Thus Jehu extirpated Baal out of Israel.
Here Jehu finishes his war on Baal: he empties the temple, burns the images, and leaves Baal worship dead in Israel. Yet he left one idol standing, and commentators weigh the gap between what he removed and what he kept.
Jehu did not fight Baal in the open. He trapped it.
He proposes a grand feast for all the worshippers of Baal. He presents himself as if he were the patron of that worship. He calls for all the worshippers and priests of Baal, and he takes the greatest care that none of the worshippers of the Lord are among them. So they were all gathered into the same building... And Jehu brings into the house his soldiers, his captains, and men of war, and they struck them with the edge of the sword.
One man in that scene comes out well. Jehonadab, who rode with Jehu, stayed out of sight except for one task.
Jehu had confided his plan to him; he accompanied Jehu, but did not appear (v. 23) except to verify that no servant of the Lord was confused with the servants of Baal. Is not this a beautiful role, similar to that of Jeremiah: "If you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth" (Jer. 15:19)?
Baal went; the golden calves stayed. The reason commentators give is political.
There was a reserve, there was an inner chamber of the heart that was not reached yet, and there was an idol there... Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep them. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have returned to their allegiance to the Lord in Jerusalem.
The same hand that struck Baal spared what was convenient. That inconsistency shows what drove him.
Jehu is very zealous in dealing with evil when it suits his own purpose, but quite indifferent to evil when he concludes it is wise to leave it alone. So he avenges the sins of the house of Ahab without mercy, while leaving untouched the sins of the house of Jeroboam. He destroys the worship of Baal; he preserves the golden calves.
Jehu had even invited a friend to come and watch him work.
"Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord" (2 Kings 10:16). True souls do not parade their good deeds like this. Men's approval and admiration matters little to them (1 Cor. 4:3); it is enough that the Lord sees their zeal in His service.
Elijah had also destroyed Baal's priests. Put the two men side by side, and the same result comes from two different sources — yet God still weighs Jehu's work fairly.
Jehu had zeal without the Spirit, a zeal using human means to answer God's commands. What then will happen? If in appearance the result, the wiping out of the priests of Baal, is the same with both Elijah and Jehu, it is completely different in reality... In spite of that, what a fair appraisal on God's part! He credits Jehu with doing what was right in His sight when he judged the house of Ahab. For that He gives him descendants on the throne to the fourth generation.
God does not ignore what Jehu actually accomplished; the throne is promised to his sons to the fourth generation.
He is a sad illustration of a man who may be used by God and yet is disobedient in his own life; carrying out God's plans, yet knowing nothing of real communion. But the LORD did not forget even this imperfect service (verse 30).
The reward, though, is not the last word spoken over him.
He could slay "with all his heart," but took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord with earnestness... It is easier to serve God in outward things than to gain the character which He loves, enthroning Him in the heart... God did not forget his heartless slaughter, and He did not let Israel forget it. A hundred years later He said to the prophet Hosea, "Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:4).
The pattern is not limited to kings. One idol can go while another takes the empty seat.
It is always this way when the flesh has a part in reform... The natural man may well root out an idol, whether it be wine or any other vice. But he only replaces it with the idolatry of self, his own self-righteousness, and his lack of conscience toward God. He even throws these into sharper relief. And this is the God whom he pretends, like Jehu, to serve with zeal.
- Removed — Jehu sprang a trap and wiped Baal's temple, images, priests and worshippers out of Israel.
- Retained — the golden calves stayed. That religion kept the ten tribes apart from Jerusalem and served Jehu's throne.
- Revealed — what a man spares exposes him: zeal against evil that suits him, indifference to evil that does not.
- Rewarded — God credited the work and gave Jehu's line four generations on the throne. The heart behind it was never His.
- Reckoned — a century later God avenged the blood of Jezreel on Jehu's house. Outward service never replaces a heart set on God.
Only, the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, from them Jehu departed not [from] the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.
Jehu had just wiped Baal out of Israel — its priests killed, its temple pulled down — but he kept the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. Why would a man destroy one false religion and protect another?
The calves were not just an old habit. They were the machinery that held the northern kingdom together.
Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep them. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have returned to their loyalty to Jehovah in Jerusalem. It was the great means of having another centre... To make a kingdom he must make a religion.
Jeroboam founded the northern kingdom. He set up those calves so his people would not travel south to worship.
The golden calves still stood as the sanctuary of the kingdom. They belonged to how that kingdom began, and they were its national religion. This Jehu did not care to touch.
The same hand that struck Baal spared Jeroboam's calves. What decided the difference was Jehu's own interest.
Jehu is very zealous in dealing with evil when it suits his own purpose. He is quite indifferent to evil when he decides it is good policy to leave it alone. So he avenges the sins of the house of Ahab without mercy, while leaving untouched the sins of the house of Jeroboam. He destroys the worship of Baal; he preserves the golden calves. His hand was ready to use the sword against the enemies of the Lord, when it suited his own ends. His heart was completely indifferent to the law of the Lord.
Both of Jehu's religious moves served the same master: his throne.
If he could give up Baal to get the throne, he can now give up Jehovah with as much ease to secure the throne. He has got rid of the prophets of Ahab, and now he can go back to the calves of Jeroboam — so that, as Jeroboam said, "the kingdom might not return to others."
Jehu's failure here was not a slip. He kept this one sin on purpose, and Kelly measures what such a choice proves.
There was a plague spot, and every unrenewed man shows it. The man who cares for the will of God will not keep one part of His will at the cost of another. And this is exactly what the apostle James says so truly: the man who fails in one point is guilty of all. If there were a conscience towards God, that one point would have its value... What James speaks of is wilfulness and evil — wilfulness, even if it shows itself in only one way.
A man can do God's work on the outside and stop there.
He served God's purpose as an executioner, but with that he stopped. He could slay "with all his heart," but took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord with earnestness. He could break down the gross and vile worship of Baal, yet go on in the calf-worship of Jeroboam. It is easier to serve God in outward things than to gain the character He loves, the character that gives Him the throne of the heart.
God did credit what Jehu did against Baal.
God recognises a zeal that had judged evil rightly. The question here was His outward government, not His judgment of the secrets of the heart. And Jehu did act faithfully in destroying Baal completely.
But an outward reward has an outward limit.
Jehu's faithfulness, as far as it went, brought him a measure of blessing in this world from God. God may own even a bad man who is faithful in certain things, and God will never allow Himself to be any man's debtor. So if the faithfulness is only for this world, the man gets his pay in this world. Jehu had no thought for eternity.
- Reserved. Jehu destroyed Baal but kept the calves at Bethel and Dan. The one evil that served his throne was the one evil he spared.
- Motive. The calves were a political religion that held the ten tribes away from Jerusalem. Jehu kept them on purpose, not by accident.
- Test. One chosen exception is not a stumble. The point a man refuses to give up shows whether he has any conscience toward God.
- Limit. Outward service is the easy part; walking in God's law with the heart is the part Jehu never attempted.
- Wages. God paid him for what he did, but the pay stopped at this world. A man who never thinks past this life gets all his reward inside it.
And Jehovah said to Jehu, Because thou hast executed well that which is right in my sight, [and] hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, thy children of the fourth [generation] shall sit on the throne of Israel.
Jehu has just destroyed Ahab's family and stamped out Baal worship in Israel, and God answers with praise and a promise of four generations on the throne. Yet Jehu kept the golden calves and paid no attention to the law of God, so how can God reward a man like that?
God's praise is real, but it covers the deed, not the doer. Commentators explain how God could say this of a man like Jehu.
God recognises a zeal that had judged evil rightly. The question here was His outward government, not His judgment of the secrets of the heart. In fact Jehu was faithful in destroying Baal completely.
The promise sets a limit: the fourth generation. That limit is part of the message. Set next to God's dealings with David, it shows what was missing in Jehu.
God met his partial faithfulness with a promise: kings of Jehu's house would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. God gave Israel only a short hold on the kingdom, but within it Jehu's house was to rule for four generations. So God did it. But there was to be no real permanent line, for Jehu had shown no real conscience towards God. How different from David! David's heart was set on building the Lord a house — the Lord must take first place. So the Lord would build David a house.
Jehu tore down Baal, but he left the golden calves standing. Commentators trace that gap to self-interest, not oversight.
Jehu showed zeal against the guilty king of Israel, the guilty king of Judah, and the worship of Baal. Yet something was held back. There was an inner room of the heart still untouched, and an idol stood in it. That idol was the old idolatry — the calves of gold. The reason is plain. Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the ten tribes to keep it.
God's reward could have made a new man of him.
We might have expected Jehu to be so thankful for God's grace that from then on he would try hard to obey God's Word. But he paid no attention to the law of God.
From the outside, Jehu's energy looked like the prophet Elijah's. One writer separates the two men by asking what power drove each of them. He then marvels at what God still says about Jehu.
Elijah had the Spirit of God, who made a complete separation from evil in him. That same power stirred the prophet with a holy zeal for the Lord. Jehu had zeal without the Spirit — a zeal that used human means to carry out God's commands… Jehu carried out judgment on others with fire, but never on himself… Even so, what a fair verdict on God's part! He credits Jehu with having "done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes" in judging the house of Ahab. For this He gives him a line on the throne to the fourth generation.
The motives behind that zeal were not hidden from God, even as He used it.
Jehu is very zealous in dealing with evil when it suits his own purpose, but quite indifferent to evil when he decides it is good policy to leave it alone. So he ruthlessly avenges the sins of the house of Ahab, while leaving untouched the sins of the house of Jeroboam. He destroys the worship of Baal; he preserves the golden calves.
The four generations ran their course exactly as spoken, ending with Zechariah, who reigned six months before being struck down. Scripture itself marks the fulfilment:
"This was the word of the LORD that He spoke to Jehu, saying, 'Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.' And so it came to pass."
But payment of the reward did not close the books on how Jehu had earned it. God later declared through Hosea that He would punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel and put an end to the kingdom of Israel.
The time had come when God would "punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel." The Lord had kept silent about the blood Jehu shed at Jezreel. He had not spoken of it to anyone — not even to guilty Jehu. It might have seemed to Jehu that God was approving everything he had done, because God said, "You have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes," and I will reward you. Far from it!… God had carried out His word, "Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation," as a reward. Now He was carrying out that word in retribution and righteous judgment. What a God is ours! Who else can weigh in the same balance both the acts He approves and those He condemns?
- Commended — God praises the deed done against Ahab's house. He speaks as Ruler of the nation, not as the One who reads the heart.
- Rewarded — the gift has exact limits: four generations, a short hold on the throne, and no lasting line like David's.
- Reserved — Jehu pulled down Baal but kept the golden calves, because that religion suited his politics. One inner room of his heart stayed shut.
- Fulfilled — the promise came true to the letter: four generations on the throne, and no more.
- Reckoned — the same God who paid the reward later judged Jehu's house for the blood of Jezreel. He weighs what He approves and what He condemns in one balance.
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Jehovah the God of Israel with all his heart; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
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