Jeroboam ben Nebat Could Not Trust God

This is what God promised Jeroboam:
After that, if you obey all I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight in order to keep My statutes and My commands as My servant David did, I will be with you. I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David, and I will give you Israel. I will humble David’s descendants, because of their unfaithfulness, but not forever. (1 Kings 11:38-39 HCSB)

But Jeroboam, the realist, could not trust God:
Jeroboam said to himself, "The way things are going now, the kingdom might return to the house of David. If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will murder me and go back to the king of Judah." (1 Kings 12:26-27 HCSB)

To stop the people from worshipping God the correct way, which is going to Jerusalem and through the Levites, Jeroboam decided to worship God in his own way. As a result, he earned the epithet as one who "made Israel sin".