Man-made religions are created by man, making everything lower than he is, not higher!
Rehoboam, whose name ironically means “a people have enlarged,” had just seen his kingdom shrunken to a mere fraction of what it had been. So on his return to Jerusalem, “he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom” (1 Ki 12:21). Remember that Benjamin alone had defeated the other tribes in the days of the judges. But God intervened, sending word by “Shemaiah the man of God” (v 22), whose name means “God has heard.” Nothing goes unnoticed by Him! The king was forbidden to initiate a civil war because, said the Lord, “This thing is from Me” (v 24). Jeroboam, on the other hand, having fortified Shechem and made it his capital, was not concerned about military forces, but spiritual ones. “If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back” (v 27). Perhaps knowing the low spiritual state of the people, he wasn’t particularly concerned about them turning to THE Lord, but shifting back in loyalty to their lord, Rehoboam. So he decided to build an iron curtain across the border between Israel and Judah. He placed golden calves at Dan in the extreme north and at Bethel on the border, saying, “Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (v 28). He added shrines to the high places, ordained non-Levitical priests, and offered sacrifices there “in the month which he had devised in his own heart” (v 33). Question: If we’re made in the image of our god, and worship animals, what does that say about us?