2 Kings 10:18-36 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 10:18-36. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 10:18-36 (NIV)
18 Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.
19 Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his ministers and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the ministers of Baal.
20 Jehu said, “Call an assembly in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it.
21 Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the ministers of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.
22 And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring robes for all the ministers of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them.
23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Recab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the ministers of Baal, “Look around and see that no servants of the LORD are here with you–only ministers of Baal.”
24 So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: “If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.”
25 As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.
26 They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it.
27 They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.
28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel.
29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit–the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
30 The LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.
32 In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory
33 east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.
34 As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?
35 Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king.
36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
On verses 18-36: Having gotten rid of the house of Ahab along with a slew of others, Jehu now focuses on erasing the worship of the idol Baal in Israel. He invites all the prophets of Baal to the temple of Baal under the auspices that he is going to hold an assembly in honour of their god. Jehu even gives each prophet of Baal a special robe, which seems like a gift when in fact it just makes them an easier target (v22). As these prophets make their sacrifices to Baal, Jehu’s men ambush the prophets of Baal and cut them down with the sword inside the temple. They also destroy the temple of Baal and begin using it as a urinal (v27).
Jehu’s legacy is that he destroyed the house of Ahab (which he did in accordance with God’s command) (v30) and destroyed Baal worship in Israel (v28). However, there were two forces that Jehu did not destroy. First, Jehu continued to support the worship of Jeroboam’s golden calves (v29, 31) and thus did not follow the Lord wholeheartedly. Second, Jehu could not defeat the nation of Aram led by their king Hazael. Rather, during Jehu’s reign, Aram took over more and more of Israel’s territory (v32-33). After a 28 year reign as king over Israel, Jehu dies and is succeeded by his son Jehoahaz (v35-36).
What can we learn from all this? The life of Jehu as recorded in 2 Kings 9-10 reads like a mature-rated third person shooter game. It’s full of violent, bloody, merciless killing of those who have done evil by turning away from the Lord. You might ask, “How could God approve of such violence? Does it please God for His people to kill this way? Does God support terrorism?”
Here’s the problem: If God shows mercy to those who sin and lets them off the hook, people will accuse God of being unjust and indifferent to evil. But if God punishes those who sin (as he does through Jehu in 2 Kings 9-10), people will accuse God of being merciless and cruel. So what should God do? Amazingly, centuries after Jehu destroyed the house of Ahab and the prophets of Baal, God did the unthinkable: He punished evildoers AND He showed them mercy at the same time. How? By sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross on behalf of every sinner.
At the cross God condemned and punished all of our sins and placed them on Himself. At the same time at the cross God also showed us how incomparably merciful and loving God is, canceling our debt by paying it Himself. The cross where Jesus died is the intersection where God’s justice and God’s mercy meet.
Since Jesus died on the cross, God in the New Testament no longer commands that His people be modern day Jehu’s who go out and kill unbelievers for their idolatry. That’s because God has already dealt with all of our sins and idolatry at the cross. Now God waits for us to respond and receive the mercy that God makes available through Jesus Christ alone. So instead of unleashing violence on people who don’t believe in the Lord, God calls us to love them and to show them the same mercy and grace that God has shown to us, in hopes that they will turn to Jesus one day as well. Jehu is gone and Jesus has come, and we are called to follow Jesus.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the God who hates sin but who loves sinners. Thank You for the cross where Your justice and mercy meet. May we be Christ-like representatives in our world and lead others to You not through judgmental violence but through love and mercy. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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