After Solomon’s downfall, the book of Kings is primarily concerned with the evil of Israel’s kings. These kings don’t follow the Lord, and in their wake the people of Israel don’t either.
Jeroboam, the first king of the northern tribe of Israel, is an apt example. He’s the king who convinces ten of the Israelite tribes to follow him rather than Solomon’s son Rehoboam. At the beginning of his reign, he realizes there’s a danger: He must make sure the people don’t return back to Judah and David’s dynasty. If this happens Israel may become one again, and he will no longer be king (see 1 Kings 12:26-27).
So what does clever Jeroboam do? He changes the northern tribes’ worship. It’s an apt political move. Doing so assures that the people won’t need to return to the land of Judah to worship the Lord. They now could simply worship in these new ways.
Jeroboam accomplishes this with three actions. First, he makes a couple golden calves (oh, how history repeats itself!) to persuade the people that they don’t need to go to the old temple to worship; they rather can say these calves saved them and worship them! “So 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’” (1 Kings 12:18).
Second, to add even more defense against the people returning to Jerusalem, Jeroboam establishes new places for worship. “He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites” (1 Kings 12:31). Why go to the temple in Jerusalem when there are now temples?
Third, if all that wasn’t enough, Jeroboam plans a religious festival to take place during the same time as the Feast of Booth in Jerusalem. “And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar” (1 Kings 12:32).
If the people asked, what was his reason for all this? He says explicitly, “It is too much trouble for you to worship in Jerusalem!” (1 Kings 12:28). We know he had more cynical intentions—namely, trying to protect his kingdom—but he possibly though he was making a good compromise. Think about it: Jeroboam genuinely could’ve thought that what he was doing made sense, that he was looking out for their good and providing a new way for them to worship God. “At least,” he could’ve reasoned, “they are still worshiping. At least they’re still being devoted and taking time to honor God (or gods).”
In fact, we may see this sort of intention in the fact that he made an altar in “Bethel” (1 Kings 12:32-33). Bethel literally means “house of God.” Jeroboam doesn’t think it politically or pragmatically makes sense for them to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship—“It is too much trouble!” So, he’s making a compromise, yes for his own power, but perhaps he also thought for the ease of the people. And at least they kept “God” central in name! At least they can worship at “the house of God.”
Yet all of this was far from God and his way.
It was rebellion, even though it was “worship,” even though the name “God” was stamped over much of this. Even though—and this is where we need to take note—much of it was probably “genuine” attempt at worship, if not from Jeroboam then certainly from many of the people.
And this all applies to us today in our worship. As Francis Schaeffer said, we must do “the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way” (see sermon with this title in No Little People), and this is especially true when it comes to our worship. God does care about our hearts; read the Bible from front to back and you’ll see this. But we cannot think that just because we’re genuine in our attempts at worship, or that we feel something in our hearts, that whatever we then do is permissible or proper. Genuine attempts and genuine feelings do not worship make.
This is why as I was reading this story about Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12, I was struck how the story applies to many churches today. Although we don’t disobey a command about where to worship, we might be neglecting much of the how. Meaning, we’re prone to say that we’re worshiping God properly (or well enough) because a) we’re being genuine or b) because our services create a lot of feelings. In many churches, the primary test to see whether a church is genuinely worshiping God is excitement or experience. If the room has energy, or people leave saying they felt good or “close to God,” then the worship was successful.
But as Christians we’re Bible-people; we know that biblically this isn’t true, that this isn’t the measure of what’s worship.
From cover to cover, we’re shown there is such a thing as proper worship. We must worship God in the way he chooses. This was true of the Israelites with specific places, times, sacrificial instructions, and more. But it’s also true of the Christian church. God has not given us many details concerning place, times, music styles, or length (which allows for the Christian gospel to penetrate into every culture uniquely). But he has said that we must worship both in “spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Moreover (and this should be considered soberly for many current evangelical churches), he has defined “acceptable worship” as consisting of not only grateful hearts, but also “reverence and awe.” “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).
In other words, although we in modern churches are certainly not as sinister as Jeroboam was, and although we do not have as many instructions on proper worship as the Israelites did, we still may be falling into a comparable error when we think that as long as we are genuinely trying then God doesn’t care about how we conduct our worship services; or that as long as we use God’s name, or say we’re here to worship Jesus, then we’re doing well; or that as long as people say that they “experienced God” or that the room had a lot of “excitement” or “energy,” then we genuinely worshiped.
It’s just not true. Our God—Father, Son, Spirit—is real. Proper worship is not just about feelings (though proper worship of God consists of feelings!). If we’re drastically off in defining who he is and we set out affections on that very misdefined (or vaguely undefined) “God,” we will not be worshiping God. Or if we only produce feelings of excitement but not strive for awe-struct depth, then, according to Hebrews 12:28, we are not acceptably worshiping God.
Now, may it be said loud and clear that what ultimately makes our worship “acceptable” is that we have a Suffering Savior and High Priest who died to redeem us, and thus making acceptable our otherwise unacceptable worship. All is grace, including our worship. Our attempts at worship would mean absolutely nothing, no matter how hard we tried to obey biblical commands, if they weren’t bathed in the blood of Christ. That all needs to be shouted clearly and with joy in the gospel.
But may that gospel-truth not lead us to then neglect the parts of the Bible which teach us that, as Christ-centered, gospel-driven people, we also should think carefully about how we worship our gospel-giving God. It matters. For if we think it’s merely about a feeling or excitement or being genuine, we shouldn’t be surprised if the “worship” we think that we or others are experiencing doesn’t lead to genuine, long-term life change. If our “worship” is characterized more by beholding the glory of our excitement, experience, or good feelings, rather than beholding the actual, weighty glory of the Lord, then the long-term, God-glorifying change for us and others will not come (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Let us, therefore, worship the Lord not in just what is “genuine” and “works,” but in intentional, well-thought “spirit and truth”—for his glory and for our joy.
