2 Kings 10

Ministers of Baal Killed (10:18-36)

18-22 Jehu had one final matter to deal with: the ministers of Baal, his prophets and priests (verse 19). Jehu employed a ruse: he pretended to be a worshiper of Baal and said he would serve Baal much more than Ahab had (verse 18). He said this in order to entice Baal’s ministers into the large temple in Samaria, where he was proposing to offer sacrifices to Baal.

23-27 Jehu then made sure there were no servants of the LORD present; he didn’t want any of them harmed by mistake (verse 23). Then he instructed the eighty men he had posted around the temple not to let any of Baal’s ministers escape, on penalty of death (verse 24). When Jehu finished making the offering, he ordered his eighty men to come into the temple and kill all the ministers of Baal (verse 25). Then he had the temple destroyed, along with its sacred objects. Baal worship in Israel had officially come to an end!

28-31 In these verses the writer gives an overall assessment of Jehu. The Lord commended Jehu for destroying the house of Ahab; presumably the Lord was also pleased that Baal worship had been destroyed (verse 28), though the writer does not say so. As a reward, the Lord promised Jehu that four generations of his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel-and that promise was fulfilled.

But in spite of his accomplishments, Jehu remained an idolater; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, Israel’s first king (verse 29). Jehu continued to worship the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up (1 Kings 12:28-30). He did not keep the law of the Lord with all his heart (verse 31). Jehu accepted God’s commission to destroy Ahab’s house, but he used it as a pretext to consolidate his own power over Israel. His heart was not pure; he put his own interests before the Lord’s.

Before we jump to criticize Jehu, let us examine our own hearts. Most of us follow the Lord with at least a slightly divided heart; no one’s motives are ever completely pure. But many of us are more like Jehu. We justify our actions by saying we have been called” by God to do some work or other, and yet to a large extent we are only doing what we want. Our capacity for selfdeception is immense (Jeremiah 17:9). O how we need to go to God and ask Him to search our hearts and cleanse us of all selfcenteredness! (see Psalm 139:23-24). Let us remember Jehu. He did a great work for the Lord, but in the end he failed where it counted most: in his heart.

32-36 Because Jehu and the Israelites persisted in their idolatry, God allowed Hazael king of Aram to seize parts of Israel’s land; he captured all the Israelite territory east of the Jordan River (verses 32-33). This was the beginning of the final punishment that was about to come upon the Israelites: the loss of their land and their exile in Assyria (see Leviticus 26:33,38-39; 2 Kings 17:1-23).

Of all Israel’s kings, Jehu was probably the best. And yet in his determination to eliminate Baal worship and the house of Ahab, he committed evils of his own. Righteous causes do not justify unrighteous actions; good ends do not justify wrong means. The story of Jehu illustrates the fact that the receiving of a divine calling does not guarantee that one will live up to that calling. Like Jehu, many Christians today have been called to some special service and have even received divine confirmation of their call. But they have failed to maintain their commitment to God and to follow Him with all their heart. The higher the calling we have received, the more we need to cast ourselves upon God, because it is only by His grace that we will be able to finish the race and keep the faith (1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Timothy 4:7).