We have been reading the devastating influence of the house of Ahab, in Israel and also in Judah.
• Ahab has died but his evil ways continued to permeate the land and corrupt the people. God will act to stop this.
• In today’s passage (2 Kings 9) we are going to read the rise of a man whom God has chosen, to judge the house of Ahab.
This instrument of God is JEHU (G-hew) the commander of the army of Israel.
• He serves under King Joram, son of Ahab but will soon commit treason and kill the King.
• He will go on to take out Ahab’s wife Jezebel, and also all the seventy sons of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 10).
King Joram (ISRAEL) King Ahaziah (JUDAH)
Son of Ahab Son of Jehoram
JEHU defending Ramoth Gilead against King Hazael (ARAM)
Commander, Israel’s army
Let us read how God set JEHU apart for this task in 2 Kings 9:1-13.
The first time that this name JEHU was mentioned was in 1 Kings 19, when God first mentioned it to prophet Elijah.
• Elijah was then running from Queen Jezebel, feeling very depressed and wanted to die, telling the Lord that He was the only prophet left.
• He ran into in a cave in Mount Horeb and there the Lord spoke to him.
1 Kings 19:15-18 “15The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.”
These THREE persons are to be “anointed” (set apart) to accomplish God’s will – HAZAEL (Aram), JEHU (Israel) and ELISHA (Elijah’s apprentice and successor).
• We know subsequently in our readings that they were not “anointed” in a literal sense, with oil by Elijah. But set apart through Elijah’s ministry, broadly speaking.
• ELISHA was called in 1 Kings 19 immediately after Elijah’s meeting with God.
• HAZAEL, a court official, will become Aram’s King, declared by Elisha in 2 Kings 8.
• JEHU was anointed by Elisha’s student here in 2 Kings 9.
Clearly God has already determined these instruments of judgment against Ahab’s family, right here in 1 Kings 19.
Let’s look again at HAZAEL’S “setting apart” moment in 2 Kings 8.
• The King of ARAM Ben-Hadad was sick and he asked HAZAEL his official to seek ELISHA and find out if he would recover.
• 2 Kings 8:10-13 “10Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, `You will certainly recover'; but the LORD has revealed to me that he will in fact die."
• Both are right. He will recover (from sickness) but he will die (by assassination).
• 11He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael felt ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep. 12"Why is my lord weeping?" asked Hazael.
• "Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites," he answered. "You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women."
• 13Hazael said, "How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?"
• "The LORD has shown me that you will become king of Aram," answered Elisha.
It looks like Hazael initiated this but we know it was God who determined it.
• HAZAEL became King of ARAM and fought Israel at Ramoth Gilead, and that’s the setting of 2 Kings 9, where we read of the “setting apart” of JEHU.
• Jehu was leading the army of Israel and laying siege at Ramoth Gilead.
• Elisha’s student prophet came to the camp, anointed JEHU as King and declared to him the will of God.
Listen to what God says - 2 Kings 9:6-10.
• “I anoint you king over the LORD's people Israel. 7 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. 8 The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel-slave or free. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.'"
Notice the I WILL of God’s intention.
This whole encounter was a divine appointment. JEHU was to be God’s instrument and he will execute God’s will.
• He did not initiate any of this. God did. God acts to accomplish His will THROUGH Jehu. Jehu might be the man on the ground, but God is the primary ACTOR.
• When JEHU told his fellow officers what has happened, they rallied behind him immediately and declared him King.
• Apparently the stage was set. The army officers weren’t too happy with the King.
The rest is history. Let’s read 2 Kings 9:14-26.
Jehu killed King Joram and also King Ahaziah (JUDAH) who was visiting uncle Joram.
• Jehu continued on to the palace in Jezreel and killed Joram’s mother Jezebel (Ahab’s wife).
• 2 Kings 9:33-37 “Throw her down!” Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot. 34Jehu went in and ate and drank. “Take care of that cursed woman,” he said, “and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.” 35But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. 36They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.(1 Kings 21:23) 37Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”
Pastor Dale Ralph Davis recalls a time when his boys were young and he would read them Bible stories before bedtime. After the story we would pray. One evening the story was about Elijah and Jezebel, and it told about how Jezebel was flipped out of the window to her death.
The pastor put aside the little book and they went into prayer. His oldest boy usually tried to reflect what they'd read in the story in his prayer. And it was so this night. Luke prayed, "Dear God, thank you for letting Jezebel die."
The pastor was somewhat jolted by the straightforward gratitude but, thankfully, said nothing. Later he realised that Luke was exactly on target. It is always good news for the saints when their oppressors are judged and removed.
… Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Kings, p.158.
Jehu subsequently killed all Ahab’s sons – seventy of them – in chapter 10.
God’s Word is final. He declares it and it comes true. God turns the course of history with His Word.
• No man initiated this. God determined it in 1 Kings 19 and executed it in 2 Kings 9 when He sent this young prophet to Jehu and declared His will.
• God’s Word jump started it. His Word was the spark that led to the destruction of Ahab’s house.
This is the vengeance of God. The righteous wrath of God against sin.
2 Kings 9:7b-9 “7 …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. 9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.”
• God remembers His servants, the righteous ones who died in the hands of evil. God remembers and He avenges.
GOD’S JUSTICE PREVAILS
This is our faith and comfort today. God is a God of vengeance and He will judge evil and sin. This is WHO He is.
• Can you trust a God who punishes sin? Our answer is YES, we can. Because we cannot trust a God who does not punish sin. That would make Him unjust.
LEAVE VENGEANCE TO GOD
Rom 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.”
• It is right to be angry with evil and injustice. It is not wrong to want to see evildoers get punished. We can even cry out to God for vengeance.
• But we have to LEAVE IT TO GOD. We do not take matters into our own hands.
• The work of judgement is in His hands, not ours.
God knows we cannot do a good job. Our ability to execute justice is limited.
• Whatever “justice” that we mete out may just be some self-centred endeavours for retribution, because we are driven by revenge, a desire to get even, an eye for an eye.
• God’s vengeance, on the other hand, is the execution of His perfect justice. His vengeance is not some irrational burst of divine anger.
So rest assured. God will act. We trust Him, He is a God of vengeance.
• He will right every wrong. All sin will be accounted for and all evildoers will be judged, eventually, if not in this world, then in the world to come, in eternity.
• And it is no laughing matter to fall under the wrath of God, as we have seen today.
In closing, let me read through Psalm 94, about our God who avenges.
