1 Kings 12
UNDER THE WRAPPING PAPER

Watch out for the wrapping paper. Wrapping paper can be very deceiving. A present wrapped in fancy and expensive paper looks like an expensive gift – but is it? If we saw a gift wrapped in pretty pink paper, printed with booties and dummies, we would expect it to be for a baby girl – but is that what is really inside?

When Jereboam tore most of the kingdom away from Rehoboam, he realised that worshiping in Jerusalem could turn the people back to Rehoboam. To counter this, Jereboam set up another system of worship. From outside appearances it looked similar. He had wrapped his new system of worship up in wrapping paper from the worship of the LORD. Jereboam gave the people places to go to worship just like they did in Jerusalem, there were priests like there were in the temple to officiate and tell people what to do, the calf idols may have even looked something like the cheribum, and there were festivals and feasts just like the ones they had known. But under the wrapping paper was idol worship. They were no longer worshiping the loving God of Israel they had come to know.

People do the same today. Humanist values come packaged as Christian values. Watch out for the wrapping paper. It may hide a world of deceit.





May we be guided by God’s wisdom this week.

With love in our Lord,
Robert