1 Kings 12:33
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el 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.
The verse describes Jeroboam himself mounting the altar he had erected at Bethel to burn incense and proclaiming a feast for Israel in the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a time chosen out of his own heart rather than by divine appointment. By staging that dedication with great solemnity he sought to give sacred weight to his rival center, and the effect was to foster contempt and neglect for the appointed worship in the temple at Jerusalem. Those plans, devised from his own spirit, drew the children of Israel away from God into idolatry and led them on to commit and to tolerate terrible evils. Even when confronted by the prophet's message, which should have brought him to repentance and to abandonment of his scheme to turn Israel from true worship, he hardened his heart and determinedly persisted in his own way.
The Judge of all the earth holds Jeroboam accountable for the awful consequences that flowed from such a course. That same accountability falls upon all who follow his example, for to their charge are laid the results of their own wrong course. The spirit that moved him and a work of like character remain a living danger in the present time.