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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Don't be amongst the idolaters when the Warrior King appears | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Psalm 33:1-3 Psalm 119:47 (after the Law of God) Psalm 115:1,2,4 Hymn 70 Psalm 33:6 Scripture readings: Deuteronomy 13 and Revelation 19:11-21 Text: 2 Kings 10:18-27 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Many of you have been to the Netherlands and worshipped in some of the historic churches there. Many years ago, I attended a worship service in Steenwijk in the province of Overijssel. This was from the churches that used to be our sister churches there. They worship in a building hundreds of years old. In fact, it was built in the 1400s as a Catholic Church. Still today you can see in the architecture that it was designed before the Reformation. For example, the pulpit isn’t in the centre of the church, but off to one side. The altar would have been originally central, just like the mass was central to the Roman liturgy.
If you were to compare the interior of that church today to what it was like in the late 1400s, there would be quite a noticeable difference. Back then there would’ve been a lot more to distract your eyes: stained glass windows with imagery, statues, paintings, gold and silver, and so on. But when the Reformation happened in the mid-1500s, all of that disappeared.
Perhaps we imagine that it all happened in a quiet and orderly manner. History tells a different story. We hear of mobs and riots. We hear of big crowds of people forcing their way into the old churches and destroying the images and statues. In their minds, they were doing God’s will by destroying the idols of the church. We have a special name for this: iconoclasm. Iconoclasm happened during the Reformation as church buildings that were once used for Roman worship were taken over for Reformed worship.
What we see in our passage this morning from 2 Kings is iconoclasm as well. King Jehu has eliminated all the house of Ahab. Now he just wants to eliminate what Ahab and his family worshipped. He goes after the worship of Baal, the Canaanite fertility god. But he not only tears down the idols, he also deals decisively with the idolaters. In Reformation iconoclasm people sometimes got hurt, but people were seldom killed. Jehu’s iconoclasm is quite different. He’s not separating the sin from the sinner, the idol from those who worship it. They all have to be decisively dealt with in Israel. There’s a good reason why and we’ll see what that is this morning. I preach to you God’s Word from 2 Kings and we’ll see how this passage warns us, Don’t be amongst the idolaters when the Warrior-King appears.
We’ll consider:
- Why the King wars
- How the King wars
- Who the King wars against
The story in our text needs little further explanation. Jehu gathers all the people together and tells them Baal worship is only going to get better under his rule. He may have had it in for Ahab’s house, but he’s certainly not an anti-Baal king. He calls all the worshippers of Baal to a great feast at the temple of Baal. It’s obligatory for all Baal worshippers to come to this great sacrifice. Little do they know that it’s a ruse and they’re the ones about to be sacrificed.
When they all arrive, Jehu ensures that all the worshippers of Baal have their special Baal uniforms on. With their clothing they’re going to identify themselves with Baal. Jehu has a reason for doing that. It’s the same reason that different teams wear different colours when they play against each other in various sports. You know who’s who, who’s on your side and who isn’t.
Outside the temple were 80 of Jehu’s armed men. He gave them strict instructions to make sure no Baal worshippers left alive. When the sacrifice was over, Jehu gave the green light and the carnage began. Once the worshippers were all dead, Jehu’s men went into the inner sanctum of the Baal temple and they took out the special pillar that was used in Baal rituals and they demolished it. Then they tore down the whole building and turned it into a toilet, which is what it remained for many years.
That’s the basic story and it continues the line of violent bloodshed that’s characterized Jehu up to this point. He was a general before being King and he seems to quite relish the role of divinely appointed Avenger. He wastes all these people with no regrets. He’s a Warrior-King who’s just doing what a Warrior-King does.
Now we should dig a little deeper into this passage to learn what it means for us today. To start with, we should ask what motivated Jehu. Why did this Warrior-King go and undertake this iconoclastic massacre? Was he right for doing this? Should we commend him or should we condemn him? Most importantly, what does God think about this?
God’s law was clear about idolatry. The first commandment says “You shall have no other gods before me.” God doesn’t tolerate competition and so he says, “No idols. No other gods. Worship me only.” But what if his people in the Old Testament didn’t listen?
That’s where Deuteronomy 13 comes in. We read from that earlier and that chapter outlines the penalty that was supposed to be in place in Old Testament Israel for idolatry. Idolatry was a capital crime. It was supposed to be punished with death. So when Jehu put to death all the worshippers of Baal in 2 Kings 10, he was doing God’s will.
But that then raises another question: why did idolatry in the Old Testament receive such a harsh penalty? Isn’t death a little extreme? When we ask questions like that, we might be showing our lack of understanding of the weightiness of sin, and especially this sin of idolatry. Israel was supposed to be God’s special people. He redeemed them from Egypt to be his own possession. They were supposed to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, dedicated entirely to him. If they were to worship idols, it would be like the spouse who is unfaithful. God compares idolatry in the Old Testament to adultery, to unfaithfulness in marriage. Those who do it are being unfaithful and treacherous in their relationship with God. God takes idol worship as a personal affront. Then we also have to remember God’s infinite majesty. When people worship idols, they’re offending infinite majesty. The ultimate penalty for that betrayal and insult against God has to be infinite. The ultimate penalty is eternal death, eternity spent in hell. The death penalty for idolatry in Old Testament Israel was meant to be an earthly picture of this otherworldly reality. It was communicating the spiritual truth that when you worship idols, you’re pursuing death. If you don’t turn away from idols, death is what you’ll get and you’ll get it forever.
That’s a message which is still applicable for us today. The Old Testament laws about penalties for idolatry were only meant for the theocratic nation-state of Israel. But their message is the same for us. When you’re God’s people, you can’t be chasing after idols of any kind. We’re not just talking about false gods, like the gods of other religions, but anything you make more ultimate than God. If you chase after such things, death awaits you.
Now we also have to think of all this in relation to Christ. Christ came to deal with our idolatry in his redemptive work. All our idolatrous sins are paid for at the cross, when we place our trust in Jesus. We have his perfect idol-free life as the basis of our acceptance before God. Now Christ is also working with his Holy Spirit in our hearts so we see the reason why we should war against idols in our lives. His Spirit has opened our eyes so we can see how idolatry leads us to death and we can hate it. His Spirit has opened our ears so we can hear God’s Word urging us on to a purer and more zealous love for him alone. Loved ones, see why the King wars and war alongside with him on the same basis.
One of the big questions people ask about Jehu’s story here is in relation to his use of deception. How he wars against idolatry and idolaters is with the use of a ruse. Some would even say he lied. There are commentaries that will tell you Jehu’s heart was in the right place, he wanted to do the right thing, but the way he went about it was wrong.
But consider the alternatives Jehu had. Not doing anything about the idolatry in Israel was a non-starter for someone who was zealous for the LORD. If he was going to be a righteous king, he had to follow Deuteronomy 13. He had to bring the death penalty on idolaters to purge the idol worship from Israel. You could try to do that in a piece-meal fashion. Go after them one by one. But that would probably take years. Even then, if Baal worshippers knew there was a campaign to find them out and destroy them, they could just go underground. They could pretend they didn’t worship Baal and they could go on worshipping Baal in secret. Using a piecemeal kind of method to carry out God’s will in Deuteronomy 13 had many difficulties attached to it, some of which would have actually made it next to impossible to do it.
We need to think about this situation here in 2 Kings 10 like a war. That’s what it was. It was Jehu’s war against the idols. He was fighting this war at God’s command. Then we need to ask ourselves: is deception permitted in war? During the Second World War, the Allies developed an elaborate deception for D-Day. They made the Nazis believe the invasion would happen in Calais, rather than on the beaches of Normandy much further south in France. Was it wrong in God’s eyes for the Allies to deceive the Nazis? No, of course not. We recognize that, in war, the enemy has no right to the truth. The Ninth Commandment doesn’t say “You shall not lie,” but “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” That means the well-being of others is always our greatest concern with how we communicate. In war, we do what we have to do to win and stop human suffering. Deceit is a weapon that armies lawfully use to defeat their enemies.
So if we think of 2 Kings 10 in that light, Jehu used deception to bring all the enemies of God into one place where they could be dealt with in one fell swoop. These idol worshippers had no right to the truth of what Jehu was about to do. It was war and they were enemies, most of all enemies of God who needed to be ended. You can’t blame Jehu, nor can you say he sinned. He had to deal with that situation and he did so in the best way he could.
There is a coming judgment on all idolatry in this world. The King who is bringing that judgment isn’t going to have to use any ruse or deception. He won’t have any of the limitations Jehu had. No one will be able to hide from King Jesus. No one will be able to pretend their hearts are one way when they’re really another. As the all-knowing God, he knows who they are and he knows what’s in their hearts. The great Warrior-King whose coming is described in Revelation 19 is going to make war against idolaters like no one else in history ever has.
Loved ones, that’s a good reason for us not to be amongst the idolaters on that day. Because they’ll know they can’t run and they can’t hide. When he comes “to tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” idolaters are going to be filled with fear. Everyone who made money ultimate in their lives, everyone who lived for sexual pleasure, everyone who gave themselves to be enslaved to substances like drugs or alcohol, everyone who found something else greater than God to give them purpose in their lives – they’re all going to be terrified because of how the great Warrior-King wars. So loved ones, be warned and don’t be among them. Commit yourself to your own personal war against the idols in your life, repent from following them, and place your trust in Christ. Then his appearance will be something for you to embrace eagerly rather than to fear.
Going back to Jehu in 2 Kings 10, I want you to notice again how he singled out the worshippers of Baal. Verse 22 tells of how he spoke to the man in charge of the wardrobe. It appears the Baal temple had a collection of special clothing that worshippers were supposed to wear inside. Baal worship was so special that you had to wear the special Baal uniform for it. And Jehu insisted. It was going to readily identify the targets of Jehu’s war.
This has to do with identity. When you’re wearing Baal’s uniform, you’re identifying yourself with him. Again, think of it in terms of sports, even just going to a game to watch. If you wear your team’s colours, everyone can see you identify with that team. It wouldn’t make any sense for you to wear the other team’s colours and then cheer for your team. People would wonder if you had a split personality or something like that.
God doesn’t want his people to identify with idols. He wants our identity to be bound up in him, and in particular to be bound up in Christ. Let’s turn to Romans 13:11-14 and read those verses together. Notice how we’re to cast off the works of darkness – that includes idolatry. Then on the flip side, we’re meant to put on the armour of light. We’re meant to be put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t ever identify with your idols. Don’t find your identity in them or in any sin, but only in Christ. Put on Christ, wear him as your uniform, so to speak. Find who you are in him.
Now you might say, “What does it look like when someone finds their identity in their sin or their idol?” Well, think about sexuality. While I don’t think it happens among us, certainly there are other churches where people try to find their identity in both their sexual attractions and in Christ. It’s not hypothetical. You may very well encounter this idea that you can be a Christian and identify with a wrong form of attraction. It’s not necessarily that they’re living the lifestyle or acting out on their sexual attractions, but they still identify themselves by them. It’s part of their identity. So, for example, some will identify themselves as “Gay Christians” or “Lesbian Christians” or “Bi-sexual Christians.” That grows out of a worldly way of thinking where your sexuality is not only a component of your identity, but the most important. Therefore when you state your identity, how you think of yourself, your sexual attraction always has to be at the front. The Bible tells Christians to reject that way of thinking. Instead, we’re to find who we are in relation to Christ, to Christ alone. We’re to wear him, put him on, not our sins, not our idols.
Because if you don’t, those who aren’t in him, they’re going to be like the Baal worshippers in 2 Kings 10. They were wearing the wrong uniform that day and when the warrior-king appeared it was disastrous for them. If they’d only identified as worshippers of the LORD and not come to the Baal temple and put on the Baal uniform, they would have lived. But instead they died and when they died, they discovered an even worse fate.
That ties into what’s going to happen for all who identify with their idols rather than with Christ. As it says in Revelation 19, in righteousness he will judge and make war. All who follow idols and identify with them are going to be held accountable in the end.
And we need to remember that the people in our passage who did this, they weren’t average vanilla worldlings. They weren’t people out there in the world who had no connection to God. They were God’s covenant people. God had sent his prophets to them, men like Elijah and Elisha in the days of Jehu. God had given them revelation. He’d given them beautiful gospel promises pointing ahead to Christ. Yet these covenant people turned their backs on God. And their covenant status put them into a much higher category of accountability.
The same is true for us. Most of us here are church members. We’re members of the covenant of grace. We’ve been richly blessed by God as such. He put his sign and seal on us in holy baptism, declaring that we belong to him covenantally. If we don’t take him seriously and respond by finding our identity in Christ, we’re in a much higher category of accountability. It is not going to go well with us in the end.
Loved ones, it’s far better to heed the warnings of God’s Word. Find yourself in Christ and find yourself safe into eternity in a healthy relationship with God. Look to Christ in faith today and every day. Find your identity in him. And as you do, you can be sure that when he comes for that final battle against the idols of this world, you’ll be on his side and you’ll be safe. You’ll be comforted. You’ll be at peace. Loved ones, indeed, don’t be amongst the idolaters when the Warrior-King appears at the last day. AMEN.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
We know from your Word how much you hate idols. We pray for help from your Holy Spirit to do the same. Please help us so that we don’t identify with idols, but instead find our identity in Christ. We’re so thankful for your covenant grace. We’re grateful for the way you’ve called us to be your people. By your gracious help, may we take that seriously. May we all have a genuine faith in Jesus and desire to put him on each day. Father, may we also be instruments in your hand to help others see the foolishness and danger involved in idolatry. Whether it’s our children, or our friends, or family members, whoever you bring across our path, please give us your help to show them how much better it is to be in Christ and to be safe, to be in Christ and to have comfort, to be in Christ and to have peace.
* 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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