Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Kings 12:28

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, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt .

In imitation of Aaron's Golden Calf, and of the Egyptians, from whom he was lately come. And this he the rather presumed to do, because he knew the people of Israel were generally very prone to Superstition, and Idolatry, as their whole History sheweth: and that Solomon's example and countenance given to false Worships, had exceedingly strengthned those inclinations; and therefore they were in a great measure prepared for such an Attempt; especially, when his Proposition tended to their own ease, and safety, and profit, which he knew was much dearer to them, as well as to himself, than their Religion.

Too great a trouble and charge, and neither necessary, nor safe for them, as things now stood.

Not as if he did himself believe, or thought to persuade the people to believe, That these Calves were properly, and truly, that very God of Israel, who brought them out of Egypt: (which was so monstrously absurd and ridiculous, that no Israelite in his right wits could believe it) and had been so far from attaining his end, and satisfying his people, that this would have made him both hateful, and contemptible to them; but his meaning was, that these Images were visible Representations, in, and by which he designed to Worship the True God of Israel, as appears, partly from that Parallel-place, Exod. 32. 4. where see my notes: partly, because the Priests and Worshippers of the Calves, are said to Worship Iehovah; and upon that account, are distinguished from those belonging to Baal; 1 King. 18. 21. and 22. 6, 7. And partly, from Ieroboam's design in this Work, which was to quiet the peoples minds, and remove their scruples about going to Ierusalem to Worship their God in that place, as they were commanded: which he doth, by signifying to them, That he did not intend any alteration in the substance of their Religion; nor to draw them from the Worship of the True God, to the Worship of Ashteroth, or Milcom, or any of those Baals, which were set up by Solomon; but to Worship that self-same God whom they Worshipped in Ierusalem, even the True God, and the God of their Fathers, who brought them out of Egypt; but onely to vary a circumstance: and that as they Worshipped God at Ierusalem by, and before one Visible Sign, even the Ark, and the Sacred Cherubims there; so his Subjects should Worship God by another Visible Sign, even that of the Calves, in other places; and as for the change of the place, he might suggest to them, that God was present in all places, where Men with honest minds did call upon him; that before the Temple was built, the best of Kings, and Prophets, and People, did Pray, and Sacrifice to God in divers High-places, without any scruple; notwithstanding that restraint of God to one place, Deut. 12. 5, &c. That God would dispence with them also in that matter; because going to Ierusalem was very dangerous to them at this time; and God would have Mercy, rather than Sacrifice; and God had been pleased to dispense with his own Ordinances in cases of necessity or great inconvenience, as he did with Circumcision for 40 years in the Wilderness.

Marginal references: Exod. 32. 8.