JEROBOAM SETS UP SANCTUARIES AT DAN AND BETHEL

1 KINGS 11–12

The end of Israel as a united kingdom was at hand. The Northern Kingdom of Israel turned to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and anointed him as their first king. Through the prophet Ahijah, God offered Jeroboam an enduring dynasty, just as blessed and enduring as the one he had promised David, if he would only stay true to the Lord (1 Kings 11:38). But Jeroboam didn’t agree. Allegiance to the Lord would mean support of the Temple in Jerusalem. Since that city and the Temple had a close relationship to David’s family, Jeroboam feared that such a policy would present the possibility of reunification and would remove the kingdom from him as quickly as he had received it (1 Kings 12:26–27). So Jeroboam rejected the Lord’s offer and instead acted in a jealous way toward the King of Kings. He developed direct competition with his Maker, establishing worship centers at Dan and Bethel for a reason.

The first order of business was to pick an idol that might serve as the focus for Jeroboam’s new state religion. His kingdom was both ethnically and religiously mixed; there were Canaanites who worshiped Baal and Israelites who maintained their connection to the God of Abraham. So Jeroboam designed a state religion for his young government that was hybrid. He made Baal-like bull calf images, set them up at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28–33), taught counterfeit beliefs about God’s Feast of Tabernacles, and lied to his constituents (saying that the bull calves he made were the ones who led the descendants of Jacob out of Egypt!).4

The most northern worship center was located at Dan on an important regional road.5 Jeroboam’s southern worship site in the Northern Kingdom was built at Bethel on the Ridge Route, only a few miles north of Jerusalem. Each of these sites had an older tradition associated with them. The book of Judges recounts that the sons of Dan went to Laish (later known as Dan) and set up for themselves a graven image and appointed a corrupt priest who would officiate over their idol worship (Judg. 18:29–31). Thus when Jeroboam set up the calf worship at Dan and appointed false priests, he did so in a place that had been used as a worship site before, albeit a corrupt one. Bethel had also been a place to remember the Lord’s loving-kindness from the time of Abraham and Jacob (Gen. 12:8; 28:16–19; 35:1) to the time of Samuel (1 Sam. 7:16). So Jeroboam was hoping the descendants of Abraham would make this historical connection to Bethel and think there was no need to continue a few more miles south to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Jeroboam’s high place at Dan.

Beersheba to Dan

Finally, the selection of Dan and Bethel marked the northern and southern borders of Jeroboam’s kingdom.6 By placing sanctuaries at these two administrative centers, Jeroboam could retire a phrase he no longer wanted to hear. For centuries, the united tribes were known as the kingdom that extended “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judg. 20:1; 1 Sam. 3:20; 2 Sam. 3:10; 17:11; 24:2, 15; 1 Kings 4:25). So Jeroboam had staked his own claim for himself, replacing the phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” with the phrase “from Dan to Bethel.”

Jeroboam set up sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel for a reason. He believed that the selection of Dan and Bethel as worship sites would unify and strengthen the borders of his own new kingdom. But these cities would serve as examples of disloyalty to the Lord, symbols of idolatrous syncretism (2 Kings 10:29; Jer. 48:13; Hosea 10:15). Jeroboam took the Lord’s gift of a kingdom, separated himself from the Lord and his blessings, and misrepresented the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the idolatry established at Dan and Bethel.

Fields at ancient Bethel (Beitin).

High place at Dan.

Bull statuette.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The Israel Museum.