In First Kings, chapter twelve, verse thirty-one, Jeroboam appointed priests who were not qualified according to God’s standards in Numbers three, verses six through nine, and chapter eight, verses five through twenty, respectively. Under the new covenant, the Levitical priesthood no longer exists, but God has established particular essential qualifications for those ordained for pastoral and church leadership. These spiritual and moral qualifications are in First Timothy three, one to seven, and Titus one, verses five through nine.
Though they were not of the tribe of Levi, to whom the office of the priesthood is restricted, by God’s express command: So that Jeroboam’s sin, as to this particular, was not that he chose mean persons, for many of the Levites were such. His sin would not have been the less if he had chosen the noblest and greatest persons: as we see in the example of Uzziah. However, Jeroboam chose men of other tribes, contrary to God’s appointment, which restrained that office to that tribe. Therefore, as he transferred the kingdom from the house of David, he moved the priesthood from the family of Aaron and left it open so that anyone might receive admission to that honorable employment, which was a favorite thing and ingratiated him, no doubt, with the people.
Jeroboam distrusted the providence of God by contriving ways and means, sinful ones too, for safety reasons. A practical disbelief of God’s all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our departures from him. Though probably he meant his worship for Jehovah the God of Israel: it was contrary to the Divine law and dishonorable to the Divine majesty to be thus represented. The people might be less shocked at worshipping the God of Israel under an image than if they had at once asked to worship Baal, but it made way for that idolatry.