careful not to follow the same practice today and become so mired in sinful practices that we can never mentally turn back.

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