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During its history the Northern Kingdom had three capitals: first Shechem (v. 25), then Tirzah (14:17; 15:33), and finally Samaria (16:23-24). Perhaps the king strengthened Penuel in west-central Gilead as a Transjordanian provincial center. Like Shechem, Penuel was an important site in patriarchal times (Gen. 32:30). By strengthening these sites Jeroboam appears to have been trying to get the residents of his kingdom to view their nation as the continuation of what God had begun in patriarchal days.
One writer suggested that Jeroboam may have abandoned Shechem and moved to Penuel because Shechem was a divided city. Levitical priests who would have opposed his religious reforms lived there.134
Jeroboam's fears that his subjects would kill him and return to Rehoboam (v. 27) were due to disbelief in God's promises that the prophet Ahijah had announced to him (11:31, 37-38).
Jeroboam seems to have designed his substitute religious system (vv. 28-33) to offer the Israelites convenient "improvements"in the Mosaic system that tied in with certain events in their history. The golden calves, for instance, recall the golden calf in the wilderness. The apis bull was a common religious symbol in Egypt. The golden calf in the wilderness and these calves may have been similar symbols. There is some question among scholars whether the people regarded calves of this type as idols or as pedestals on which the gods stood.135One writer made a good case for their having been idols (cf. 14:9).136They certainly became idols to the Israelites in the North.137However it seems more likely that Jeroboam conceived of them as the symbols and supporters of Yahweh.
"With the division of the kingdom, the chief symbol of God's presence, the ark and the cherubim, was left to Judah. Needing a comparable symbol for his new state, Jeroboam chose the bull, universally admired for its strength and procreative power (Deut. 33:17; Isa. 10:13; 34:7; Ps. 68:30; 1 Kings 7:25). It is probable that Jeroboam meant the bull to serve the same function as the ark and cherubim, that is, as the throne or footstool of the invisibly present God.
"The adoption of the bull as a cult object may have been an effort to adapt the ark and cherubim to the culture of the northern tribes, especially since the bull was an indigenous symbol to the Canaanite element of the population. Archaeological finds in Palestine-Syria of statues depicting a god astride a bull point to a function for the bull similar to that of the ark and cherubim (ANEP[The Ancient Near East in Pictures, ed. James B. Pritchard], nos. 470-501, 522-538)."138
After making the calves, Jeroboam said exactly the same thing Aaron had said (v. 28; cf. Exod. 32:4). Jeroboam also followed up the making of the calves with a feast similar to the one at Sinai (vv. 32-33; cf. Exod. 32:5). Furthermore Jeroboam followed Aaron's example of setting himself up as covenant mediator, in Moses' absence, and as head of the cult (formal worship). In this he was quite clearly identifying his cult with the Exodus.139Jeroboam also assumed the role of the Davidic monarch who was the Lord's anointed and as such both the political and the religious leader of Israel.140
How could Jeroboam have hoped to win the support of the Israelites since he revived the practice of worshipping a calf?
"I suggest that the motivation behind Jeroboam's action may have been an intense animosity toward the Levites. It was the Levites who had taken sword in hand to slay the worshippers of Aaron's golden calves. Jeroboam now bypassed the Levites by appointing his own priests and, in a supreme irony, manufactured his own golden calves as a symbol of his disdain for the Levitical priesthood. Had not Moses' own grandson, Jonathan, anticipated Jeroboam by serving as the first priest of the competing shrine at Dan [Judg. 17-18]? Besides according a measure of legitimacy to Dan, this story revealed that even within Moses' family there was room for diversity in religious practice. How could Jeroboam be faulted for his golden calves when Moses' own grandson had officiated over a cult at Dan which worshipped idols having no connection at all with the exodus?"141
This may also explain Jeroboam's choice of Dan as one of his cultic centers, but why did he select Bethel? Jacob had met God at Bethel twice (Gen. 28:10-22; 35:1-7). Perhaps Jeroboam promoted it as the birthplace of Israel's faith. Geographically Bethel stood on the main highway that led into Judah just north of the border. It was a convenient gathering place for Israelites who lived in the southern and central parts of the Northern Kingdom. Since they would have had to pass through Bethel if they wanted to go south to worship in Jerusalem, Jeroboam's priests could have discouraged them from doing so there.
The feast Jeroboam set up (v. 32) took place one month later than the day of Atonement when the Levitical priests offered sacrifice to atone for the sins of the nation for the past year (Lev. 16).
Thus it seems that Jeroboam had no regard for the will of God as expressed in the commands of the Mosaic Covenant. He viewed himself as a king like all the other kings of the ancient Near East. To establish himself and the Northern Kingdom as independent from Judah, he combined commonly accepted religious concepts that the surrounding pagan nations held with elements from Israel's history.142
". . . Jeroboam's sins are so far-reaching and repulsive that the author uses him as the example of how to define a morally deficient king (cf. 1 Kgs 16:7, 9, 26)."143
