“Well, God Told Me . . .”
2 Kings 10:1-11
1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in
Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the
city, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying,
2 “Now then, as soon as this
letter comes to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and there are with
you chariots and horses, fortified cities also, and weapons,
3 select the best and fittest of
your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne and fight for your
master’s house.”
4 But they were exceedingly afraid
and said, “Behold, the two kings could not stand before him. How then can we
stand?”
5 So he who was over the palace,
and he who was over the city, together with the elders and the guardians, sent
to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We
will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your eyes.”
6 Then he wrote to them a second
letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take
the heads of your master’s sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this
time.” Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the
city, who were bringing them up.
7 And as soon as the letter came
to them, they took the king’s sons and slaughtered them, seventy persons, and
put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.
8 When the messenger came and
told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” he said, “Lay them
in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.”
9 Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood and said to all the
people, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed
him, but who struck down all these?
10 Know then that there shall
fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning
the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what he said by his servant Elijah.”
11 So Jehu struck down all who
remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his close
friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
After over 30 years in ministry there are numerous stories I
could tell you of the odd things that people have said to me. By far some of
the weirdest have been from people who believed they were speaking for God. Back
in 1981, I had a guy tell me that it said in the Bible that the children’s
Christmas program had to be on Christmas Eve (because I was trying to move said
program to the Sunday before Christmas). Had he been joking, we would have all
laughed. But he was totally serious and the vein sticking out of his forehead
displayed the passion with which he was speaking. I’m ashamed to say I did
laugh, right out loud, because it was just so absurd. That did not improve the
throbbing vein in his forehead and actually, he never spoke to me again after
that. Not my finest hour as a pastor’s wife or as a Director of Christian
Education. I was young – that’s my only albeit weak defense.
When someone begins a conversation with the phrase “God told
me to tell you . . . “, or “it says in the Bible”, I know it’s going to be interesting
at the very least. In our reading for today, Jehu takes the stance that he is
acting in God’s place, fulfilling the prophecy as spoken by Elijah about Ahab.
Yet none of the verses in the passage says “God said to Jehu, go and fulfill my
prophecies.” Jehu acts of his own accord and then blames God. He justifies the
killing of all those (the 70 sons of Ahab) who might be a threat to his seat on
the throne by declaring that he is merely fulfilling God’s words. It is always
troubling when someone maintains that God is on their side, thus they are free
to do what they want. Whenever we use God’s Word or His name to justify our own
sinful actions, we are in trouble. And trying to manipulate another person with
those words is equally disastrous.
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