Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Prophets are powerful people in ancient Israel. We've repeatedly seen how they're the ones who anoint kings, especially when a line of errors is interrupted. There's no voting because God is the one who runs their nation state, and He speaks through the prophets.
Today, Elisha sends a young prophet to anoint Jehu as Israel's next king and to give him the weighty task of fulfilling God's prophecy to wipe out all of Ahab's descendants, including King Joram, who is currently on the throne. Jehu sets out on his secret campaign and is even able to convince some of the king's watchmen to follow him instead of oppose him, either because they had no idea what he was doing or because they respected him enough to do what he said.
King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah both go out to meet Jehu and his crew, and they meet him in the most appropriate of spots, the land of Naboth. His vineyard is the whole reason this trouble started to begin with. Ahab wanted it, Jezebel killed for it, and God pronounced the death penalty on their whole family, which Jehu is here to enact. He kills both kings, then he goes after Jezebel. She gets dressed up for the occasion. It seems like she wants to look lovely when she dies.
Maybe this is where she gets the reputation of being a loose woman. After all, everybody knows you can't trust a woman wearing eyeshadow for crying out loud. She yells out the window and compares Jehu to Zimri, Israel's seven-day king who killed King Omri. She's basically saying Jehu might get away with what he's trying to do, but that his kingdom won't last long. And she's calling him a murderer. That's ironic.
But Jehu yells out and asks, Who's with me? And two or three eunuchs give him a head nod. Then he tells him to throw her out the window. And she dies in exactly the way Elijah prophesied she would. Then Jehu goes after the remaining descendants of Ahab. He sends a letter to tell the people to appoint Ahab's best descendant as king. But the elders of the land are like, No, thank you, sir. We've seen what you do to kings. So he replies, Okay, so are you with me then?
And he also adds a really tricky line in there that could be interpreted two completely different ways. In 10.6, he says, If you are on my side and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to meet me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time. This could mean bring your leaders with you when you come, or it could mean behead your leaders and bring me the proof when you come.
He didn't clarify what he meant, but it was a good test of their loyalty. They did the latter. Jehu absorbs any guilt of this act and reminds the people that this has all been done according to the prophecy of Elijah, the word of God. Jehu continues this mission until it's complete. And it may seem extreme, because it is, but this is all part of God's covenant with these people.
Jehu is aiming to destroy all the worshippers of Baal. In order to do this, he uses some cunning techniques. He pretends to worship Baal and calls everyone to join him. He does this so he can weed out and spare any true servants of Yahweh. He doesn't want to accidentally kill them when he's on his mission. After he kills all the Baal worshippers, he destroys their pagan temple and turns it into an outhouse.
Archaeologists uncovered that 3,000-year-old toilet a few years ago. We'll link to a story about it with pictures in today's show notes. Despite all this, he still leaves those two golden calves up in Dan and Bethel. What is going on with those things? God promises to bless Jehu even though he's not as thorough with the idol demolishing as he was with the people demolishing. And his heart eventually goes astray too. The hardest enemies to defeat are the idols in our own hearts.
During his reign, Israel begins to lose wars and land. Jehu reigns for 28 years, which is a lot longer than Jezebel suggested he'd last. Meanwhile, back in the south, remember seven-year-old Joash who replaced the so-called queen of Judah, Athaliah? We revisited that story today. Jehoiada the priest had raised Joash and anointed him as king. Then Jehoiada established lots of reforms, including tearing down the altars to Baal, and the people rejoiced. What was your God shot today?
We didn't see God show up much in the text today, except that it kept pointing out that all this was happening to fulfill the word of the Lord. He's there in the cunning words of ways in Jehu. He's there in the appropriately located battle in Naboth's vineyard. He's there with the eunuchs in the tower alongside Jezebel. He's there working out his plan through all of these acts. As terrible as they are, they're never less than righteous and just.
When we zoom out on him and his plans, we also see the wickedness and waywardness of a rebellious people. And we're reminded of how he has abundantly, generously provided for them in the past, but they go their own way. Even when he's not in the foreground, he's always in the background. And he's where the joy is. ♪
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