We continue our study through Old Testament history and poetry. This post focuses on mostly on Jehu who is seen mostly in 2 Kings. We see from his life how God used him as an instrument, but also how crept into his life.
Jehu ben Nimshi, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, was a commander in Israel’s army. Jehu was essentially a “nobody.” As Ahab’s bodyguard, Jehu was present at the murder of Naboth and his sons (2 Kgs 9:26). Jehu was in the vineyard when the prophet Elijah confronted Ahab (1 Kgs 21:16), where he heard the oracle of doom that had been pronounced there (2 Kgs 9:25).
God prompted Elisha to dispatch a messenger with instructions to seek out Jehu and anoint him king of Israel in Yahweh’s name. In addition, God gave the new king Jehu the divine task of completely destroying Ahab and his house as punishment for what Ahab and Jezebel had done to the nation, people and prophets of the Lord (2 Kgs 9:4-10). Jehu was also tasked by God to not only kill Ahab and Jezebel but their whole family. Jehu knew that Israel’s defection from Yahweh must be traced to its religious leaders so he took God’s directive to eradicate the Baal worship of Israel and its religious leaders.[1]
After receiving the message from the messenger, Jehu’s men asked what happened. Jehu did not say anything at first almost as if he did not believe the message or what just transpired. The soldiers asked again and Jehu told them he was anointed king. The men immediately began bowing down before him. Jehu followed God’s orders and killed the last king from Omri’s house, Joram, and the queen mother, Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:21-27). It was Jezebel who had much of the responsibility for Israel’s Baal worship. The gruesome death of Jezebel was a fulfillment of Elijah’s prophecy about the way she would die (1 Kgs 21:23). Jehu showed his thoroughness and obedience by instructing the leaders of Samaria to exterminate the remaining remnant of Ahab’s family and to send him their heads as proof (2 Kgs 10:1-10). He now had the support of Samaria and its people.[2] He followed this up by slaughtering the remaining family and friends of Ahab who lived in Jezreel (2 Kgs 10:11).
After destroying Ahab’s family in Samaria, he met 42 relatives of Ahaziah and promptly killed them (2 Kgs 10:12-14; 2 Chron 21:17; 22:1). Next, he began his task of eradicating the Baal worship. He tricked the priest and prophets of Baal at the temple of Baal, where he gathered them together and killed all the Baal worshipers. He emptied the temple of all the pagan paraphernalia and converted it into a public latrine (2 Kgs 10:27).
God used Jehu as His instrument to fulfill his prophecy toward Ahab and Jezebel and completely destroy their family line that no family member should reign or even live. God also used Jehu to remove the Baal worship that plagued Israel. However, Jehu went too far by killing king Ahaziah of Judah and some of his brethren. Jehu was not able to kill of every member of the line as Joash was spared. Also, Jehu also did not eradicate all of the idol worship: he did not walk in the ways of the Lord, and was a syncretist and worshiped the cult of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. For this God sent a word of judgment to Jehu that he had been faithful in executing God’s will toward Ahab and his line would endure for four generations, but his line would not endure forever (2 Kgs 10:30-31).[3]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Merrill, E. H. Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel. 2nd Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
[1] Eugene Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, 2nd ed, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 374.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid