But many scholars believe Jehu's zeal was more for the nation of Israel than for the Lord. Jehu knew that Ahab had been a wicked man and that his state-sponsored religion would bring about the downfall of Israel, for the Lord had warned the Israelites before bringing them into the promised land that if they turned away from Him: "The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him." (Deuteronomy 28:20) In Deuteronomy 28 the Lord carefully outlined, in verses 15 through 68, all the terrible things the people would bring upon themselves if they served heathen gods. Jehu does not want any of these things to happen and he knows they will happen if the nation keeps going down the path it has been on ever since Ahab came to the throne. So he systematically brought down the political and religious infrastructure in order to take the nation back to its roots.
But he didn't go far enough in taking the nation back to its roots. Instead of taking it back to where it was when the Lord warned the people of the penalty of turning away from Him (when He spoke the words of Deuteronomy 28 to them through Moses), Jehu takes the nation back to the roots that were planted when the ten northern tribes separated from the two southern tribes. He points the people back to the religious system put in place by the first king to rule over a divided nation: King Jeroboam who set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel to represent God. "So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit---the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan." (2 Kings 10:28-29)
Jehu worships the right God but in the wrong way. He does acknowledge God as the Lord and He does realize that unless Israel acknowledges the Lord, the downfall of the nation is certain to occur. This is why so many scholars consider Jehu a great patriot. He is a military man who has fought for his country and he wants Israel to be secure and prosperous. He cares about his people and doesn't want to see any more of them led into perdition by the worship of a false god. He isn't everything he could be, spiritually speaking, but the Lord commends him for destroying Baal worship in Israel.
"The Lord said to Jehu, 'Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in My eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.'" (2 Kings 10:30) Jehu wants the nation to be politically and militarily strong. He wants Baal worship in Israel to be completely annihilated. He wants people to acknowledge the God who brought them out of Egypt. But he isn't concerned about how the people acknowledge Him. If Jehu had truly loved the Lord with all his heart, he would have insisted that the people worship the Lord in the ways prescribed by the Lord, which means they would have taken their offerings and sacrifices to the Lord at His temple in the southern kingdom. But like King Jeroboam who set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, Jehu apparently does not feel it is in his political best interests to allow the people to journey back and forth to the southern kingdom. You'll recall that Jeroboam put these calves in place because he was afraid the people traveling back and forth to the temple would give their allegiance to the king of Judah and would rebel against him. Jeroboam didn't want his subjects going out of the nation and evidently neither does Jehu. Jehu puts his own wishes ahead of the Lord's wishes and as a result the nation does not prosper during his reign in the way he'd hoped.
"In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan." (2 Kings 10:32-33) The Israelites lost a number of battles with invading Arameans during the years Jehu was on the throne of Israel. Jehu did what was right in the Lord's eyes by putting an end to the dynasty of Ahab and by putting an end to Baal worship in Israel, but if he had done what was right by destroying calf worship in Israel he would not have experienced these military defeats. The nation actually becomes smaller while he wears the crown, yet there is no indication he ever takes this to heart and makes the necessary changes for the Lord to send the blessing of unassailable national security.
"As for the other events of Jehu's reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz succeeded him as king. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years." (2 Kings 10:34-36) In modern times we no longer possess all of the books that are mentioned in the Bible, so we do not have any additional information regarding the reign of Jehu. We just know, as the author of one of the commentaries I studied phrased it, "Jehu was the best of the worst of the kings of Israel." None of the leaders of the northern kingdom was everything he should have been, spiritually speaking, but Jehu came closer than the rest of them.
In tomorrow's study we will catch up with what has been happening in the southern kingdom of Judah during this time where the wicked daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel has been reigning in her late son's stead. But a change in regime is about to take place there and for a time it will be a change for the better.
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