Year 5, Day 8: 2 Kings 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus:

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

I find this chapter challenging – as I found yesterday’s chapter challenging.  As with yesterday, we find that God’s will is done.  God blots out Ahab’s house completely and totally.  It is a gruesome process, but God’s prophetic message for Ahab is fulfilled through Ahab.

But here’s the question with which I find myself wrestling.  Was Jehu called to do this or was he doing it out of his own ambition?  Certainly God’s will was accomplished.  But was it accomplished by a submitted servant acting out of his calling or was it accomplished by a human being seeking his own ambition to rule and it just so happened that his goals aligned with God’s will?  Those are two vastly different concepts.  It is one thing to submit to God and do His will.  It is another thing for God’s will to be done by chance just because it happens to coincide with a person’s ambition.

So let’s look at Jehu in the end.  If Jehu was submitted to God, I have got to believe God would get the praise and the glory.  You will notice that God doesn’t get the praise and the glory.  Jehu fights against Ahab’s house and comes out victorious.  But in the end Jehu seeks his own glory, not God’s glory.  In the end Jehu turns to the golden idols in Dan and Bethel instead of God.

I don’t know Jehu’s heart.  I am not in a position to judge him – only God can do that.  But I can see the fruit of his labor.  God is not glorified through Jehu’s action.  God is not the focus of Jehu’s purging of Ahab’s family.  It is a good lesson to learn.  Am I ambitious in what God wants for me or am I ambitious in what I want and try to get it to coincide with God’s plan for my life?

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