But first we need to reread a passage from 1 Kings. There we found the prophet Elijah desperately discouraged, hiding in a cave and asking the Lord to go ahead and take him out of this life. But the Lord had things for him to do instead. "The Lord said to him, 'Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu." (1 Kings 19:15-17)
In our study of 1 Kings we read about Elijah anointing Elisha to take his place but the Bible hasn't told us of any meetings between Elijah and Hazael or between Elijah and Jehu. The Bible told us of a meeting between Hazael and Elisha in which he informed Hazael he would someday ascend to the throne of Aram. Hazael reacted to this news by not waiting for it to happen naturally but by taking matters into his own hands and killing the king of Aram. In today's study we will find Elisha, not Elijah, ordering Jehu anointed as king over Israel. He won't perform the anointing personally but through a proxy---through one of the other prophets of Israel.
Does this mean Elijah never spoke with Hazael and Jehu? Did he not anoint them as the Lord told him to do? Did Elijah pass these duties on to his successor and, if so, was that the Lord's intention when He told Elijah to go to Abel Meholah to anoint Elisha to succeed him? I find it unlikely that Elijah would disobey the Lord. I also don't believe the Lord gave him instructions that he was prevented from obeying due to circumstances or time constraints. I can only conclude that there was more to the conversation between the Lord and Elijah than what was written in 1 Kings 19 and that, if Elijah did not personally anoint these two men, it was because the Lord intended him to prepare his successor to have it done at the right time. Even his successor doesn't anoint the man personally but sends a man of the school of prophets to do it. So when the Lord gave the order for Jehu to be anointed, I am not sure He meant for Elijah himself to literally do the anointing but that Elijah was to pass these orders along to Elisha who, in turn, passed these orders along to one of his subordinates.
The Lord may not have been asking for a specific person to do the anointing but was making sure it got done by telling Elijah, who told Elisha, who told this unnamed younger prophet. To provide a modern example of what might be going on here, let's say the Lord tells the leader of a large company to donate a certain amount of money to a certain charity. The leader of the company would be obeying the Lord if he or she sent a subordinate to the charity's headquarters with a check or cash instead of going there in person. Or let's say He tells the church pastor there's a particular song that should be sung in Sunday's service. The pastor tells his secretary to inform the choir director instead of telling the choir director himself. In the scenarios of the company owner or the church pastor, the Lord is being obeyed even though neither of these people carried out every detail of His instructions themselves. In this same way, Elijah was told that Jehu must be anointed as king of Israel but the Lord may simply have intended for Elijah to make sure it was going to get done, not that Elijah was to go to Ramoth Gilead to anoint him personally.
Now we look at the first portion of Chapter 9. "The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, 'Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him to an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, 'This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!'" (2 Kings 9:1-3)
Scholars believe Jehu is commander over the army and that this is why he is currently at Ramoth Gilead. You'll recall from yesterday's study that King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah combined forces in an attempt to retake the Israelite city of Ramoth Gilead from the nation of Aram. Ramoth Gilead was taken sometime in the past by the father of King Ben-Hadad of Aram. Ben-Hadad had promised to return all the cities taken by his father as part of his peace treaty with King Ahab of Israel but then failed to keep his word. Ramoth Gilead is still in Aramean control under Hazael, who killed Ben-Hadad and took his place as king. But when Joram and Ahaziah went up to fight against Hazael's troops, Joram was wounded in battle and forced to retreat to his palace at Jezreel to recover from his injuries. Ahaziah came to the palace to see how his recovery was coming along, as we learned yesterday, and agreed to accompany him to a meeting with Jehu. The author of 2 Chronicles informed us that this meeting led to Ahaziah's downfall, for Jehu was responsible for his death and for the death of Joram. We will be studying the deaths of these men in detail in the coming days.
My husband and I are going out of town for a couple of days for a mini-vacation so I won't be able to post a Bible study tomorrow but we will pick up on Monday with the remainder of the account of Jehu's anointing. I hope you have a blessed weekend.
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