Jehu

Quick summary of what we did today with Kenneth

1 Kings 19:15-18-

Elijah who is on Mount Horeb is told to...

• go back to Damascus
• anoint Hazael king over Syria
• anoint Jehu king over Israel
• appoint Elisha to be prophet

but he only does two of the tasks, he returns to Damascus and he appoints Elisha, and then it's Elisha who does the anointing. Were Elijah's tasks passed on to Elisha when he was anointed??

Now this is all happening in the days of Ahab, that evil guy with an evil wife and an evil daughter who then went over to Judah's line and messed around there as well... but she got killed.

Jehu was the commander of the army. We read 2 Kings 9 ourselves and wrote down bits about it, so I'll share mine.

• Elisha sends sons of the prophets with oil to Ramoth-Gilead
• they find Jehu and go to an inner chamber
• THEY (not Elisha) anoint him King with the oil
• Jehu told to strike down the house of Ahab, so that avenge on Jezebel the blood of servants
• Dogs will eat Jezebel
• Jehu conspired against Joram
• as Jehu approaches, Joram sends out a messenger but he doesn't return and sticks with Jehu. Joram sends another, and the same happens again
• Jehu shot Joram with an arrow and pierced his heart
• they threw him on the plot belonging to Naboth - (to give context, Naboth and all his sons are already dead)
• Jezebel gets pretty. her people with her throw her out the window and she gets eaten by dogs.

I often find it difficult to remember things until I can visualise it properly, wh

ich is why it was great when Jon sort of acted out the bit when Joash aged 7 is anointed and Athaliah bursts in yelling TREASON!! because now i can always remember that. And today, Kenneth sort of acted -told the story well. In some of his words...

Elijah is all depressed and has been sent up to Mount Horeb. He gets these tasks he has to do.. 1, head back to Damascus. 2, anoint Hazael king over Syria. 3, anoint Jehu king over Israel. 4, appoint Elisha.

Dum de dum, he appoints Elisha. Elisha gets the sons of the prophets - I wonder, could these be any of the prophets that were hidden in the caves?. Elisha says, 'right, ru

n! you gotta go to these people and pick out Jehu from among them. Take him to another room and tell him this, that the Lord is appointing him King over Israel! and use the oil you've got, pour it over his head. and then flee!'

This all happens, and Jehu goes back to his people, who are asking "what was all that about" and Jehu is like "you've set me up. come on, what was that really about?" - and his guys are saying "no, no, really, we didn't do anything! what is it??"

and Jehu shrugging his shoulders,, he's just casually saying "they said they had been sent by a prophet. and - well.... you know, i'm King in Israel."

and then all the guys in the room shout for joy!! Lay down their cloaks, this guy is the new KING!! They gather up a load of people and head over to Joram's place - he's the current King of Israel, but has just been injured in battle against Hazael king

of Syria and so they've carried him back to Jezreel to try and get better. Joram doesn't come out to meet Jehu as he approaches, he sends a messenger on horse

back to say "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'", but he doesn't return to Joram, he sticks with and joins Jehu's people.

"What! What's he doing??"

So Joram sends another guy. and the same happens again. Why are they all sticking with Jehu?

Ahaziah of Judah (Joram's... what is it... ah, Joram of ISRAEL is Uncle to this Ahaziah of JUDAH. It's confusing, because there's a J(eh)oram and an Ahaziah in both Judah and Israel.)

I'll explain that actually. Maybe easier drawing a picture.

So, I've circled the people I'm talking about.

Anyway, Joram and Ahaziah get ready and come out to meet Jehu at Naboth's property.

2 Kings 9 ²²And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?"

This I imagine to be like today's "So's your face." "So's your mum", Jehu is just insulting Joram's mum Jezebel.

²³Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, "Treachery, O Ahaziah!" ²⁴And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot.

Ahaziah ran away, but Jehu chased him and some of Jehu's people shot him at the ascent of Gur. Ahaziah kept going on to Megiddo and died there.

After this, Jehu goes back to Jezreel on his horse and sees Jezebel at a window, she's made her eyes all pretty. He goes near and shouts up "Who is on my side? Who?" and a couple of eunuchs with her look out the window - Debbie said its like they're saying "Me!"

"Who is on my side?".. pop their heads out... *Pop* *Pop* .. "Me?"

and Jehu tells them to push her out. and SPLAT goes Jezebel. What God said became true

¹⁰And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her."

³⁵But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶When they came back and told him, he said, "This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, 'In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, ³⁷and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.'

Jehu was incredibly influential and powerful, it seemed like a lot of people were listening to him. Either he was doing what the people wanted and therefore they were supporting him, or they were scared of him because he was a commander and now King. They listened to him and followed him.

Nearer the start of the lesson I'd asked if Joram had any sons- they'd be pretty mad if they didn't get to be King and some commander got to instead... so we looked at the start of 2 Kings 10. Here it says that Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria, but sometimes this can mean sons & grandsons etc. In some places Jehu is called 'Jehu son of Nimshi, son of Jehoshaphat'; and in other places just 'Jehu son of Jehoshaphat' when reeeally it's saying 'grandson of Jehoshaphat'. So can we apply this to Ahab's 70 sons - some of them being Joram's sons?

Ahab's 70 sons were killed, and Ahaziah of Judah's 42 were killed. These two guys were such bad influences that all the sons had to be killed as well.

All in all... Jehu did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, he wiped out Baal from Israel (also by getting a load of the Baal worshippers in the house of Baal together and then killing them all), but he didn't take away the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan... and ³¹But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

So on our David - Ahab scale, we've put Jehu around the middle between those two.