End of a Dynasty

So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.

When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting, and he said, “I have a word for you, O captain.” And Jehu said, “For which one of us?” And he said, “For you, O captain.”

He arose and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel.

‘You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.

‘For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person both bond and free in Israel.

‘I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.'” (2 Kings 9:4-9)

Judgment sometimes falls without mercy—at least from the perspective of the judged. But the destruction of the wicked brings merciful relief to everyone else. Elisha became the chief prophet after Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot. One day, he called one of the younger prophets and sent him to anoint Jehu, one of Joram’s generals, as the new king of Israel.

Of all the kings that the northern kingdom of Israel would ever have, only Jehu would worship God. He reluctantly accepted his new position, but then enthusiastically destroyed the entire family of Ahab and had their severed heads stacked into two piles at the entrance to the capital city, Samaria. Then he had Ahab’s widow, Jezebel, killed. Finally, he tricked all the prophets and priests of Baal into coming to one location for a supposed worship festival. Once assembled, he ordered them all slaughtered and burned their bodies on the alters of Baal. For all practical purposes, Jehu ended the worship of Baal in Israel, although he did nothing about the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan.

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