Year 8, Day 8: 2 Kings 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Here is another chapter this is hard to take from a perspective that puts God in the “God is love” cliché box.  I do believe that God is love, but He is more than love.  After all, how could a God who only understands love approve of Jehu’s actions?

Jehu continues the slaughter of Ahab’s house.  He makes sure that not only Ahab and Jezreel are dead, but all of Ahab’s children from all of his wives.  Seventy of Ahab’s sons die.  Jehu then kills a delegation from Judah.  Then, he kills of all of the prophets of Ba’al. This is a significant amount of death and destruction going on.

Don’t miss 2 Kings 10:30.  We don’t need to speculate about God’s reaction.  God says, “You have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes and have done according to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons shall sit on the throne to the fourth generation.”  In other words, Jehu is being rewarded.  What has happened to Ahab and to the prophets of Ba’al has pleased the Lord.

If we take the opinion of God that He is only love, then this chapter makes no sense.  Ths is why many people have issues with the Old Testament and they prefer to ignore it and not read it.  It is the Old Testament that forces us to acknowledge that God is bigger than the box we would care to put Him in.

God is a God of righteousness.  He is a God of divine judgment.  Yes, God would prefer that we all choose to act in love and graciousness and follow His ways.  The reality, though, is that we don’t always do so.  When we don’t, there are consequences.  When we don’t live up to His ways and we don’t feel any need to repent about it, the consequences get enforced.  When we do this as a culture, the consequences are even more severe.  When we do this as a culture for generations, the consequences grow still more dire.

God is a God of love.  After all, He sent Jesus to die so that we might be able to remain in relationship with Him.  He paid the cost when we couldn’t.  That’s an act of love.  But God is so much more than a God of love.  He is a God of justice.  He is righteousness. He is authority.  He is power.  He is glory.  He is the creator.  He is the alpha and the omega.  Chapters like this force us to get out of our limited perspective and embrace all that is god. 

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