Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, &c.— As the Jews had their feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, so Jeroboam had a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, which he instituted of his own accord. Some suppose, that as this feast was appointed by God to be observed after the gathering in of the fruits, which might be sooner ripe in Jerusalem than in the northern parts of the country, so Jeroboam might pretend that the eighth month would be a better time for it than the seventh, because then they would every where be gathered. Others imagine, that he might have this farther deign in the alteration of the month, namely, that the people of Judah, when their own feast was over a month before at Jerusalem, might have an opportunity to come to his if their curiosity led them: but the plain case is, that he did every thing that he could in opposition to the established religion, and his chief intent was to alienate the people from Jerusalem. See Vatablus, and Bedford's Scripture Chron. book 6: ch. 2.
Note; 1. Image worship, however vindicated or palliated by the papists, is abominable idolatry. 2. They who think to secure their safety by sin, only hasten the ruin they would avoid. 3. All pretences to religious zeal, contrary to God's revealed will, are but the devices of Satan more fatally to delude men's souls.