Start Time:	07:22AM
End Time:	08:09AM
Date:	July 06, 2014

 

TITLE: Ahab’s Family Killed

Scripture: 2 Kings 10:1 – 36

God’s Message / God’s Commands / God’s Promises:

→ Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,^[a] to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said,  “You have your master’s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house.” But they were terrified and said, “If two kings could not resist him, how can we?” So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: “We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.” Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.”Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. ⁷ When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the princes.” Then Jehu ordered, “Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.” The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?  Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah.” So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.  Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds, he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?” They said, “We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.” “Take them alive!” he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked—forty-two of them. He left no survivor.  After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, “Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?” “I am,” Jehonadab answered. “If so,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.” So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.  Jehu said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.” Then he had him ride along in his chariot. When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.

NOTES:

Ø  God will avenge us for His Name’s sake!  After all the cruelty and oppression and the evil things Ahab did, God avenged His Name and people.  And when God does this, all is swept clean with no one left behind to continue the evil that is in their family line.  Hallelujah!  When God cleans and purifies us, He sweeps us all of evil and negativity.  It may take some time for a process had to be done.  It started even before Elijah’s time but it was King Jehu, whom God appointed to be king thru one of the company of prophets that Elisha instructed to, that Ahab’s line was swept clean.  So be patient.  Know how to endure for when God’s time comes, victory will be ours!  Amen!

Ø  God sets us to win battles for the sake of His people even if we haven’t really fight for it from the beginning!  God sometimes uses us who are not well aware of the true story or the true fight against evil.  Sometimes, unexpectedly, God raised up a warrior in us that will wipe us out of all evil in us and this warrior is someone whom God brought in our lives and may have not been there from the beginning yet God made sure that both parties are benefitted.  The warrior reaped the harvest of victories and we are cleaned and harvested the results of those victories!  Hallelujah!

→Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.  Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.  Jehu said, “Call an assembly in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it. Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.  And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them.  Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal.” So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: “If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.”  As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.  So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 

NOTES:

^Ø    God does not only clean Israel by eliminating Ahab’s family line, who was the source of Baal worship, He also eliminated all Baal worshippers, temples, etc.  When God cleanses us from all evil and courses in our lives.  He plucked out the root of evil in us but also eliminate everything that might lead us back to is.  Hallelujah!  In God’s perfect timing, everything is done according to His plan and purpose!

 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.  In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan. As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. ³⁶ The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

NOTES:

Ø  God rewards our obedience but our disobedience to Him can also cause our rewards to be stolen away from us!  Jehu did as God planned to eliminate Baal and Baal worshippers yet Jehu was not careful to fall into idolatry but this time with a different idol, the golden calves.  We need to be watchful always!  After a major victory in our lives doesn’t mean that we are no longer going to be mindful of our enemy.  With God by our side, we become untouchables but our enemy is also busy each time to find ways to lure us back in to our greatest mistake and he disguises himself into someone or something attractive to lure us back in.  So we still need to be careful and the moment we won a major victory, all the more we ought to stay close to God for He alone can protect us!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, great and mighty God, amazing and wonderful Savior, my Protector, My Victory, My Lord and Father.  Thank You for all the victories You have set for me to experience in this lifetime.  Thank You because You have planned everything in my life and You ensure that I gain more victories than failures or defeat.  Lord I know that in every victory comes cleansing and purification of myself from any form of evil and I accept it.  I willingly embrace it because I want to be in my true form, Your true design of me.  However Lord, help me not to be over confident, seeing every victory I get, without realizing that the enemy is a roaring lion always looking ways to devour me.  Help me Lord to keep close and stay close to You so I may be protected and shielded from all of the devil’s ways.  Lord thank You for the rewards of my obedience.  Help me to seek You more and more every time.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!