{"id":3136,"date":"2019-05-12T20:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T03:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=3136"},"modified":"2019-05-12T16:04:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T23:04:51","slug":"2kings_9_14-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2kings_9_14-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Disturbing the Peace So That Greater Peace Can Result"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings 9:14-29\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 9:14-29.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings\u00a09:22\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n22\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”\u00a0“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 14-29:\u00a0 These verses describe how Jehu assassinates Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah.\u00a0 Jehu travels from Ramoth Gilead to Jezreel where Joram king of Israel is nursing his wounds from battle and where Ahaziah king of Judah has gone to visit Joram (v14-16).\u00a0 When Joram’s guards spot Jehu approaching in his chariot, twice\u00a0Joram sends a horseman to ask Jehu, “Do you come in peace?” and each time Jehu replies, “What do you have to do with peace?”\u00a0 Instead of reporting back to Joram, both of these horsemen decide to follow Jehu (v17-20) and Jehu continues driving “like a madman” in his chariot toward King Joram (v21).<\/p>\n

When Jehu meets King Joram of Israel with King Ahaziah of Judah by his side, King Joram asks Jehu, “Have you come in peace?” Jehu replies, “How can there be peace as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother [Jezebel] abound?” (v22) At this point both Joram and Ahaziah realize that Jehu is no longer on their side, but it’s too late as Jehu wounds both of them fatally (v23-24, 27-28). Jehu also tells his chariot officer Bidkar to throw Joram’s body onto the field of Naboth the Jezreelite (v25-26).\u00a0 This is to fulfill a prophecy that Elijah had spoken years before in 1 Kings\u00a021:19.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Notice that four times in this passage the same question appears:\u00a0 “Do you come in peace?” (v17, 18, 19, 22)\u00a0 Each time Joram or one of Joram’s men asks Jehu this question, Jehu retorts, “What do you have to do with peace?” or “How can there be peace as long as the idolatry and witchcraft started by Joram’s mother Jezebel abound?”\u00a0 Jehu understood that unless idols and witchcraft were eliminated from the land, Israel would never truly be at peace.\u00a0\u00a0From this there are at least two lessons we can learn:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0You can’t have true peace in the territory God has given to you (whether it’s your private thoughts, your relationships, or the city\/community that you live in) if idols and witchcraft remain in that territory.<\/strong>\u00a0 True, lasting peace requires that idolatry and witchcraft first be removed.<\/p>\n

2. Here we see\u00a0two types of people<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>First, there are those who try to maintain a superficial level of peace in their relationships.\u00a0 They may know something is deeply wrong, but they would rather keep the status quo than to rock the boat and do something to make things better.\u00a0 Second, there are those who\u00a0aren’t<\/em>\u00a0afraid to disturb the peace.\u00a0 Because they want to make things better, they take real, thoughtful steps to disturb the current status quo.\u00a0 They do it not because they love chaos or because they just want to be rebellious, but they do it so that a greater, deeper peace can be established.<\/p>\n

Jehu falls into that second category.\u00a0 He was willing to disturb the superficial peace so that a greater peace could result.\u00a0 Jesus also falls in this second category, although Jesus’ much gentler way of disturbing the peace was much different from Jehu’s. One could even say that God the Father fits into that second category as well when He sent His Son Jesus to rock our world and disturb whatever superficial peace there had been before.\u00a0 That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 10:34-39:<\/p>\n

34\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.\u00a035\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0For I have come to turn\u00a0“‘a man against his father,\u00a0a daughter against her mother,\u00a0a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–\u00a036\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0a man’s enemies will be the members of his own\u00a0household.’\u00a037\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;\u00a038\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.\u00a039\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are strong words from Jesus.\u00a0 In other words, when you follow Jesus, at first it might not bring total peace right away.\u00a0 In fact, your commitment to Jesus might at first cause a disturbance, both in you and also among those close to you who don’t expect you to be a Christian.\u00a0 But in the end following Jesus always leads to the greatest amount of peace for everyone involved.\u00a0 Before you can experience the greatest amount of lasting peace that Jesus brings, sometimes that superficial peace you once knew may first need to be disturbed a bit.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes you need to rock the boat before true peace can come.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is there a relationship or an area in your life that you know is not going well, but you’ve been afraid to do anything different for fear of rocking the boat?\u00a0 How do you know when it’s time to rock the boat?\u00a0 As in Jehu’s case, you’ll know because God’s Word confirms it, your spiritual leaders affirm it, and there’s a peace and courage in your heart from the Holy Spirit to pursue it.\u00a0 May God give you wisdom to know when it’s time to protect the status quo and when it’s time to rock the boat.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that because You longed to give us a much deeper peace than the world could give, You rocked our world and “disturbed the peace” when You brought Your Son Jesus into our world.\u00a0 Thank You for willing to take the risk so that we could know true peace and authentic relationship with You.\u00a0 Please give me wisdom to know when it’s time to maintain the status quo and when it’s time to rock the boat so that something greater can take place.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 9:14-29.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings\u00a09:22\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0
\n22\u00a0\u00a0When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”\u00a0“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses 14-29:\u00a0 These verses describe how Jehu assassinates Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah.\u00a0 Jehu travels from Ramoth Gilead to Jezreel where Joram king of Israel is nursing his wounds from battle and where Ahaziah king of Judah has gone to visit Joram (v14-16).\u00a0 When Joram’s guards spot Jehu approaching in his chariot, twice\u00a0Joram sends a horseman to ask Jehu, “Do you come in peace?” and each time Jehu replies, “What do you have to do with peace?”\u00a0 Instead of reporting back to Joram, both of these horsemen decide to follow Jehu (v17-20) and Jehu continues driving “like a madman” in his chariot toward King Joram (v21).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3138,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions\/3138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}