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.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
In those days Jehovah began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the borders of Israel;
Jehu's reign ends with the borders of Israel shrinking. The commentators ask two questions here: who is behind Hazael's sword, and why a king so fierce against Baal could not hold the land God gave him.
Jehu's sword was one instrument in God's hand; Hazael was another. Removing the house of Ahab did nothing to put away the second.
In 2 Kings 9 the judgment on Ahab's house begins. But the man who carries out that judgment does not remove the rod God had lifted up against Israel: Hazael. By means of Jehu God judges the house of Ahab; but the Syrians oppressed Israel and overran their land throughout the whole of Jehu's reign.
The verse does not say Syria grew strong. It says the LORD began.
What righteousness and what perfect holiness there is in God! He uses Hazael, His rod, to strike Jehu. "In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel." During Jehu's lifetime his kingdom is cut short on all sides. The loss falls heaviest on the region of the tribes beyond the Jordan. These woes are God's judgment upon his conduct. Here God expresses His discontent, not by words, but by acts, which do not seem to have reached the conscience of the king.
Jehu's war on Baal was real. One commentator points to what stayed the same in the man.
Jehu destroyed Baal and his worship at the same time as the house of Ahab, but he did not return to the LORD. He saw the folly of idolatry. He was energetic and ambitious, and his own interest lay on the other side. His vengeance had no fear of the LORD in it; it came from the flesh (see Hosea 1:4).
Jehu could fight. He still lost ground to Hazael, and the reason given is not military.
We hear no more of Jehu's exploits, but rather that the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel through the attacks of Hazael, king of Syria (v.32). Jehu was a determined warrior, but he evidently could not stand up to Hazael. Why not? Because his protection of idolatry in Israel left him weak before the attacks of the outside enemy.
God still paid Jehu for the good he did — but paid him in the only currency Jehu valued.
But we have here a remarkable instance of God's government. The faithfulness of Jehu, as far as it went, brought him a measure of blessing in this world from God. Even a bad man, if faithful in certain things, may be owned by God, and God will never allow Himself to be in any man's debt. So if the faithfulness is only for the world, in the world the man will be paid. Jehu had no thought for eternity. It was plain that there could not be a blessing — a real true blessing. Jehu, still pursuing the road of Jeroboam, made it impossible; and this is how his reign closes.
Notice the map in the next verse: everything east of the Jordan goes first. Those were the tribes — Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh — who had settled east of the river, short of what God purposed for them.
When the two and a half tribes went back to their land, they built an altar by the Jordan. They were afraid that in time Israel would disown them as not belonging to God's people. This fear was one of the results of coming short of God's purpose. Another result was that they were the first to come under God's discipline when Israel turned away from Him. As it is written, "In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel" — from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassites.
Compare the two ends of Jehu's reign, and a question about the man himself appears.
Jehu, though so "swift to shed blood" at the beginning of his reign, was slower to take up the sword in defence of the land and people of God toward its close. Men of this sort are seldom "good soldiers." They may be very active in getting the position they love and want, while careless about the true interests of the people of God. There is no hint that he even tried to resist these invasions of his territory by the king of Syria. Impetuosity is not courage, and we must not mistake excitement for real conviction.
- Cause. Jehu pulled down Baal but never returned to the LORD, and the idolatry he kept left him weak against the enemy outside.
- Hand. The borders did not just shrink. Hazael was God's rod, and God spoke His displeasure by acts, not words.
- Deafness. Those acts never reached Jehu's conscience. Discipline does its work only when the heart hears it.
- Edge first. The cutting started east of the Jordan, among tribes who had settled short of God's purpose. Ground chosen by preference is the first ground lost.
- Wages. Faithfulness that aims only at this world gets paid in this world. Jehu's road made real, lasting blessing impossible.
from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, both Gilead and Bashan.
Jehu's reign ends in loss, not victory. The verse names the ground Syria took, tribe by tribe: the whole eastern inheritance, from the Arnon valley in the south, through Gilead, up to Bashan.
The list ends at Bashan, the northern limit of what Syria took.
Now best known for the Golan Heights, it is a large district on the east of the Jordan. Gilead lies to its south. It reaches north to Mount Hermon and west to the Jordan valley. It is sometimes called the "land of Bashan," and it was the kingdom of Og the Amorite. Moses conquered it, and it became, with part of Gilead, the portion of the half-tribe of Manasseh… Hazael ravaged it in the time of Jehu.
Long before Jehu, Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh chose this eastern land for themselves. They did not cross the Jordan with the rest.
God's purpose was Canaan, which is beyond Jordan. The place of their choice was not Egypt. It was beyond the Red Sea, this side of the Euphrates, but not Canaan. What drew them was their many cattle, and the land of Gilead and Jazer gave wonderful opportunities for this. Blinded in this way, they lost sight of the call of God. Their choice comes out in these sad words: "Do not take us across the Jordan"… For in later days, Israel's sin and weakness left them an easy prey to their foes, the enemies of God. Then this lovely country was the first to pass into enemy hands.
The same choice can be made today, with the same result.
To settle down in the world, and to let selfish interests dictate our path and testimony, is to open the gates to the enemy's attack.
Jehu obeyed God in part, and God repaid him in part. The payment stopped at the edge of this world.
The faithfulness of Jehu, as far as it went, brought him a measure of blessing in this world from God. Even a bad man, if faithful in certain things, may be owned by God, and God will never allow Himself to be in any man's debt. So if the faithfulness is only for the world, then in the world the man will be paid. Jehu had no thought for eternity… It was plain that there could not be a blessing — a real, true blessing. Jehu still pursuing the road of Jeroboam made it impossible, and this is how his reign closes.
Hazael looks like the aggressor. He is the tool, not the cause.
On the other hand, what righteousness and what perfect holiness in God. He uses Hazael, His rod, to smite Jehu… During Jehu's lifetime his kingdom is cut short on all sides, and especially in the region of the tribes beyond Jordan. These troubles are God's judgment on his conduct. Here God expresses His displeasure, not by words, but by acts — acts which do not seem to have reached the conscience of the king.
Jehu had been quick with the sword when his own throne was at stake. He did nothing while Syria took God's land.
Jehu, though so "swift to shed blood" at the beginning of his reign, was slower to take the sword in defence of the land and people of God toward its close. Men of this kind are seldom really "good soldiers." They may work hard to get the position they love and want, while very careless about the true interests of the people of God. There is no hint that he made the slightest effort to resist these invasions by the king of Syria into his territory.
The loss went deeper after Jehu. Even so, this is not the end of the land's story.
In the days of Ahab, Ramoth-gilead was in Syrian hands, and after that all Gilead and Moab fell to them… Later Tiglath-pileser conquered the region and carried the Israelites into captivity. In the restoration of Israel their border eastward will extend to Damascus and Gilead. Ezekiel 47:18. This ancient possession will therefore be brought into blessing.
- Ground chosen. Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh chose this land for their cattle instead of crossing the Jordan.
- Ground exposed. Self-interest chose it, so it fell first when Israel grew weak. Comfortable ground is undefended ground.
- Ground taken. Hazael's sword was God's rod. God answered Jehu's half-obedience with acts, not words.
- Ground undefended. Jehu was quick to kill for his own throne and slow to fight for God's land — energy for self is not courage for God.
- Ground restored. Gilead's loss is not the end. This same eastern border sits inside Israel's future blessing.
And the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Jehu's reign ends with the standard note of Kings: his deeds and his strength sit on file in a state record. It is easy to skip — yet if the fuller account sits in another book, why does Scripture add this line?
One writer explains what these records were, and why their loss costs the reader nothing:
Men drew up these chronicles during the reigns of all the rulers of those times, whether Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. Things the Lord did not choose to record or explain are recorded there. These chronicles have been lost; perhaps someone will one day find fragments of them. The believer has no need of any of them; he has God's Word. There, in God's account, he finds everything necessary for him, as well as the divine assessment of people, events and things. Writings that are not inspired may record certain deeds, even with great exactness. But they never carry anything more than a human assessment.
The name confuses many readers, since a book called Chronicles sits in their Bible. A commentator separates the two, then notes what Jehu had time to do and never did:
Verse 34 tells us that the rest of the acts of Jehu are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. This is not the Scripture Book of Chronicles, which deals more with Judah than with Israel, and in it very little is said about Jehu. Jehu had reigned for 28 years. That was plenty of time for him to repent and bow to the Word of God, but he was not so inclined.
The verse points the reader to a record of his acts and his might. A writer commenting on this verse points to what is missing from that record:
If the chronicles of the kings of Israel (v. 34) were ever found, they would contain the acts and all the might of Jehu. They would not contain what he was before God, nor God's judgment on his conduct as king.
That is the point of the formula. The archive keeps the deeds; Scripture keeps the verdict.
Jehu's might was real, and God did not overlook it. Another writer shows what kind of return that service brought him:
The fidelity of Jehu, as far as it went, brought him a measure of blessing in this world from God. Even a bad man, if faithful in certain things, may be owned by God, and God will never allow Himself to be the debtor of any man. Therefore if the faithfulness is only for the world, in the world the man will be paid. Jehu had no thought for eternity.
The record keeps his energy. His character is another matter. He could strike hard at one evil and leave another standing:
Jehu is God's faithful instrument, and, as we have seen, an over-zealous one. Yet there is nothing lovely and little that is commendable in his character. 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. That character puts Him on the throne of the heart and gives spiritual understanding of His mind.
The same writer draws out what Jehu's whole life is meant to teach:
The great lesson from this remarkable man's life is that we must stay constantly on our guard as servants of God. The danger is doing His work with a spirit that has never been broken, and without due exercise of heart and conscience before Him. This holds whether we are exercising discipline or carrying out reformation. He is "a God of judgment," and by Him "actions are weighed."
- Two records. Jehu's deeds went into a royal archive that men kept, and his verdict went into a book God kept. The verse tells you where to find the first and hands you the second.
- Human ledger. Men wrote those chronicles reign by reign. They are lost, and they never carried more than a human assessment. Scripture is missing nothing of value.
- The missing line. The archive held his acts and all his might, but not what he was before God, nor God's judgment on his reign as king.
- Paid in this world. God stays no man's debtor. Serve Him only for what this world gives, and this world is where He pays. Jehu had no thought for eternity.
- Guard the heart. Jehu could destroy Baal and keep the calves. Every servant faces one danger: doing God's work without heart and conscience before Him.
And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria and Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead.
Jehu's reign ends with the same short formula used for other kings of Israel: he dies, they bury him in the capital, and his son takes the throne. That plain ending raises a hard question. What did a life of fierce activity for God earn, and what did it never touch?
The burial notice closes a long reign. One writer weighs what Jehu did with all that time:
Jehu had reigned for 28 years, plenty of time for him to repent and bow to the Word of God, but he was not so inclined.
One mark belongs to everyone in the family of faith, and Jehu lacked it:
God took no pleasure in Jehu, and He never could. For there is one feature that belongs to the family of faith, without which there is no communion with God... and that is repentance toward God. And Jehu had not this. He may have had zeal. His action may even have been right, to a certain extent, in line with the sovereign will of God. But he had no brokenness of spirit. He had never measured himself in the presence of God.
Why did a man like this die in peace, with his throne passing safely to his son? One writer answers from the way God governs:
Here we have a remarkable instance of God's government. The faithfulness of Jehu, 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 He will never allow Himself to be in any man's debt. So if the faithfulness is only for this world, this world is where the man gets his pay. Jehu had no thought for eternity.
The reward reached beyond Jehu himself, but not far. One writer marks where it ended:
God ordained him as His executioner... And he had his reward. It was for this world alone; and the fourth generation of his children saw its end.
Jehu could have read God's promise of reward as approval of everything he had done. One writer answers that:
God said to him, "You have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight," and I will reward you. It might have seemed to Jehu that God was approving everything he had done. Far from it! ... The Lord had said, "Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation." That word came true as reward. Now His word was coming true in retribution and in righteous judgment. What a God is ours! Who is able, as He is, to weigh in the same balance both the acts He approves of and those He condemns.
God can reward a work in public and still weigh the motives behind it:
Jehu's zeal was clearly energetic in rooting out idolatry. In His outward government God could therefore sanction and reward it, and as testimony He had to do so. Yet the motives that governed him were far from pure. So God blessed Jehu in His public government. But here He reveals His thoughts and His real estimate of the work. He shows that He judges in righteousness and holiness. Whatever man brings in of ambition, of cruelty, and even of that false zeal which is only hypocrisy — hiding the gratification of its own will under the name of zeal for the Lord — is not hidden from His eyes.
Jehu's life carries a warning for anyone busy doing right things:
This remarkable man's life teaches one great lesson. As servants of God we must always stay on our guard. We may find ourselves doing His work — whether in the exercise of discipline or in carrying out reform — in an unbroken spirit, without real exercise of heart and conscience. And we do it before Him who is "a God of judgment," and by whom "actions are weighed."
- Reward. God paid Jehu for his partial obedience: a quiet death, a burial in his own capital, a son on his throne. He never stays in any man's debt.
- Limit. That pay belonged to this world only. Four generations, and the house of Jehu ended.
- Motive. In public God rewarded the act. In private He judged the ambition and cruelty behind it.
- Missing. Zeal was never his problem; repentance was. Twenty-eight years gave him time he never used.
- Warning. Busy work for God is no substitute for a searched heart and conscience. He weighs every action.
Now the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
2 Kings ends most reigns with a bare number of years and the king's city, and Jehu's ends that way too. But the chapter has been pressing a harder question: what did God's chosen man do with all that power?
Two records of this reign stand side by side. One commentator notes how little Israel's state archive holds:
The chronicles of the kings of Israel (v. 34), if anyone ever finds them, contain the acts and all the might of Jehu. But they do not say what he was before God, and they do not give God's judgment on his conduct as king.
One writer weighs what such a long reign gave him:
At Jehu's death they buried him in Samaria, and Jehoahaz his son took the throne. Jehu had reigned for 28 years, plenty of time for him to repent and bow to the Word of God, but he was not so inclined.
Jehu wiped out Baal worship across the land. Yet through all those years he kept an older idolatry alive — the golden calves set up by an earlier king, Jeroboam. One writer points to that inconsistency:
Jehu's heart was never right with God. The people had brought Baal worship back after Elijah left. At God's command Jehu destroyed it completely. But he "was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin." He maintained and worshipped the golden calves! Such glaring inconsistency is a warning to us.
Another writer explains why human nature — the flesh — can never finish a reform:
It is always like this when the flesh has a part in reform. The flesh cannot cure the turning away from God that has marked it from the start. If it could, it would no longer be the flesh. We see this every day. The natural man may well root out one idol, whether wine or any other vice. But he only replaces it with the idolatry of self, and throws that idol into sharper relief — his own self-righteousness, and his lack of conscience about God, a God whom he pretends, like Jehu, to serve with zeal.
Those years were no time of blessing. While Jehu sat in Samaria, Hazael, king of Syria, stripped Israel of its land east of the Jordan:
On the other hand, what righteousness and what perfect holiness in God. He uses Hazael, His rod, to smite Jehu... During Jehu's lifetime his kingdom is cut short on all sides, especially in the land of the tribes east of the Jordan. These woes are God's judgment upon his conduct. Here God expresses His discontent by acts, not by words. Those acts do not seem to have reached the conscience of the king.
One writer sums up the man and his reward:
His showy display of reforming zeal revealed how little he had God's glory in mind. All his feverish activity and tearing down stood in sad contrast to Christ, who always hid Himself and sought His Father's glory only. He too had a zeal, but what a different kind from Jehu's!... Jehu's zeal consumed and destroyed everybody and everything that stood in the way of his own gain or advancement. It never touched himself. He appears to have been a total stranger to real exercise of soul. God ordained him as His executioner. As someone has well said, "Never was there an instrument better fitted for the work God gave him than Jehu." And he had his reward. It was for this world alone; and the fourth generation of his children saw its end.
The point of the whole reign, drawn out plainly:
The great lesson from this remarkable man's life is to keep constant guard, as servants of God, over how we do His work — whether we are carrying out discipline or bringing about reform. We must not do it in an unbroken, unhumbled spirit, without due exercise of heart and conscience before Him who is "a God of judgment," and by whom "actions are weighed."
- Commissioned — God chose Jehu as His instrument against Baal worship, and he destroyed it completely. Israel's royal archive kept the record of his acts and his might.
- Unbroken — what the archive could not record was what he was before God. The same hand that tore down Baal left Jeroboam's calves standing.
- Given time — twenty-eight years gave him plenty of room to repent and bow to God's Word. He was not inclined to.
- Cut short — in those same years God answered without words. He let Hazael strip away Jehu's land, and the loss never reached his conscience.
- Rewarded here only — he got what he worked for, and no more. His reward was a throne in this world, and a line that ended in the fourth generation. Zeal that never touches the man himself ends where his years end.