“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8). But of course the opposite is also true!
Here’s the bottom line regarding King Jeroboam, as recorded in the closing words of 1 Kings 13: “After this event [God’s judgment on the altar at Bethel] Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth” (vv 33-34). Please understand what was involved. The whole world had turned from the true God to worship the impersonal forces they thought ruled their lives. As Paul would write, “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:21-23). In order to rescue the nations from this diabolical deception, the Lord had raised up Israel to show what a difference it made to worship a personal, loving, and wise God. If Israel now descended into heathenism, there would be no hope left. What the Lord did to Jeroboam’s family in chapter 14 was radical surgery to cut away this spreading cancer of the soul. By inventing his own religion, the Lord said, you “have cast Me behind your back” (1 Ki 14:9), discarding God like an out-of-date relic. But what a man does to God he does to himself—for good or evil. Thus, says the Lord, “I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone” (v 10). Men who reject God put themselves on the scrap heap of history.