And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan.
The "one" and the "other" are golden calves, the one set up at Bethel and the other put at Dan. He established them as centers and forms of religious worship where the ten tribes could worship instead of going to worship God at Jerusalem. His motive was political, to keep the people from going to Jerusalem lest worship there renew their loyalty to the ruler in Jerusalem, reunite Israel under the house of David, and lead them to revolt against his own rule.
His dedication of the altar did not make this worship acceptable, for he hardened his heart against the prophet's warning and chose his own way. This establishment at Bethel and Dan began Israel's apostasy and departure from God and from established worship, leading the children of Israel into idolatry. It led onward into more corrupt idolatry in which they performed and permitted terrible evils until nearly all the people were drawn into nature worship and away from their Maker.
Ahab later encouraged those forms of worship set up at Bethel and Dan, but went further by turning the people from the worship of Jehovah to Baal worship. These strange altars brought consequences that the ten tribes would reap, for the calves would be broken and the calf of Samaria carried to Assyria. The Judge of all the earth lays the awful results of this course to Jeroboam's charge, and people today are in danger of manifesting the same spirit and doing a similar work, with the results of their wrong course laid to the charge of all who follow his example.
The "one" and the "other" are golden calves, the one set up at Bethel and the other put at Dan. He established them as centers and forms of religious worship where the ten tribes could worship instead of going to worship God at Jerusalem. His motive was political, to keep the people from going to Jerusalem lest worship there renew their loyalty to the ruler in Jerusalem, reunite Israel under the house of David, and lead them to revolt against his own rule.
His dedication of the altar did not make this worship acceptable, for he hardened his heart against the prophet's warning and chose his own way. This establishment at Bethel and Dan began Israel's apostasy and departure from God and from established worship, leading the children of Israel into idolatry. It led onward into more corrupt idolatry in which they performed and permitted terrible evils until nearly all the people were drawn into nature worship and away from their Maker.
Ahab later encouraged those forms of worship set up at Bethel and Dan, but went further by turning the people from the worship of Jehovah to Baal worship. These strange altars brought consequences that the ten tribes would reap, for the calves would be broken and the calf of Samaria carried to Assyria. The Judge of all the earth lays the awful results of this course to Jeroboam's charge, and people today are in danger of manifesting the same spirit and doing a similar work, with the results of their wrong course laid to the charge of all who follow his example.