On the horns of a dilemma

The breakfast rant will have to wait until tomorrow. I need pictures to illustrate it. I'll get those in the morning.


Until then consider this picture from my travels today (Pic 1). You are looking at one horn from an altar that had four horns. The Bible mentions altars with horns on multiple occasions, but what makes this horn special is that is was part of a very infamous altar. When the Davidic kingdom split in 931 BC, Jeroboam became king in the northern kingdom of Israel. Although God gave him his kingdom Jeroboam was nervous about hanging on to it. Remember that although the people of Israel chose of their own accord to separate themselves from Judah there was one problem as Jeroboam saw it. You see God had commanded all of Israel to appear before him in Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate the major feasts. This meant that three times a year Israelites from Jeroboam's kingdom would have to cross the border into Judah's territory to worship and rejoice before God at the temple. Jeroboam reasoned that if the people went to Jerusalem they might remember the good old days when the kingdom was united and they would be tempted to press for reunification. So Jeroboam cooked up a plan. He decided to set up golden calf idols at two cities: Dan and Bethel. The horn in the first picture is a piece of the altar that stood before that calf idol in Dan. Archaeologists found it at the same highplace! From that one piece they were able to construct a replica of the altar which shows how big it would have been (Pic 2). This is one of the few instances where we can identify a precise location mentioned in the Bible with certainty. I don't mean identifying a city: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, for example. I mean something along the lines of indentifying the exact spot where Mary laid her baby in the manger. In the case of Jeroboam's high place we know exactly where it was and we have a piece of the altar!

So what should we make of Jeroboam's folly? First and formost it is clear that his plan to lure the people of Israel away from Jerusalem was disastrous. Israel never really recovered from his error. But let's also realize that Jeroboam's actions resulted from a lack of faith. God gave Jeroboam his kingdom after taking it away from the line of David. Jeroboam didn't win a kingdom for himself. God gave it to him. Jeroboam didn't raise up an army and take the kingdom from Rehoboam. God decided to punish Solomon by taking the kingdom from his son and giving it to Jeroboam. If God took half of the kingdom from David and give it to him, surely he would be able to preserve the kingdom for him. Jeroboam should have trusted God to preserve his new throne for him. Instead he trusted his own devices, and advisors, and led his people away from the Lord. Fear coupled with a lack of faith led to a devestating error.

Fighting for faith with you from Israel,

Jeroboam