2 Kings 10.
JEHU went on with his work of cutting off the entire family of Ahab; he was the instrument God used for this act of unsparing judgment on that apostate king, but all we see of Jehu is natural energy, nothing of the fear of the Lord which the book of Proverbs tells us is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). So in the book of the prophet Hosea (chapter 1, verse 4), we read that God’s judgment was to fall on Jehu’s house also. We can only judge that it suited Jehu to obey God’s word sent to him through the prophet Elisha; he did not know God by faith, nor seek to know Him. Merely outward energy, or the carrying out of what is known of God’s will, will not do for Him.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment), but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24. These are two of the precious gospel portions of Scripture; a third is found in Romans 3, verses 19-26.
Salvation is not by works, and the only way into God’s presence is in the power of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14) for all who trust in Him.
Jehu had all of Ahab’s family, and the “brethren” of Ahaziah, king of Judah, also all the prophets, servants and priests of Baal, put to death; the images of Baal were destroyed, and the house of Baal broken down. Thus was the worship of the god of the Phenicians and Canaanites stopped in the ten tribes of Israel. But Jehu lived in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (see 1 Kings 12:28-33); the golden calves, sign of an idolatrous religion, were left at Bethel and Dan.
To Jehu God promised, because of his obedience in the matter of Ahab’s children that the descendants of Jehu should, to the fourth generation, sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin.
Judgment upon the nation therefore began; Hazael the king of Syria attacked the region east of the Jordan, the possession of the children of Reuben and of Gad and of half the tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 32).
This is an illustration of the worldly-minded Christian, those who settled on the wrong side of Jordan; unwilling because of their “much cattle” to enter the promised land—had to resort to an expedient of their own, the altar of Ed ( Joshua 22:10-34), to help preserve their oneness with the more faithful ones who had crossed the river, and now they were cut off—the first to go when judgment began to overtake the land.
The Christian poet has said,
“Happy they who trust in Jesus;
Sweet their portion is and sure,
When the foe on other seizes,
God will keep His own secure.”
ML 12/04/1927