By this time, both Israel and Judah have become corrupted by Ahab and Jezebel's influence. Ahab's son Joram, is king of Israel and the king of Judah is Ahaziah whose father Jehoram, married one of Ahab's daughters. It's all in the family and the family has become polluted. God had to go outside of the lineage once more in order to rid the people of their evil practices.
The prophet Elisha sends one of the younger prophets to surreptitiously anoint Jehu, one of the commanders of the army, as king. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu's head and declared, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anoint you king over the LORD's people Israel. You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD's servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.' " Then he opened the door and ran. - 2 Kings 9:6-10 NIV
It's a scary thing to speak these prophetic words against the ones in charge, especially when they have shown they have no remorse in taking whatever they want at whatever the cost. But once he was anointed, Jehu took up the Lord's challenge and attacked the evil kings and their families with gusto. When the lookout for Joram saw him coming towards the king's quarters in Jezreel he reported to the king that "The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi--he drives like a madman". - 2 Kings 9:20 NIV
And mad he was. He killed Ahaziah, then Ahab's family, then Ahaziah's relatives, and finally rounded up the prophets of Baal and killed them as well. 'Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord,' he told one of the men he met on his way to kill the remainder of Ahab's family. As a result, God promised that Jehu's descendants would sit on the throne of Israel for four generations. That would have been well and good if Jehu had been careful to keep the law of the Lord with all of his heart. But the zeal died and so did the hopes for Israel. God began to reduce the size of Israel by allowing Hazael, the king of Aram to overpower the Israelites and the reign that began in zeal ends up like all the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment