(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so if you haven't figured out already, we're studying the life of Jehu this evening. So last week, if you're here, we talked about Jehoshaphat. Now before we get started, I want to clear up just a couple of things. So we talked about Jehoshaphat last week, right? King of Judah. The week before that, we talked about Ahab. Now you know that Jehoshaphat joined affinity with Ahab, you know, and they had marriages and things like that within their family. So the confusing thing here when you get to the story of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah and Ahab, king of Israel, is that the next two kings for both of the divided kingdom, both so like the next two kings of Jehoshaphat, the next two kings from Ahab, they have the same name and it can get very confusing. But a good way to remember that is Jehoshaphat, he had Jehoram, okay? And then after Jehoram was Ahaziah. So when you're reading in 2 Kings chapter 9 and 10 and it's talking about Ahaziah, it's king of Judah. Now Ahab, he had Ahaziah and then he had Jehoram. So if you ever get confused while you're reading that, everybody can pretty much remember Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah. Everybody knows those stories pretty well, typically. If you could just remember, okay, we're talking about, okay, Ahab, who was after him? It's the next guy with an A, so it's Ahaz. So Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram. And then if you're talking about Jehoshaphat, it's Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah. So I know I said I was gonna have a list out. I am not done with it yet, but I do have a master copy here. But I figure, you know, we're not having this study next week. So most of us will probably kind of, you know, forget about it. And so we'll, well, it'll be good to do it after a bit of a break. Now real quick before we get started, I just wanted to briefly cover a couple things that have happened in the Old Testament up until the point of Jehu, where we're at right now. So most people are, you guys are familiar with Elijah the prophet, right? So up until this point, some things, I'm just gonna list off a few things that have already happened in the Old Testament. And so if you're wondering what happened with Elijah the prophet, he's already gone up by a whirlwind into heaven in 2 Kings chapter 2. And then Elisha's ministry started right after that. See Elisha does his miracles. 2 Kings chapter 4, Elisha brought a woman's dead son back to life. So if you're familiar with that story, that has already transpired. That's already happened. If you're familiar with Naaman the Syrian, he's already been healed. That was 2 Kings chapter 5. And then up until this point, several attempts by the Syrians have been made to capture Israel. And we've already covered a lot of that stuff. And so the big prophets like that, they've already done a lot of their miracles. They've already had a lot of their battles and their victories and so forth. And so we're kind of nearing the end of Elisha the prophet's ministry during this time, but it's not over yet. We'll get to that at a later date and time. So we're going to get right into this. We're going to study Jehu tonight. The life of Jehu. Jehu's a, you know, he's an entertaining guy to say the least, you know, definitely not my favorite character in the Bible, but he is an entertaining guy to learn about. And right off the bat here in 2 Kings chapter 9, you'll see that it says Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat. That's not talking about King Jehoshaphat. The Bible often refers to Jehu as the son of Nimshi. And I think the reason why it does that is to just kind of clue us in to where he came from to make that distinction that it's not Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. The Bible doesn't say a lot about Nimshi other than the fact that Jehu was his grandson or, you know, in his lineage. But obviously Nimshi at this time was well known person. He had a reputation. We don't know what that is. We're not told about that. So just keep that in mind when you read that Jehu was the son of Jehoshaphat is not talking about King of Judah, Jehoshaphat. So look down at verse number, let's see where to go. Oh yeah. Look at verse number three. I think this does a good job here at summing up the life of Jehu. So Elisha, he's basically commissioning one of his prophets to go out and ordain, if you will, Jehu to be king. And in verse three, it says, then take the box of oil and pour it on his head and say, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel, then open the door and flee and tarry not. And I think the reason why he tells them that is because Jehu is like a stick of dynamite. Once he gets ordained, I mean, he goes off and he gets stuff done. He gets right to work. He starts conquering and destroying and just getting right down to business. So let's just get into this here. Look at verse number 11. It says, then Jehu came forth to the servants of his Lord and one said unto him, is all well? And there came this mad fellow to thee and he said unto them, ye know the man and his communication. And they said, it is false. Tell us now. And he said, thus and thus spake it to me saying, thus saith the Lord, I have anointed the king over Israel. Then they hasted and took every man as garment and put under him on the top of the stairs and blew with trumpet saying, Jehu is king. And so right now, what is also going on is that King Jehoram, remember, he is also king of Israel at this time. So Jehu has been set up as king by God, but right now there's like a dual reign going on. So keep that in mind because when you're reading about Jehoram, you need to understand that Jehoram king of Judah, he has already died of a, of a sickness in the bowels that God sent him. And that's, that's another sermon, another day that's already transpired. So just keep that in mind. But one of the themes that keeps coming up in this chapter is the theme of reputation or character. Look back there at the last part of verse 11, right? When the prophet comes to Jehu, what do the men say, right? They're like, they're like, well, what would he say to you? You know, what does mad fellow say to you? And he's like, Jehu says, you know, the man and his communication, right? So God's prophets even back then already had a reputation for just speaking the truth. No punches pulled, right? And how are they viewed by the people at that time as mad fellows, right? How are people like us in this room viewed by the outside world as being mad fellows? Oh, you don't like this. You don't like that. You want to be separate from the world. Oh, you don't watch TV. You don't want to do this. Well, you're a mad fellow, right? You're crazy. You're insane. That's what they're saying. Like this guy is nuts. This guy's off his rocker, right? But that's a good reputation to have. I mean, if they want to say that I'm insane or that I'm crazy, you know, then, then so be it. If I'm doing the will of God, that's a compliment to me. Now keep your place there because we're going to come back to it, but go to 1st Timothy chapter three, 1st Timothy chapter three and while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you a proverbs 22 one, which says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. So the Bible tells us that having a good name, striving to have good character, a good testimony, whether it's at home, whether it's at work, whether it's in church, whether you're striving to have that good name so that you can, you know, have to have that, uh, well done thou good and faithful servant said to you in the kingdom of God. I mean, that is very important in the Bible tells us that that is more of worth than any kind of riches, whether it be of silver or of gold or money or fame or power or whatever, uh, whatever, you know, you'd be seeking after your name and how you live your life is much more valuable. The Bible says, in fact, you can read the similar proverb in Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse one, which says a good name is better than precious ointment in the day of death than the day of one's birth. And if you think about it, you know, when you read through Luke, you read a couple of parables about a rich man, right? It never gives you his name. It just says the certain rich man, a certain rich man. And why is that? Because that guy, he strived his whole life to accumulate riches of gold, silver power, you know, what have you, right? And we don't even know that guy's name, but we know a lot of people's names in the Bible that did great things for God that strove to have their name lifted up right by serving God. We don't know who tonight we're not talking about the certain rich man. We don't even know his name. And so this, um, this chapter here, I mean, just over and over again, if you read through it and you think about it carefully, it really does highlight the importance of our character, the importance of our testimony. So you're there in first Timothy chapter three, look at verse number one says, this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desires a good work. A Bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that rules well, his own house, having his children and subjection with all gravity. No, I noticed that in verse three where it says not greedy of filthy lucre. And if you think about these TV preachers, right? These rich Pentecostal guys, what are they all known for? Like if you were to ask me to name them all, I couldn't, I'll bet most of us couldn't. You could probably name a few, but what is the one thing that sticks out about them? And that is the love of money, right? Filthy lucre. That's what they're going to be remembered for. They're not going to be remembered for winning souls. They're not going to be remembered for preaching against false doctrine. They're not going to be remembered for standing with the truth of God. They're going to be remembered for their love and their lust of filthy lucre and how they turn God's house into a house of merchandise and made merchandise of God's people. Now nonetheless, look at verse number five. It says for if a man not, or know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation of the devil. Verse seven, it says moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of a devil. So if anybody in here is ever thinking about going into ministry, these things are very important for you to understand that a good name is rather to be chosen than riches, right? Then silver, gold, money, you know, your, your 401k, what have you, none of those things are bad, right? If God blesses you with that, then that's fine. But don't ever just make that your priority. Don't ever make that the, the, the, the, the main thing that you strive for in life because it really doesn't do anything. It doesn't have any kind of eternal value. Remember Jesus said that those things get destroyed by moths, by cankers, by rust, and they have no intrinsic eternal value. Now turn over one more chapter to chapter four because you might be thinking, well, I don't ever want to go into ministry. I don't really care. That's not for me. Well, you know what? These things aren't just for people that want to be pastors. Look at verse number 12. It says, let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Now look at that verse again. It says, let no man despise thy youth. So this is Paul talking to Timothy, right? A pastor, a Bishop, an elder, and he says, but be thou an example of the believers, right? So the expectation is that we as believers would live up to all the things that we read about in chapter three. This isn't just for people that want to go into the ministry. God expects us to all be like this, but he's saying, Hey, be thou an example of the believers. Be an example by following these things. This is a commandment. This is not an option. You know, these things, a lot of people will say, well, you know, this stuff's optional. Well, no, it's not. This stuff is for everybody. It is for God's people. Now go back to second Kings chapter nine and we'll move on. We're going to take a look at the assassination of Joram King Jehoram, King of Israel and Ahaziah King of Judah. So let's look at that here. Look down at verse number 14, second Kings nine 14, it says, so Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram and remember the Bible calls Joram, both of them, whether it's the King of Judah or King of Israel, it calls them Jehoram sometimes and other times it calls them Joram. So it's just, just like his nickname. A lot of people in the Bible, they had different names like Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar. It's just a thing in the Bible. Now let's finish the verse. It says, now Joram had kept Remoth Gilead, he and all Israel because of Ahaziah King of Syria, but King Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him when he fought with Ahaziah King of Syria and Jehu said, if it be your minds that let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go tell it to Jezreel or in Jezreel. Verse 16, so Jehu wrote in a chariot and went to Jezreel for Joram lay there and Ahaziah King of Judah was come down to see Joram and remember Ahaziah, you know, he's, he's got a lot of Jehoshaphat in him, right? You know, Jehoshaphat was so busy yoking himself up with the wicked Kings of Israel that that passed on to his children and now King Ahaziah, King of Judah, he's a wicked guy. He's got the same attributes. He's making the same mistakes. Look at verse 17 and there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel and he spied the company of Jehu as he came and said, I see a company and Joram said, taken horsemen and send to meet them and let him say, is it peace? So he's got an uneasy feeling going on here. He sees this company. He doesn't say that he recognizes that it's Jehu right away, but he's like, Hmm, I'm not sure if I really want to mess with this. So go peaceably first, look at verse 18. So there went one on horseback to meet him and said, thus sayeth the King is at peace. And Jehu said, what is that to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. And the watchman told saying, the messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. In verse 19 that he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them and said, thus sayeth the King is at peace and Jehu answered, what has thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. So it'd be kind of like today if America got invaded, right? There's an invading force. Let's just, just imagine this for a moment, going to the white house and Trump and all of his cabinet members are sending messengers out, Hey, is it peace? And the guy who's coming to invade says, Hey, what do you have to do with peace after slaughtering thousands of unborn babies in the womb through the term abortion? What do you have to do with peace after allowing child molesting faggots to run in position in this country and not get prosecuted? Basically it's the same thing that we're reading here. That same attitude would probably be displayed by our own leadership in this country. If this were to happen. Now look at verse 20 and the watchman told saying he came even unto them and come with not again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi for he driveth furiously. And again, that's that reputation I told you about. This guy had a reputation for getting stuff done. Now obviously in second Kings 10, we're going to look at it later. Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, you know, regarding the golden cows, which we've already talked about several weeks ago. But nonetheless, the guy had a serious work ethic. I mean, like I said, this guy's like a stick of dynamite. He gets ordained King and he just gets right to work. He just starts going and cleaning house here. And that's what we're going to see. Look at verse 21. And Jeroboam said, make ready and his chariot was made ready. And Jeroboam, King of Israel and Ahaziah, King of Judah went out each in his chariot and they went out against Jehu and met him in the portion of Naboth, the Jezreelite. And you remember the story about Naboth, how Jezebel used the children of Baal to kill Naboth so that Ahab could possess his, his vineyard. And look at verse 22, and it came to pass when Joram saw Jehu that he said, is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, what peace? So as long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. Verse 23, and Joram turned his hands and fled and said to Ahaziah, there is treachery, O Ahaziah. Now, Ahaziah should have just been like, you know what? You're a wicked person. I'm out of here. And he should have just gone back to Judah and minded his own business because this mistake here of yoking up with Jehoram is going to cost him his life. Now look at verse 24, and Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and smote Jehoram between his arms. And the arrow went out at his heart and he sunk down in his chariot. So now there's only one King in Israel and that's Jehu. Now look at verse 26, I'm sorry, verse 25. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, take up and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember how that when I and thou wrote together after Ahab, his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his son, saith the Lord, and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord. Now therefore, take and cast him into the plat of ground according to the word of the Lord. Now obviously, by the time you've gotten to 2 Kings 9, verse 26, it's been a long time since Naboth was killed, but look what God says there at the beginning of the verse. He says, surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his son, saith the Lord. You see, God is outside of the realm of time. So a lot of times we have this idea and we expect God to do something immediately, but you know, it doesn't always work that way. Remember in Revelation we read about the saints, how they're like, how long, O Lord, till thou avenge us? And God's like, hey, in the right time, I will avenge your blood. But to God, it's like as if this thing with Naboth happened yesterday, right? God hasn't forgot about it, he's just got a plan and that's what we're reading about right now. And remember, Ahab humbled himself, so God decided not to commit this plan until subsequent generation later, till 3 Kings, or I'm sorry, 2 Kings later on. Now look at verse 27, but when Ahaziah, the king of Judah, saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house and Jehu followed after him and said, smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up of Ger, which is by Iblim, and he fled to Megiddo and died there. So Jehu just got done killing Jehoram, king of Judah, and now he's killed Ahaziah, king of Judah. So he's killed two kings right off the bat. Now look at verse 28, and his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his sepulchres with his fathers in the city of David, and in the 11th year of Jehoram, the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. Now look at verse number 30, we're going to talk about how Jehu kills Jezebel. Look at verse 30, it says, and when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and she painted her face and teared her head and looked out at a window. So she gets all this makeup on, right? She wears her hair, you know, and by this time, I mean, she's like a grandmother, but nonetheless, she's still really, you know, trying to pour it on. Maybe she thinks that's going to slow Jehu down. Maybe she thinks he's going to be like, oh, well, you know, I'll go soft on you because you got all this makeup on and you've got, you know, you went to the salon, did your hair and all that. But Jehu, he doesn't care about any of those things. He cares about one thing and that's destruction and doing what God has told him to do. Now look at verse 32, I'm sorry, verse 31 says, and as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, had Zimrai peace who slew his master. Now Zimrai was a king in Israel. He reigned for seven days and he killed the house of Beasha. We don't have time to get into that story. That's already taken place, but nonetheless, notice what she says. It says, and as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, had Zimrai peace who slew his master. So in her mind, she's still thinking that she's over Israel, that she's something big, that she's important, that she's in charge, right? She obviously probably understands, hey, you just killed my son. I probably don't stand a chance, but she still, nonetheless, she tries to project this attitude like she's over him, right? Because she's like, hey, did Zimrai have peace after he killed his master? Obviously Zimrai was troubled with those things and wound up killing himself later on. And I said, we'll have to read about that later on. But she's basically insinuating here like, hey, you're not going to have peace Jehu after you kill me, who am a woman in power in Israel. But Jehu is like, look, I'm having none of these things. I'm on a mission sent from God. And look at verse 32, and he lift up his face to the window and said, who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, throw her down. Right? And so these guys are like, yeah, we know what's about to happen here. We've heard this guy has been steamrolling people. So we're going to go ahead and comply. You know, it says, throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses. And he trode her under foot. And there's a rumor that says that after that day, the Israelites of that in that time frame came up with that flag that says, don't tread on me. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm just kidding. That's totally just a joke. But nonetheless, you know, it'd be kind of funny if you were to go back there. And there's a thing that says, don't tread on me. Look, this guy was ruthless, man. I mean, you think about that. You just see somebody thrown out of a window, right? And she's, you know, obviously mangled and messed up and he's like, I'm going to make sure she's done. And he just tramples her on the horse. Now look at the verse 34, it says, and when he was come in, he did eat and drink and said, go see now this cursed woman and bury her for she is a king's daughter. So look, this guy just gets stuff done, man. He's got no mercy, right? He basically treads on her, right? He tramples her on, well, he's on his horse, basically stomps her into the ground, make sure she's dead. And then he goes inside and makes himself something to eat, right? He's like, well, it's lunchtime guys. Let's take a break. You know, just no. Right? He's not claiming PTSD. He's not like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm, my mind has been taken from me. I need drugs. I need medicines from the, you know, from the doctor and the physicians because I've seen battle and warfare. This guy's like, she's a whore anyways, man, who cares? Bring on the sandwiches. Let's get something to eat. You know, that was his attitude. You know what? But that's our attitude, right? Regarding us versus sin, let's say, right? We need to be like that and just cut that garbage out of our lives and have that same attitude. You know, you lose your friends on Facebook. That's fine. Go make yourself something to eat. If your family doesn't want anything to do with you, fine. Let it go. Just go get something to eat. Just realize you're okay because you're in the will of God. Now look at verse 35, it says, and they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again and told him, and he said, this is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant, Elijah the Tishbite saying in the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. So these things happen. They say, Oh yeah, yeah. We're not supposed to barrier. That's right. Yeah. Elijah the Tishbite said that he prophesied this. Now it makes sense, you know, and that's kind of like us, you know, there will be things that happen in the end times. There's scriptures right now that don't quite make sense to us, right? Like in revelation, for example, you know, someday there's going to be events that happen. We're going to see those events and we're going to be like, Oh, that's right. That's what the Bible said. That's what that verse meant. And so that's kind of like what we're reading about here. Now look at verse 37, it says, and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field and the portion of Jezreel so that they shall not say, this is Jezebel. Now turn to Hosea chapter one. It's right after the book of Daniel. So if you can find Isaiah, Jeremiah, the big prophets, write Ezekiel, go past Daniel, go to the book of Hosea because we need to deal with a little bit of controversy. There's a lot of liberals will try to say that what Jehu did was not right, that God did not really mean for him to do that. I've heard sermons about this in the past. This is just a thing out there. Other people like atheists, they're going to point to Hosea and I'm going to show you here in a minute and they're going to say that there is a contradiction in the Bible and that's simply not true. So what we've read up to verse 37 in second Kings chapter nine, we've seen Jehu clean house, right? God has told Jehu to do these things and there's no mistake about that. Now if you're there in Hosea, look at verse number one, Hosea chapter one, verse one. It says the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Biri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. And again, there's another familiar name, right? Jeroboam. There was two Jeroboams and they were both Kings in the Northern kingdom of Israel. Now look at verse number two, it says the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea and the Lord said to Hosea, go take thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms for the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblam, which conceived and bare him a son. Now look at verse number four, it says, and the Lord said unto him, call his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And so what I've heard people do is say, well, this has got to be a contradiction or maybe we can't trust the translators or maybe we have to go to the Greek, maybe we have to go to the Hebrew or the Chinese. You know the story, right? The liberal Christians, they'll take that route, but the atheist will say, hey, you know, how well do you really know your Bible? And they might try to take you here to stump you and we're going to go through this. So what is the answer? What do you say here? Right? Look at the verse again. And the Lord said unto him, call his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and they'll say, well, if God really told Jehu to destroy those people in Jezreel, then what does this verse mean? What is this verse talking about? So we're going to take a look at that now. Go to keep your place there, but go to Deuteronomy chapter 32, Deuteronomy chapter 32. There's a couple of things that we have to understand before we give the answer. So the first thing that we need to understand is that God is the one that avenges blood. The Bible says very clearly that God does avenge blood. Deuteronomy chapter 32, look at verse 43, Deuteronomy 32, 43, it says, rejoice O ye nations with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance to his adversaries and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. So it's no secret. God is the one that has the authority, that has the right, that has the power to avenge the blood of his servants, right? We need to understand that. Now turn to second Kings chapter 10, second Kings chapter 10. And while you're turning them to read for you, Revelation 6, 10, which says, and they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. So the first thing that we need to understand to answer that question is that it is God that avenges the blood. That is a true saying. That is what the Bible teaches. Now the second thing is to understand that God did tell Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab, right? God did tell Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab and other people. So you're there in second Kings 10, look at verse 28, it says, thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. How be it from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. In verse 30, it says, and the Lord said unto Jehu, because thou has done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes and has done unto the house of Ahab, according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. Now that is key to understanding Hosea. He says thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel and remember a lot of times the Bible will use the word, the house of Ahab or the house of so and so or the house of so and so, to not only describe that exact person and his immediate household, but also to describe that person and the subsequent generations thereafter. So the fourth generation would also be considered the house of Ahab. Now turn back to Hosea chapter one. And while you're turning there, I'm gonna read for you second Chronicles 22 seven, which says, and the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram. For when he was come, he went out with Joram first against Jehu, the son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. So I said, the first thing we need to understand is God that avenges the blood. The second thing we need to understand is that God did tell Jehu to destroy these people. It's not a mistake. It's in the Bible multiple times. Now the third thing we need to understand is obvious, and that is the context of the verse. So go back to Hosea. Look again at verse number four, it says, and the Lord said unto him, talking to Hosea, and the Lord said unto him, call his name Jezreel for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. Now notice what it doesn't say. He doesn't say, I will avenge the blood of the house of Ahab on the house of Jehu. It doesn't say that, right? It says, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now there's a couple things to understand here. After Jehu, at the end of second Kings chapter 10, the Bible says that God began to cut Israel short in those days because he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, right? Now the second thing you need to understand is that Jehu's son and his son and his son to the fourth generation were wicked evil kings, and they committed a lot of bloodshed in Jezreel, and so that's what this verse is talking about. God is simply saying, hey, I'm going to avenge that blood on the house of Jehu, meaning the four generations that came after Jehu. That's what it's talking about, but because people don't do these types of Bible studies, they don't understand this stuff, and they get steamrolled by atheists and by liberal Christians who want to proclaim themselves as scholars. Now look at Hosea chapter one, verse five, it says, and it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. So the context there is that what God is telling Hosea to do is a sign to the Israelites that he's in this thing, that he is going to destroy their nation, and we're going to get into that and do a study of Hosea and the kings that are mentioned here very soon. And so look again at verse number one there, Hosea 1-1, it says, the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Biri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Now Jeroboam would be that, I think he's the third generation after Jehu. And so why would God be telling Hosea, hey, I'm going to avenge the blood of the house of Ahab on Jehu. Jehu's been dead for a long time, okay, it wouldn't make any sense. Not to mention God told Jehu to destroy Ahaziah, God told Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab. Now what we've read so far in 2 Kings 9 and 10, what you're not going to read is that Jehu didn't go out just killing random people in Jezreel. That doesn't happen. It's the subsequent leadership that takes place after Jehu, they are the ones that turn Israel to be more and more and more wicked. They bring back in more of the false religion, more of the false problems, more of the abominations, and then God basically winds up giving them over to the Assyrians. So that is the answer. It is not a contradiction here in Hosea 1-4. It's just that we have to understand the context. God said, hey, I'm going to avenge the blood of the Jezreelites on the house of Jehu because his sons, up to the fourth generation, were wicked. So that is what that means. And what's going on here is just basically, like I said, it's just a sign. You know, God's just saying, hey, Hosea, you're going to marry this prostitute, you're going to marry this whore, you're going to name the son Jezreel, and it's going to be for a sign of the destruction of Israel. And so go back to 2 Kings chapter 10, and we'll continue on. So in Hosea, by the time you get there, God's telling him, hey, I'm just about done. I'm just about done with the northern kingdom of Israel. They are soon going to be wiped off the face of the map. You know, they're going to be mixed in with the Assyrians and not even be recognizable. So you're there in 2 Kings 10. We're going to take a look at some of the events that go on here. Now look at verse number 1, it says, and Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria unto the rulers of Jezreel to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying. So it makes sense that Ahab's 70 sons, remember Ahab, you know, obviously a wicked guy, he had a lot of wives. It would make sense that they would be with the great people in the community, right, because they had a lot of power, a lot of money, a lot of wealth, and that's what rich kids do. They didn't get brought up with the best, you know, the best public school teachers and so forth, or private school teachers and things like that. Look at verse 2, Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armor, look even out the best and meatest of your master's sons, and set them, I'm sorry, and set him on his father's thrones and fight for your master's house. So like I said, Jehu's all about getting work done, and right now he's challenging these people. Hey, put your money where your mouth is, you know, are you going to come out and fight for your master? Look at verse 4, But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him. How then shall we stand? And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us. We will not make any king do thou that which is good in thine eyes. So these people are smart. They understand that Jehu has just steamrolled two kings. He's been, he's destroyed the house of Ahab. He's on a roll. They know they can't win, and so they do the right thing. Look at verse 6. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye be, or if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city which brought them up. That's what I was talking about, that these seventy sons, they were with the great people of the community. It's not saying that they were great like Tony the Tiger, like, You're great. It's basically saying these people are large in stature. They're lifted up type people, right? They're politicians. They're higher society type people. Look at verse 7. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. Right? So these people are like, Look, whatever you want. They said what they were going to do, and they actually did it. And look at Jehu's response. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay them in two heaps at the entering end of the gate until the morning. And it came to pass in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people, Ye be righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master and slew him. But who slew all these? He's like, I didn't really expect this. You guys have exceeded my expectations here. Look at verse 10. It says, Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. And so you got to appreciate that. You know, like I said, I understand, I understand that Jehu, he had a problem with the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, but nonetheless, he knew scriptures. He knew God, he has a great zeal for him. Look at verse 11. It says, So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and notice what it doesn't say. We've already talked about this. It doesn't say that he slew everybody in Jezreel, right? It says, So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his kins folks and his priests until he left him non remaining. Remember, this was from God. It's not Jehu just going rogue and doing whatever he wants. This is ordained set in motion by God. Now look at verse 12, And he arose and departed and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah, and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive and slew them at the pit of the shearing house. Even two and forty men, neither left he any of them. And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him. And he saluted him and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand, and he took him up into the chariot. Now look at verse 16. It says, And he said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. And we're going to read the zeal that these two people have for the Lord. And you're going to watch that they destroy the house of Baal out of Israel. So remember, up to this point, there's always been a remnant of Baal worshippers amongst the children of Israel up in the northern kingdom. And Jehu's the guy that actually gets rid of it. You know, it should have been one of the kings of Judah in the past. They should have gone in there and done that. But they didn't. You know, they just joined affinity up until this point. But Jehu's like, You know what? I'm the one that's going to do it. God has ordained me to set these things in motion. I will do this. Look at verse 18. And Jehu gathered all the people together and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much. And you got to kind of wonder about these people. It's like, why do they believe him? I mean, haven't they heard the role that he's been on? Haven't they heard all the victories that he's done? But maybe they just think, well, he's done a lot of bloodshed. Maybe he's come to our side. You know, they're so desperate for new converts that they're just like, okay, you know, all the other kings have at some point served Baal. I guess it's Jehu's time now. Now look at verse 19. Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let none be wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtlety to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. And so when Jehu said, Hey, is thine heart right with mine? And he said, Come see my zeal for the Lord. You're going to see what he meant by that. Look at verse 20. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. Verse 21, And Jehu sent through all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to another. And that's a sad thing. I'll bet the house of the devil in this country is full from one end to the other. Also, you know, you go hear about these Marilyn Manson concerts that go on the Rob Zombie and his crap, or White Zombie, whatever that guy's name is, and then the guy who was coming here this weekend, the Slipknot, you know, you're going to see that stadium that they go sing at. You're going to see that full from one end to the other as well. And that is a great wickedness. Look at verse number 22. And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. Now what does that mean? Vestry, that's ceremonial clothing. So you've got to remember that this Baal worship, this satanic worship here that's going on in the northern kingdom of Israel, it's not just some flippant thing. It's not just some thing that's just kind of to be glossed over. I mean, they had their own clothing, they had their own images, they had their own rituals, they had their own religious system, basically. But notice there that they have a guy who's over the clothing for Baal, right? So what are these? Probably some kind of a cloak, you know, probably the same stuff that you would see Baal worshipers in our society wear, you know, just a little bit different. You know, it doesn't say exactly what they look like. And nonetheless, you know, they enshrine this stuff. It was important to them, right? And this obviously stemmed from what was in their own hearts, which was nothing but wickedness and evil. Look at verse 23. And Jehu went and Jehonadab the son of Rekab into the house of Baal and said unto the worshipers of Baal, search and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but worshipers of Baal only. So Jehu wanted to make sure that nobody got caught in the cross hairs. You know, he's like, hey, I don't want anybody who's saved in this room right now, only the worshipers of Baal. Right? And it's kind of interesting. He's not there trying to convert them. He's not trying to preach the gospel to them, right? Because he understands that things breed forth after their own kind, the seed of the devil stays the seed of the devil, right? The only answer is death. Elijah knew it, Elijah knew it, and so does Jehu. Verse 24, and when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed four scoremen without and said, if any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering, the burnt offering that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, go in and slay them, let none come forth. And they smoked them with the edge of the sword and the guard and the captains cast them out and went to the city of the house of Baal and they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal and burned them. And they break down the images of Baal and break down the house of Baal and made it a drought house unto this day. And then if you go on to read the rest of 2 Kings 10, you'll see that it's mentioned that Jehu was the one that destroyed Baal from Israel. He's the one that rid the devil from the northern kingdom of Israel. But the bad thing is, is Jehu was so busy devoting his life to just, you know, doing things that kings do, obviously he neglected his own children. And so the next four generations of kings of Israel are a result of that. And so that's a good, that's also a good reminder for us. You know, it's a good reminder for, for me, but not just, not just for a pastor, but for any, any father, any mother, you know, you've got something that you're into, something that you're doing in your life. You know, you want to make sure that you always make time for your children. You want to make sure that you, you're, you know, you bring them up and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And when they are older, they will not depart from it. The Bible says, you know, and unfortunately, Jehu never got that message. You know, he had some scriptures, but he didn't have that when he neglected his own family. And basically that results in a lot of innocent people dying in Jezreel, in Israel, and so on and so forth as we study throughout the rest of Kings and Chronicles here. But you know, I do appreciate his zeal. I mean, look at that verse there in verse number 27, they made the house of Baal into an outhouse basically is what it's saying, right? A place where people would, you know, go to do what people have to do, you know, you know, and that's what's going to happen someday in this country. You know, somebody needs to take these abortion clinics and make them into drought houses. Somebody needs to take the bath houses and turn those into drought houses. Actually, we just need to burn those because that's, that's worse than a drought house. That's far worse than any outhouse that I can think of. That's just disgusting. But nonetheless, Jehu was a guy that was full of zeal. Jehu was a guy that got stuff done, you know. Was he perfect? No, not at all. And you know, we already read the verse where it says that he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. You know, it's too bad because he could have really been somebody, he could have been that one king, just that one king that Israel would have had that was perfect all his days, but he didn't, you know, he just could not give up that part of worldliness. And so that's our study and Jehu, we'll be back to this in two weeks and I will have the sheets out for you because we're going to need them for sure then because a lot of the kings that we're going to study now, they have shorter and shorter reigns and so it's going to be a, a little bit difficult, but we'll, we'll get through this and we're about halfway done I'd say with the study of kings and next time I think we're going to be in Joel chapter one because we're going to be studying on Judah side and so we're going to, we're getting to the point where we're going to start studying through the minor prophets and basically tying them in with the times of the kings and I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord. Thank you so much for these stories in the Bible. I thank you for your word and your truths. I just pray you bless our fellowship Lord. Please keep us all safe as we go to and from our duties this week, Lord. And please bless the soul winning this week in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.