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Jehu seems an unlikely subject for a sermon. He is one of the most violent characters in the Old Testament. Why is it worth our time to talk about him? First, because of his importance in the history of both the northern and the southern kingdoms, and second, because we can learn from his life.

JEHU’s MIssION FROM GODLet us begin by reviewing the background

to the story of Jehu’s kingship. Jehoshaphat, a good king of Judah, made an alliance with Ahab of Israel (1 Kings 22:44) and married his son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (see 2 Kings 8:16–18). Later, Ahab was killed in a battle against the Arameans, or Syrians. His son Ahaziah succeeded him on the throne (1 Kings 22:35–40), and Jezebel became the queen mother in the northern kingdom. Then Ahaziah died after falling through a lattice in his upper chamber (2 Kings 1:2). He was succeeded by another son of Ahab and Jezebel, Jehoram (also called “Joram”; 2 Kings 1:17).

Jehoshaphat continued as king of Judah for a number of years. He was followed by his son Jehoram (the same name as a contemporary king of Israel)—the one married to Athaliah. Jehoram, because he was married to the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

The Bible confirms this assessment:

Now in the fifth year of Joram [Jehoram] the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat . . . became king. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab became his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 8:16–18; emphasis mine).

When Jehoram died, his son Ahaziah (the grandson of Jehoshaphat) reigned over Judah in his place (2 Kings 8:24). This made his mother, Athaliah, the queen mother. The summary of Ahaziah’s reign is given in 2 Kings 8:24–27:

So [Jehoram] slept with his fathers . . . ; and Ahaziah his son became king in his place. In the twelfth year of [Jehoram] the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab had done, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

All of this provides the setting for the story of Jehu. When he entered the scene, Jehoram the son of Ahab and Jezebel was still reigning in Israel,

n  The Kings of the Divided Kingdom n

n   n

The King who was in a hurry

Jehu of israel

2 Kings 9:1—10:36

Jehu Jehoramisrael ahab ahaziah Jehoahaz Jehoash

874 853 841 814 798 767 B.C.

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the northern kingdom. This king was as guilty of the sin of idolatry as his parents were. In Judah, the southern kingdom, the young Ahaziah had recently become king. Being the son of Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, he was also a nephew of Jehoram, the king of Israel. Like these relatives, he was a worshiper of Baal.

At the time when Jehu was called by God, these two kings had been fighting together against Hazael, king of Aram (Syria). King Je-horam of Israel had been wounded in battle and was recovering in Jezreel. His nephew Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had gone there to visit him (2 Kings 8:28, 29).

His Divine MissionHow did Jehu become king? His story begins

in 2 Kings 9:1–10:

Now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Gird up your loins, and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth-gilead. When you arrive there, search out Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in and bid him arise from among his brothers, and bring 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 wait.” So the young man, the servant of the proph-et, went to Ramoth-gilead. When he came, be-hold, the captains of the army were sitting, and he said, “I have a word for you, O captain.” And Jehu said, “For which one of us?” And he said, “For you, O captain.” He arose and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. You shall strike 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 every male person both bond and free in Israel. 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 in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.’” Then he opened the door and fled.

To state the situation briefly, Jehu was appointed by God to wipe out the house of Ahab and to become king over Israel.

Jehu was not of royal lineage. He was a military officer. While God fulfilled His promise to keep a descendant of David on the throne in

Judah, the reign in Israel passed eight times to a new king or dynasty by way of assassination. Jehu was, in fact, the only king of the northern kingdom who was anointed. The anointing ar-ranged by Elisha was in keeping with a sym-bolic Hebrew practice and surely indicated that Jehu was to follow in the Davidic tradition, en-dowed for the task by the Spirit of God.1

His Immediate ObedienceJehu was given a specific mission by God: to

destroy the house of Ahab. He immediately pro-ceeded to do what he had been told to do. He enlisted the help of other commanders in Israel’s army (and so initiated a coup; 2 Kings 9:11–13). He got in a chariot and drove “furiously” to Jezreel, where he shot the two idolatrous kings of Israel and Judah—the son and the grandson of Ahab—using his bow and arrow (9:14–26, 27, 28). He gave the order for Jezebel, the queen mother of Israel (9:30–37), to be thrown down from her window. He sent a letter authorizing the slaughter of seventy sons of Ahab in the city of Samaria (10:1–10).

Jehu killed “all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel” (10:11). He captured forty-two relatives of Ahaziah on the way to Samaria and “killed them at the pit of Beth-eked” (10:12–14). He put to death “all who remained to Ahab in Samaria” (10:17). Then he used deception to gather all the priests, prophets, and worshipers of Baal in Samaria (10:18–27), where they were slain by the sword.

What was the result of all these killings? “Jehu eradicated Baal out of Israel” (10:28).

His Partial FailureThe final words about Jehu’s kingdom reveal

that, although he eradicated Baalism, he did not end the worship of the golden calves that Jero-boam had placed at Dan and Bethel. Therefore, we read, “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not depart from the sins of Jero-boam, which he made Israel sin” (2 Kings 10:31).2

1Donald Wiseman, 1 & 2 Kings: An Introduction & Com-mentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993), 218–19.

2While Jehu was rewarded for his efforts to end Baal worship in Israel, he was also punished for his shedding of blood (see Hosea 1:4b).

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However, since he had done God’s will in eradicating Baalism, God told Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel” (10:30; emphasis mine). In keeping with God’s promise, Jehu’s descendants did reign through four more generations:

Jehoahaz, Jehu’s son, succeeded Jehu (2 Kings 10:35).

Jehoash (or Joash), his son, succeeded Jehoa-haz (2 Kings 13:9).

Jeroboam II, his son, succeeded Jehoash (2 Kings 13:13; 14:16, 23).

Zechariah, his son, succeeded Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:29; 15:8). Then he was assas-sinated by Shallum after reigning only six months (2 Kings 15:10). So ended the line of kings descended from Jehu.

JEHU’s ACTIONs FOR GOD

Evidence That God sanctioned His Actions God, through the prophet Elisha, initiated

Jehu’s mission of bloodshed (2 Kings 9:7–10).

While Jehu carried out the assassinations, he indicated that he was acting out of zeal for God and His word, and he recognized that the deaths of Ahab and Jezebel fulfilled God’s prophecies concerning them (2 Kings 9:22; 9:25, 26; 9:36, 37). In 2 Kings 10:17 we are told, “When [Jehu] came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah” (emphasis mine).

Why God sanctioned His ActionsWe may wonder, “How could such bloodshed

be thought of as right? How could it be God’s will?”

The need for Jehu’s work. We can imagine what might have happened if Baalism had not been fought! The whole of God’s people, in both the northern and southern kingdoms, were in dan-ger of abandoning the worship of the Lord God and adopting the worship of Baal. If that had happened, God’s plan to bring the Messiah into the world through a people who followed Him could not have been achieved. It seems as if God’s purpose to save mankind through the Christ de-scended from David might have been thwarted. God could not allow that to happen; Baalism had

suCCession & inTermarriageof The 9Th-CenTury royal houses of JuDah & israel

Judah Israel

Jehoshaphat (872–848) ahab (874–853) Jezebel

Jehoram (853–841) athaliah (841–835) ahaziah (853–852)

Jehoram/Joram (852–841)

Jehosheba ahaziah (841)

Jehoash (835–796)

amaziah (796–767)

all dates are B.C. indicates a marriage.

indicates an assassination. order of rulers in Judah. order of rulers in israel.

1 3

2

4

Jehu (841–814)(killed ahaziah & Jehoram)

5

3

1

2

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to be defeated. People often say that “desperate times call for desperate measures,” and the times were desperate in the Hebrew kingdoms! The worship of God was threatened with extinction, so extreme measures were necessary to eradicate the worship of Baal.

Other similar incidents. When we wonder about Jehu’s killings, we should remember that his actions were in keeping with what happened on other occasions in Old Testament times. The Israelites, in obedience to God’s instructions, killed everyone in Jericho when they captured the city (Joshua 6:21). Saul was told to destroy the Amalekites completely (1 Samuel 15:3). God Himself destroyed the world with a flood, ex-cept for the family of Noah, and He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. He caused the earth to swallow those who rebelled against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, sending fire from heaven to destroy other rebels (Numbers 16:31–35). What Jehu did was in keeping with these earlier precedents.

No Precedent for TodayGod no longer enforces His will in this way.

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Paul wrote, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). Many in “Christian” history have either mis understood or forgotten that fact! Some groups have joined their versions of Christ’s religion with political states, both to advance the cause of Christ by the force of arms and to persecute and punish un-believers with physical torture and death. God does not work that way in the Christian age! Though Jehu was authorized by God to do what he did, those today who take that sort of action in the name of the Lord do not have His ap-proval!

lessons for us

Be in a Hurry to Do God’s Work. Jehu was in a hurry to do God’s will. He began his work by taking men with him and driving his chariot to Jezreel, where the two kings Jehoram and Aha-ziah were to be found. As Jehu was approaching the royal residence, “the watchman [spying the approaching chariot] reported, ‘He [referring to someone sent out to discover who was ap-

proaching] came even to them, and he did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously” (2 Kings 9:20).

One fact we can easily remember about Jehu is that he drove “furiously.” We should not imi-tate Jehu by driving cars furiously; but we have been commissioned by God to do His work, and we should be in a hurry to do the job that He has given us! We need zeal to do the Lord’s work—zeal like that demonstrated by Jehu.

An excellent example is Philip. When he was called by God to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch, he saw the Ethiopian traveling along in his chariot, reading. “Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot’” (Acts 8:29). Next, “Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’” (Acts 8:30). The Spirit said, “Go,” and Philip ran! We ought to be as eager to obey the commission the Lord has given us as Philip was to obey his commission: He ran! We should do the equivalent. We need to quit putting off good intentions and get in a hurry to accomplish the tasks the Lord has given us to do. Especially, we should hurry to preach the gospel to our friends and neighbors. Remember Jesus’ words: “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35). Time is short. Just as Jehu was in a hurry to obey God, we need to get in a hurry to fulfill the Great Commission!

Obey God Completely. The second lesson for us to remember from Jehu’s kingship is that we must follow God completely. Jehu pleased God by executing His orders. However, he fell short of obeying God completely. Let us try our best not to fall short. Let us strive to be diligent to obey all of God’s commands and never excuse ourselves for failure in one area by our obedience in another. For example, we must never find ourselves saying (or thinking), “I know I don’t go to church very often, but I’m very concerned about keeping myself pure and unspotted from the world,” or “I may not do any work for the Lord, but I do give liberally.” We must try with all our hearts to do everything the Lord requires of us.

Of course, we fall short sometimes (Romans

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3:23). No one lives without sinning; if we say we have not sinned or do not sin, we are liars and we make God a liar (1 John 1:8, 10). The good news is that, when we sin, we can be forgiven. God forgives by means of the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7). When we, as Christians, “confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unright-eousness” (1 John 1:9).

To be forgiven as children of God, we must turn to God by repenting of our sins and pray-ing to Him for forgiveness (Acts 8:22). When we

do, we can be assured that He will forgive us. However, we may need to get in a hurry to take care of our sins!

Life is short and uncertain; death could come at any time. Hurry to Christ. You never know: This could be your last opportunity to obey the gospel. Why not do as one song says, and “hasten to Him”?3 Coy Roper

3Palmer Hartsough, “I Am Resolved,” Songs of Faith and Praise, comp. and ed. Alton H. Howard (West Monroe, La.: Howard Publishing Co., 1994).

The BlaCK oBelisK of shalmaneser iii of assyriaThe “Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III,”

king of Assyria (858–824 B.C.), is a black lime-stone carving that was found in Nimrud (in the northern region of modern-day Iraq). The obelisk stands 6.5 feet (about two meters) high and depicts twenty scenes commemor-ating the deeds of King Shalmaneser III. (The Shalmaneser mentioned in 2 Kings 17:3; 18:9 is Shalmaneser V, a descendant of this king.)

The obelisk (pictured below1) holds sig-nificance for Bible students because its images include the earliest depiction of an Israelite.

The second relief panel from the top on one side (shown above) represents the delivery of tribute from King Jehu of Israel around 841 B.C., either by Jehu himself or by his envoy. The cuneiform in-scription states that the tribute consisted of “silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase, golden goblets, golden buckets, tin, a staff of the hand of the king, and javelins.”2 Jehu’s name appears in language that is translated as “Jehu son of Omri.” While this occasion is not recorded in the Scriptures, it is consistent with the facts given there.

When Jehu killed King Ahaziah and caused the death of Jezebel, who was of Sidonian descent, he severed Israel’s alliances with Judah and Phoenicia. Then Israel became subject to Assyria. Jehu is one of five vassal kings pictured on the obelisk, each bringing tribute and bowing before the Assyrian king. Above and below the reliefs, a lengthy inscription lists the military campaigns conducted by Shal-maneser III and his commander-in-chief.

Discovered by Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1846, the Black Obelisk is displayed in the British Museum of London.

1Photos are from Todd Bolen, Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, Kregel Academic & Professional. (Used with permission.)

2Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel, Library of Ancient Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 262.

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