2 Kings 9-11

• This is post is OUT OF ORDER.  See my note in the comment.  I read ahead and forgot you couldn’t read my mind.
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Take a minute and get your bearing on the graph.  Before today’s read Israel and Judah were kind of able to co-exist in the land, they even at times made small alliances to fight enemy territory.    This will come to an end now.  The year is 841 BC when Jehu takes the throne.  The Northern Kingdom will be taken into captivity in 722 BC (remember the years count backward).  Time is running out for the Israelites to get it together.  (But God is going to try everything to get them to turn from idol worship and let them see He is the one true God.)

We begin today with the fulfillment of prophecy from the Lord to Elijah.  1 Kings 19:

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. ¹⁶ Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷ Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. ¹⁸ Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Elisha sent the man to anoint Jehu and told him to run for his own safety!  Just as Elijah and Elisha were used as instruments from God so was Jehu in this case.

Question: Do you think Jezebel put makeup on as a pagan ritual, did she know she was going to die and prepared herself to look pretty for it,  or do you think she was going to try to seduce him? 🤷‍♀️

Back in 1 Kings 21:17-

“I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. ²¹ He says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free.²² I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin.’

²³ “And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

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So read Chapter 10…it’s like a scene from a Hollywood movie!   The Lord is using Jehu to clean house so why in this is he considered a bad king, not a good king?

Stay with me….don’t get overwhelmed.  You got this!  Do you remember when Jeroboam and Rehoboam divided the kingdom over the tax issue? (Do you remember the ‘J’ and the ‘R’)  One went North and one went South.  So if the temple was in the South…where was the North going to worship???

Back in 1 Kings 12:

²⁵ Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

²⁶ Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. ²⁷ If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves.  (Nooooo!) He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. (No, it’s not!) Here are your gods, (what???)  Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” ²⁹ One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

They built an altar to the Lord. Look at this:

Jehu is currently in the political capital of the nation.  Jehu was good to burn the Baal worship….BUT if he tears down the golden calves he is committing political suicide! 

So Chapter 10 ends with: (I hope this makes sense now)

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.

Even though Jehu meeses up, God still continues the kings in that line.   Extra credit:

• What is the name of the Covenant that says this line will not be snuffed out?
  • And extra point if you memorized the Book chapter and scripture..

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Chapter 11- We switch to the tribe of Judah now.  The Davidic Line. The Covenant.

We began this story the other day in Chronicles but we never knew what happened after the baby was hidden.  The entire family of Ahaziah was killed.  What…can’t be.  God promised a king through the line of David to bring the Messiah.  Oh wait, there is a woman on the scene to save the day!  She takes Joash as a baby and hides him for 7 years!

Long Live the KIng!!!

²⁰ All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace.

²¹ Joash was seven years old when he began to reign.