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In Matthew 18, Jesus makes a very strong statement: "...but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:6 NASB)
Wait. Isn't this an awfully big burden to put on one person? Don't individual people choose to sin? Why should their bad choices be put on—me???
The short answer is, we simply have no concept of how far one little sin on our part can go. We think we sin in secret, but sin is never secret. We may hide our tendency to snack on unhealthy food, for example. But little eyes will eventually find the stash. Or that discrete sin will eventually lead to health problems. To say nothing of us passing on to our children the tendency towards gluttony. There are other, much bigger examples of course, but the bottom line is, no matter how hidden we think our sin is, it does influence others around us, and often can contribute to them falling into sin themselves!
Still, how can it possibly be better for us to drown in the river???
To understand this more clearly, let's go back to the book of 1 Kings 12. Solomon has just passed away, passing the kingdom on to his son, Rehoboam. Because of Solomon's idolatry, God tears the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon's descendants and sets us Jeroboam as king of the northern 10 tribes, to be known as the Kingdom of Israel. The problem is, Jeroboam doesn't have a lot of faith in the God who just set him up as king, for: "Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.'” (Vs. 26-27 NASB).
As a result, Jeroboam made two golden calves. He put one in Bethel and the other in Dan, and he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (Vs. 28 NASB).
Jeroboam's motives were simply to ensure that the newly-created nation of Israel would continue to exist, and it appears to have worked. The nation of Israel did not return to Rehoboam, or any of the future Jewish kings after Rehoboam.
The problem is, these golden calves continued on long after Jeroboam was no longer king! The Bible records that his son, Nadab, who only reigned for two years, "…did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father and in his sin into which he misled Israel." (21 Kings 15:25 NASB).
The kingship was then taken from the house of Jeroboam, and given to Baasha. Unfortunately Baasha didn't learn his lesson, for a prophet brought the following message to Baasha: "Since I…made you leader over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have misled My people Israel into sin, provoking Me to anger with their sins, behold, I am going to burn Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." (1 Kings 16:2-3 NASB)!
History continues to record that king after king of Israel, "Did evil in the sight of the Lord" by not turning away from the sins of Jeroboam in the incident of the two golden calves!
It's true that King Ahab did even worse by introducing Baal worship into Israel, but when Ahab's family was overthrown by Jehu, and Jehu went on a major cleansing spree (See 2 Kings 10), the Bible still records, at the end of his days: "Jehu was not careful to walk in the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not desist from the sins of Jeroboam, into which he misled Israel." (2 Kings 10:31 NASB).
As you continue to read, you will find that at the end of each section about each king of Israel is written, He did not desist from the sins of Jeroboam, into which he misled Israel! Oh, sometimes the words are slightly different, but the idea is always the same. And as we fast forward to the 17th chapter of 2 Kings, not only do we see that Israel would fall to the Assyrians, but we also find an entire section of the Bible dedicated to the reason why Israel fell: "And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God...and had feared other gods...and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, 'You shall not do this.'...Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight." (2 Kings 17:7a,c, 12, 18a NASB)
Isn't it ironic? Those two golden calves were built so that the nation of Israel would not be lost. Yet about 200 years later, the nation of Israel was lost, and all because of the sin of Jeroboam! The sin of this one person spanned 200 years, corrupted multiple generations and eventually lead to the downfall of an entire nation!
With this story in mind, it becomes easy to understand why Jesus tells us that it would be better for us to drown than to lead just one of God's people into sin!
Is there hidden sin in your life? I would encourage you to spend some dedicated time with God. Ask Him to reveal any hidden sin to you, and then repent of it so that you will no longer cause others to sin!
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
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