Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 10

Verses 1-36

Chapter 10

Now Ahab who was the husband of this wicked woman Jezebel, who himself was extremely wicked, had seventy sons. Evidently Jezebel wasn't his only wife. Now these sons had grown up in Samaria and in Jezreel. And they had been brought up by the tutors, and they were more or less leaders in these communities. And in his letter he said, "Now you have with you the sons of Jehu. So you anoint whichever one that you want, gather together your men of war, and anoint whichever one you want to be the ruler over you and come out and meet us in conflict." Well, the men in the cities said, "Hey, this Jehu is tough. He's already destroyed two kings, who are we to stand against him?" And so they sent letters back to Jehu and said, "Look, we're willing to submit to you and acknowledge you as the king over Israel." Then he said, "If you're sincere in this, then tomorrow send me the heads of the sons of Ahab."

So the next day, they delivered him a pile of seventy heads of the sons of Ahab. And thus again the word of the Lord was fulfilled in that God said He was going to cut off all of the descendants of Ahab. He was going to cut off that family line. And so God fulfilled that word.

Then Jehu met forty-two men who had come from Judah who evidently had not heard that Ahaziah their king was killed. And he said, "Who are you guys?" And they said, "We're all brothers of Ahaziah." And so he ordered that they all also be slain.

Then chapter ten, verse nineteen. Jehu said, "Alright, folks, call unto me all the prophets of Baal. For Ahab served Baal a little but Jehu will serve him much." Now he was doing this subtlety, it says, because he was intending to eliminate Baal worship. So he gathered together all of the priests and all of the people that worship Baal. He said, "We're going to have a great celebration offering our offerings unto Baal, and I want to lead you all in Baal worship." And so they gathered all of the people from Israel who had worshipped Baal into the temple of Baal. And he says, "Now are you sure there are no servants of the Lord here? Nope. All servants of Baal? Then put on your vestments." So they put on their vestments, their aprons and all, in their worship of Baal. And then he ordered eighty men. He said, "Alright, now go in and wipe them all out. And if you let any of them escape it will be your life for his." And so they went in and utterly wiped out all of the worshippers of Baal. And so Baal worship was eliminated out of the kingdom of Israel. Totally obliterated.

However, Jehu did not destroy the two golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Dan and in Bethel, and continued in the worship of the golden calves, and thus did not serve the Lord completely or fully. He did eliminate the Baal worship, but not the worship of those golden calves.

Now the LORD said to Jehu, Because you have been so good in executing my judgment against the house of Ahab, your children will serve on those thrones to the fourth generation. But [unfortunately] Jehu did not take heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all of his heart ( 2 Kings 10:30-31 ):

So at this point, the kingdom of Israel began to diminish in its strength. Hazael began smiting the borders of Israel. On the east side of the Jordan River, the area that belong to the tribe of Gad, and Manasseh and the Reubenites, and they began to fall to Syria.

Now, I think that there is an important lesson here. When, going back now, the book of Joshua, when the children of Israel were ready to come into the Promised Land, they have been staying for a while on the east side of Jordan, the Jordan River, up in the area they had settled. Many of them in the upper area of the Golan on the east side of the Jordan River, the area of Moab, Gilead. And they came to Joshua and they said, "Hey, we really don't care to go over and live in that land that God promised. We're quite content to stay right here. We're cattle men and this is good grazing country, good cattle country and we're just very content to stay here."

Of course, Joshua got extremely upset. Or Moses. They first came to Moses. And Moses was extremely upset. He said, "Oh, you, I can't believe it! Don't you remember what happened to us at Kadish Barnea when the people failed to go into the land? How that we've been wandering for forty years because of it?" And they said, "No, no, you misunderstand us. We'll send our men in to fight and to take the land, but then after the land is taken, we just as soon stay back here on this side of Jordan." So they made a covenant that the men of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh would send the men across with Joshua to conquer the land, and once the land had been conquered, then they could return to the cities that they had built on the other side of the Jordan River, and they would not dwell then in the land that had been promised from the Jordan westward.

Now, when you go into the spiritual typology of the thing, again Egypt represents the bondage of sin. Pharaoh representing Satan actually and the bondage in sin. The Red Sea is representative of baptism, coming into a new relationship with God, a new life. And journeying towards the land of promise, and coming to the land of promise, there remained the last barrier, the Jordan River. Now in typology, the Jordan River is a type of, not physical death, and this is where a lot of people make a mistake especially in the Hymnology, Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan, what did I see? Band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home. I won't have to cross Jordan alone. Jesus died for my sins to atone. And Jordan in hymns has been likened unto our physical death. Roll, Jordan, roll. Roll, Jordan, roll. I want to go to heaven when I die. Roll, take your old Jordan roll. But that breaks down, because after they cross Jordan, they still had a lot of battles to fight. There'll be no battles to fight in heaven. After they crossed Jordan, they even experienced defeat. There'll be no defeat in heaven.

But Jordan in the spiritual analogy represents my reckoning of my old life and old nature to be dead. It's that place of faith where I reckon my old life to be dead, and I enter into that life of the Spirit, the promised life of victory in Christ Jesus. So that there are many Christians who have come out of the world, but who have never entered into the full life of the Spirit possessing your full possessions that are ours in Christ Jesus. And their whole Christian walk is sort of a wilderness kind of an experience. And there are those who are content to stay on the other side of Jordan. They say, "Well, I'm happy. I'm satisfied you know with my Christian life. And I really don't see the reason why I need to commit everything or why I need to deny myself these worldly things and all. I'm very content and happy living on this side of Jordan. Living after the flesh. I really don't know that I need to walk after the Spirit or even desire to walk after the Spirit." And they really have no strong spiritual desires for the fullness of God within their lives. They're content in their nominal Christian state.

They are like the tribe of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh who said, "We're content to stay over here. We don't really care about going in." Now unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians in this position. Really are not pressing into the fullness that God has for them in the life and in the walk of the Spirit. But this is the danger. Because Reuben and Gad and Manasseh were the first to fall to the enemy. They're on the other side of Jordan, and they didn't have the defenses of the land that God had promised. And so often we see those who fail to enter into the fullness. Those who fail to come to the reckoning of the old man to be dead, crucified with Christ, and enter into the walk and the life of the Spirit are often those that fall into the captivity of the enemy. And so the spiritual analogy is very important here.

So these three tribes were the first to fall to Hazael, the king of Syria.

Now the rest of the acts of Jehu are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel ( 2 Kings 10:34 ).

Which books we do not have in our Bible. We do have the book, First and Second Chronicles, but those are the first and second chronicles of the kings of Judah. So as we move from Second Kings into First Chronicles, we will be more or less getting a repetition of this period of history. Only we will be getting it from only Judah's slant. They will tell you of the kings of Israel, but they won't give you much detail. They'll be giving you more information on the kings of Judah because it is the chronicles or the official records of the kings of Judah that we have, First and Second Chronicles. There were also the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. These books are referred to many times, but we don't have those books in our Bible. So another reference to the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel, which we do not have.

So Jehu slept with his fathers: they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead. And Jehu had reigned for twenty-eight years over Israel ( 2 Kings 10:35-36 ). "