2 Kings 10 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Kings 10:18-36

18 Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. 19 Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.’ But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

20 Jehu said, ‘Call an assembly in honour of Baal.’ So they proclaimed it. 21 Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. 22 And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, ‘Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.’ So he brought out robes for them.

23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, ‘Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you – only servants of Baal.’ 24 So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: ‘If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.’

25 As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: ‘Go in and kill them; let no one escape.’ So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. 26 They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27 They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit – the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

30 The Lord said to Jehu, ‘Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.’ 31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

32 In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 33 east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

34 As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

35 Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. 36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years

A. Find Out:

1. What did Jehu do that was good? v.18-28
2. Yet how did he fail? v.29
3. What did the Lord declare to him? v.30
4. Yet how did Jehu not live up to possibilities? v.31
5. So what did the Lord start doing? v.32,33
6. How long did Jehu reign? v.34-36

B. Think:

1. How was there now a new opportunity for Israel ?
2. How did Jehu fail to take that opportunity?
3. How was the Lord’s grace shown?

C. Comment:

       Jehu has done all that was prophesied over him in respect of Ahab and Ahab’s family. This evil dynasty has been completely removed. More than that, he had completely destroyed all those who were leading the nation into Baal worship. Now in our day we may consider all this bloodthirsty and terrible, but to keep it in perspective we need to remember we are talking about a threat to the very existence of this special people called to be a people of God. Baal worship had completely undermined their covenant relationship with the Lord and you would almost expect the Lord to allow them to be completely over run by an enemy – that does happen eventually but not before the Lord gives them further opportunity after opportunity to put things right.

       The present moment in this history is one such opportunity. Having dealt with the false worship, Jehu has the opportunity to lead this people back into right relationship with the Lord, yet his heart is not for that. He still permits the counterfeit form of religion with idols and Dan and Bethel and a wrong priesthood, just as Jeroboam had instituted from the outset. So a further 28 years pass while the Lord waits and watches and quietly allows Aram to whittle away parts of their land to the northeast and east. This should cause them to call out for the Lord’s help against their enemy, but it doesn’t!

D. Application:

1. Is my heart wholehearted or half-hearted towards the Lord?
2. Is the Lord allowing disciplining circumstances to draw me to Him?