2 Kings 10:21-28: a reflection

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.

In a decisive and violent purge, Jehu roots the worship of Baal out of Israel. He gathers all the Baal worshipers, and in a single stroke ends the whole cult, tearing down the sacred pillars, demolishing the temple of Baal, and making its site a refuse heap. The account is grim in its methods, but its result is stated plainly: thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. The idolatry that had corrupted the nation was, at least outwardly, decisively removed.

Setting aside the violence of the means, notice the thoroughness of the removal. Baal worship was not merely discouraged or reduced; it was rooted out, its temple demolished, its idols destroyed, its very place made a ruin. There was no half-measure, no leaving of a shrine here or an altar there. When it came to the idolatry that had poisoned the nation, the response was decisive and complete. The idol was not managed; it was destroyed.

There is a principle worth taking from that, in the realm of our own hearts. Idols, the things we set up as rivals to God, love of money, status, comfort, control, an unhealthy attachment, are rarely dealt with by half-measures. Tolerated, managed, kept around in reduced form, they tend to reassert themselves. What idolatry often requires is decisive removal, a thorough tearing down rather than a cautious managing. Deal decisively with the idols in your own life. Do not merely reduce or manage them; root them out. Some things in the heart have to be torn down, not tolerated.

Lord, Jehu did not merely reduce Baal worship but rooted it out of Israel, thoroughly and decisively. Show me the idols in my own heart, the things I have set up as rivals to you, love of money, status, comfort, control. Keep me from merely managing or tolerating them in reduced form, where they only reassert themselves. Give me the resolve to deal with them decisively, to tear them down rather than keep them around. Root out every idol, and let me worship you alone.