Scripture Daily

Context No. 555 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 10:21-28: in context

21Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that didn’t come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another. 22He said to him who kept the wardrobe, “Bring out robes for all the worshipers of Baal!” So he brought robes out to them. 23Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search, and see that none of the servants of the LORD are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.” 24So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men outside, and said, “If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.” 25As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them! Let no one escape.” So they struck them with the edge of the sword. The guard and the captains threw the bodies out, and went to the inner shrine of the house of Baal. 26They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal and burned them. 27They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day. 28Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

Jehu, newly made king of Israel, sets out to wipe out the worship of Baal, and he does it by a ruse. He proclaims a great festival for Baal, gathers every last Baal worshiper into the temple until it is packed wall to wall, makes sure no true worshiper of the LORD is among them, and then sends in his soldiers to kill them all. He tears down the sacred pillars, demolishes the temple of Baal, and turns the site into a public latrine. Thus, the text says, Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. It is a fierce, thorough, bloody purge, and on its face it looks like tremendous zeal for God.

But the very next verses, just after this passage, tell the other half of the story, and it is the half that exposes Jehu. For all his ferocity against Baal, he did not turn away from the golden calves that Israel's kings had worshiped from the start; he clung to his own idolatry and was not careful to walk in God's law with all his heart. So Jehu's zeal turns out to be selective. He was merciless toward the idolatry that was convenient to destroy, the worship tied to the rival dynasty he had just overthrown, while quietly keeping the idols that suited him. He crusaded against someone else's sin and spared his own.

That is a temptation dressed up as righteousness, and I fall into it easily. It is satisfying to be fierce against the sins I am not tempted by, to denounce the failings of others, to crusade loudly against evils that cost me nothing to oppose, all while sparing the pet sins I have quietly decided to keep. Jehu tore down Baal and kept his calves. Where is my own zeal selective, loud against the sins I do not struggle with and silent about the ones I do, and am I willing to turn the same ferocity I aim at others' idols onto my own?

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