Scripture Daily

Context No. 1001 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 10:16-20: in context

16He said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.” So they made him ride in his chariot. 17When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed them, according to the LORD’s word which he spoke to Elijah. 18Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. 19Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshipers, and all of his priests. Let no one be absent, for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live.” But Jehu did deceptively, intending to destroy the worshipers of Baal. 20Jehu said, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal!” So they proclaimed it.

Jehu has been anointed to wipe out the house of Ahab and root out Baal worship, and here he is in full stride. Come and see my zeal for the LORD, he says to a companion, as he rides to Samaria to kill everyone left of Ahab's house. Then he devises a trap: he announces that whereas Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve Baal much, and calls all the prophets and worshipers of Baal to a great sacrifice, on pain of death for absence. The text tells us plainly what he is doing: Jehu acted deceptively, in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal.

Jehu is a genuinely troubling figure, and the passage does not resolve him neatly. On one hand, he is carrying out a real commission from God, and God later commends him for executing judgment on Ahab's house. On the other hand, look at the man himself. Come and see my zeal, he says, putting his own devotion on display; he lures the Baal worshipers to their deaths by lies, and the prophet Hosea will later condemn the bloodshed at Jezreel. Jehu does the right thing in a way that is shot through with self-promotion and cruelty, and scripture holds both together without flattening it. It is a sober picture of a real danger, that a person can be doing something God actually wants done and still be doing it for the wrong reasons, with a heart full of self and violence rather than love for God. Zeal is not the same as holiness. You can be right in your cause and rotten in your motive, and Jehu is the warning that even a commissioned zeal can serve the ego rather than the God it invokes.

Where might I be doing something genuinely right, but for the display of my own zeal rather than out of love for God, and would I even notice the difference?

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