2 Kings 8–10

Turn in your Bible to 2 Kings, chapter 8. We are continuing our study here on Wednesday night through the Old Testament. We are in chapter 8 of 2 Kings. Before we get into the text of what we are looking at here tonight, I want to remind you of something that God said to Elijah in 1 Kings. The reason I am reminding you is because we are going to see a fulfillment of the things that Elijah was told in 1 Kings in the chapters that we deal with here tonight. I am going to put this up on the screen for you because this is from the previous chapter, when the Lord spoke to Elijah. He said:

And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus (and that's in Syria). And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.” You will remember that this was the story about when Elijah had run from the threat of death which Jezebel had leveled against him for killing the prophets of Baal. The Lord met him at Mount Sinai and basically said, Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah answered, and then the Lord said, I've got work for you to do, so go back and do it. You will notice that He gives him 3 things to do. He is first to go to Syria, and he is to anoint a king over Syria. You might think, well, that's weird. Syria is not one of God's covenant people. I mean, Syria is Syria. Syria is the same Syria as today. The ancient people of Syria are still there, and Damascus is still there, and Lebanon is still there.

It's pretty amazing, but God had a hand in what was going on in Syria back then. Guess what? He has a hand in what is going on in Syria today. And you might think, well, I don't know what that says about God, exactly, because of what is happening in Syria. All I'm saying is, God is sovereign. Men make their choices, but God's sovereignty rules over all. He was first to go to Syria and anoint a king, a new king, over the Syrian nation. Then he was going to anoint a new king over the northern tribe of Israel. It was to be a man named Jehu who was the commander at that time of the army. Then he was to anoint Elisha to be his successor. You know what is interesting about it? The only thing Elijah got around to doing was anointing Elisha. We are going to see that Elisha is going to carry on the next two things. Elijah left those to him. He never did –I don't think he ever– got up to Syria. We don't have any record of him getting up there. And we know that he didn't anoint Jehu king over Israel because Elisha is going to send a man to go do that. Anyway, that is where we are going to be looking here. Chapter 8:

Do you remember, first of all, the woman with whom we were discussing, or about whom we were discussing, I should say? This is, of course, that woman who had created the room above her home. She was a well-to-do woman. She created a place for Elisha to come and stay. Elisha had given her a word from the Lord that she would have a son, because her husband was quite old, and they had not had any children. (2 Kings 4) And (her) she, the next year, sure enough, according to the Word of the Lord, she had a child, but you'll remember that child died from some head issue. Elisha went and restored the woman's child to life –brought him back to life. Of course, the power of the Lord that did it. You and I both know that. It's reasonable to believe that by now her husband has probably passed away. He was old to begin with. So Elisha goes to the woman and tells her ahead of time, listen, a famine is beginning in the land, and it is going to take 7 years for it to run its course. This was obviously a judgment of the Lord against the waywardness of the nation of Israel. Because this woman was a woman of faith the Lord spoke through Elisha to her and said, go, sojourn wherever. In other words, travel wherever you need to go, wherever you can find food. And this is going to take seven years, but go take care of yourself. It's interesting, isn't it? She responded –we see at the end of verse 2– in obedience. But it says in verse 3 that, “At the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, (it says that) she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land.” Now we weren't told that in the ensuing seven years she lost her land. We weren't told that, but obviously that is what happened. Somehow her land got consumed by –I don't know– maybe by the king. More than likely when people left the area, the king just took over their land. Very possible. So isn't this interesting –and again, she was a well-to-do woman– but your land is everything. So she gets back from seven years of obedience to find her house and all of her land gone. Are you guys with me on this? In other words, in response to her obedience, she lost everything. Can you relate? I don't know if you can or not. But literally, at the response, or because of her obedience to God, she lost everything. Now we will see how this thing plays out. She returned, and it says, “She went to appeal to the king for her house and her land.” So she's going to go to the king and talk to the king. Now, just so happened, it says in verse 4, “Now the king was (happened to be) talking with Gehazi.” Little bit of a surprise there. You remember Gehazi? He was Elisha's servant up until the point when he got greedy and wanted some of what Naaman brought along. Remember, Naaman was that Syrian commander who had leprosy and came to Israel to be healed of his leprosy, because they heard that there was a prophet in Israel. (2 Kings 5) So Naaman came and was healed, and he gave all this stuff. He says, Here, Elisha, I'm going to give you all this. And Elisha said, I don't want any of it. Naaman was like, Okay, whatever. And he turned to go home, and Gehazi thought better of it. And he thought… so he ran after Naaman, you remember?

Took some of the stuff out of greed, hid it away. Of course, God sees everything. Elisha spoke through the power of the Lord to Gehazi and said, Well, the leprosy that clung to Naaman will now cling to you and to your descendants. So it's a little surprising to find him in the court of the king. But yet, there he is. Lepers usually weren't allowed for very good reason, because it was a communicable disease. But for some reason, Gehazi is there, Very possible he is there because the king was interested in the stories that Gehazi might tell about Elisha and the work that God had done through him. And you'll notice in verse 4, that's exactly what was going on. It says that the king was saying to Gehazi, “‘Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.’” And that is probably the second thing that is a little bit surprising about this verse, is that we are surprised to find a king of Israel showing interest in the works of Elisha. But sometimes that's the case. Have you ever noticed that sometimes people want all the froth and the bubble without any devotional response to God? They're interested in hearing about –Have you ever noticed… Okay, I keep interrupting myself– I have noticed that people will naturally gravitate to books of the Bible that are filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, or mystery. Of course, in the New Testament, it is the Book of Revelation, right? People will write me –email– sometimes people in our body, sometimes people outside our body, and they have all kinds of questions about the Book of Revelation. Recently a guy messaged me on Facebook. He is from another country. And had this, sent me this picture of a barcode, and how it all figured out to 666. Of course, people love to do that stuff. They love to try to find conspiracy. They love to try to find the drama in all this. Pastor Paul, have you seen this? And, for the most part, I try to talk them down from the ledge, usually, and try to get them to a place where they'll start to look at God’s Word and look at Jesus Christ and begin to walk with God and not just be attracted to the dramatic flare of certain aspects of the Word of God. But I've noticed that there's a very natural tendency in people to be drawn to that dramatic flair, but not to God. They really don't want to know. I had a guy I worked with in radio years ago. I mean, like 35 years ago. Emailed me about 10 years ago, and I hadn't heard from the guy and he wrote me this note, and he said, hey, uh, what's going on in the world, and how does the Bible figure into it all?

I asked him, I said this very politely, but just to –so I don't take more time– what I said to him was, Why do you care? But I said it really nice, because I knew he wasn't a believer. I knew that he didn't go to church. He basically just said, well, I'd like to keep on top of some of that stuff, just in case. I get that. We chatted a little bit through a few emails. But people are drawn to those things when, in fact, they are not drawn to God. Just because somebody questions you about the Bible or questions you about the Book of Revelation or prophecy in general and how it is playing out in the world; you do a search on Google just for putting the word, prophecy. Your computer might just blow up. It's such a hot topic. People want to talk about it, but do you think people are coming to Jesus because of that, necessarily? Yes, some maybe, but like Jesus said, the way to life is narrow and few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). But the interest in prophetic things –It's pretty hot topic. People like talking about it. Doesn't mean they want God in their lives. Just because the king is saying to Gehazi, Elisha's former servant, hey, tell me all the cool things that Elisha used to do, doesn't mean that he wants God in his life. In fact, we know that he doesn't. But here's what's interesting. Remember, let's not lose sight of the fact that this woman who was obedient to God and who lost everything because of her obedience is coming to the king to appeal for her land. It says in verse 5: “(And) while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, ‘My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’ 6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers. together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.’” What a coincidence, you might say, huh? Wink, wink. Yeah, well, this is no coincidence at all. The Lord is taking care of the woman. But the point is, isn't that interesting that right about the time the king is asking Gehazi, Hey, tell me another bedtime story about what Elisha used to do. Lo and behold, the woman whom he's talking about walks into the presence of the king, and Gehazi goes, I don't believe this. Here she is. And the king is like, Is this right? Are you the one he's telling me? Yeah, she said, that's exactly what happened. She tells the story. He's so impressed and recognizes God's providential hand in her life that he appoints an official to go out with her and make sure that every single bit of her land and produce and everything else is restored to her. Amazing. Well, I mean, it is. It's cool, right? But the reason this is an interesting story for you and me to look at is because of the fact that this woman's problem was created by her obedience to the Lord through Elisha. Can I just say to you, sometimes obedience causes problems in our lives. If you determine in your heart to obey God, it will cause problems. Get that through your heart and mind, okay? It's going to create issues. It's going to create issues at work. It's going to create issues in your family. It's going to create issues everywhere else, almost, maybe not at church. I hope not at church. But it creates problems. Now you can see from the story that the Lord moved on behalf of this woman to resolve the problem that her obedience created. And that's cool. But some people have the ability to look ahead. I'm not one of them, but my wife is. My wife is always thinking about 5 years ahead. I'm lucky if I'm thinking 5 minutes ahead. But there are people in this world, and some of you are like that, and you know who you are, and you're forward thinkers. And you think ahead so much; you're always thinking about the potential consequences or fallout from your decisions, your actions, and things like that. You have the ability by God to think ahead, but it actually backfires on you sometimes because you can actually think ahead about your obedience to God, and you can think of all the things that might go wrong because of it. You can actually create issues for yourself. Let me give you an example. Somebody might say, if I start giving some of my income, I can see that we're going to have a shortfall. Or, if I report all my income this year on my taxes, I don't think we're going to have enough to pay the bills. I know that I'm supposed to be obedient to the government, according to Romans 13. We'll get there soon. But I can see now as I look down the road that if I report everything I earned I'm going to have problems. You see what I'm saying? You look ahead at your obedience to the Lord and you think, Well, how's that going to work? Hey, I've had situations where people have said, If I forgive this person, my family is never going to let me hear the end of it, right? Because somebody did something against you and your family heard about it, and you know that the Lord just called you to forgive. You know that, but your family is like ready to cut the guy's head off or her head off or whatever, and if they get any wind of the fact that you've extended forgiveness to this person out of obedience to the Lord, you can see it coming down the pike. It's going to be trouble. Sometimes we will adjust our obedience accordingly, according to what we see potentially coming down the road. And I wonder about this woman. She knew the culture in which she lived. When the Lord, through Elisha, spoke to her and said, hey, listen. There's a famine coming. Seven years’ worth. Now pick up all that you have and your family and leave and go live somewhere else for seven years. How would you like to get that word? And then, come back. She probably thought to herself, I don't think I'll probably have anything to come back to. I know how this thing works. We've seen this happen before. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. She has to know that potential exists, right? And yet she walks in obedience to the Lord anyway. Now, she gets home and what does she find? Probably exactly what she expected to find. Her land is gone. It's been consumed by who knows who or what. Neighbors, encroached on…we don't know. But it's gone. I suppose you can just choose to get mad at a time like that. Well, that's the last time I'm going to obey God. Look where obeying God gets you. God comes along and tells me to do something, and I end up losing everything I have. People, Jesus bent over backwards to tell you and me that when we obey Him, it is going to cause problems. He basically said, you guys are going to be hated by everybody, pretty much. Paul said anybody who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus –which is an expression of obedience– will be persecuted. (2 Timothy 3:12) It's going to happen. Obedience has fallout. What did Jesus come to say? He says, it's funny, we're getting close to that Christmas time of peace on earth. We read it everywhere. I always love going through the Gospels and Jesus says, Don't think that I have come to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace. I have come to bring a sword. And the enemies of a man will be his own household. (Matthew 10:34-36). Why? Because people choose to be obedient to God, and there is fallout because of it. It's a reality, okay? So don't get mad at God when it happens just the way he told you it would happen, okay? You're going to do things out of obedience to God, and it is going to land you in hot water. Don't worry about it. Hot water makes you really clean. So here we go. Great story.

Okay, verse 7. It says: “Now Elisha came to Damascus.” You remember the passage I started off showing you from 1 Kings, where God had told Elijah to go to Damascus and there anoint a new king, Hazael? Well, he didn't do it. We don't know why he didn't do it. Now, Elisha is going there. By the way, in case you just need to be reminded of where things are, here's a map that you can take a look at. I even put a red circle around Syria. That's not necessarily all the land that belonged to Syria at the time, but that gives you a good sense of just the region. You'll notice Jerusalem and Israel is south of Syria. North of Syria, you've got Asia minor. That's all Turkey today, right? And, Assyria, of course, you get into Iraq And Iran and you, I think you probably know your geography, but that is essentially where Syria is. By the way, this is the only time in Elisha's recorded ministry that he left the nation of Israel. But it says that he came to Damascus. Look with me now back in your text where it says in verse 7 that, “Ben-hadad, (who is the name of the current king there) of Syria was sick. And when it was told him, ‘The man of God has come here’ (in other words, Elisha had a reputation, and people talked when he came into a region) 8 the king said to Hazael, ‘Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God and inquire of the LORD through him, saying, “Shall I recover from this sickness?”’

This is the same king who sent Naaman the leper to Israel to get healed of his leprosy. Now, Elisha has gone to Syria, and the king hears about it. He's sick in bed. So he sends a messenger to go and ask or to inquire of the Lord, will I recover from this sickness? Remember Ben-hadad is not a believing man from an Old Testament standpoint. He is a pagan, but he has respect. This is the God who healed Naaman. And he knows that. His commander, his earlier commander. He has a new commander now, but so he has a respect for the Lord. So he asked, Shall I recover? Verse 9: “So Hazael (who is the individual that the king sent) went to meet him (Elisha), and took a present with him (a present. Listen to this) all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camels’ loads. (That's a little more than a present, I'd say; he took a lot of stuff and) When he came and stood before him, he said, ‘Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you (when it says, your son, don't that's not literal That's just a term of respect. So they would also sometimes say, your servant Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you) saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’ 10 And Elijah said to him, (listen to this) ‘Go. say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover,’ but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die.’” Now that sounds like you're talking out of both sides of your mouth doesn't it? But there's a reason for saying that. It says: “11 And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept. 12 And Hazael said, ‘Why does my lord weep?’ He answered, ‘Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.’ “13 And Hazael said, ‘What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?’ Elisha answered, ‘The LORD has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.’” Interesting, isn't it? So what God is doing here is, he is announcing to Hazael that he is going to be the next king. Well, how can that be if Ben-hadad is going to survive his sickness? Keep reading. You'll find out: “14 Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, ‘What did Elisha say to you?’ And he answered, ‘He told me that you would certainly recover.’ 15 But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. (He suffocated him.) And Hazael became king in his place.” Boy, what a great culture. You kill the king, and you get to be the king. Now, by the way, Hazael is known for during his reign involving Syria in some of the most bloody warfare against Israel. Isn't it interesting? Elisha goes to him, and Hazael brings the message from the king. So is the king going to recover? He says, yeah, he's going to recover, but he is still going to die. Then Elisha just sat and stared at him, just looked him in the eye, and wouldn't, and just wouldn't look away, to the point where Hazael got embarrassed. Elisha starts crying in his presence. So he asks him, Why are you crying? He says, because I know what you're going to do to my people Israel. You're going to rip them apart. You're going to shed much blood. And Hazael has this statement like, Oh sure, how is someone like me going to pull something like that off? You will. You will. God knows. God knows ahead of time. Now, as we move on here, we're going to turn once again to the kings of Judah, but as it begins to speak of a king of Judah, it's going to date it for us. And the way they would date things in Bible times, they wouldn't say, on November 11, 2015. They would begin by citing how many years another king had been in power. And so we're going to talk about a king of Judah, but they're going to date it by the king of Israel. It says in verse 16,

So Jehoram is the son of Jehoshaphat. Remember, Jehoshaphat was actually a good king, but do you remember us talking about Jehoshaphat? He was a king during the time of Ahab, who was wickedness incarnate. Jehoshaphat was a good king from a godly standpoint, but he was gullible. Do you remember? He got sucked into things by Ahab. He went to war on a couple of occasions with Ahab and Ahab's son. He tried to launch some trading ships with Ahab, and God wouldn't allow that to take place. And what we don't know, or what we're going to find out here, but we're not told previously, is that Jehoshaphat actually arranged to have his son Jehoram marry a daughter of Ahab, which was really stupid. But again, they would do things like that to try to marry the kingdoms to bring peace. It was a political move, but it was a ridiculously dumb thing to do from the standpoint that –how do I say this gently?-- the person you marry has a huge influence on your life. So if you're not married yet, be careful. It's huge. And to Jehoshaphat, again, we have talked about the fact that he lacked discernment.

He lacked discernment. He should have been able to say, Ahab is a creep. And I am not going to let my son marry this daughter of Ahab, because he is going to lead him astray, or she is going to lead him astray, by her practices, and so forth. And, what happened to Solomon, you guys? What happened to Solomon, with all the wives that he married? It says very clearly: and they led him astray. (1 Kings 11:3). Anyway, Jehoram now is reigning in the place of his father Jehoshaphat. It says in verse 17: “He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18 And (look at this– he did not walk in the ways of his father But) he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done (and then look what it says), for the daughter of Ahab was his wife (says it right there. And by the way, her name was Athaliah We'll hear more about her in just a bit, and it says) and he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. 19 Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. “20 In his days (and this is the days of Jehoram, this is the king, and it's going to refer to him now as Joram also. Don't get confused. Jehoram and Joram are two variations of the same name, almost like Pete and Peter. I mean, it's about that much difference, but you were talking about the same person. But) in his days, Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own.” Edom had previously been conquered by Judah, but now God allowed them to revolt. And to throw off the taxation that Judah had put upon them, and they crowned their own king, “21 Then Joram (and again it's the same man as Jehoram) passed over to Zair with all his chariots and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home.” So he went to battle against the Edomites, and they engaged the Edomites in battle, but the Edomites apparently were too strong, so Jehoram's army packed it in and ran home. So that didn't work. It says in verse 22: “So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day.” In other words, they never reconquered them. And in fact, “Then Libnah revolted at the same time.” You have other countries who they had previously conquered, who they were now getting taxation from. And those countries are saying, hey, the Edomites, they threw off the rule of

Judah. Let's do it too. And they did, and they were successful. You can see that things are unraveling for king Jehoram or Joram. “23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 24So Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.” Boy, it's really easy to get confused. There's already been another king, Ahaziah, in Israel, and now there's a king, Ahaziah, in Judah. And, you have to just…I remember years ago I had a gal come up to me. I don't know if it was the last time I was teaching through 1 and 2 Kings, but this gal came up to me, and she went home and made a chart. Now you can find that stuff on the internet just like that. But she went home and drew it all out, when the kings reigned and how they overlapped and she –it was like on 3 pieces of paper taped together– and she brought it to me, and she was all proud of it. And I was like, I was overwhelmed, that she had done such a thing. But she just wanted to get it straight in her head. And I get that because you read of a name. Like, there were two kings named Jehoram, both in Israel and Judah. There's two Ahaziahs, both in Israel and in Judah. It's really easy to get confused, but you just have to go with it. So it says, “In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, (we're in verse 25) king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.” So this is the grandson of Jehoshaphat and the son of Jehoram, or Joram, all right? And by the way, he was the youngest of Joram's sons, because we find out in 2 Chronicles that all of his brothers, his older brothers, were murdered in a raid when a foreign country came in and raided the land. It says that: “26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah; (and that's the daughter of Ahab. And it says here) she was a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.” And of course that's Ahab's father. So she is the granddaughter of Omri and the daughter of Ahab. “27 He also walked (in the way of the Lord, excuse me,) in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, (look at this) for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.” So not only was he –what was Ahab, his great grandfather, is that right? But he married also into the house of Ahab. He took a wife like his own dad. Took a wife from the house of Ahab. So he's got this double whammy thing going on in his life as well. Again, influence. Verse 28: “He went with Joram the son of Ahab to make war against Hazael king of Syria.” Remember, we just heard about Hazael who murdered the other king of Syria? Now Ahaziah is going with Joram, the king of Israel, to war “against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram. (That's the king of Israel.) 29 And King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.” So you have to, if you're keeping this all straight, the current king of Israel, which is Joram, is the uncle of Ahaziah, current king of Judah. So it says that they went to battle together. King of Israel got wounded, went to Jezreel to recover. And so King Ahaziah said, Hey, let's take a party up there to him and go visit him in the hospital, because he is getting over his wounds. That is important that you know that because of what's happening in the next chapter. Chapter 9:“1 Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, ‘Tie up your garments.” And by the way, that's a way of telling somebody to move swiftly. They had these long garments, and if they needed to move with haste, you would pull up your garment and tie it around your waist so your legs were free, right? I've never tried to run in a dress, but I can imagine it is a challenge. A guy had no problem with just taking his dress up –Well, it wasn't a dress. You wouldn't want to say that to those guys to their face– But they just pull it up and tie it together, and then they could move quickly. He says, “‘Tie up your garments, and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2And when you arrive, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi.” Alright, different Jehoshaphat. This is a guy from Israel. This is not talking about Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. Jehoshaphat. I know it's hard to believe, two women actually named their sons Jehoshaphat, but they did. So this is it,

--- just think of it as Jehu the son of Nimshi, because that's otherwise how he is referred. “And go in and have him rise from among his fellows, and lead him to an inner chamber. 3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I anoint you king over Israel.’” Now remember, this is what Elijah was supposed to do. But he never did. So Elisha is now delegating the responsibility to one of his servants. Go anoint the king of Syria. And he says: “Then open the door and flee; do not linger.” Get out of there. “4 So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in the council. And he said, ‘I have a word for you, O commander.’ (Problem is, there's a room full of commanders. So) Jehu said, ‘To which of us all?’ And he said, ‘To you, O commander.’ 6 So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, ‘Thus says the LORD (or Yahweh), the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, (which God previously wiped out) and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, (which God previously wiped out) 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.’ (And that was a big deal back in those days. To die and not be buried. It was like the ultimate insult.) “Then he opened the door and fled.” Wouldn't you love to get that job? You run in there quick. You do a quick anointing. Just bust the thing out over his head. And then you're out of there. Give him a word from the Lord. And, he's making time back to home. Then, “11 when Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, (Is everything okay?) ‘Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?’ (And they meant mad. That was a slur. It meant crazy. In other words, what does this crazy man want? And he said to them, Ah, you know the guys and how they talk.) 12 And they said, (Actually, no) that is not true; tell us now.’ And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.

“13 Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king.’” This is king of Israel, right? I hope I got all that right. I've been going back and forth between Syria and Israel. This is Israel. I hope I didn't say Syria again. If I did, I apologize. “14 Thus Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat (not that Jehoshaphat) the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram with all Israel, had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Syria (in other words, they were on high alert for an attack), 15 but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) (We heard that at the end of the last chapter.) So Jehu said, ‘If this is your decision, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel. 16 Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.” So you see the two kings are there, one recovering, one visiting. So, king of Israel, king of Judah. “17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came and said, ‘I see a company.’ (In other words, I see a bunch of guys coming) And Joram said, ‘Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’ (In other words, are you coming in peace?) “18 So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, ‘Thus says the king, “Is it peace?”’ And Jehu said, ‘What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.’ And the watchman reported, saying, ‘(Yeah, well,) The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.’ “19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, ‘Thus the king has said, “Is it peace?”’ And Jehu answered, ‘What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.’ 20 Again the watchman reported, ‘He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.’ (Sounds like me in my teenage years.) “21 Joram said, ‘Make ready.’ And they made ready his chariot. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu, and met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.” You see, they're not afraid of Jehu, because Jehu was one of the commanders. Army, so this is one of his commanders and he gets word from his watchman. Hey, one of your commanders is coming, we sent a couple of guys out there to find out why he's coming, but they didn't come back So the king's like, okay, I'll go meet him myself now He's recovering, but he's obviously strong enough to go out get in a chariot go out and meet Jehu and find out what's going on. So they set out to meet him, and they met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. Verse 22:

23 Then Joram reined about (in other words, turned quickly) and fled, saying to Ahaziah (king of Judah, who was out there with him), ‘Treachery, O Ahaziah!’

Do you guys remember that? Remember Ahab cheated Naboth out of his land by hiring some creeps to invite him to a dinner and then lie about him, saying that he basically cursed the king. Cursed lord and king, and so they killed him. They killed Naboth, all because Ahab wanted his land. And they didn't just kill Naboth, they killed his whole family. They stoned him to death (1 Kings 21). So Jehu says, Fine, this is the son of Ahab, throw him on Naboth's land. The same place where Naboth died. This is God's justice. This is God's judgment against the house of Ahab and the shedding of blood that they did that. Verse 27:

That is just a pause to give you a date for some of these events.

--- But it says in verse 30 that:

Now you have to know 1 Kings to find out what that little comment is all about. When she called him Zimri she was basically calling him a traitor because back in 1 Kings we learned of a man named Zimri who actually killed Ahab's father Omri. Murdered him, and then he took over as king, but he reigned for seven days. So Zimri became a name for a betrayer who doesn't last long. That is what she's saying to him, “You Zimri.” It would be the same thing of us calling somebody a Judas. You guys know what that means. If somebody betrays you, or they are a betrayer, we would say, you Judas. Well, they called people a Zimri, because Zimri had that connotation. Verse 32:

There won't be enough to even identify her. We're going to read through Chapter 10, but I'm not going to do much commenting at all. What we're going to look at here in Chapter 10 is just, very quickly, the rest of Jehu's judgment. By the way, let me just say this before we get into it: Jehu was a man that God used to bring judgment on the house of Omri and Ahab, to bring judgment upon a wicked and godless monarchy in the land at that time. But you're going to see as you read through this chapter that the judge becomes a butcher. And that happens sometimes in God’s Word. ---

You're going to see him do some things that are way past what God had ordained. And Jehu is not necessarily a godly man at all. And we're going to see that at the end of the chapter too. “1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the city, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying, ‘2 Now then, as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses… (and you guys have a fortified city and stuff like that, and you have all kinds of weaponry and so forth, so go ahead), 3 select the best and fittest of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house.’” In other words, make one of them king, because I'm coming for you. Get your army together. Get all of your soldiers fit and ready for battle. Get all of your armaments out. Practice. You might do a little practicing. Because I'm coming for you. “4 But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, ‘Behold, the two kings could not stand before him. (And the kings of Israel and kings of Judah both died at the hand of Jehu) How then can we stand?’ 5 So he who was over the palace (probably a governor, caretaker), and he who was over the city, together with the elders and the guardians, sent to Jehu, (they sent the letter of their own) saying, ‘We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your eyes.’ “6 Then he wrote to them a second letter saying, ‘(All right) if you are on my side (then), and if you are ready to obey me, (then) take the heads of your master's sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.’ Now, the king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were bringing them up. “7And as soon as the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him (that's Jehu) at Jezreel. 8 When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king's sons,’ he said ‘(let them) lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.’ 9 Then in the morning when he went out, he stood and said to the people, ‘You are innocent.’ (You guys didn't do this now. I'll tell you right now.) “It was I who conspired against my master (meaning Ahab and his son Jehoram) and killed him, but who struck down all these? (Eh, it's an easy dodge. They did it, sure, he didn't actually do it, but the men of Samaria did it at his bidding.) 10 Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the LORD has done what he said by his servant Elijah.’ 11 So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men, (oh, and look at this,) and his close friends and his priests, until he left none remaining. “12 Then he set out and went to Samaria. On the way, when he was at Beth-eked of the Shepherds, 13 Jehu met the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah, and he said, ‘Who are you?’ And they answered, ‘We are the relatives of Ahaziah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother. 14 He said, ‘Take them alive.’ And they took them alive, (but not for very long) and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he spared none of them “15 And when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him.” Let me just stop for a very quick moment to say that this Jehonadab and his group, which they called the Rechabites, was a founder of a sect. A very strict sect in Israel. It was almost like a forerunner to the Pharisees. It wasn't a forerunner, but it was almost like it, in the sense that they were a very strict sect in Israel that held very legalistically to the Word of God. And Jehu meets this guy. “And he greeted him and he said to him, ‘Is your heart true to true to my heart as mine is to yours?’ And Jehonadab answered, ‘It is.’.....Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. 16 And he said, ‘Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD. So he had him ride in his chariot. 17And when he came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out according to the word of the LORD that he spoke to Elijah. “18 Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. (Now, just wait a minute here. He's being deceptive.) 19 Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.’ “But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy all the worshippers of Baal.” He's going to eliminate Baal worship in Israel. This one man is going to eliminate Baal worship in Israel. It's not going to save Israel, but it's going to be the hand of God, finally taking care of Baal worship, which Jezebel brought and established. So he basically creates this ruse and says, okay I'm going to worship Baal you know my forefathers they worship Baal a little I'm going to worship Baal a lot. So he is drawing all the worshippers of Baal –priests and otherwise– to come and worship. “20 And Jehu ordered, ‘Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal.’ So they proclaimed it. 21 And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came (figuring they're going to have a party), so there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other. 22 He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, ‘Bring out the vestments for all the worshippers of Baal.’ So he brought out the vestments for them. “23 Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and he said to the worshippers of Baal, ‘Search, and see that there is no servant of the LORD here among you, but only the worshippers of Baal.’ 24 Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. “Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, ‘The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life.’ (In other words, if somebody gets out, you'll die in their place.) 25 So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, (he) Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, ‘Go in and strike them down; let not a man escape.’ “So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Baal, 26 and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Baal and burned it. 27 And they demolished the pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day.” It was a bathroom after that. Thus, look at this, look at verse 28, pretty amazing verse: “Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.” Isn't that crazy? But, look what it says in verse 29: “But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin– that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.” Yeah, he kept worshiping them. “30 And the LORD said to Jehu, ‘Because you have done well in carrying out 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. 31 But (it says) Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all of his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.”

--- And what happened: “32 In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael (here is the king of Syria again. He) defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: 33 from the (and it gives you the land areas, verse 33, which may not mean a whole lot to you, but from the) Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites and the Manassites…” What that means is Syria began to consume the land of Israel. Land that had been given to Israel was now going over to Syria. In other words, Syria was enlarging its borders. Why? Because Jehu didn't turn to the Lord. He was an instrument of God, but he didn't turn to God. He ended up worshiping these golden calves, which was a state-created religion –you remember?-- by the first king of the divided nation of Israel, Jeroboam. Verse 34 says, “Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 35 So Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. “36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.” ---