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. (1 Kings 12:28)
This was a renewal of the worship by which Israel had brought judgments on themselves in the wilderness (Ex. 32:1-35). By thus rejecting the Lord, Israel was taking a course that could end only in ruin. Disaster is inevitable when men forsake the Creator of heaven and earth for the worship of calves of gold.