Lessons from the story of Jehu the King

[Ernie]

This morning I read the story of King Jehu in II Kings 9 and 10.

Jehu was anointed by a prophet of Elisha to be the next king of Israel. His assignment was to “destroy the house of Ahab and avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel.”
Jehu basically did a coup and put the officials in Samaria into a situation where they needed to kill all the family of Ahab if they wanted to survive. It was one of the more gruesome takeovers in history.

Jehu also killed the Ahaziah, king of Judah, and 42 royal relatives. It doesn’t seem like he was commanded to do this, however Ahaziah was a grandson of Jezebel. Did he go overboard in his zeal?

At one point the ultra-conservative, Jonadab the son of Rechab joined up with Jehu in his chariot, to whom Jehu said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.”

They went on and Jehu deceived the Baal prophets by getting them altogether and then killing them. He then returned the nation to worshipping Jeroboam’s calves as the “state religion.”

But Jehu was not a godly man. So God used Jehu and commended him for what he did, but Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam and continued to worship the calves Jeroboam had set up in Dan and Bethel. (Possibly so that the Israelites would not go to Judah to worship.)

But later, God tells Hosea to name his son Jezreel. "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel."

I’m not sure if Isreal was a theocracy at this point or not. Judah still seemed to be, at least when it had good kings.

I’m wondering if there are some parallels to today.
1. Does God appoint leaders today to bring judgment on other leaders in the same way as the OT? Or is it different because the church is now the only Theocracy.

2. I find it interesting that godly people like Jonadab get caught up with and supportive of evil leaders who are carrying out the will of God even if the leaders were not godly people. It seems hard for people to distinguish between the two.

Maybe you can think of more parallels?

[MattY]

It was politically profitable for Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab as well as the worship of Baal, which had been heavily promoted by Ahab and Jezebel; it eliminated people who were potentially loyal to the previous regime. But there was no political benefit to Jehu in eliminating the golden calves. They helped promote the independence of the northern kingdom and drew people away from going down to the temple in Jerusalem to worship, thus preventing defections to the southern kingdom. Plus the golden calves were a longstanding accepted practice in northern Israel, unlike Baal worship which was brought in from a foreign country and was tied to the previous dynasty. So Jehu's "obedience" was only halfhearted obedience and it was all about what was politically profitable for him. This is a common temptation in politics - and in other areas of life, like business.

[MattY]

Also, regarding Hosea 1:4, I think a less interpretive translation is "the blood of Jezreel" or "the bloodshed of Jezreel". "I will visit [bring/avenge] the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu." In 2 Kings 10:30 Jehu is commended by God for what he did to Ahab's house. In the context of Hosea 1 it is not just the house of Jehu that is being punished but the entire northern kingdom of Israel, which has turned away from God, and so He is turning away from them (verses 2, 6-7, and 9). It's possible God is saying, what Jehu did to the house of Ahab at Jezreel I will bring back upon his own house because of their own sins. (In other words, it's not a punishment for what Jehu did to the house of Ahab, but rather a paradigm for what will happen to his own dynasty because Jehu and his descendants were also wicked).

But the context of Hosea 1 seems to be looking more broadly at Israel's general moral failures rather than a specific event that happened 100 years or so in the past. Jezreel was kind of a second military and political capital of the northern kingdom. So I think "the bloodshed of Jezreel" most likely means "the bloodshed of the kingdom of Israel", with "Jezreel" serving as a metonymy for Israel's government power much like "Washington" for ours. Jehu's line continued the corrupt northern political system, with state-sanctioned violence, oppression, and bloodshed; that legacy will be visited on them.

[barnhart]

Good thoughts MattY. I think one reason we have the prophets like Hosea along side the books of history like kings and chronicles is to give a little of God's perspective into the reign of kings, whether kings of national Israel or modern political power.