OVERVIEW:
Jehu executes judgment; Joash is spared and becomes king; Joash repairs the temple.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
Two chapters in today’s reading deal with Jehu, the king of Israel (Chapters 9 and 10) and two deal with Joash, the king of Judah. (Chapters 11 and 12) The crazy thing is, both men will actually do God’s work but neither one will do it with a pure heart for God. The results will be short-lived, and obviously, because of their self-promoting motives, the Lord certainly won’t receive the glory that is due His name! Once again, recognize that there are many people today who do the Lord’s work with the same self-aggrandizing motives, and with the same results. May God spare us from the overarching “last days” characteristic that drives such behavior… “for men shall be lovers of their own selves.” (2nd Timothy 3:1-2)
Jehu was prophesied by name years earlier by Elijah. (1st Kings 19:16) God intended to use this man to completely remove the lineage of the wicked Ahab. This “promised avenger” could have given great glory to God by fulfilling the purpose for his existence, demonstrating to the world the incredible trustworthiness of God’s promises, but he failed to do so because of his extreme cruelty and pride. Recognize, that just as in the case of Jehu, God has all of us here on a specific mission. Our job is to completely embrace God’s purpose for our existence and to fulfill it! The way Paul said it in Philippians 3:12 is, “But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” In other words, Paul says, “The Lord Jesus had a specific purpose for my life when He took me into His possession, and I am going to do everything within my power to take that purpose into my possession!” Oh, may that be the passion of every one of us!
In chapter 9, Jehu executes judgment on Joram, the king of Israel, along with Ahaziah, the king of Judah, and Jezebel, the wife of Ahab. In chapter 10, Jehu continues with his judgment upon all of the descendants of Ahab and all of the Baal worshippers in Israel. He accomplishes the tasks with intimidation (10:3-4), ruthlessness (10:14), pride (10:16), and deception (10:18-19). Jehu is rewarded for removing Baal and the house of Ahab, but because he continued the worship of the golden calf (Are you kidding me?), disregarding the law of the Lord, Israel moves closer to captivity. (10:32)
Chapters 11 and 12 take us to the other kingdom, Judah. When Ahaziah is killed by Jehu, his mother, Athaliah, does one of the most deplorable and despicable acts in all of scripture. She is so incredibly ruthless that she actually kills all of her grandsons so that she can sit her sorry behind on the throne in Judah! I don’t know, maybe you have to be grandparent to understand the depth of reprobation that could cause you to do something so inhumane! The Lord hides one baby boy, Joash, from the slaughter. A faithful priest, Jehoiada, raises the boy for six years and then orchestrates his coronation as the king of Judah at the ripe old age of seven! Athaliah is removed from the throne, and Joash (also called Jehoash) becomes king. He is a good king all of the days of Jehoiada, but his demise is explained in 2nd Chronicles 24:17: “Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.” We must be very careful and discerning with the counsel we receive and the voices to which we are listening! Joash followed the Lord while Jehoiada lived, but after his death, Joash hearkened to the bad counsel of the princes of Judah. It becomes apparent that the “spiritual discernment” and “commitment to the Lord” that Joash seemed to exercise was never really his own. It wasn’t really his own personal faith, but rather, the faith of Jehoiada. We must be certain that we do what we do because of our own personal faith, and our own surrender to the lordship of Christ, not that of our pastor, our parents, our discipler, our friends, or our fellow church members. Notice also, that the compromise of Joash led to the severe judgment of God, not only in Joash’s life, but in the entire land of Judah. Be reminded, there are far-reaching effects of sin!
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As THE AVENGER –– 2nd Kings 9:7 (Revelation 6:9)
As THE INTERCESSOR –– 2nd Kings 11:17 (1st Timothy 2:5; Romans 8:34)