Day 108 2 Kings 9-11

The prophets of the Old Testament take an active part in the political affairs of the people—there is no separation of church and state here. As we begin the reading for today we hear how Elisha takes matters into his hands and orders the anointing of one of the descendents of King Jehoshaphat of Judah—Jehu--as king of Israel. He sends a young prophet to the commander ordering him to take Jehu aside and anoint him secretly. At the same time Jehu is entrusted with a bloody task—one which he is more than capable of discharging—to utterly destroy the house of Ahab. For the LORD it is an act of revenge for "the blood of [his] servants the prophets. The house of Ahab is "devoted"—it will be treated in the same way that the pagan inhabitants of Canaan had been treated. It will be utterly annihilated. At first Jehu keeps his anointing a secret from his fellow officers. When they ask him what the prophet wanted with him he says, "You know the sort and how the babble" (9:11). But they draw the truth from him and they immediately spread their cloak before him and proclaim him king. (We are reminded of the Palm Sunday story in the Gospels.) Jehu's revolt moves forward swiftly. He goes to Jezreel where king Joram is lying ill and King Ahaziah of Judah is visiting him. The two kings go out to meet Jehu together, recognizing him from a distance because "he drives like a maniac"(9:20). (The expression "he drives like Jehu" is still occasionally used.) Jehu summarily kills Joram with an arrow and orders that his body be thrown onto the plot of ground that his father Ahab had stolen from Naboth (9:25), thus fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah against the house of Ahab recorded in 1 Kings 21:19-22. He then pursues the fleeing King Ahaziah of Judah and shoots him down also. His body, we are told,  is taken back to the City of David to be buried. The Jehu then proceeds to Jezreel, where Queen Jezebel taunts him from her window as the murderer of his master. But her eunuchs throw her down, and Jehu tramples her with his chariot, leaving her body in the street. Later he regrets this--she is after all "a king's daughter" (9:34)--but by this time the dogs have already eaten her. And again the prophecy of Elijah is fulfilled—"In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the body of Jezebel" (9:36). The blood-bath has just begun, however. Jehu orders that the seventy sons of Ahab be beheaded and their heads brought to him in baskets.  Then he calls for a general massacre of "all who [are] left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his leaders, his close friends, and priests, until there [is] no survivor" (10:11). Still he is not satisfied.  "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD," says Jehu (10:16). And he goes on to Samaria to wipe out all who are left to Ahab there as well. It is hard for us grasp such fanatical "zeal for the LORD," but the compiler of the Books of Kings regards it as a necessary purge. The violence of Jehu's revolution is seen as a proper and proportionate reaction against the decadence and idolatry of the house of Ahab. It must be destroyed root and branch. So Jehu gathers the worshippers of Baal under the ruse of offering a sacrifice, and when they are penned up in the temple, he has them methodically slaughtered. No one is to be allowed to escape upon pain of death (10:24).  We have said before that in the Old Testament those who do not acknowledge the LORD as God are seen as less than human, as vermin to be exterminated. So even though God approves Jehu's violent reforms—The LORD blesses him for having carried out what he considers right (10:30)—for the compiler of the Books of Kings, Jehu does not go far enough. He does not remove the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up at Bethel and Dan. These were erected in direct and intentional competition with the Temple in Jerusalem, to ensure national loyalty in the people of the northern kingdom. But for the writer they are "sins" (10:29), and Jehu is faulted for condoning them. Neither is Jehu particularly scrupulous in following the Law of Moses (10:31). But he is seen nevertheless as necessary weapon in the hand of the LORD. He is a strong and ruthless commander, and yet under his rule the Lord begins to "trim off" parts of the territory of Israel (10:32). This is a period of general political decay. Following the bloody reforms of Jehu in the northern kingdom, a similar revolution takes place in Judah. Athaliah, the mother of the Ahaziah, whom Jehu has assassinated, sets about "to destroy all the royal family" (11:1). She then seizes power for herself and rules for a time in her own right. But unbeknown to her, Joash, one the king's sons, is hidden away in the temple, where he remains hidden for six years (10:3). But when Joash is seven years old, the high priest Jehoiada leads a coup in his favor.  The child is brought forth from hiding, crowned king, given "the covenant," and anointed king, to general acclamation and rejoicing. Athaliah is dragged screaming from the temple and put to the sword (11:16). Jehoiada then presides over a renewal of the covenant between the LORD and his people (11:17). The temple of Baal is destroyed and its priest killed (11:18). A new beginning is proclaimed. And our reading ends by saying that "all the people in the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed with the sword at the king's house" (11:20). The reign of King Joash will be a bright spot in the otherwise darkening history of Judah.