Jehu

LIFE LESSONS
JEHU
DR. JIM DIXON
2 KINGS 9:1-13
OCTOBER 5, 2003

“Nabi” is the Hebrew word for prophet. It referred to a person who could speak for the Lord, a person who could speak for God, a person who could speak forth the Word of God, Nabi. It is the equivalent of the Greek word, “prophetess,” from which we get our English word, “prophet.” It is impossible for us in our day and age to imagine what it was like in Israel in the days of the prophets. Prophets did not look like other people. They did not dress like other people. They did not eat or drink like other people. They did not speak like other people or act like other people. Normal people kind of viewed prophets as mad. They regarded them as crazy people, and yet they feared them. They feared them because prophets spoke for God.

We come to the Book of 2 Kings in the 9th chapter, and we see how Elisha the Prophet, the great prophet, sent a young prophet to Ramoth-Gilead, that he might find Jehu, the Commander of the Armies of Israel and anoint him King. So, this young prophet goes to Ramoth-Gilead. When he arrives, the commanders of the armies of Israel are in council. Every officer in that council, when they saw this young prophet, knew it was a prophet. They knew by the clothes he wore. They knew by the way he looked. They knew by the way he spoke. This young prophet summoned Jehu from the council. Jehu arose and went into a private room. The young prophet anointed Jehu with oil and proclaimed him King of Israel.

You have this kind of strange scene where Jehu returns to the council chamber and he is surrounded by his sub-commanders. They say, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you? Why did this crazy prophet come to you?” Jehu says, “You know these prophets and how they speak.” They said, “Get real. That’s not true. Tell us what he said.” He revealed that he had been anointed with oil and the prophet had proclaimed him King of Israel. Then you have that incredible moment when all of the sub¬ commanders, all of the officers—in haste—take off their coats and they put them on the bare steps beneath Jehu and they blow the trumpet and proclaim Jehu is King! They mocked prophets but they feared them and respected them. Jehu was indeed King.

This morning we look at this King of Israel, this King of the Northern Kingdom. Of all the Kings of the North, there were no good kings. Of the 20 Kings of the Northern Kingdom, none of them were truly good kings, but Jehu was as close to good as the northern kings came. I have two life lessons this morning and the first life lesson concerns the subject of obedience. God calls His people to obedience today.

In the year 1909, a young man 20 years old, thin and pale, stood looking into the glass of an exhibit window at the Hofburg Museum in Vienna, Austria. This young man was looking at a relic. He was looking at a sacred relic. That relic was called the Spear of Longinus. Gaius Casius Longinus was allegedly the name of the Roman soldier who had thrust his spear into the side of Jesus Christ at the crucifixion on Golgotha. According to myth and according to legend, that spear had become a talisman. A talisman is an object that is able to channel the power of God. A talisman is an object that is able to channel the blessings of God. According to legend, this spear, this talisman that had touched the side of Christ had once belonged to Constantine the Great and had made him great. According to legend, this spear had once belonged to Charles Martel who drove the Arabs out of France in the 8th century. Then perhaps it came to Charles I who was Charles the Great, known as Charlemagne. Then this talisman, this spear, came to Frederick Barbarossa, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. But now, in this year 1909, this young man 20 years of age looking in the window wanted the spear because he believed it a talisman. He believed it could channel the power and the blessings of God. This young man’s name was Adolph Hitler. Historians tell us that Hitler was into occultism and Hitler believed in talismans. He coveted the Spear of Longinus, believing it could channel the power of God.

It is a fact of history that in the year 1938, when Adolph Hitler was perhaps at the zenith of his power, he summoned the Spear of Longinus. He commanded that it be brought from the Hofburg Museum in Vienna to Nuremberg, and a special train brought that spear, under special guard, and the spear was taken to Nuremberg Castle and it was placed in a special vault by the command of Adolph Hitler. He thought that it would give him the power of God.

It is also a fact of history that on April 30, 1945, when the American and allied forces went into Nuremberg, they stormed the Nuremberg Castle and they took the Spear of Longinus from that vault. It is a fact of history that only two hours later, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker.

Now, I don’t believe for a second in talismans. I don’t believe that there are objects in this world that can channel the power of God or can channel the blessings of God. I hope and pray that you don’t believe in talismans either; you don’t believe there are objects that can do that. And yet I must say, I think there’s a sense in which obedience is a kind of talisman. The Bible tells us that it is. Obedience is able to channel the power of God and the blessings of God. You read the pages of Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testament, and it’s very clear that God blesses the obedient. God gives His power to the obedient and we see this as we go through the pages of the Old and New Testaments. Surely Jehu, King of Israel, knew that. He knew that he could channel the power and blessing of God if he was only obedient. The Bible tells us Jehu was obedient. The prophets came to him, not just once but many times. The prophets came to him with commandments from God and Jehu always obeyed. The power of God was given to Jehu.

Jehu struck down the House of Ahab. He struck down the seventy sons of Ahab, including the son of Ahab who sat on the throne of Israel. Jehu destroyed the cult of Jezebel, so strong and so, powerful in Israel. He destroyed all Baal worship in Israel in obedience to the commandments of God. Jehu tore down the Temple of Baal and he tore down all the altars and shrines erected to Baal. He removed all Baal worshippers from Israel. He purified Israel from Baal worship. He did all of this in obedience to the commandments of the prophets.

Of course, Jezebel met her prophesied end. You know how she fell from a great height and she was trampled by horses and she was devoured by dogs. Her remains were left like garbage in the street. God was ticked. I mean He had judged her and she, to this day, remains a symbol of evil. There’s not a Jewish woman I the world today who would ever take the name Jezebel. She was a pluralist and a syncretist, an idolatrist. She brought in all the hedonism and the sexual immorality associated with the worship of fertility gods and goddesses. She brought in all the greed and materialism associated with such worship. She brought in corrupt government and the oppression of the people. She angered the God of Israel.

But we ask ourselves, “How could Jehu, how could this commander have found the power to overcome the entire House of Ahab?” The House of Ahab· ruled Israel. How could Jehu have prevailed? How could he have overcome the cult of Jezebel? It was perhaps even more powerful than the House of Ahab. How could he have removed all the Baalites from Israel when Baal worship was so prominent and powerful? Of course, the answer is Jehu had the power of God. He had the blessings of God because he obeyed. You have that statement in 2 Kings, chapter 10, verse 30, where God says to Jehu, “I will bless your children, and your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation, and I will create the House of Jehu. Why? Because you have obeyed, Me.”

Obedience brings the blessings and the power of God, and yet, there’s a better motive for obedience, a motive the Bible reveals Jehu never understood—a better motive for obedience in your life and in my life. Yes, we want the power and blessings of God. That alone would be incredible, but there is a better motive and that better motive is love. God wants us to obey Him supremely because we love Him. That’s why Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Of course, Jesus told us that all of the law, all of the commandments, are summed up in these two: “That we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind and that we love our neighbor as ourselves.” Jesus tells us that Torah, all of the divine instruction, is summed up in love. It’s all about love. And so, Christ wants His people to obey, but He wants that obedience to be rooted primarily in love.

During the Korean War, and I know there are some of you who fought in the Korean War… During the Korean War, American soldiers were stationed not only in Korea but also in Japan and in some of the Pacific Islands. There were many temptations for our American military, many temptations because there were many Asian women; Asian women who were seeking to overcome their lot in life. Their lot was poverty. They lived under this economic oppression, and they did not have the power to transcend it. They were desperate, and therefore many Asian women offered sexual favors to American soldiers, hoping that, even for a brief time, they might transcend their poverty.

Of course, many American soldiers were married and they had wives back home here in the States. Some married soldiers went ahead and succumbed to temptation. They were called “broken arrows” during the Korean War. But those American soldiers, who had wives back home and remained faithful to them and resisted temptation, were called “straight arrows.” Many of them actually wore straight arrows on their military uniforms to remind them that they had wives back home whom they loved and to whom they wanted to be faithful. They wanted to be faithful because they loved their wives.

The Bible tells us that the Church of Jesus Christ is the Bride of Christ. We’ll be faithful to Him to the extent we love Him. If in your life you are not faithful to Christ today, you don’t love Him enough, perhaps you’ve not sufficiently experienced His love for you. Ultimately, it’s about love. Love transforms us.

In the movie, “As Good As It Gets,” Jack Nicholson played the part of a neurotic obsessive-compulsive eccentric. His doctors and psychiatrists had offered him medicine, pills that he could take, that would probably make him better, but he never took any of the pills because he just didn’t care. He didn’t care how messed up he was. He didn’t care how eccentric he was. But then he fell in love with a woman named Carol who was portrayed by Helen Hunt. In one scene, he is at dinner with Helen Hunt and she is very frustrated with him and his attempts to apologize for a lot of things he has done, but as he’s stumbling around trying to explain himself and give her a compliment, finally he simply says, “you make me a better man,” and she’s stunned.

“You make me want to be a better man.” Love has the power to give you that desire. Love has the power to make you want to be a better person. If you really love Jesus, you want to be a better man; you want to be a better woman, if you really love Jesus. And so, as we look at obedience and this life lesson concerning obedience, we acknowledge that obedience is like a talisman. It does bring the power and the blessing of God, but the greatest motive we should have in obedience is the motive of love. It’s really only when we love God that we are transformed from the inside out.

Now, clearly Jehu did not fully love God, and so, we come to a second life lesson very briefly this morning. That second life lesson concerns hypocrisy. God warns His people today about hypocrisy. Many of you have heard of Reverend William Archibald Spooner. William Archibald Spooner was a pastor. He was a professor at Oxford University years ago. He served at Oxford University for 60 years. In the last two decades he was the President of Oxford. He was a brilliant man, but Spooner had a problem. The problem that Spooner had was that he would oftentimes get his syllables confused. He would get his words mixed up. He would get sentences and phrases all confused.

Some of his “Spoonerisms” have become famous. For instance, on one occasion William Spooner was introducing the Queen of England, Queen Victoria, when she was very old. He meant to introduce her to this vast crowd as “our dear old Queen,” but he said, “It is with great honor that I present to you our queer old dean.” That was the kind of thing that William Spooner said. On another occasion he was speaking to the British Parliament and he was much older. British soldiers were returning from World War II. He meant to tell the Parliament that “it was time to have the flags hung out because the boys are coming home.” Instead, he said, “The boys are coming home and it’s time to have the hags flung out.” Nobody understood what he meant.

On another occasion he was addressing the same Parliament, and he was speaking in support of a piece of legislation that would have been beneficial to farmers. He wanted to refer to farmers as “noble sons of toil,” but instead he referred to them as “noble tons of soil.” That was a typical Spoonerism. Of course, he was a pastor, and so, his Spoonerisms kind of entered the ministry. He was serving communion one Sunday. He was inviting everyone to partake of the bread and the cup. He meant to say, “Come to Jesus, our Loving Shepherd,” and he said, “Come to Jesus, our Shoving Leopard.” Not a great communion invitation. On one occasion he was performing a wedding ceremony. He was just concluding the ceremony. He turned to the groom and he said, “It is kisstomary to cuss the bride.” Another Spoonerism.

I think we would all say, “Hey! We’re all guilty of Spoonerisms..” Barb and I have laughed our heads off on occasion when we just got words mixed up.: And yet it’s not a big deal. It’s not a serious thing to be confused verbally. It’s not a serious problem if we’re linguistically confused. There are other types of confusion. There are other types of confusion in our world that are far more serious. I think most of you would say economic confusion is more serious. Some people are kind of confused economically in terms of the use of their money. That’s true. You might say that relational confusion is a big problem and it can be. But, you see, biblically the most serious form of confusion is moral, moral and theological confusion. This was Jehu’s problem. He was really confused morally. He just didn’t understand. He actually thought that if his words were right and his actions were right, he would please God. Maybe you think that way. Maybe you think if you say the right things and you do the right things that you’ll please God. But, you see, God looks on the inside, and Jehu didn’t understand that. God looks within.

When God looked within Jehu, he saw that Jehu’s motives, thoughts and feelings were not right. In fact, when we come to 2 Kings, chapter 10, verses 29 and 31, we’re told that Jehu did not please God. Part of the reason was, although he did everything the prophets commanded him to do, he didn’t do enough. He should have removed the golden calves from the Shrine at Dan and the Shrine at Bethel. The biggest problem is stated in 2 Kings, chapter 10, verse 31. We’re told there that Jehu displeased God because he did not walk in the Torah with all of his heart.

The Torah is divine instruction, particularly the divine instruction as given through Moses. Our Lord Jesus told us that Torah is summed up by love. But, you see, something was wrong in Jehu’s heart. He did not have love for God with all of his heart, soul and mind. In fact, most Bible scholars believe that Jehu’s motives were corrupt. Even though he went around quoting the prophets. He was always quoting the words of God. He was like a person always quoting scripture but, in a sense, it was phony. And yet he did the right things. Everything the prophets told him to do, he did, but he did it for the wrong reasons. Bible scholars believe that Jehu was really in it for himself. It was to his advantage to destroy the House of Ahab. It secured his position as king. It was to his advantage to destroy the cult of Jezebel. He did it not for obedience sake but for his own sake. It was to his advantage to remove Baal worship from Israel, and it would secure his position all the more. He knew these things. He may have known that obedience would bring, in some measure, the power and blessing of God, but ultimately, he displeased God because his heart was not right. He was in it for himself. That means he was a hypocrite.

Have you ever taken a look at the word hypocrite in terms of its meaning? It comes from a biblical word. It comes from the Greek word, “hupokrisis.” It comes from “huper and krisis” which means, “under judgement.” Why are hypocrites called hypocrites? You might think, “Well, maybe it’s because they’re always judging people, they’re always putting others under judgement,” but that’s really not the case. This word hypocrite was originally used of dialogue. It was used of people in dialogue and people who answered questions because in order to answer a question, you had to put the question under judgement, under consideration. And so, this word hupokrisis, this word hypocrite, came to refer simply to questions and answers or dialogue.

And then, as the word evolved, it began to be the primary word for actors. Throughout the Hellenized world and throughout the Greek world, actors were called hypocrites but wasn’t a negative word yet. It’s just that in the Greek world, Greek plays involve lots of dialogue and therefore actors were called hypocrites, those who participated in dialogue. But then, you understand, the word evolved and it came to refer to pretense or phoniness because actors act and they’re involved by the definition of their job in pretense. Then it was also true in the Greek world that actors often wore masks that covered their face. Some of them had actually a mechanical device in the mask that could make their voice louder, but it was customary for actors to use masks and so, the word hypocrite came to refer to people of pretense and people who wore a mask. Jehu wore a mask. He was a person of pretense. He masked the true feelings and motives of his heart. Is that true of you? Is that true of me?

I want you to see one more clip. It’s a brief clip from the movie, The Mask:

“So, Dr. Newman, you’re saying that everybody wears a mask?” “That’s correct, Wendy. We all wear masks metaphorically speaking. We suppress the Id, our darkest desires, and adopt the more socially acceptable images.”

Now, if there’s anybody who doesn’t need a mask it’s Jim Carrey, but in the movie, that kind of magical mask was able to bring out This hidden nature that was in Jim Carrey. The theme of the movie had a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde theme as in Robert Louis Stevenson’s story by that name. The theme of the movie really is that everyone has two natures. What was stated by the counselor or the therapist or the psychologist in the movie is true. People do wear masks. They wear masks to make them socially acceptable. It’s true that people do hide darker natures. We all hide darker natures. We might not want to admit it, but the Bible says even though we’re created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, we’re fallen. We’re all sinners and we have a sin nature within us.

When we come to Christ, the Bible tells us two things should happen. One truly happens when you come to Christ. It must happen. That is, you’re indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and you’re given the nature of Christ as a new nature. The second thing that’s supposed to happen is you take off your mask. You no longer seek to hide the old nature. You have a new nature in Christ Jesus. You still have the sinful side. You’re not perfect. You’re not yet holy. That won’t happen in this life. We won’t be holy until we’re in heaven with the Lord, but you take the mask off. You no longer try to hide your sin. You bring it into the light. You don’t keep it in the darkness. That’s why the Bible gives us passages like 1 John, chapter 1, where we read, “This is the message we have heard from the beginning, that God is light. In God there is no darkness at all. If we say we are in the light while we live in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

As Christians we’re called to confess our sin. That means take the mask off. Confess our sin. That means to come into the light. Don’t walk in darkness. That means that we confess our sin not only to the Lord but also to brothers and sisters who would hold us accountable. We don’t wear masks. We’re real people. That’s how it’s meant to be for us as Christians. There would be hypocrisy. No hypocrisy in your life or in mine.

I want to conclude with a little story. It’s a true story concerning 9/11. You all know that a little over two years ago on September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers fell when radical Islamic terrorists assaulted or attacked the World Trade Center. The last person rescued alive in the rubble of the World Trade Center was a woman. Her name was Janelle Guzman McMillan. She was 30 years old and a single mom. She had worked on the 64th floor of the North Tower. The 64th floor was no more. She found herself miraculously alive in the midst of ten floors of rubble. Her head was kind of wedged between two cement slabs. Her legs were pinned under parts of a staircase. One arm, her right arm, was trapped under one leg. Only her left arm was free. She was like that for 27 hours. Those 27 hours, she now describes as a “moment of commitment” for her.

She had lived kind of a wild life. She had been raised in a Catholic home but she had rejected her Christianity. She had lived kind of a profligate life. She was 30 years old, single, and had a 14-year-old daughter. She had lived a pretty wild life. She hadn’t prayed in years, but in the midst of that rubble she began to pray. She said it almost surprised her that she was able to pray. She called out to God. She called out to Christ. At first, she just asked that her body would be found, that her body wouldn’t just disappear in the midst of the rubble. Then she began to pray that she might live long enough to be taken to a hospital where she could see her daughter one more time. Then she said she began to pray, as time went by, that the Lord might actually rescue her, that she might live. With that desire in her heart, she began to make deals with God. She began to tell God, “Well, you know, if you rescue me and if I survive, I’ll begin to obey. I’ll begin to live for you. I’ll change my life and I’ll be a different person. I’ll go to church and all these things. But then finally, there came this moment of surrender and she gave her heart to Jesus Christ. She gave her heart to Jesus Christ and she made that great commitment.

· I don’t know how it goes today for Janelle McMillan. I hope she’s doing well. I don’t know how it goes for you today. I hope you’re doing well. I know most of you have made a commitment. In the midst of the rubble in your life, you came to a point where you made a commitment. You made that commitment, the great one. You gave your heart to Jesus Christ, and that commitment is sacred and more important than anything else in your life. The Christian life is an incredible privilege and it’s a great journey. There are many tests along the way. They test the genuineness of our commitment and the genuineness of our faith.

Today, as we look at Jehu, God wants to remind us that as believers in His Son, we’re called to obedience. Not just for the sake of His power and blessing, but obedience that’s rooted in love. As we’re in a love relationship with Him, we want to be better people. I want to be a better man. You want to be a better man or a better woman because of Him. As we live life in this world, that’s the transformation that’s meant to be taking place. We’re meant to experience sanctification as we grow in Christ-likeness. No hypocrisy. There’s no room for hypocrisy on this journey we’re on. We have to take the mask off, admit we’re sinners, and confess our sin to the Lord and to those in Christ who hold us accountable. That’s the call of Jesus Christ. It’s a serious call. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.