Then Jeroboam…”took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.” I Kings 12:28-29 Jehovah had established one central location of worship, Jerusalem. He also established through the laws of ceremony, the method and mode of that worship, with its object the coming Messiah (Jesus Christ). To violate this was breach of law. The great sin of Jeroboam, for which he was afterward judged, was to make the religion of Israel convenient. Fearful that he might lose the northern ten tribes to the house of David he devised a plan of substitute religion with two places of easy access, Bethel and Dan. We have in this inspired history an illustration of much of what we see in man’s substitute religion today. The fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” is yet of great significance. The spiritual implication that of it being a type of the believer’s rest in Christ is certainly fulfilled in one’s coming to faith in Christ. Yet the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, is vital to the worship of God. IT IS STILL “THE LORD’S DAY!” I believe that according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, the whole day should be given in devotion to God. The New Testament Church so practiced this that it was the key to its effect and influence upon the world. There is a “Jeroboam” attempt in man-made religion to create religious conveniences, such as “contemporary Saturday evening worship service” for those who can’t make the Sunday service. The modern Baptists are offering something like the early mass of the Roman Catholic. This practice might suffice for half-hearted religion, but the gospel calls men to total commitment to Jesus Christ. The text calls people to unreserved commitment and loyalty to Jesus Christ and His gospel. The two (Christ and the Gospel) are inseparable. To commit to Christ and the TRUTH concerning Him is not convenient. It calls for all, if need be your ‘life’ also. Why do I say that? Because Christ Himself made such a prediction in Matthew 10:34 & 36, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed thro’ bloody seas?” The tragedy of this perversion of the Christian faith is that vast numbers are led to think that what they are believing and practicing will land them “On Fair Canaan’s Coast”, when in fact it makes them “two fold more the child of hell than they were before.”
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