JEHU.

While Jehoram was lying ill of his wounds Elisha had called one of

the children of the prophets and sent him on a special mission to

Ramoth-gilead.

It has been conjectured that this messenger was the Jonah who is

mentioned in the twenty-fifth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the

second Book of Kings.

Jehu was left in supreme command of the forces at Jehoram’s departure.

Nothing is known of Jehu’s origin. From the first, however, it is evident

that he was called to special functions. He was one of the men who had

been foreseen by Elijah, the prophet, under the divine inspiration.

Elijah was ordered to return unto the wilderness of Damascus, and in the

course of his progress he was to anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be

king over Israel. Whether any communication had been made to Jehu we know

not. Yet it is not improbable that this had been done, as we may infer

from the way in which he made answer to the appeal when it was addressed

to him by the messenger of Elisha.

All the circumstances of the communication are full of dramatic color and

impressiveness.

The young man was to take a vial of oil and pour it on Jehu’s head, and

say: “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I have anointed thee king over Israel.’”

Instantly he was to open the door and flee from the presence of the new

monarch. A tremendous charge was delivered to Jehu by the young man:

“And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab, thy master, that I may avenge

the blood of My servants, the prophets, and the blood of all the servants

of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall

perish; … and I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam,

the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah; and

the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be

none to bury her.”

Having delivered this message, the young man then “opened the door and

fled,” as if pursued by fire. We know not whether to pity Jehu under

the delivery of this charge. The Lord must have many servants in His

household, and some of them are entrusted with hard work. If we could

choose our places in the divine economy, who would not elect to be a

minister of sympathy, consolation and tenderness to broken hearts? Who

would be willing to go forth to fight the battle and endure the trial and

hardship of military service? Above all, who would be willing to accept

the ministry of shedding blood and cleansing the world of evil by putting

to death all evil doers?

We must recognize the diversity of function in the Christian Church, and

in every department of human life. Few men could do what Jehu did, but

where the special qualification is given the special service is also

demanded.

It is pitiful criticism that stands back and shudders at the career of

Jehu; it is wanting in large-mindedness and in completeness of view.

The Lord’s work is many-sided, and all kinds of men as to intellectual

energy and moral daring, and even as to physical capability, are required

to complete the ministry of God.

Today one man is gifted with the power of intercession, another with the

talent of controversy, another with the genius of exposition, another

with the supreme gift of consolation; one minister must tarry at home

and work close to the fireside at which he was brought up; in another is

the spirit of travel and adventure, and he must brave all the dangers of

enterprise and hasten to the ends of the Earth, that he may tell others

what he knows of the Gospel of Christ.

We must recognize this diversity, and the unity that it constitutes;

otherwise we shall take but a partial view of the many-sided ministry

which Jesus Christ came to establish, and to which He has promised His

continual inspiration.

[Illustration: SOLOMON]

[Illustration: THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON. I Kings, iii.]

When Jehu came forth he was taunted by the servants of his Lord; they

called the young man “mad.” From their manner, Jehu began to wonder

whether the whole affair had not been planned by themselves with a view

to befooling him by the excitement of his ambition. He said to them, in

effect:

“Ye know the man, and his communication in this matter is one of your own

arranging. Ye think to make a fool of me, and through the intoxication of

my vanity to lead me to my ruin.”

But they denied the impeachment, and their tone so changed that Jehu

reposed confidence in them, and told them what the man had said.

Instantly, on hearing the message, they hasted, took every man his

garment or coat, and put it under Jehu on the top of the stairs, which

they constituted a kind of temporary throne, and then amid loud blasts of

the trumpet they cried: “Jehu is king!”

Thus Jehu was suddenly called to royalty and all its responsibilities.

Men should be prepared for the sudden calls of providence. “What I say

unto you I say unto all: Watch.”

One is struck by the obedience of Jehu to the heavenly call. There was

no hesitation. Men but show themselves to be yet under bondage when they

hesitate regarding the calls which God addresses to them.

Jehu was determined to make complete work of his mission. Not one was to

escape or go forth out of the city to tell what he was about to do to

those who were in Jezreel.

Springing into his chariot and calling for a detachment of cavalry,

Jehu set out on his journey of sixty or seventy miles. You can see him

almost flying down from Ramoth, which was about three thousand feet above

the sea level. Swiftly he crosses the Jordan, and then, turning to the

north, he fled over the spurs of Ephraim; then he darted up the Valley of

Trembling, made famous in the day of Gideon, and finally he came to the

Plain of Esdraelon, where was Jezreel.

Jehoram was unaware of the approach of Jehu. One messenger after another

was sent out to make inquiry, but the messengers were ordered behind, and

Jehu came forward until he and the king met at the vineyard of Naboth.

The king asked what news was being brought--news of peace or of war.

The question was answered with another question: “What peace can there

be so long as the idolatrous whoredoms of thy mother, Jezebel, and her

witchcrafts are so many?”

Jehu thus referred to fundamental wrongs. Instead of trifling with

details he went straight to the fountainhead, and by the delivery of a

profoundly religious message he excited the alarm of those who heard him.

Jehoram was weak and feeble and sought to flee, but Jehu drew a bow with

his full strength and smote between his arms, and the arrow went out at

the king’s heart, and he sank down in his chariot.

Then Jehu ordered his captain, or squire, to take up Jehoram and cast him

into the portion of the field of Naboth, the Jezreelite, that the word of

the Lord might be fulfilled.

And when Ahaziah, the king of Judah, saw this he sought to flee, but

Jehu followed him, saying: “Smite him also in the chariot.” After a hot

pursuit Ahaziah was struck at the declivity of Gur, where his chariot was

forced to slacken its speed.

Then came the most tragical of all the acts.

No sooner was Jehu come to Jezreel than Jezebel, now old and withered,

heard of it, and her blood tingled at the news. She was not one who was

easily deterred.

According to the custom of Oriental ladies, Jezebel painted her eyebrows

and lashes with a pigment composed of antimony and zinc. The intention of

the dark border was to throw the eye into relief and make it look larger.

She adorned her head with a tire, or a headdress, and after donning her

royal dress she looked out at a window, designing to impress Jehu.

As Jehu looked up to the window he exclaimed: “Who is on my side?” He

ordered the two or three eunuchs who looked out to throw down the painted

woman. Jehu knew that the cruel queen was intensely hated by the palace

officials.

The two or three eunuchs who had been accustomed to crouch before her in

servile dread now saw that Jehu was in the ascendant, and in obedience to

the demand of the regicide they threw her out of the window.

Such has ever been the policy of sycophants--the rats of court--who only

linger there with a view of seeing how much they can appropriate or

destroy.

No sooner was Jezebel thrown down than some of her blood was sprinkled on

the wall and on the horses, and she was trodden under foot.

Here, again, we see the end of wickedness. For a time there is escape,

but in the long run there is ruin.

Look at Jezebel, and learn the fate of the wicked. No such fate, in

a merely physical sense, may await the iniquitous now; but all those

intermediate punishments simply point to the last great penalty: “The

wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment.”

One can pity Jezebel as her flesh was eaten by the dogs and her carcass

was made as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, and

we almost shudder with horror as we think that she was to be so torn to

pieces that none should be able to say: “This is Queen Jezebel.”

But all this is wasted sentiment, unless we reason from it toward

spiritual conclusions.

We are so much the victims of our senses that we can pity with great

compassion those who are smitten with bodily disease, or are torn limb

from limb in consequence of some wicked deed; but it seems impossible for

us to rise to the conception of the terrible penalty which is to fall

upon the soul for violating God’s commandments and defying God’s power.

Instead of being appeased by the fate of Jezebel, Jehu sends out a decree

that the whole family of Ahab shall be massacred--that the kinsmen of

Ahaziah and the Baal worshipers shall be extirpated from the face of the

Earth. He takes a new point of departure when he challenges the sons of

Ahab, saying:

“Look even out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, and set him on

his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”

All this was a declaration of warlike intention on the part of Jehu. But

Jehu’s character as a soldier was too well known to permit the rulers of

Jezreel and the elders to entertain the thought of encountering him in

open battle. So they made this answer:

“We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not

make any king. Do thou that which is good in thine eyes.”

Then Jehu set up a test of their obedience. He did impose on them hard

work. He said:

“If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads

of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this

time.”

The word was enough. The heads of seventy men were put into baskets and

sent to Jehu at Jezreel. Jehu pronounced the men who had beheaded the

sons of Ahab guiltless in respect of their deaths, because what they did

had been done judicially, under royal command.

Some think that Jehu wished to make them guilty of the massacre of the

princes, while he had slain but one king. On the whole, however, it is

better to consider that Jehu exculpates the men who had only executed his

command.

The slaughter of the priests is one of the most dramatic incidents in all

this portion of biblical history. Jehu proceeded by way of strategy. It

is impossible to justify the spirit of the policy of Jehu in this matter.

He said he would serve Baal “much.”

It has been thought that he was thinking of his intended holocaust of

human victims; but, whatever his thoughts, it is impossible to deny that

the impression he produced was that Jehu was about to become a worshiper

of Baal. This reading is imported into the narrative in these words:

“But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the

worshipers of Baal.”

Now a solemn assembly for Baal was proclaimed. From all Israel the

devotees of Baal came, so that there was not left a man that came not.

The house of Baal was full from one end to the other. And they were all

clothed with appropriate vestments.

Jehu was careful that not one worshiper of Jehovah should be in the

assembly, but those of Baal only.

When the worshipers went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings Jehu

stationed fourscore men without, and said: “If any of the men whom I have

brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be

for the life of him.”

Then came the moment of massacre.

“And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the

captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.”

Jehu’s guards, having completed their bloody work in the court of the

temple, hastened up the steps into the sanctuary itself, which, like the

Temple of Solomon, was made after the pattern of a fortress.

The images of Baal were brought forth out of the house of Baal and

burned. The image of Baal was broken down, and his house was broken down,

and the whole scene was utterly dishonored and desecrated.

“Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.”

But the way was wrong. Perhaps, for the period within which the

destruction took place, it was the only ministry that was possible. The

incident, however, must stand in historical isolation, being utterly

useless as a lesson or guide for our imitation.

We are called upon to destroy Baal out of Israel, but not with sword or

staff or implement of war.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty, through God,

to the pulling down of strongholds of Satan.”

Jehu did his rough-and-ready work--a work, as we have said, adapted

to the barbaric conditions under which he reigned. But there must be

no Jehu in the Christian Church, except in point of energy, decision,

obedience and single-mindedness of purpose. A Christian persecution is a

contradiction in terms.

When Christians see evil, they are not to assail it with weapons of war;

they are to preach against it, to argue against it, to pray about it,

to bring all possible moral force to bear upon it, but in no case is

physical persecution to accompany the propagation of Christianity. Not

only so. Any destruction that is accomplished by physical means is a

merely temporary destruction. There is in reality nothing in it.

When progress of a Christian kind is reported it must not be tainted by

the presence of physical severity. We can not silence evil speakers by

merely closing their mouths. So long as we can hold those mouths there

may indeed be silence, but not until the spirit has been changed--not

until the very heart has been converted and born again--can the evil-doer

be silenced and his mouth be dispossessed of wicked speech and filled

with words of honesty and pureness. Jehu himself was not a good man.

“From the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,

Jehu departed not from after them.”

For reasons of state policy, Jehu maintained the worship of Bethel and

Dan.

“But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with

all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made

Israel to sin.”

Jehu had done homage to Jehovah by extirpating the foreign Baal worship,

but he patronized and actively supported the irregular mode of worshiping

Jehovah established by Jeroboam as the state religion of the northern

kingdom. He attempted to serve God and Mammon. Religion was to him but a

political instrument.

Jehu did the particular kind of work which had been assigned to him--a

work of destruction and blood. Perhaps he alone of all the people of his

time could have accomplished this task. But Jehu must stand in history as

a warning rather than as an example.