2 Kings 10
I'm not sure quite how this chapter starts if you read it in the Hebrew - to be totally honest with you, I have enough trouble with English that I am NOT going to go and learn Hebrew just to understand this!
I know a few vicars and priests - at least some of them must know a little Greek and Hebrew from their theological training - saying "The Greek made Kebabs and the Hebrew made suits" is both stereotyping racially but really not that clever - and the laugh is not really worth it either, so I won't bother with a cheap joke like that.
The way that my bible starts the chapter is that there are 70 sons of the family of Ahab living in Samaria. I guess a polygamous marriage regime could have Ahab as father of 70 sons with several wives. Or Jezebel was particularly fertile!
Jehu wrote letters to the leaders in Samaria with a challenge - they are to pick the most able of Ahab's relatives and they should fight for the throne.
The governer, elders and guardians of Ahab's children panic and say that if Jehu has already killed 2 kings then what hope do they have and ask what Jehu wants.
Jehu replied that the following day the leaders of Samaria bring him the heads of all of Ahab's family - not attached to their bodies
Jehu ordered the heads to be stacked either side of the city gate until morning.
In the morning he absolved the people of any crimes, it was Jehu who has rebelled against the king after all and they were following orders.
Notice the difference here between king David who refused on several occasions to allow his followers to kill king Saul?
On his way back to Samaria, Jehu bumped into some relatives of Ahaziah and killed the lot of them.
In Samaria Jehu killed all remaining members of Ahab's family
Next Jehu pulled a trick on the priests of Baal - announcing that Ahab kind of served the god, he would serve him much more -and demanded an assembly before Baal of all his prophets, priests and servants. Anybody missing was punished by death, Jehu organised robes for all worshippers.
He ordered the worshippers of Baal to make sure that nobody who served God of Israel was allowed to enter, only Baal worshippers.
Jehu surrounded the temple with 80 troops with strict orders that nobody was to be allowed to escape, on penalty of death of the guard if anybody did get out.
He then ordered his troops into the temple, kill everybody there and desecrate the temple - they bought out the hoy stone and burned it, tearing the temple down people started using the site as a latrine.
The bible records that Jehu wiped out Baal worship, but he did nothing to rid the land of the idols that Jeroboam had made and the sin that Jeroboam had started continued through the reign of Jehu,
However Jehu had done some of what God had commanded - his dynasty would last 4 generations as kings of Israel.
During the time of Jehu, Israel started to lose power and influence as well as land - the tribes East of the river Jordan were taken over and invaded by Hazael of Aram.
Jehu was king for 28 years in all
I'm not sure quite how this chapter starts if you read it in the Hebrew - to be totally honest with you, I have enough trouble with English that I am NOT going to go and learn Hebrew just to understand this!
I know a few vicars and priests - at least some of them must know a little Greek and Hebrew from their theological training - saying "The Greek made Kebabs and the Hebrew made suits" is both stereotyping racially but really not that clever - and the laugh is not really worth it either, so I won't bother with a cheap joke like that.
The way that my bible starts the chapter is that there are 70 sons of the family of Ahab living in Samaria. I guess a polygamous marriage regime could have Ahab as father of 70 sons with several wives. Or Jezebel was particularly fertile!
Jehu wrote letters to the leaders in Samaria with a challenge - they are to pick the most able of Ahab's relatives and they should fight for the throne.
The governer, elders and guardians of Ahab's children panic and say that if Jehu has already killed 2 kings then what hope do they have and ask what Jehu wants.
Jehu replied that the following day the leaders of Samaria bring him the heads of all of Ahab's family - not attached to their bodies
Jehu ordered the heads to be stacked either side of the city gate until morning.
In the morning he absolved the people of any crimes, it was Jehu who has rebelled against the king after all and they were following orders.
Notice the difference here between king David who refused on several occasions to allow his followers to kill king Saul?
On his way back to Samaria, Jehu bumped into some relatives of Ahaziah and killed the lot of them.
In Samaria Jehu killed all remaining members of Ahab's family
Next Jehu pulled a trick on the priests of Baal - announcing that Ahab kind of served the god, he would serve him much more -and demanded an assembly before Baal of all his prophets, priests and servants. Anybody missing was punished by death, Jehu organised robes for all worshippers.
He ordered the worshippers of Baal to make sure that nobody who served God of Israel was allowed to enter, only Baal worshippers.
Jehu surrounded the temple with 80 troops with strict orders that nobody was to be allowed to escape, on penalty of death of the guard if anybody did get out.
He then ordered his troops into the temple, kill everybody there and desecrate the temple - they bought out the hoy stone and burned it, tearing the temple down people started using the site as a latrine.
The bible records that Jehu wiped out Baal worship, but he did nothing to rid the land of the idols that Jeroboam had made and the sin that Jeroboam had started continued through the reign of Jehu,
However Jehu had done some of what God had commanded - his dynasty would last 4 generations as kings of Israel.
During the time of Jehu, Israel started to lose power and influence as well as land - the tribes East of the river Jordan were taken over and invaded by Hazael of Aram.
Jehu was king for 28 years in all
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