There are a lot of people who think the Old Testament makes for grim reading.
I recall watching a tv programme in which Stephen Fry and some other rabid atheists said it was a crime to have children read it.. because it is so full of murder and massacre and stuff.
I know some Christians who avoid all of it, aside from Psalms and Proverbs, perhaps for similar reasons.
Lately I have been buried deep in it and loving every minute! Elijah and Elishah are a pair of awesome dudes, really tuned into God, and really accessing His power in His cause.
The story that prompted me to write today though involves a less Spirit-filled man, Jehu, King of Israel. As few of you may have spent much time reading the second book of Kings it needs a bit of back story filling in and at the end of the day it IS the kind of story that Mr Fry hates, full of massacres.
Let's start by backtracking to Ahab King of Israel. He marries Jezebel. Now since Jereboam splits the Kingdom and creates the northern Kingdom it has been going a bit pear-shaped with the creation and worship of two golden calves. But Jezebel creates a major movement for Ba'al worship. Elijah of course massacres the 450 prophets of Ba'al after God arranges for Ba'al's humiliation at the famous bull-burning contest... but I digress.
Thing is Ahab and Jezebel have an eldest son called Jehoram (or Joram) who succeeds to the throne AND a daughter called Athlaiah who marries the heir to the throne of Judah (confusingly also called Joram).
SO... Joram King of Israel worships Ba'al. And his son Ahaziah worships Ba'al. And over the border Joram King of Israel worships Ba'al.
This is all pretty ugly. Without going into all the reasons that Ba'al worship is a serious abomination we know that God has already promised to destroy the house of Ahab because of Ba'al worship along with a dose of murdering, false witness and land-theft.
God anoints Jehu (one of Ahaziah's generals) as new King of Israel and commissions him with the ugly work of destroying the house of Ahab.
Jehu kills Joram, then he kills of Ahaziah Judah. He then kills Ahab's sons (Joram's brothers) and all of Ahaziah's brothers too. Ahaziah's mother Athaliah (daughter of Jezebel) takes this as her cue to massacre all of Ahaziah's other relations in order to make herself Queen and ensure Ba'al worship lives on in Judah for seven more years.
Messy huh?
But here is the point.
Jehu, anointed by the Lord to do this messy work of fulfilling the Lord's desire to destroy the house of Ahab for all its abominations becomes King of Israel. His family rule Israel for four generations
BUT
He does NOT turn Israel away from the worship of the Golden Calves!! (2 Kings 10 v 29 and v 31)
God nevertheless gives him four generations of rule - because he does the Lord's will.
But It is clear that here we have the ultimate in human weakness, a man anointed by God still cannot get it all right. (remember David?)
So at the end of the day we still need Jesus to come and pay for all our screw ups.
- We can be anointed King.
- We can do God's will in messy and challenging situations.
But when the dust settles we are really all just sinners.
And for that reason God sends us Jesus to die for us . . . because left to ourselves we screw it up.
Thank you Lord! Because of your great sacrifice we are not JUST sinners... we are sinners saved by Grace
