How do verses five and six reveal that the golden calf and its connected feast were not to worship other gods but the LORD? How did God respond to this breaking of His second commandment?

1 Kings 12:26-33

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

How do verses 28 and 32 reveal that Jeroboam's golden calves were not made to worship new gods, but the LORD? What other worship ordinances did Jeroboam break? How was the history of Israel, the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, affected by the sin of Jeroboam? How did God respond to this transgression of His second commandment?

Whenever man attempts to establish his own method of approach to, or worshipping of, God, he transgresses God's second commandment. In doing so, he seeks to dethrone God and to place himself as king in God's room -to carry out his own will, thoughts, and desires. The church worship service, therefore, must strictly adhere to God's, and not man's, ordinances for worship, as taught in Scripture.

When implementing this principle in actual church life, the two principal Reformers God used in the Reformation of His church,

Take ye therefore good' heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air.

The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.

- Deuteronomy 4:15-18

Worshipping God in our own way rather than in His way places man in God's place. Why?