Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

1 Kings chapter 12, verse 28 through 32.

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.

And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far

as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places, and appointed priests from among all

the people who were not of the Levites.

And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the 15th day of the eighth month,

like the feast that was in Judah.

And he offered sacrifices on the altar.

So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made.

And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

The reason I read these few verses, this passage,

is because they are a sober reminder that their first responsibility of a leader among God's people

is to lead the people to worship God alone.

That is the first responsibility. It's the first commandment to worship God alone.

And when it comes to this commandment and this responsibility, Jeroboam here and Rehoboam for that matter,

utterly fails. The king sets up calves of gold and leads the people of God to worship these

calves instead of God, to worship in ways that God has not prescribed, in places

that God has not prescribed. And so I want you to think about your life and specifically think

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