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Home , 2 Kings 8

Transcription of 20ID3363

2 Kings 8-10 “ Had a Great Fall” August 19, 2020

So let’s open our tonight to 2 Kings 8, as we continue our study through the historical books of the , and we have been going through them chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse. They are written in narrative style, and we’ve told you many times that narrative is a telling of a story that the best way to learn is to place yourself in with the people of the story and then just stand there and say, “What would I do?” And, “If the Lord spoke to me, how would I respond?” It is a lot of verses that we cover because it is a narrative, it is a story. Sometimes we wish we had more of the story, but this is what God has given us to grow by, and so this is what we want to learn well. And we will continue that tonight in chapters 8, 9 and 10.

If you were with us when we were in person here in the sanctuary, we handed out to you a list; they look kind of like this, of the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel. They’re important to have because when the kingdom split in two, there were kings of the north and kings of the south. Israel was called Israel in the north only; in the south, they were called Judah. The northern kingdom, at the death of Solomon in 931 B.C., would last about 209 years before the Assyrians would come in and overthrow the north. The north never had a good king. They were in rebellion against God from day one. In the south, called Judah, they would last until 606 B.C., and then the LORD would bring the Babylonians in to take them into captivity for seventy years because of idolatry and disobedience. But the south would be returned back to their land after seventy years, as God had promised. The north would no longer be allowed to exist in that form. And once they were captured, they would have to go back – if they survived it – to the south to be where God had put His name. So if you have these charts with you, dig them out for tonight. It’ll kind of help you to follow along. I’ll refer to them a couple of times. If you don’t have one, if you go to our Archive page, there is a link there that you can click, and you can actually print these out for yourself, and they’d be good for you to have.

We are currently in the reign of a fellow named Jehoram in the northern kingdom; he reigned from 852-841 B.C. He was one of the sons of Ahab. He followed his brother, Ahaziah, to the throne. In the south, in Judah, during that time,

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Jehoshaphat was reigning, and he would be followed by his wicked son, interestingly also called Jehoram. But we’ll get to that in the next little while.

In the last several chapters, the LORD has had us focusing on the ministry of . First and then Elisha, both of them prophets to the northern kingdom, that kingdom of ten tribes – aside from Judah and about half the tribe of Benjamin – who were in rebellion against God But the LORD continued to love them, to reach out to them. He wanted to bring them to Himself. And so we’ve been looking at that ministry of God’s goodness. Elijah had lots of miracles in his life, but they were mostly judgment; they spoke of God’s anger and His dissatisfaction with the unbelief of the people, their idolatry and disobedience and all. When Elisha took over his ministry (in chapter 2), his ministry was very personal, it was very much the mercy and the goodness of God. Rather than to the nation as a whole, God individually began to show His goodness towards those who believed in Him and then to those who did not so that they might turn from their wicked ways. Unfortunately, very few did.

But in the last several weeks, as we’ve been looking at Elisha, we saw him healing a poisoned water well in Jericho; sending some lions after forty-two very extremely disrespectful kids who called him bald-headed (so I can relate to that); ministering to a widow of the prophets who was destitute with her two sons; the miracle of the oil that was filling the jars (as you might remember if you were with us); he raised a Shunammite son from the dead; he healed a pot of stew that the prophet students were eating there in Gilgal; he touched the commander of a Syrian army who had leprosy, that the LORD miraculously healed; he had an ax head float as the prophets were building a new school, as they were expanding their facilities. And even just back a little bit down the road, King Jehoram in the north, when he decided to attack from the north, God told Jehoram where the Syrians were hiding that were out to get him (the attackers from even further north), and God spared his life time and time again. And yet, when the attack finally came publicly, rather than kind of hit squads, it was this king that, rather than thanking God for protecting his life, turned on Elisha and sought to kill him but instead was given a prophecy of how, in one day, God was going to deliver the nation of Israel in the north to show them His power. And so you might remember that Ben-, the king of Syria, who had seen his military leader healed by the LORD, first had sent out ambushes to kill King Jehoram. Those hadn’t worked because Elisha kept tipping him off. And then, when he sent this army against them, they were locked down in the city, it looked like all was lost there in . But God had a way of

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delivering them, and while they were angry with Elisha, like he had brought this upon them, God brought a deliverer that night to the city. In fact, the noise of some attacking army entered into the ears of the Syrian troops, and they decided they would go and fight there, and they left the city unguarded, if you will; whereas they were locked down and even eating their own flesh. They were ready to die. There were four lepers who, outside of the walls, found the camp of the Syrians, ate, and took spoils before realizing, “Gosh, we’ve got to go tell the city.” And when they went in to tell the city of the deliverance, even then King Jehoram refused to believe it; sent some other people out; and even when he saw the deliverance of God, he refused to repent.

So a lot of these stories – at least what we’ve read so far, lately anyway – have been God’s willingness to just reach out to the unbeliever, reach out to the saints, reach out to His nation, reach out to the heathen; just everything He could do to make Himself known. And yet the response has been sparse and so often so inconsistent.

Well tonight we get to an interesting couple of chapters that I think you should know well – chapters 8, 9 and 10. There’re about 100 verses, so it’s always good that you read ahead before Wednesday night, especially while we’re going through historical portions which use a lot of words and lay out for us the story. And we’re going to look at the ministry of Elisha and the judgment of God against King Ahab, once and for all. And God will take out, completely, everyone that belonged to Ahab’s family and even those in the south who were friends with Ahab in the north who allowed some of the worship of Baal that Ahab had brought into the north to be drawn to the south. And God really wipes out that whole connection with Baal worship and with the life and the influence of Ahab.

So tonight, in chapters 8, 9 and 10, God is going to raise up a fellow named . He is going to establish him in the north as a king of Israel. You can find him on your list there under Jehoram, and he is going to rule for twenty-eight years; he’s going to be a very wicked king. In fact, the end of his life, Jehu, I’m pretty sure that by the time you read what he has done and where he has gone, you’ll say to yourself, “Gosh, maybe he never made it with the LORD,” and there’s certainly no indication in the that he did. But he did do what the LORD gave him to do as far as his bringing God’s judgment upon a family that had led so many of His people astray; when the hammer falls on the house of Ahab, they had a great fall. But when that is finished, God will reward Jehu with allowing four of his sons to reign

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upon the throne (you can see that in your printout as well). And then the LORD will deal with Jehu’s wickedness and his family’s wickedness against the things of God.

So tonight God’s judgment upon a house that He had declared judgment for years earlier, and we’re going to see how God keeps His Word, is faithful to what He tells us, He is merciful, and He’s gracious. He waits long for the fruit to come in. But there comes a time when it’s enough, and the LORD says it’s enough. So, unfortunately for Ahab that’s certainly where we are tonight. Some of it is a brutal story, but it is the life of those who choose to walk without God.

So let’s start in chapter 8, verse 1, where we read, “Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, ‘Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.’ So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the seven years. It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. Then the king talked with , the servant of the man of God, saying, ‘Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.’ Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, ‘My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’ And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.’ ”

So we start with this Shunammite woman (from chapter 4 of 2 Kings) who had shown great kindness to Elisha. She was the one who saw the ministry of God and had talked her husband even into building an apartment for Elisha so that when he came into the area, he’d have a place to rest and to sleep. She had been given a promise from the LORD through him that she would one day have a son. She was already old, her husband even older. And she had a son, really past her age, a miracle son who lived for quite some time, and then one time out in the field, got sick and died. And God sent Elisha, and he lay upon this body and cried out to the LORD several times, and the LORD restored him back to life. It was a great miracle. Well now the LORD sends Elisha back to her many years later and tells her she needs to pack up out of the northern kingdom, go wherever she can

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because the LORD is bringing a famine, a punitive kind of judgment upon the land, the people of Israel, for their idolatry, their disobedience. God’s just trying to get their attention. He loves His people, and He certainly wants them to come back and to come around. And so, again, God’s goodness to this woman and through Elisha, this miracle. “You’d better not stay here. It’s going to be seven years of no food.” And she moves into the Philistine area where she’s able to survive, and God goes to get the godly woman and delivers her before the judgment of God falls upon the land.

During this eleven-year reign of Jehoram in the north, great wickedness has prevailed. This woman was one of the few women that seemed to just stay right with God through it all, and she was a Gentile of all things. It’s good to have a man of God as your friend, as a person that is close to you. Notice she and her family are now spared God’s judgment for faith. So, they went to the Philistine land – not very far from there – survived the famine, and continued to, I think, look to the LORD. When she came back after seven years, she went to the king to get her land restored to her. We don’t know what happened to it and her house. Maybe the prophets from the farm. But we’re not told anything about that, just that she went to the king. And as she came to the king, it just so happened there was Gehazi. Now Gehazi was the servant of Elisha, and he had been there for some time. We don’t know that he was still serving with Elisha because the last time we really met him, he was left with leprosy. You remember? He tried to get the Syrian commander to give him some payment for the healing of his leprosy that Elisha had refused. And so Elisha, in his judgment over this servant, said, “Well, then you can carry his leprosy.” We don’t know how that turned out. We do see him in contact here with the king in the north. So while he’s speaking, especially about this woman and her child being raised from the dead years earlier, she walks in. And, again, God’s timing is amazing. How good is the LORD that she would walk in just at this time. And, as a result, she gets, this woman of God – this Gentile believer in the midst of a northern kingdom that is just under God’s judgment and is not being blessed because they were walking away from God – and yet here God takes care of this woman. Beautiful picture of a believer in the midst of a society that hates God. So you and I……I think I see that all the time in our lives. God takes care of us in the midst of a society that clearly doesn’t want to hear from the Lord so often. But here’s God’s perfect timing again.

Verse 7, “Then Elisha went to , and Ben-Hadad king of Syria was sick;” (again, God’s timing; why Elisha went to Syria we don’t know, but their king, Ben-

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Hadad was sick) “and it was told him, saying, ‘The man of God has come here.’ And the king said to ,” (who was his servant) “ ‘Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, “Shall I recover from this disease?” So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel-loads;” (it’s quite a big present, isn’t it?) “and he came and stood before him, and said, ‘Your son Ben-Hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, “Shall I recover from this disease?” ’ And Elisha said to him,” (Hazael) “ ‘Go, say to him, “You shall certainly recover.” However the LORD has shown me that he will really die.’ Then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed; and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, ‘Why is my lord weeping?’ He answered, ‘Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.’ So Hazael said, ‘But what is your servant – a dog, that he should do this gross thing?’ And Elisha answered, ‘The LORD has shown me that you will become king over Syria.’ ”

And so we turn our attention now to God’s timing again. The LORD leads His prophet to the northern area of Syria, kind of enemy territory; we’re not sure why he’s there. But it was that timing again, at the same time Ben-Hadad became sick. And so the Syrian king had heard of and seen the miracles of Elisha. Remember, it was his commander that had been healed of his leprosy. It was his death squads trying to kill Jehoram in the north that had been kind of tipped off, and they never were able to catch hold of him and all. His own soldiers had been arrested when they had come to try to arrest Elisha, and Elisha had taken them, blinded, to the king in Israel before he had let them go. So this guy was more than aware of the hand of God at work through Elisha’s life and in the kingdom of Israel. So he now wants to buy some information. Way of the world. He sends his captain Hazael to him to ask about his disease. “Am I going to live?” And notice that Elisha’s response was that Ben-Hadad would survive the ailment, but yet he would die of another cause, which we’ll see in a minute. Setting his eyes, then, upon Hazael, Elisha kind of stared at him with a stare that made him feel extremely uncomfortable, in fact brought him to shame; and the prophet began to weep. It’s not always such a good thing to know the Bible or God’s heart. We know where this world is headed, and to think about that for a few minutes and to stop and watch people live their lives so cavalierly and, “We don’t want anything to do with God,” and knowing what the end of that kind of life is should indeed break our hearts. And so Elisha knew what was coming, but it wasn’t a good thing to know. It kind of

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broke his heart. Nothing pleasant about it. It’s almost like Elisha was looking at a movie screen, and he saw what was coming, and it caused him to weep. And he said to Hazael, “I know what you’re going to do against Israel,” and Hazael said, “Look, I’m not a dog. Who would do such a horrible thing as you’re describing here?!” Well, he would. But he had a hard time hearing that for himself. In fact, Elisha would say such horrible things that, let’s face it, anyone in their right mind would have said, “Not me.”

There’s something about knowing our wickedness that doesn’t come easily to us. In fact, it would seem from the Scriptures that we have to be first honest with ourselves, and then God needs to show us how wicked we can be. God knows our hearts. That Psalm 139:4-6 where it says, “There’s not a word on my tongue, but LORD You know it altogether. You stand behind me, You go before me, Your hand’s upon me. Your knowledge is too wonderful for me. It’s too high, I don’t understand.” God knows us better than we know ourselves. How is it that man is so blind to the awful truth of his wickedness and sin? “The heart is deceitful,” the prophet writes (17:9), “who can know it? Desperately wicked.” So we’re not really willing, most times, to admit the extent or the depths to which we might fall, were it not for God’s help. So sin can even blind us to the reality of our sinfulness. Think about that. We try to often impress others. We want them to think better of us than we deserve: that I’m smarter, that I’m more spiritual, more committed than I truly am. But in seeking to deceive others, it starts with deceiving myself. Right? In fact, I have my ideal self in my head. This is who I am. Well, actually, that’s who I wish I was. It’s not at all what I am. In fact, it would be what I was if it wasn’t for all these extenuating circumstances or these people in my life or the pressure that I find myself. So instead I find myself not measuring up. I’m quick to excuse myself, “Well, that’s not me. That wasn’t me. I don’t know who that was, but that wasn’t me.” And it isn’t hard to rationalize every evil in your life by saying, “I’m not as bad as all of that.” I think if someone told me when I was 10 years old what I would have done by the time I was 18, I would have argued, “What do you think I am, a dog?” But there is this big disparity between my ideal self-concept and my actual self that, if I don’t resolve that, I’m going to lead a deceptive life.

So here’s a wicked guy, tremendously so. “Am I a dog?” And the prophet goes, “Ah.” He looked at him until he was ashamed. I think he knew, and so did the prophet. So we have to face the truth about ourselves if we ever hope to change. Maybe you’ve talked to an alcoholic or someone that’s just hooked on smoking, and

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they’ll say to you things like, “I can quit anytime I want. I just don’t want to right now.” But that’s not the truth. The truth is you’re bound. So God needs to bring us to that place where we acknowledge we’re sinners, that we will die in our sins, that we need a Savior, that if we confess our sins, then we find Jesus to be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and forgive us of all of our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). But unfortunately, most like Hazael here, they feign humility and shock, they won’t admit to the depths of their despair. Yet what follows, I think, will reveal his wicked heart clear enough. So God, in His goodness to us, seeks to reveal first to us our hearts. You might remember that Scripture there in Deuteronomy 8:2, where the LORD is speaking through Moses to the people before they’re handed off to Joshua. And one of the things the LORD said to them is, “I want you to remember all the ways which the LORD your God led you in the wilderness these forty years, through the wilderness, so that I could humble you and I could prove you, and you could know what was in your heart; whether you would keep God’s commandments or not.” In other words, He put them in a position where the proof would be in their behavior. Not that God didn’t know but that He wanted them to know; that you might know. Not that He might know; that you might know where you’re coming from. God uses trials for that purpose. He uses these situations for that purpose. Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. See if there’s any wicked way in me, and lead me in the ways of everlasting life.” So, “God, cleanse me.” So the prophet says to this man, “The king’s going to survive it, but he’s going to die another way, and my heart is broken because I know what you’re about to do, both to Israel and to what you have planned going forward.” And he’s shocked. He denies it.

Well then we read, in verse 14, “Then he” (Hazael) “departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, ‘What did Elisha say to you?’ And he answered, ‘He told me you would surely recover.’ But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place” (in Syria). So one day later, under the guise of cooling down a fevered brow, he suffocates the king, takes over the army (which he had a relationship with), and becomes the head of the country. God knew his sin. He’s going to survive…..he could survive the illness, but he’s not going to survive what he has to face. Years earlier – and it’s something that you might want to write down, it’s in – Elijah, after he had dealt with the prophets of Baal, you remember, and , Ahab’s wife, threatened to kill him when she heard, and he, though he was so powerful the day before, ran in fear to the wilderness, went to hide. And the LORD came to him and in a still small voice said he wasn’t the only

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one left, and God had thousands of prophets other than him. But then He gave to Elijah some marching orders, and He told him that he was to, “Go home, but go home by way of Damascus, Syria, and when you get there, anoint this fellow, Hazael, to be the king over Syria. And Jehu you shall anoint to be the king over Israel. And Elisha you should anoint to be the prophet in your stead.” So years earlier, God singles out Hazael in Syria and Jehu in Israel and Elisha the prophet and says to Elijah, “That’s what’s coming, and you can go and make that anointing and prayer for them now.” So the judgment upon Ahab’s house, which is now coming through Jehu, was delayed when, you might remember, Ahab at one point in his life repented of his wickedness. In fact, let me read to you out of 1 Kings 21:25-29. It says this, “There was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. So it was, when Ahab heard those words,” (the words of the prophet of judgment) “that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.’ ” And so with this one act of repentance in the life of a man that didn’t repent completely or forever, if you will, the LORD delayed the judgment against the house of Ahab until this time. But Elijah had been sent to anoint this guy that was certainly not going to be any king in Syria yet, to anoint Jehu who wouldn’t have been in a position of power yet, to anoint Elisha who had to follow him around for months on end.

So now we move ahead to the present tense. Hazael in Syria; Jehu is about to be placed there in the north; and God uses both of them for the purpose – and both of them are very wicked people. Hazael’s going to be a horrible guy. Jehu is going to be a horrible guy. And you might say, “Well, how does the LORD do that?” Well God works everything together for His purposes. His ways are to reach you, and His greatest desire is that you would find life. If He knows that you’re going to refuse Him and turn away, He’ll certainly use you for His own power and for His own purposes just like He uses the devil. But that doesn’t mean there’s a reward waiting because you’ve refused to submit to the Master who is going to have His way. If you turn to Him, He’ll give you life, He’ll deliver you, He’ll lead you. But if not, you’re kind of left to do God’s bidding but yet there’ll be no reward in the end. And so that’s what we find ourselves with here.

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Verse 16, it says, “Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, having been king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat” (Jehoram and Joram – those names are used back and forth, and they’re said both ways, and they’re two different folks; one in the north, one in the south) “began to reign as king of Judah.” (And if you’ll look at your charts that we have given you, or if you print them later, you’ll see that there were some overlapping years because Dad was getting older, and the son would rule with him; in fact, this Jehoram would reign for about eight years.) So we read, in verse 17, “He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in . And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel,” (not the kings of Judah; he was like the perversion of the religious ways of the north) “just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife;” (so he had married into this wicked family) “and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah,” (the south) “for the sake of His servant David, as He promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever. In his days” (of the fellow there in the south, Jehoram) “ revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves. So Joram went to Zair, and all his chariots with him. Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; and the troops fled to their tents. Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. And Libnah revolted at that time. Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Joram rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.”

So, we get now the reports, if you will, that this son of Jehoshaphat – he was a very good king. In fact, he had reigned for twenty-five years. He was a godly man. His father Asa had reigned forty-one years. He was also a godly man. But now we find this fellow kind of in the middle, Jehoram, a bad king. His son would be equally as bad. We find him reigning, and then we turn to the south, and notice that in the south Jehoshaphat has a son named very much like the fellow in the north. They had such a relationship with them even though he was a good king, and they now find a rebellion taking place during the time of this co-regency where Jehoshaphat and his boy were reigning in the south. But there was a lot of evil influence through the son because of his affinity with Ahab and that whole Baal worship, and so the spiritual decay in the south made them weak. And notice Edom who, by the way, had paid tribute to Israel when it was only one kingdom for 150 years now, during the reign of this fellow Jehoram, decided they’re going to stop paying taxes. They organized their own government. They’ve got their own king. Jehoram tried

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to attack them, but his troops were sent away defeated. Edom stood defiantly. And then there was a group called Libnah, which we read about here, which was a Levitical city (Joshua 21:13) in the southwest of Judah that apparently stood their ground as priests and said, “We’re not going to incorporate or to follow along with this Ahab-style of idolatry and Baal worship.” And so they said, “No!” And there was a separation between the king and his rulership and the priests in Judah that were maintaining their relationship with God. And so that didn’t go well in the south, and they suffered accordingly.

We read, in verses 23 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 there, that following Jehoram, his son Ahaziah came to the throne. He was twenty-two. He’d only reign a year, but he would go down that same path. And again, notice that the implication is their relationship together between the house of Ahab and this family in the south, which then was really bringing this same Baal worship to God’s people in the south.

So we finish this chapter by reading, in verse 25, “In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel,” (in the north) “Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah,” (in the south) “began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was the granddaughter of , king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Now he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria” (way in the north) “at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram. Then King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.”

So, to make the long story short, these two wicked kings – one in the north and one in the south – brought together by their religious idolatry, go to fight against an enemy way north of the northern kingdom (Hazael, that we just read about). They were put to the task: one was hurt, the other came to visit. And literally God has these two families – one from the south, one from the north – gathered in one place, there in Jezreel, which sets up what we will be reading in the next couple of chapters. Because from this place, God is going to bring judgment to both. He wants to rid the south of these Baal-worshipping influences and the north, that’s all that’s been going on, and God continues in His mercy to shake and to seek to reach them.

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In chapter 9, we now come to the anointing of Jehu in Israel by the sons of the prophets sent by God, and God sends word regarding the annihilation of the family of Ahab and his descendants who were polluting, like I said, both north and south. Just to remind you, back in chapter 19 of 1 Kings, it had been the LORD that had said, “Go and anoint Jehu to be the king in Israel.” So we will find him coming to the throne for some twenty-eight years. But God had this planned for years and years earlier; said so through Elijah. Whenever you read the Bible, one of the things that always sticks with me because people say, “How do you know the Bible is true?” Well, fulfilled prophecy is certainly one of the greatest proofs of the verity of the Scriptures. God says it, and then it takes place. And it isn’t just written in one book; it’s chronicled over years of time. And so, again, God had set this time up, and that time of judgment had come now.

Verse 1 of chapter 9, “And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, ‘Get yourself ready, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. Now when you arrive at that place, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of , and go in and make him rise up from among his associates, and take him to an inner room. Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I have anointed you king over Israel.’ ” Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.’ So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. And when he arrived, there were the captains of the army sitting; and he said, ‘I have a message for you, Commander.’ Jehu said, ‘For which one of us?’ And he said, ‘For you, Commander.’ Then he arose and went into the house. And he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel.” ’ ” And then he bolted out the door.

One of the roles of the prophets from the school…..and, by the way, the prophets’ school that we read about so much, you really only read about, in any great quantity, here through the lives of Elijah and Elisha; not sure why that’s the case, but at this time of the divided kingdom, that prophecy school – and it was mostly in the north - was reaching out to a people that really wanted very little to do with God. Out of that prophets’ school came one young man given a very important mission: deliver a word from the LORD to a bunch of commanders, and God has chosen one of them to be the king. And I just love the fact that, as you read here, God chooses one of these young men, and He sends him on his way. God can certainly use you at any age, but it’s wonderful when God uses the young folks. And

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so here’s a guy – he’s in school, he’s learning, he wants to go serve, he’s faithful – and he goes to deliver this message.

Well, after he prays for Jehu in the inner room, he said, verse 7, “ ‘ “You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab all the males in Israel, both bond and free. So I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. The dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.” ’ And he opened the door and fled.”

So the word from the LORD to Jehu was that Jehu was to be used by the LORD to wipe out an entire family, a house, a group of descendants that started there with Ahab and Jezebel, for their wickedness. They brought Baal worship into Israel, into the north, and now it had trickled down to the south. So this young man faithfully delivers a very difficult message, and then he gets out of Dodge.

We read, in verse 11, “Then Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, ‘Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?’ ” (Isn’t it interesting that the lost saw the prophet of God, even a young man, as a madman?) “And he said to them, ‘You know the man and his babble.’ ” (And they weren’t satisfied with that.) “And they said, ‘A lie! Tell us now.’ So he said, ‘Thus and thus he spoke to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I have anointed you king over Israel.’ ” ’ ” (And then the men, rather than thinking it was a madman loved that idea because they were his friends.) “Then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, ‘Jehu is king!’ ” So his mates thought the prophet was weird and false, at least until they heard something they wanted, and then they joined in the celebration.

Verse 14, “So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria. But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, ‘If you are so minded, let no one leave or escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.’ ” (In other words, “Let no one get out to tell them I’ve become king; let’s not let that word get out.”) “So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was laid up there; and Ahaziah king of Judah”

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(remember, he had married into the family) “had come down to see Joram.” (They were both in this city.) “Now a watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and said, ‘I see a company of men.’ And Joram said, ‘Get a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, “Is it peace?” ’ So the horseman went to meet him, and said, ‘Thus says the king: “Is it peace?” ’ And Jehu said, ‘What have you to do with peace? Turn around and follow me.’ So the watchman reported, saying, ‘The messenger went to them, but is not coming back.’ Then he sent out a second horseman who came to them, and said, ‘Thus says the king: “Is it peace?” ’ And Jehu answered, ‘What have you to do with peace? Turn around and follow me.’ So the watchman reported, saying, ‘He went up to them and is not coming back; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously!’ Then Joram said, ‘Make ready.’ And his chariot was made ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; and they went out to meet Jehu, and met him on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.” And now ”the Jezreelite.”

If you read , and you read what we are going to read here, you will come across the death of Jehoram, there in Israel, at the hands of Jehu. Jehoram had been hurt in battle, as we read a minute ago, with the Syrians, had gone to Jezreel to heal. His nephew, Ahaziah, had come from the south to comfort him. Jehu used the enthusiasm of his men to lock the city down while they ran over there from Ramoth; in fear that maybe the news of the coup would get out too soon, he rode furiously. Jezreel is kind of where Mt. Gilboa is. It’s of the tribe of Issachar, there in the north. The watchman, in watching the plains, saw the smoke of the men. They sent out a couple of guys to try to find out what was going on. They kind of recognized the way Jehu would ride in his chariot. They weren’t really threatened or felt threatened by it. So both kings – from the north and south – got in a chariot to go out and meet him, and then they would soon discover it’s not a social call.

And so we read, in verse 22, “Now it happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ So he answered, ‘What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?’ Then Joram” (realized this was dangerous and he) “turned around and fled, and said to Ahaziah, ‘Treachery, Ahaziah!’ Now Jehu drew his bow with full strength and shot Jehoram between his arms; and the arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, ‘Pick him up, and throw him into the tract of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I were riding

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together behind Ahab his father, that the LORD laid this burden upon him: “Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,” says the LORD, “and I will repay you in this plot,” says the LORD. Now therefore, take and throw him on the plot of ground, according to the word of the LORD.’ ”

So, God’s Word, which had been delivered years earlier, now comes to pass as Ahab’s family begins to find the judgment of God against the family; only delayed because Ahab’s momentary repentance when the LORD made His will clear to him. So Jehoram dies in the field. We will read of Ahaziah here in a moment, dying there as well. And Jehu heads for Jezreel and Jezebel, having thrown Jehoram’s body in the field of Naboth. By the way, Naboth, you might remember, is that vineyard owner who Jezebel killed; they lived right next to Ahab, and Ahab wanted the field – his house – for a garden or something, and he refused. It was a family plot; he couldn’t really give it away. And so Jezebel went to work, framed him with a bunch of lies, had him killed, and then handed his land over to her husband. So, in that day that that happened, Jehu remembered being there and hearing God’s judgment from the mouth of Elijah upon Ahab and upon his family.

So, having killed and thrown him into that field, we read, in verse 27, “But when Ahaziah king of Judah” (of the south) “saw this, he fled by the road to Beth Haggan. So Jehu pursued him, and said, ‘Shoot him also in the chariot.’ And they shot him at the Ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. Then he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.” And so he tries to get away. He goes to the chariot city of Megiddo, where there were great walls. He thought he could maybe be protected, but he ends up dying there of his wounds.

So, verse 30, “Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it;” (she’s the wife, you remember, of Ahab) “and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window. Then, as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, ‘Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?’ And he looked up at the window, and said, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Then he said, ‘Throw her down.’ So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot. And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, ‘Go now, see to this accursed woman, and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.’ So they went to bury her, but

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they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back and told him. And he said, ‘This is the word of the LORD, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, ‘Here lies Jezebel.’ ” ’ ” So the death of Jezebel – again, family of Ahab – finds her in the city, mocking, dolling herself up, and waiting the outcome; even mocking Jehu from her window inside the city that, in the memory of this fellow Zimri who, you might remember, also led a coup and killed a king; only lasted seven days and then he himself was besieged, and he locked himself in the palace and set it on fire and died in that same place. “Hey, you’re gonna go, too,” just to her death, mockingly; unfortunately for her, some of her servants were more eager to join with Jehu than to serve with her, and they threw her out a window where she splattered onto the ground. By the time they got to burying her, the dogs had eaten her, even as in 1 Kings 21, God had said to Elijah. These were wicked folks who met a wicked end, and gosh, it reads brutally so. But isn’t that how life goes? If you step away from God, destruction comes your way. These are pretty heavy- duty days of war, but the destruction is found in every generation. And so God’s judgment delayed against a wicked family who had sought to bring the worst kind of idolatry – the sacrifice of children to the gods – into first the northern kingdom and then tried to get it down through the south.

Well, we have one more chapter to add to the story to kind of close the books on Ahab and to learn that God does what He says, and He knows what He’s doing, and He sees far ahead. And He’ll be merciful as long as He’s able, and then the mercy runs out. This is as far as you go. And now we answer.

So we read, in chapter 10, verse 1, “Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.” (So he had a big family.) “And Jehu wrote and sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to those who reared Ahab’s sons, saying: ‘Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and weapons, choose the best qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.’ ” (So, in other words, “Hey, get your best guys; we’re gonna go fight for the throne.”) “But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, ‘Look, two kings could not stand up to him; how then can we stand?’ ” (“He’s wiped out these two already.”) “And he who was in charge of the house, and he who was in charge of the city, the elders also, and those who reared the sons, sent to Jehu, saying, ‘We

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are your servants, we will do all you tell us; but we will not make anyone king. Do what is good in your sight.’ Then he wrote a second letter to them, saying: ‘If you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.’ Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them. So it was, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons and slaughtered seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel. Then a messenger came and told him, saying, ‘They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.’ And he said, ‘Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.’ So it was, in the morning, that he went out and stood, and said to all the people, ‘You are righteous. Indeed I conspired against my master and killed him; but who killed all these? Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the LORD which the LORD spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for the LORD has done what He spoke by his servant Elijah.’ So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining.”

So, continuing with his dealing with the house of Ahab, we now find Jehu creatively gathering together the last surviving members, starting with his seventy sons who were being cared for by others. And, again, brutal and amazing. Seventy heads piled up for everyone to see that God was doing what He had said He would do, and no one should ever doubt Him or His Word again. I would think that would leave a permanent mark. And unfortunately it didn’t. Even the neighborhoods and the people in the days to come will not find themselves repenting at this last minute. In fact, by the time we get through Jehu’s family – some eighty-eight years of his four generations ruling – the nation in the north will only be thirty years away from being overthrown by the Assyrians completely. So, we’re inching up towards that judgment on the north and yet God, in broader and more aggressive and clear strokes, declaring Himself to the people; and even using someone like Jehu, who is obedient to God’s call to be a butcher, I guess, to be a judgment stick but yet will not bow his knee to the LORD; will find God’s mercy to some extent, but ultimately his judgment as men will always do. God is very patient, but God is only patient for so long.

Well we read, in verse 12, as he continued this work that “he arose and departed and went to Samaria. On the way, at Beth Eked of the Shepherds, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah,” (the fellow in the south, who had joined his friend there in the north) “and said, ‘Who are you?’ So they answered, ‘We are

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the brothers of Ahaziah; we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.’ And he said, ‘Take them alive!’ So they took them alive, and killed them at the well of Beth Eked, forty-two men; and he left none of them.” So in Samaria he encounters a large caravan, members of the Ahaziah family of the south, heading to the north. And, again, God’s judgment falls.

“Now when he departed from there,” verse 15, “he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, ‘Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?’ And Jehonadab answered, ‘It is.’ Jehu said, ‘If it is, give me your hand.’ So he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. Then he said, ‘Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.’ So they had him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah.” So, he finished the job, and Jehu takes a witness to see his zeal but also to see the fulfillment of God’s Word.

Verse 18, “Then Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.’ But Jehu acted deceptively, with the intent of destroying the worshippers of Baal. And Jehu said, ‘Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.’ So they proclaimed it. Then Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the temple of Baal, and the temple of Baal was full from one end to the other. And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, ‘Bring out vestments for all the worshippers of Baal.’ So he brought out vestments for them. Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal, and said to the worshippers of Baal, ‘Search and see that no servants of the LORD are here with you, but only the worshippers of Baal.’ So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed himself eighty men on the outside, and had said, ‘If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be his life for the life of the other.’ Now it happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, ‘Go in and kill them; let no one come out!’ And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal. And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the

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temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.”

And so this ruse to gather together those remnants of those who were worshipping this false god that had been so heinous in Israel and had begun to find itself into the north. And notice God uses this wicked king. He was a wicked guy! But God has a way of just having His way. God is going to have His way. You can turn to Him and go with Him willingly, or you can just go along. But He’s going to have His way.

Well, then we read these very interesting, surprising words towards the end of our chapter. Verse 29, “However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at and . And the LORD said to Jehu, ‘Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.’ ” And you can look at your chart and see that those four sons are listed there; they reigned a total of about seventy-eight years or so. But, in any event, God was faithful to bless the descendants of this family, though none of them would turn to God and though the LORD would not be honored in the lives of any of them. But notice what the LORD says, “You’ve done the right thing in obeying what I have given you to do,” even though I think he was motivated not by a love for God but by a love for himself, “This’ll get rid of my opposition.” And yet God used him, rewarded him, said to him, “Your sons will reign for four generations.” But we read, in verse 31, “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who had made Israel sin.” He’s the guy that led the people to the north when Solomon died and set up calf worship and changed the rules for worship, changed the months and changed the priests’ qualifications; just really lowered the standards.

So, amazingly, God has His way. Jehu did what he was told, and God rewarded him for his obedience and gave him four generations of his family to rule. None of them, like I said, godly. So by the time Jehu is finished and his four sons - which I think that’s a total of eighty-eight years between them – like I said, they’re only thirty years away from the Assyrian invasion, and the north is about to disappear completely. But God has been waiting so long for them; 209 years in all, of just sending the prophets, waiting upon them, showing His power, miracles of judgment, miracles of help and mercy; and no one wants to hear. So, Jehu rules; then his son

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for sixteen years; another son for sixteen years; another son for forty years; and then the last son will only reign for six months.

But notice verse 31 because even with God’s words of encouragement, Jehu didn’t desire or choose to live a godly life. He was zealous to protect his own interests, zealous to uproot this worship of Baal, but no zeal at all to worship God. It’s interesting. We are good at finding fault in others, but to receive, to counsel ourselves……he seemed to, “Hey, LORD, You want me to wipe them out?” “Yeah, they’re horrible.” But then the LORD said, “Now you need to come walk with Me.” “No, I don’t need to do that.” So, as a result, Israel in the north has grown weaker and weaker, as we will continue to read.

And we’ll end with these verses tonight. Verse 32, “In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael” (that’s the king, you remember, in Syria) “conquered them in all the territory of Israel from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead – Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh – from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Jehu rested with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. Then Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. And the period that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.”

So, the LORD ends by taking out Ahab’s entire family, as He had said. He made a promise to Jehu, who chose not to walk with God. But, as a result, here in the last few verses, you begin to read of the pressure that Israel became under more and more as they weakened in their power, their relationship with God almost non- existent. Hazael began to take over land, especially along the Jordan; especially first the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh which, by the way, were those two-and-a-half tribes that never crossed over into the Promised Land; they stayed on the other side of the Jordan; they wanted to make their lives there, outside the LORD’s Land of Promise. They are the first ones to be overthrown by the enemy, the first to fall. Because you can’t really live on the fringes of God’s promise. You’ve got to go in and enter in.

The good example is Christians that live between the land of promise and Egypt. You come out, God saves you, you’re delivered from sin and from Pharaoh and from that life. You come to the wilderness – where you should learn to trust God – headed for the land of promise, which is not heaven (because there aren’t enemies

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in heaven) but that Spirit-filled life where God gives you victory. But you’re stuck in the middle. You’re out of the flesh, but you’re still not overcoming much flesh. And so you live your life kind of on the fringes or kind of in between the world; you’re kind of stuck in the world. And so God help us to move solidly through the land of promise.

So Jehu dies. His son comes to the throne. He’ll reign sixteen years. And we will pick up the story next time. In fact, we’re going to read chapters 11, 12 and 13 next week. So if you could go ahead and read it carefully, mark some of the things the Lord is showing you, and we can go over it next time. But, look, let me remind you of this: God has His way. His promises are sure. When He declares a judgment, even though you haven’t seen it yet, you’d better believe it’s coming. Just ask Ahab or his family. But watch the mercy of God: the mercy of God towards the king in Syria, the mercy of God to the kings in Israel, the mercy of God to those who would go up to be His friend from Judah. Constantly, God is putting Himself on display so that you’re without excuse. You can’t really have an excuse. The Lord knows what He’s up to. He knows what He’s doing. He wants you to know Him. He’s going to have His way, either way. He’ll have it whether you like it or not. Whether Jehu ever surrenders to the LORD, he might think he’s having his own will, he’s not. He’s doing the will of God.

The fact that God will do as He said is something that these chapters should have you walking away with and the fact that God’s mercy is such that He will wait long and hard to give you every opportunity to turn to Him. And if that’s what you need to do, maybe tonight’s your night. Turn to Jesus. You turned on the computer, the TV, you’re watching. The Lord has been speaking to you. Come to Him. Let Him save you. Confess your sin to Him. Turn from your ways to His ways. It’s what repentance means. And if you do, you’ll find a God with His arms open with great mercy and grace to bestow upon your life, to save you. But if not, if you’re hard- hearted and you keep pushing away, you’d better know this: Jehu met his day, Ahab met his day, the king of Syria met his day, Hazael met his day. There comes a day when we stand before God. So, may His mercy and His grace and His love bring you to your knees this evening and allow Him to be the Lord of your life.

Shall we pray?

Submitted by Maureen Dickson August 24, 2020

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