The glory of King Solomon was renown in his day as well as ours. Nor was there anyone so wise in all the earth who was blessed and enriched in all things. Notwithstanding, when he was old, his many wives turned his heart from the Lord to worship other gods, and he built shrines throughout all of Israel, and the anger of the Lord was kindled. And the Lord appeared unto Solomon and made it known to him that during the reign of his son Rehoboam, the twelve tribes would be divided, ten tribes would be given to his servant, and one tribe would be left to his heirs along with Judah.

And Ahijah the Shilonite was sent to meet Solomon’s servant Jeroboam, who was of the tribe of Ephraim; and after he had found him, Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: And he said to Jeroboam, “Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee.”

And Ahijah said unto him by the word of the Lord, “If thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.”

Thus, Israel was divided into two kingdoms: the House of Judah to the south and the House of Israel to the north. Notwithstanding, the name of the Lord and the temple remained in Jerusalem, and once a year, all the tribes of Israel were commanded to come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

However, Jeroboam did not trust that God would make sure his kingdom as he had promised him and thought within his heart that if the people of Israel went to Judah every year to worship, their hearts would be turned again to the House of David and Jerusalem. They would then kill him and be reunited with Judah under the House of David.

Thus, Jeroboam took counsel, and he made two calves of gold and said to the ten tribes, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, which was only about ten miles from Jerusalem, and the other in Tel Dan, which was the farthest city in Israel from Jerusalem. Tel Dan was formally the Canaanite city named Laish, known for its carefree lifestyle, cultic idolatry, and sexual immorality.

From Bethel to Dan, Israel erected high-places to worship and ceased from going up to Jerusalem to worship in the place where the Lord had commanded. And Jeroboam made a feast in Bethel, like the feast in Jerusalem, and built alters to the gods that he claimed brought Israel out of Egypt.

Thereafter, Israel never again recovered from the sins of Jeroboam until the day the Lord finally brought judgment upon them by the hand of the Assyrians, and they were destroyed and carried away captive to become known afterwards as the “Lost Tribes of Israel.”

The Apostle Paul exhorted that whatever things were written beforehand were written for our admonition, that we might learn by example. Jeroboam did not want Israel to go to the place appointed by God to worship. His message to the people was that what the Lord had commanded was too much—he offered a replacement that would allow them to worship right where they were and invented a feast like the feast of the Lord in Jerusalem so they would not desire to make the pilgrimage to the place the Lord designated.

So often today, the same message is preached, teaching that you can serve the Lord right where you are; that you don’t need to make the pilgrimage to the place the Lord has appointed, and that it is too much for you to travel up to Jerusalem to worship.

As the tribes of Israel worshiped many gods in the high places of their own inheritances, so today there are innumerable churches, denominations, sects, and cults worshiping various gods whom they believe to be God. But the god they worship is a god forged in the foundries of their imaginations, molten images of a god fashioned after their desires, and they call his name Jesus.

Thus, among the many Jesuses, there are Jesuses who accept a variety of sins. Jesuses that accept drunkenness, sexual relationships before marriage, outside of marriage, and between those of the same gender—Jesuses that accept marriages outside those ordained by God in the beginning between one man and one woman—a Jesus that shares mediating power with his mother, with saints, and with other relatives—a Jesus that has a brother named Satan. It would take a large book to disclose the innumerable Jesuses worshiped throughout the world today, and even then we could not find them all out.

The Bible warns that many antichrists will arise and deceive many. Many have already come in his name, saying, “I am Christ.” Far more false Christs have come by way of those who heralded them in the doctrines they preached. And the closer the false Christs adhere to scripture, the more deceitful they are. They come in books, sermons, televised programming, movies, videos, audios, and now in forms of artificial intelligence. The multitudes of various Jesuses of today are the most numerous idols ever worshiped in all of history.

All this came about by way of Jeroboam’s preaching, “It is too much for you, O’ Israel, that you should go up to the House of the Lord in Jerusalem.”—and the people desired to stay where they were and worship the gods of their own making in the high places of their own choosing. And so it is, that even to this day many who are devoted to their faith will not leave their high places to worship the Lord in the place he has ordained.

The God of the Bible and the place he must be worshiped is too much for those who will not come to him. It is a place of commitment, holiness, and self-sacrifice. For many, it is too much to ask and too much to give. They will stay where they are and worship a different Jesus of their own making and liking.

Even so, Jesus said, “…he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” If we are to be accepted by the Lord, we must follow him and worship in his appointed place.

Where then is the place we are commanded to worship? Where is our Jerusalem? When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, he told her that the hour was coming that neither in Mount Gerizim or yet at Jerusalem the Father would be worshiped, but the true worshipers would worshipers him in spirit and truth. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Jesus is the Word of God—God in spirit and in truth—the only true God. All other Jesuses are false gods and idols.