Verse 31
Was Jehu then a hypocrite? Was all his zeal for the Lord false and affected? Any one who said so would quite miss the point of Jehu's character and the moral of his history. It is because there is so great a mixture of good and evil in his deeds, because there is so much in his character that deserves to be imitated while there is also, at the same time, a deadly flaw in it, which mars its beauty, that his history is worthy of particular study.
I. Notice, first, that in the double mission which Jehu was called to perform the destruction of the house of Ahab and of the worship of Baal there was no self-denial necessary on his part. The duty to which he was called was not one which violently crossed any propensity, or stood in the way of any selfish feeling. His words to Jehonadab, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord," are a key to the state of Jehu's mind when he set himself to reform the religion; his zeal was to be the prominent object to be looked at; the awful spectacle of God's people revolted from the worship of Jerusalem, the painful duty of slaughtering thousands of the followers of Baal, was to be as nothing compared with the spectacle exhibited to Jehonadab by Jehu's zeal.
II. Jehu's zeal burnt brightly, and scorched up everything before it, as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was "zeal for God when it answers my purpose," not "zeal for God, cost me what it may." He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 48.
References: 2 Kings 10:31 . E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 174; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 685. 2 Kings 10:0 Parker, Fountain, April 26th, 1877. 2 Kings 11:10 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 972. 2 Kings 11:0 Parker, vol. viii., p. 217. 2 Kings 12:2 . D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3101. 2 Kings 13:14 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. vi., p. 113. 2 Kings 13:14-19 . A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 309. 2 Kings 13:14-21 . J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 163, and Good Words, 1861, p. 527. 2 Kings 13:14-22 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 164.
Be the first to react on this!
