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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Take courage because God will bring justice through his Anointed | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Psalm 29 Psalm 143:1,4,5 (after the Law of God) Psalm 37:1-4 Hymn 70 Psalm 68:1,2,12 Scripture reading: 1 Kings 19 Text: 2 Kings 9:1-13 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Imagine for a moment that you’re in prison. I hope that happens to none of us, but let’s just imagine it for a moment. It’s a grim life being locked up. Today is much the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be much like today. It’s gloomy and there isn’t really any bright side to being in prison. Then one day the prison staff announce that there’s going to be a film festival for three days. Three days non-stop of the best films from the last few years, all the ones you’ve missed while in prison. That would be something different, something exciting. But then after the film festival, life goes back to the same grey routine. And you continue to serve your sentence year after year.
Someone once compared the bright points in Israel’s history to a prison-house film festival. I think it’s a good comparison, especially when it comes to the period of the kings following David and Solomon. Most of that period is grim and gloomy. Most of the kings are wicked, though some are far more than others. But every now and then, you get a bright spot. The gloom lifts for a bit. And then things go back to black.
Jehu is one of those bright points in Israel’s royal history. After years of wicked kings, finally here was one who seemed different. Now when it comes to Jehu, if you know his name at all, it’s probably because he was the guy from the Old Testament who had a reputation for driving fast and furious. That comes later in 2 Kings 9.
Today we’re looking at the introduction to Jehu’s reign in 2 Kings 9. We’re introduced to the man and what God has called him to do and why. As we look at Jehu, we see some good things happening and those good things point us ahead to the time when the King who reigns will do so perfectly as God’s anointed servant. And we’ll see how that’s encouragement for us today. So I preach to you God’s Word and the theme of the sermon is this: Take courage because God will bring justice through his Anointed.
We’ll consider:
- The long-standing injustices
- The Word of God to set justice in motion
- The anointed King about to avenge
Our passage is set some 800 years before Christ. This is now about 200 years after the time of King David. During the reign of David’s grandson Rehoboam, Israel was split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was called Israel and it consisted of ten tribes. The capital of the northern kingdom was Samaria. The southern kingdom consisted of Judah and Benjamin and its capital was in Jerusalem. The books of 1 and 2 Kings alternate between the histories of the kings of these two kingdoms.
In this section of 2 Kings, the focus is on the northern kingdom of Israel. As our passage begins, Joram is the king of the northern tribes. He was the son of Ahab and Jezebel, key figures in the history of Israel. Ahab and Jezebel are famous, but for all the wrong reasons.
We have to go back to 1 Kings to read about Ahab and his wife and their wickedness. As a king, Ahab was one of the worst. For one thing, he was an idol-worshipper. 1 Kings 21:25-26 says, “There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after the idols.” But not only that, he and his wife hated God and his prophets. Elijah was the most well-known of the prophets of that time. Ahab and Jezebel weren’t able to do anything about him, even though they really wanted to. Instead, they focussed their attention on other prophets of God. They persecuted them and murdered them.
Jezebel was particularly singled out as being responsible. In verse 4 of 1 Kings 18, God says that Jezebel “cut off the prophets of the LORD.” And in verse 13 of 1 Kings 18, it says that she “killed the prophets of the LORD.” She was a wicked woman, but she also led her husband to do wickedness and he went along with it. He supported her and encouraged her. Thus he also bore his share of guilt for the blood of the prophets who were murdered.
That’s why God sent the prophet Elijah to confront Ahab in 1 Kings 21. Through Elijah, God told Ahab that because he sold himself to do evil, he would be cut off and so would his house. He provoked God to anger and made Israel sin. For that reason, his entire lineage would be exterminated and his wife Jezebel would be eaten by dogs.
Now when Elijah told Ahab this, Ahab was shaken. Scripture tells us of how he humbled himself before God. God took note and showed some mercy. He told Elijah in 1 Kings 21:29, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.” And that’s what’s beginning to happen here in our text in 2 Kings 9. It is his son’s days, his son Joram. Now disaster is about to strike Ahab’s house.
The injustices that took place during Ahab’s reign dated back over a span of 30 years. During some of those years, the innocent blood on the hands of Ahab and Jezebel grew in quantity. And after Ahab died, that bloodguilt remained. The injustice was outstanding. If you’d been a faithful Israelite back in those days, you might have wondered: is this horrible injustice ever going to be addressed? Is God going to let this go, all the innocent blood of his prophets? But no, these long-standing injustices are about to be addressed by God’s anointed. God hasn’t forgotten.
Similarly, God hasn’t forgotten any other injustices in history. He hasn’t forgotten about more recent injustices. This applies in general. There is much innocent blood that continues to be shed on the earth by those who rebel against God. It happens behind closed doors, so it’s easy to forget how much innocent blood is shed in hospitals and clinics through the abortion holocaust in our land. God has not forgotten all those precious little human beings made in his image. This applies to the injustices you’ve faced in your life. Perhaps some of those have been already addressed in a way here on earth, perhaps some of them haven’t. But God hasn’t forgotten. But if we want to make an even more specific application of our passage to modern injustices, we should think of the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters in other countries. That’s kind of like what happened with Ahab and Jezebel. In some places Christians get sent to labour camps or “re-education” camps. In other places, Christians are killed for their faith. Living here with the freedoms we have, it’s easy for us to forget them. But God never will. Their suffering and innocent blood are still at the front of his mind. These injustices may be long-standing from a human perspective, but from God’s perspective they’re fresh and they’re about to addressed by his Anointed King. Loved ones, God promises us that there will be justice.
Let’s see how divine justice was set in motion here in 2 Kings 9 and what we can learn from that. The prophet Elijah was succeeded by his protégé Elisha. Elisha was to put in motion something that Elijah didn’t. God had told Elijah that he would anoint Jehu to be king. For whatever reason, Elijah hadn’t personally done that. But now God has told Elisha that it’s time to do this.
So he calls one of the junior prophets and gives him the mission to run over to Ramoth-Gilead with a flask of oil to anoint Jehu as king. Ramoth-Gilead is beyond the Jordan River to the east – it’s quite an out-of-the-way place. The perfect kind of place for a coup to start.
Now there’s an important expression that occurs three times in our passage. It’s “Thus says the LORD…” You find it verses 3, 6, and 12. It’s important because this tells us that the prophets aren’t acting on their own initiative. They’re bringing the word of God to Jehu. This is revelation from God to Jehu.
In this way, it’s God’s Word that’s setting the wheels of justice in motion. There’s human activity here, sure, but behind it all is “Thus says the LORD…” God has sent his prophets to proclaim his Word to Jehu to carry out justice for innocent blood.
Let’s look closer at the word the young prophet brings to Jehu. The first thing you might notice is that there’s a difference between what Elisha told the young prophet to say and what he actually said. What he actually said was a lot more than what Elisha told him. There’s a simple explanation for this. In the Old Testament, where someone has told someone to say something, the first reporting of what to say will often be a summary. The second reporting of them saying it will give the full message. That was probably done to move the story along, but perhaps also to save room on the scroll. There was limited room on an ancient scroll and so sometimes summaries are used of reported speech.
Anyway, the young prophet goes to Ramoth-Gilead and he finds where the army commanders are meeting – Jehu is a general, so that’s where he’d be too. They’re meeting at a house, probably in the inner courtyard. They’re sitting around discussing military matters when this young prophet runs in and says that he has a word to speak with Jehu. They leave the courtyard and go into the house, to a private room. We might well ask why the young prophet didn’t anoint him in the courtyard in front of the other generals. It’s for the same reason that the young prophet was told to run away as soon as he finished his job. It’s because, on the one hand, it was a highly unpredictable situation. How would they react to this anointing? Would they see it as an act of treason? On the other hand, there was also not to be any discussion about it, not with Jehu and not with anybody else. The word was to be delivered, the oil was to be poured and then the young prophet was to hit the road again. In and out, just like that.
And so the young prophet anointed Jehu to be king. Then through the prophet, God commanded Jehu to be his fist of justice against Ahab’s house. God called him to strike down Ahab’s house in order to avenge the blood of the prophets. Verse 8 says that every male from Ahab will be cut off. That’s actually a sanitized translation. Literally it speaks of everyone who urinates against the wall. That expression is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to real men’s men, tough military dudes who’d never dream of going sitting down. The toughest men in Ahab’s house are going to die, as is everyone else. Everyone associated with Ahab, strong or weak, slave or free, they’re all going to be exterminated by Jehu. Verse 9 reinforces that by saying that Ahab’s legacy is going to be like that of Jeroboam and Baasha. Jeroboam and Baasha were previous kings who’d been similarly cut off and whose houses became extinct. Then last of all, there was a word about wicked Jezebel. She wasn’t going to get the honour of a proper burial and even worse, her body would be eaten by dogs. Dogs weren’t kept as pets back then, in fact, God’s law said they were unclean. So these unclean animals would eat the body of this evil woman, dishonouring her even after her death.
We’re not told whether Jehu saw this coming. We’re not told whether he had already a plot in his mind to overthrow King Joram or whether he had some inclination to. All we know is that this Word of God was instrumental in answering the call for justice for all that innocent blood that was shed by Ahab and Jezebel. The Word set the wheels in motion. The Word drove the history we read about here.
We see the same thing in what Scripture says about the return of Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of every anointed King in the Old Testament. He is coming to bring justice. When he returns he will avenge every drop of innocent blood shed on the earth. First Thessalonians 4:16 tells us that “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command…” The wheels of justice in the end are also set in motion by the Word of the Lord. When we hear that word, that word of command, we’ll know that justice is about to prevail. It’ll prevail publicly, so everyone will see it and hear it. And for those who love the Lord, there’s not only going to be a great deal of satisfaction in seeing justice finally done, but there’ll also be so much praise rising up from our hearts and coming out of our lips. We’ll praise the God who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
As you may remember, the word Messiah means “Anointed by Yahweh.” The New Testament equivalent is the title of Jesus, “Christ.” Christ also means “anointed one.” Here in our passage from 2 Kings 9, everywhere you see the word “anoint,” there’s a form of the Hebrew word Messiah. We’ll see as we move through his story that Jehu is certainly not THE Messiah, but he is a messiah. He has been anointed by Yahweh to be king. In that way he is pointing ahead to THE Messiah, to the great King, our Lord Jesus.
When Jehu came out of the house and back into the inner courtyard to the other commanders, they asked him what that was all about. In fact, they speak in a derogatory way about this prophet. They call him a “mad fellow.” It says something about the lack of respect for the office of a prophet at this time in Israel. They think prophets are crazy guys spouting off nonsense. And Jehu plays along with it, tries to be nonchalant, “Oh, you know how those prophets are. It’s nothing.” Now you have to remember that Jehu has just been anointed. He’s got oil on his head, dripping down his face. It’s no wonder then that the other commanders aren’t buying his story. They push him on it. So he finally tells them that God has commanded him to be king over Israel.
Jehu may have been taking a big risk in telling them. After all, maybe they would have considered it treason. If they were really devoted to Joram, perhaps they might have arrested Jehu or even killed him. However, judging from their response, they don’t seem to be that devoted to the king. Verse 13 portrays a sort of impromptu coronation ceremony.
All these military commanders took off their outer garments and laid them out like a red carpet on the bare steps of the house where they were meeting. Then they blew the trumpet and proclaimed Jehu as the new king. Ordinarily that might have been a dangerous thing to do, but like I said earlier Ramoth-Gilead was an out-of-the-way place and King Joram was back at his palace in Jezreel. He was far away. That gave Jehu the time he needed to do what God told him to do and keep the element of surprise.
Just as Jehu stood ready at the end of verse 13 to be God’s fist against Ahab’s house, the greater Anointed King, King Jesus, he stands ready to avenge as well. At the time appointed by God, the King will appear with the clouds of heaven and he will render justice on the earth. Though it’s been a long time coming from our perspective, it will come.
There are a few things we should note about that. They all come from the New Testament, in 2 Peter 3. The first thing is that there are scoffers. There are those who mock at the idea of Christ returning to bring justice. Second Peter 3:4, “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” But Scripture tells us that the anointed King will come. He will come like a thief in the night. So don’t mock, don’t scoff when you hear the promise of his coming.
The second thing to note is that the delay of his return has a purpose. Second Peter 3:9 tells us that the Lord “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” We may wish to see all the injustices of this world righted, but we have to be aware that that can turn back on us if we haven’t repented and personally believed in Jesus Christ for ourselves. God is just and he is going to address all injustice, including all the ways that we’ve been unjust. Now you can hate your sins and injustices and have them addressed by Jesus on the cross, or you’re going to be held to account for them yourself. Christ’s delay in coming back is merciful because it gives you time to hear these things, consider them, and act on them. God wants you to repent and believe, so that you receive mercy instead of justice at the end. If you haven’t done so already, why delay? Turn to Jesus and trust that he has carried your sin on the cross, that he has taken God’s justice against your sin.
Then Peter asks, “What sort of people ought we to be as we wait for the day of God?” And the answer is that as we look to Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we’re to be living “lives of holiness and godliness.” The anointed King is coming and when he comes, we should be ready. We should be ready by being committed to him with everything in our lives. We should aspire to follow God’s Word in everything.
Last of all, God raised up Jehu as his avenger not only for the sake of judgment, but also for the sake of grace. He hadn’t forgotten his children in Israel. For over a generation, they’d been living with bloodshed and idolatry under the house of Ahab. Society was breaking down. Through the avenging sword of Jehu, gracious relief came to those who were believers. There wasn’t only judgment of a sort, there was also salvation of a sort. That too points us ahead to our anointed King about to come for vengeance. 2 Peter 3:13 speaks of us waiting for “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” When Christ returns, there will be a new world for us in which there’ll be no more injustice. He’ll have rescued us from living under all the wretchedness of this world. Loved ones, that’s another reason why we ought to keep praying regularly and eagerly for his return.
You know, we might be tempted to think that the gospel is only about what happens to us after we die. It is about that, but it’s not only about that. The gospel is also about justice in the end. We broke this world with our sin. But God will address every way in which this world is broken. God will set it all right in the end through his anointed King. So take courage and don’t lose hope as we continue on our way to the Promised Land. AMEN.
PRAYER
O Just God in heaven,
The injustices of this world weigh on us. We see so much wrong and so much wrongdoing that seems to go on freely and with no consequences. Thank you for your Word which promises us that you have seen every injustice, you remember every injustice, and you will right every injustice. We pray for the swift return of our King Jesus. Please bring him quickly with the clouds of heaven to avenge all the innocent blood shed on this earth and to address every other injustice too. Help us with your Holy Spirit to look to him in faith for the forgiveness of our injustices too, and to await him eagerly with holy and godly lives.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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