Sunday 26th January

Read Psalm 93

If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion

Today’s Psalm is about the power and might of God – “The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength”.  It speaks of his creation of the world.  The imagery is from the sea with great waves swelling up in crushing power and we know what devastation that can cause, yet the Psalmist says that God’s power is mightier than all the natural world can produce.

The things that stand the most are God’s statutes or laws which stand firm, they can’t be broken.  What adorns God however is not so much his mighty power but his holiness as the last verse tells us.  The hymn expresses it well, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty”.  Let’s bow down before Him in our worship today.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.

Monday 2 Kings 9:14-29

Now begins the vengeance of Jehu who begins his killing spree which the scriptures see as ordained by God.  After his anointing as King at the instruction of Elisha he sets off in his chariot for Jezreel where Joram was recuperating from his injuries.  Ahaziah of Judah was also there, visiting him.  When Joram sees the fierce chariot riding in the distance, he sends riders out to see if the rider is coming in peace but, receiving no reply, he and Ahaziah take their chariots out to meet him and ask if he is coming in peace.  Jehu’s reply says it all, “How can there be peace, as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

Immediately Joram turns his chariot, calling out to Ahaziah that treachery is afoot, and heads back but Jehu kills him with an arrow.  His body is flung into the field of Naboth as a sign of vengeance because Joram’s parents (Ahab and Jezebel) stole the field from Naboth and had him murdered (the story is in 1 Kings 21).  Ahaziah didn’t escape either; he ought never to have been involved with the corrupt King of Israel and died of his wounds in Megiddo.  But as we shall see, Jehu’s work isn’t finished yet.

Tuesday 2 Kings 9:30-37

Jehu now heads to Jezreel for Joram’s mother, Jezebel.  She dresses herself up and appears at a window in the city wall shouting at Jehu when he arrives but calling him Zimri.  If you remember 1 Kings 16 you will remember that Zimri was an officer in the Israelite army who murdered Elah and proclaimed himself King but he only lasted seven days because Omri the commander of the Army overthrew him with the support of the people.  Jezebel says that he will follow the fate of Zimri. Jehu however had support in the city and called on two officials who were on his side to throw her out of the window – ‘defenestration’ as it is later called, the fate of many dissidents in the former Soviet Union.

Her grisly end was prophesied years before by Elijah in1 Kings 21:23.  The wheels of God may seem to grind slowly but they grind surely in judgement against those who turn away from him.

Wednesday 2 Kings 10:1-17

Jehu is not finished with his work after the death of Jezebel.  He sends letters to the officials oof the Northern Kingdom in Samaria and tells them to gather an army together in support of the seventy sons of Ahab, if that is where their loyalty stood, and they will have a contest with his men.  They are scared and try to come to a settlement with Jehu.  His terms are hard – the heads of all seventy sons.

On the way to Samaria he meets relatives of Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who tell him of their friendly approach to the relatives of Ahab and Jehu has them killed as well.

He also meets Jehonadab the on of Rekab.  He was a Kenite, one of the Arab tribes who joined with the Israelites on their way into the promised land.  They were a distinctive group who didn’t drink alcohol and who lived in tents not houses (they became known as Rechabites) and Jehu wants to know what side they are on.  Jonadab says he is on Jehu’s side and accompanies him to Samariah to “see the zeal for the Lord” of Jehu who finishes off any belonging to the house of Ahab.

The message of the slaughtering by Jehu at the word and prophecy of Elijah is to show that little traces of ungodliness and apostacy cannot remain within the people of God.  Jesus picks up the theme in his words about leven spreading and influencing the lump of dough.  The Jews scour the house to get rid of leaven before the start of Passover ever year.

Thursday 2 Kings 10:18-36

Jehu wasn’t finished with the royal family, but he wanted to purge the whole of the Baal worshipers and how he did this was by way of a trick.  He said that he was going to be a faithful worshipper of Baal and, wanting to make a great sacrifice to Baal, wanted all the servants of Baal to come together into the temple of Baal.  When he got them there his men who surrounded the temple were ordered to come in and slaughter them which they did even turning the place into a latrine which lasted into the future.   Verse 28 says “So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel”.

However there was another piece of idolatry that was not done away with and that was to do with the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan after the split in the kingdom when the Northern tribes (Samaria or Israel)separated from Judah.  In order to deter the Northern Israelites from going into Judah to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple he set these alternative places of worship setting up golden calves to represent their god.  God honoured Jehu for what he had done in destroying Baalism promising him the throne over Israel down to the fourth generation.

Sometimes we may do well in some parts of our lives but fail in others.  Although God honours us for what we do we ought to stick with the Spirit’s leading in all the areas of our lives.

Friday 2 Kings 11:1-16

We have to keep changing Kings and Kingdoms in 2 Kings and from details about the Kingdom of Israel with its capital, Samaria, having been dealt with – Jehu slaughtering all of the House of Ahab – we now turn to the Kingdom of Judah with its capital, Jerusalem.

Ahaziah was killed as a result of his wounds in fleeing from Jehu and now we see his mother Athaliah destroying the whole of the royal family (v1).  These were bloody times!  However Jehosheba, a sister of Ahaziah, stole his son away from the princes before he could be murdered.  His name was Joash and he was a baby at the time and was kept hidden with his nurse in a bedroom, probably of Jehosheba, to avoid being murdered.  The scriptures then tell us that he was kept hidden in the temple for six years.  Jehoiada the priest was the brother of Jehosheba who had saved the boy

At then end of his period of seclusion Jehoida sent for the Carites who were the commanders of units of a hundred in the army.  The name Carites may refer to mercenary soldiers from elsewhere (Cilicia or Egypt perhaps) but not native troops.   Jehoiada took them into the secret of where Joash had been hidden and made a covenant with them to keep the secret  he then commanded them to place themselves as security guards when he brought Joash out to be publicly declared as King and anointed by Jehoiada.

When it happened the people declared in time honoured fashion, “Long live the King” but when Athaliah heard of it, she came to the temple shouting “Treason! Treason” but it did her no good for she was put to death.

Saturday 2 Kings 11:17-21

Athaliah was a nasty piece of work, as we have seen, but Jehoiada the priest realised that it was not enough to get rid of the visible head of wickedness in the land, the people had to be changed and he made a covenant with the people and the King that they would be the Lord (Jehovah’s) people.  A separate covenant was made between the King and the people.  After this the people headed to a temple of Baal that had been built and smashed it and its altars, killing Mattan its priest.

This was remembered as a great time of change after the desperate times of Baal worship introduced and expanded under Ahab and Jezebel with Elijah thinking he was the only one in the land who held to Jehovah God.  God told him that that was not true but he was to anoint Elisha as his successor and Jehu as King of Israel whose sword would cleanse the land.  And so it happened.

Seven year old Joash was taken to the palace and placed on the throne and all the people were glad because Athaliah had been slain and the city was now at peace.  Some heroes in the Old Testament are heroes of violence and destruction because to bring in peace in God’s kingdom sometimes requires the defeat of evil.