06 March 2010

Jeroboam

After God killed 500,000 of Israelite soldiers, he killed their leader, king Jeroboam.
Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and the LORD struck him, and he died. 2 Chronicles 13.20
You see, God hated Jeroboam. To God, Jeroboam was the worst person who had ever lived.
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD .... thou hast ... done evil above all that were before thee. 1 Kings 14.7-9
(Why did God hate Jeroboam so much? Because after he became king he made two golden calves, put them on altars at Bethel and Dan, and led the people in sacrifices to them. See 1 Kings 12.28)

God had already killed Jeroboam's son, and after God killed Jeroboam, he killed the rest of his family.
I'm not sure why. I guess it's all a part of God's family values.

This killing is a bit out of place chronologically. But I've decided to order God's killings according to the order that they occur in the Bible. It's hard to be sure of the correct chronology of mythical events.

God's next killing: a million Ethiopians 

6 comments:

busterggi said...

And what exactly did Jeraboam do that annoyed Yahweh so much?

Steve Wells said...

Oh, yeah. I should have explained that in the post,

Jeroboam made two golden calves, put them on altars in Bethel and Dan, and led the people in sacrifices to them. The Brick Testament tells the story here.

I'll add a note about the golden calves. Thanks busterggi.

busterggi said...

Well no wonder Yahweh was pissed off (probably against a wall)!

How could he compete with such powerful opponents as two statues?

It seems to me that for the supposed inventors of monotheism, the Israelites were always willing to worship anything or anyone for no particular reason at all.

vp said...

Seems a little unfair to Jeroboam. After all, Aaron created the original golden calf in Sinai and led the people in worship of it. Not only was he unpunished, his descendants got to be the priests in Jerusalem and to keep the best bits of everyone's sacrifice (see Lev. 7).

Robert said...

vp: good point ... And Aaron of all people should have known better right? He saw and participated first hand in more of God's miracles than just about any person in history. He was spokesperson for God over an extended period of time. But apparently that didn't impress Aaron much. He still wanted to worship a lump of gold and that did not make Yahweh angry enough to smite him or his family.

Yet Yahweh was angry enough to smite a bunch of foreigners who were merely ignorant of how to worship him. 2 Kings 17:24-28 This I'm sure is not a contradiction of character or inconsistency of punishments ... I just wonder how the apologists might enlighten me so I am not a fool to think that it is.

Anyone out there want to take a stab at it?

Matthew Blanchette said...

I think Yahweh just gets into pissy moods, sometimes; smitings fly, and people die.