1 Kings 12:32
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 Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made.
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month a feast was ordained at Bethel, deliberately modeled on the feast observed in Judah, and sacrifice was offered personally upon the altar there. By that observance solemnity was given to the dedication of an unauthorized altar at Bethel. There sacrifice was made to the calves that had been fashioned, and priests of high places of human making were stationed at Bethel, so that worship was set up on self-chosen terms.
The act fostered disregard for worship at the temple in Jerusalem and turned the people away from true worship. The prophet's message should have brought repentance and abandonment of those plans, but instead the heart was hardened and the self-chosen way was pursued. That spirit and work led the children of Israel away from God into idolatry, causing them both to do and to permit terrible evils. Men today remain in danger of manifesting the same spirit and carrying on a work similar in character. The Judge of all the earth will lay to that charge the awful results of such a course, and upon all who follow the example will be laid the results of their own wrong course.