Copyright © 2006 Ron Schwartz
All rights reserved.

Jonah And The Sin Of Jeroboam

When we consider the disobedience of Jonah, we are forced to ask, “How is it that a man of God could act in such an openly insubordinate manner?”  Tarshish wasn’t just in the opposite direction from Nineveh.  Tarshish was quite literally on the other side of the known world.  So how is it that Jonah became such a disobedient and defiant prophet?  What’s missing from this picture?  What’s missing is a general understanding of the spiritual and social culture in which Jonah lived.  When we take into consideration the culture in which he lived, we begin to understand how Jonah could justify his actions.  He quite possibly did not view his actions as disobedient.

May 10, 2006

By Ron Schwartz

The Sin of Jeroboam

Jonah 1:1-3 KJV

1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Whenever I read this, I can’t help but wonder, “So what’s the rest of the story?”  How is it that a man of God could act in such an openly insubordinate manner?  Tarshish was not just in the opposite direction from Nineveh.  Tarshish was quite literally on the other side of the known world.  So how is it that Jonah became such a disobedient and defiant prophet?  What’s missing from this picture?  What is missing is a general understanding of the spiritual and social culture in which Jonah lived.  When we consider that, we will begin to understand how Jonah justified his actions.  He quite possibly did not recognize his actions as disobedient.

The Bible provides us very little information for the day in which Jonah lived other than from this obscure passage in the book of 2 Kings.

2 Kings 14:23-25

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.

24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.

Jonah lived in an age during which Israel had turned its back on God.  Actually, it had replaced God.  Joash, the king of Judah “was evil” and “departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”  When Israel split into two kingdoms, Jeroboam became the first king of the ten tribes that went by the name “Israel.”  The sin of Jeroboam was actually one of his first official acts as king and is chronicled in 1 Kings 12:26-33.

1 Kings 12:26-33

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:

27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

28 Whereupon the king 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.

29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.

30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

Jeroboam was concerned about the people becoming sentimental.  He knew that each year they would return to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts (Jerusalem being in the other Hebrew nation called Judah), primarily the Feast of Tabernacles that took place on the 15 day of the seventh month.  It was a joyous celebration.  He surmised that this celebration, along with the reuniting of friends and family, might result in the issues that divided them being forgotten, and the people would desire reunification.  If this happened, he would lose his kingdom.  As Jeroboam saw it, God was the real threat to his kingdom.

The people of Israel were deeply religious, so preventing them from worshipping was not a viable option.  His solution was to replace their worship of God with something else.  He would give the people a form of worship that he could control, and that would limit the involvement they would have with the real God.  And he could do this because he was their leader.

He used scripture to support the basis for his new form of worship.  He referenced the scripture concerning their freedom from Egypt (v.28).  His two calves were reminiscent of the two angels of the Ark of the Covenant.  It was the place where God dwelt.   He created “an house” like the temple (but not) and made priests out of those who were not Levites (v.31).  He even gave them a new feast similar to the Feast of Tabernacles.  His new religion was a copy of that which was ordained by God.  It was so similar to what they were used to doing that the people readily embraced it.

Probably the most strategic thing he did was to choose his priests “of the lowest of the people,” or “all sorts of people.”  By doing this, he reduced the service of God into that which any natural man was capable of performing.  Consider the sin of Jeroboam in light of the contemporary church.

Control

The objective of Jeroboam was one of control: he did not want to lose the power and position he commanded.  His motivation was self-preservation: he did not want to die.  He viewed his position as being more important than the relationship God had with His people, and his own fulfillment above the spiritual fulfillment of the people. 

This same rationale is apparent today.  Many pastors are consumed with “the work” of their ministry/church to which “they” are called.  In their twisted view, if people leave their church, they are abandoning the work of God.  To these perverse souls, nothing has a greater priority.  Because of this there is an endless stream of people leaving their churches.  But it doesn’t matter to them.  They remain unfazed because they believe they are doing God’s will.  Any number of spiritual causalities is an acceptable loss in their pursuit to find fulfillment in their ministries.  Like Jeroboam, their true motivation is to remain king.  It is not for the welfare of the people.  They selfishly pursue this fulfillment.  These men have created a god of their ministry.  And they worship it! 

Scripture Support

Jeroboam could argue that his two calves were after the pattern God established in the scripture.  After all, Moses created two golden angels on the Mercy Seat for God to dwell between.  Why not he?  After all he was now the leader.  He could argue that Aaron fail when he created a golden calf because he was not the leader.  We find this same mentality at work today.  Christian leaders point to their office as justification for their sin.  They can do almost anything as long as they can find some scriptural support, no matter how twisted it is.  In their warped way of thinking people cannot worship God properly outside their leadership. 

Copies

Like Jeroboam’s copies of the temple and feast, many churches are little more than poor copies of the true Church described in the Bible.   Just as the temple and feasts originated from God, so too did the Church.  Jesus did not give the apostles a manual for creating and running a church.  He told them to wait and pray.  When they were obedient to that command, God created and established the Church.  Not so today. 

Much of the time what we find are pastors who have read (but not experienced) how things occurred and were done in the first century Church and they go about to imitate it.  But it is done under their control and through their effort.  Rarely do we find the church operating after the original design - centered around and established by God, and under His control.  When men try to imitate the mechanics of the first Church, we find poor imitations.  We find the sin of Jeroboam: mere copies of the things of God.

Lowest or All Sorts

The King James Version of scripture says the priests were of the “lowest” form of people, which would seem to suggest they were either poor or scoundrels.  Yet other versions tend to agree that this is talking about all sorts of people.  1 Kings 13:33 (“…whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places”) seems to support this.

Today anyone can start a church.  Just find a build and open it for business and you are automatically assumed to be a pastor, and enjoy all the respect and authority given that office.  And no one questions it!  One day you are “just” a layman and have no business behind a pulpit and the next day people treat your words like gospel.  In this life it is said that the “suit makes the man.”  In the church world it could be said, “the building makes the pastor.”

Spiritual Culture and Jonah

When you consider the spiritual climate of Israel, it is clear why Jonah felt he could so openly defy God.  He grew up in a culture where all around him there was little obedience to God according to the scripture.  People had constructed their own form of worship.  All you needed to do so was a semblance of scriptural truth.  Consequently, when the word of God came to Jonah, he simply chose to transliterate it into something that better aligned to his objectives and his self-fulfillment.

Jonah’s failure was in assuming that just because everyone else was doing it, so could he.  I talk to Christian leaders all the time who seem to have this same attitude, a sort of “majority rules.”  According to that way of thinking, the standard of God has less to do with the scripture and more to do with how it is practiced in today’s social churches.  They seem to conclude that if a certain practice is widely accepted by many denominations and independent churches, then God also accepts the practice.  We find in the example of Jonah that that is not the case.  Even though the religion of Jeroboam was widely practiced by a great many Israelites, it was nothing more than widespread sin to God.

Jeroboam’s sin was to replace the true worship of God with a facsimile that insured his ability to retain his power, control, and position.  What Jeroboam failed to see is that God had given Jeroboam his position as king, and so God had the option of doing away with this position and reunite the nation if He so chose.  But Jeroboam did not share God’s goal.

1 Kings 14:30

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.

Consider the differences between most major denominations and independent churches.  Are the differences between them of such importance as to condemn all but one?  Or are the members of only one group saved?  It is an unwritten goal of most pastors to prevent any merger or collaboration with other local churches.  If the distinctions between churches are removed or are viewed as being of little importance, the congregation may feel free to visit/attend other churches.  In an environment like that, the largest church with the most to offer would win.  And like Jeroboam, this would spell the end of many kingdoms for the losing local pastors.  So the doctrinal differences and practices of other local (non-cultic Christian) churches are exaggerated and sometimes even demonized in an effort to maintain their kingdoms. As a result, just like Rehoboam and Jeroboam, there is a continual war that wages between churches; only the capturing of land is not the object.  Rather, it is the capturing of people.  So most churches live out their existence at war with each other rather than with their true enemies.

Why Tarshish?

Tarshish is believed to have been at the extreme west of the known world: in Spain.  As for travel, Tarshish could be viewed as a leisurely boat ride, while Nineveh was 500 to 600 miles on foot across treacherous terrain.  The journey to both cities was great and would have taken considerable time.

Nineveh was a powerful city and a continual threat to Israel.  It would be political suicide for Jonah to aid Nineveh.  Why would anyone want to help a city-nation that was a threat to the nation of Israel?  If God were going to destroy that city, it would be political suicide to try to prevent it.  Therefore, it is quite possible that Jonah’s sense of self-preservation outweighed his sense of duty.   In any case Tarshish was a safe substitute that presented no real threat to Israel. 

God never gave Jonah the option of going to Tarshish.  Somehow Jonah determined this to be a viable alternative all on his own.  This seems to be common among Gods leaders.  For, like Jonah, many Christian leaders develop alternatives when they take the path of least resistance, or safe alternatives.  Many ministers never consider the Nineveh to which God has called them.  As we will see later, they like Jonah live in a culture of self-fulfillment and self-gratification.  And like Jonah they do not consider their disobedience to be disobedience.   They are simply exploring ways for “ministry fulfillment.”   Their Tarshish is in finding the status quo.   

So what is the Tarshish that many Christian leaders flee to rather than obeying the calling of God?   Rather than the great commission almost all Christian leaders pursue the safety and fulfillment of a church building and congregation.  Like Tarshish there is safety in having a nice buildings, offering nice music, and preaching nice sermons.  Like Jonah they appear to be on the move and busy for God, but is this really what they are called to do?  We have churches springing up all over like mushrooms that are full of “nice” things.  For most Christian leaders this has become their translation of the Great Commission – a sort of “if you build it they will come.”  Like Tarshish, having their own church is a more attractive “option” than the real work that needs to be done.

We look at how busy our Christian leaders are and we “assume” that they are about the work of the Lord, but has anyone ever questioned if they are on their way to Nineveh or to the comfort and security of their Tarshish?  In reality many just appear to be about the work of the Lord when in fact they are pursuing their own ambitions and political futures.  Let’s be honest.  The goal of most of them is to get bigger nicer churches.  And though this is done under the pretense of expanding the kingdom of God, we all know the true objective is to expand the size of their kingdoms.   You might ask, “but aren’t they doing good things?” The same thing could have been asked about Jonah: “couldn’t Tarshish use another minister?”   Perhaps, but the true work of the Lord remained undone.  Tarshish was not the nature of the work to which Jonah was called.  It was the spiritual needs of Nineveh that he was to address.

Here’s an example of Tarshish:

Pastors know that to bring the indigent, drug addicts, and prostitutes into their church spells doom for their church.  That’s a good way to get the more affluent members to leave.  Pastors are aware that good church members do not want to socialize or interact with the true sinners of society.  They will simply go elsewhere. Therefore, certain classes of our society are off limits to their ministries.  There exists an unwritten rule as to whom is acceptable, and it has everything to do with their financial and social level in society.  Consequently, there are Nineveh elements of society that are overlooked.  They may preach to them in public but they certainly do not want them in their churches, unless of course they “clean up.”  And if they do get saved, then what?  What pastor would fill his church with this element of society?  

Conclusion

We can learn something about Jonah from the following passage in the Book of Second Kings:

2 Kings 14:24-25

24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.

We find Jonah prophesying prosperity to a sin-laden nation.   There is no suggestion that he ever preached out against the sin of the nation.  Jonah appears to be a man who wants to be liked.  Like Jonah, many pastors are numb to the sin of this nation.  They are preoccupied with themselves and what is fulfilling to their ministries.  They practice being nice and preaching nice things to draw nice people into their nice churches while all around them Nineveh is ignored.  They have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that the purpose of the Church is the salvation of the world (Nineveh), not the comfort and self-fulfillment of church members.

Like Jonah, many Christian leaders have become expert at politics rather than following the Spirit of God.  They do not see the sin of this nation because they are incapable of seeing their own sin.  It seems that the book of Jonah was written as an example of what happens to Christian leaders who embrace the social culture of the day as a sort of spiritual norm to justify their disobedience to God.

When we survey the fields of harvest, we find most Christian leaders on their way to their spiritual Tarshish rather than Nineveh.   Perhaps this explains why the contemporary church is such a failure.  Perhaps this explains the spiritual impotence of many Christian leaders.  Perhaps this explains why the power of God is all but seen amongst His people.