1 Kings 12:28-30 - After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
I wonder whose advice Jeroboam sought. Was it someone who had Jeroboam's best interests in mind or his own?
I wonder if the golden calf idea was purposely an echo of the one Aaron had made at Mt. Sinai many years earlier. I wonder if Jeroboam realized he was quoting Exodus 32:4 virtually word for word in proclaiming what he wanted these idols to be. Probably.
It's ironic that, as the author states, the people went "even as far as Dan" to worship the idol when Jeroboam had bemoaned earlier how much of a hardship it would be for people to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship God. Priorities. Dan was about as far away from proper worship as they could go -- in more ways than one.
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