Jehu, the commander of Israel's army, is on his way to Jezreel where King Joram is recovering from a battle wound at his palace. King Ahaziah of Judah is there with him, visiting him out of concern for his injuries. Jehu has been anointed as the next king of Israel and he is about to take matters into his own hands to rid the nation of the idolatrous dynasty of the late King Ahab.
As he races toward the palace in his chariot with his soldiers following, a watchman in the tower on the wall spots him coming from a long way off. "When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's troops approaching, he called out, 'I see some troops coming.' 'Get a horseman,' Joram ordered. 'Send him to meet them and ask, 'Do you come in peace?'" (2 Kings 9:17) From this distance neither the watchman nor the king can determine who these people are. No one is going to swing the gates open wide to admit them. No one is going to risk sending a large party out to meet them. A lone horseman will be sent out to ascertain the purpose of this visit.
"The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, 'This is what the king says: Do you come in peace?' 'What do you have to do with peace?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.' The lookout reported, 'The messenger has reached them, but he isn't coming back.'" (2 Kings 9:18) Jehu's answer comes across as enigmatic in the English translation but is believed to mean something like, "Is this a time for peace?" When he asks this question of the horseman and tells him to fall in behind him, the horseman apparently does so of his own free will. I believe he understands or suspects what is about to happen and is giving Jehu his blessing, so to speak. When the watchman on the wall sees the horseman falling in with the approaching group, he doesn't know what to make of it. Has the horseman been taken prisoner? Has the horseman been stunned by some sort of bad news and doesn't want to be the one to ride ahead of the group to deliver it?
The king doesn't know what to make of this turn of events either and he continues to be cautious. "So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, 'Do you come in peace?' Jehu replied, 'What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.'" (2 Kings 9:19) The second horseman joins him just as the first horseman did, understanding---at least in part---what Jehu's words mean. As King Solomon would have put it: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...a time for war and a time for peace." (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8) Jehu is saying, "This is a time for war, not a time for peace."
The watchman relays what he sees to the king. "The lookout reported, 'He has reached them, but he isn't coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi---he drives like a maniac.'" (2 Kings 9:20) Jehu and his party must have been spotted from a very great distance away or else there would not have been time to have sent out two horsemen to meet him. If Jehu were not still too far away to be recognizable by his face, the watchman would not state that he believes this is Jehu based on the way he drives his chariot.
Upon hearing that this is his army commander, King Joram decides to go out to meet him in person. "'Hitch up my chariot,' Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. When Joram saw Jehu he asked, 'Have you come in peace, Jehu?'" (2 Kings 9:21-22a)
Joram would not expect his army commander to be in rebellion against him. When he sees Jehu rushing toward Jezreel with his troops behind him, Joram doesn't know whether they are bringing news of victory against the Arameans or whether they have been defeated in battle and are in full retreat from the enemy. Joram can't stand the suspense any longer and doesn't want to wait for the army to arrive at the gates; he goes out to meet the army instead. When he asks, "Have you come in peace?", he may mean, "Is all well? Are you bringing good tidings?"
As soon as he hears Jehu's answer he knows his life is in grave danger. "'How can there be peace,' Jehu replied, 'as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?' Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, 'Treachery, Ahaziah!' Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot." (2 Kings 9:22b-24)
We were told earlier in our study of the kings that Joram spurned Baal worship in favor of the calf worship of the northern kingdom's first king, Jeroboam. But Joram did not put an end to the state-sponsored religion of Baal worship set in place by his mother Jezebel and his late father Ahab. Joram did nothing to curb the idolatry in Israel and he allowed the cult of Baal and Asherah to continue being supported from the royal treasury. The evil Jezebel had ordered many of the Lord's prophets killed, as we learned in the book of 1 Kings, and she arranged for false charges to be brought against Naboth so he could be executed and his land appropriated by Ahab. Joram knows how wicked his mother is but has never censured her for anything. He has allowed her to do as she pleases and, since he has become king, has done nothing to rectify the situation with Naboth's vineyard by restoring it to whoever would be Naboth's closest kinsman at this time. It is no coincidence that Joram is shot in the heart on the very plot of ground his parents murderously took from an innocent man.
Join us tomorrow as Joram dies, Ahaziah flees, and a prophecy spoken long ago about Jezebel comes true.
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