When You Are The Messenger

2 Kings 9,10 & 11 and 2 Chronicles 22:10- 12, 23

Elisha is a delegator.

He sent a messenger to Naaman to tell him to dip in the Jordan.

And today he sends a messenger from the company of prophets.  A little story I didn’t remember.   2Kings 9: 1 “The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, ‘Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi.  Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3 Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!”

The strangest anointing. 

It almost sounds like a prank.  

Run!!

What follows is bloody murder and mayhem. Lots of people die violent and bloody deaths in these chapters.

Jehu rode out in his chariot to Jezreel, where Joram, king of Israel, was recovering from battle wounds inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael, king of Aram.  Ahaziah, king of Judah had gone to Jezreel to see him.  

Jehu is tasked with killing both Joram and Ahaziah. Both kings rode out to meet him.  They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth.  Yes.  That same vineyard.  2 Kings 9:22 “When Joram saw Jehu he asked, ‘Have you come in peace, Jehu?’ ‘How can there be peace,’ Jehu replied, ‘as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?’

Jehu kills Joram with an arrow from his bow and has the body tossed onto Naboth’s vineyard.  In accordance with the Word of the LORD.  Jehu wounds Ahaziah but he escaped to Megiddo and died there.  They buried him in the tomb with his fathers in the City of David. 

Vs 30 “Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.31 As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, ‘Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?’ 32 He looked up at the window and called out, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.  33 ‘Throw her down! ‘ Jehu said. So they [did].”

The seventy heads of the elders and guardians of Ahab’s children are brought to Jehu.  All the priests and ministers of Baal are murdered in their own temple. When Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, saw that her son Ahaziah was dead, she killed all her grandchildren, all that was left of the remnant of the royal family and became queen.  

All, except Joash. A little baby boy who was kept hidden by Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, wife of Jehoiada the high priest.  She took Joash and stole him away from among the royal princes.  She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so, he was not killed.  He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for 6 years while Athaliah ruled the land. (2 Kings 11: 2 & 3)

The NIV Notes. Athaliah’s attempt to completely destroy the house of David was an attack on God’s redemptive plan– a plan that centred in the Messiah, which the Davidic Covenant promised. 

I had to go for an unexpected drive this morning.  And I thought a lot about all the violence in these chapters and all the bloodshed in God’s Story of His chosen people Israel.   It is so dark and it seems so impossible and that the end is in sight.  That it is spiraling downward from bad to worse. So much is broken.  So much death.

And in the end, Athaliah too is put the sword.

But this is God’s Story.

This Strong Defender of His covenant. 

These big and small stories of treachery and treason and betrayal.

I don’t think we can imagine this kind of human lust for power.

I’m not sure I could watch the motion picture of these chapters.

But while all of this is happening, God never closes His eyes or turns His face away.

He is shaping and orchestrating His Plan.

Moving behind the scenes and securing the throne. 
God making a way, where there seems to be no way.

I think about a conversation I had with a friend on this day.  Where we talked a bit about the things that happen in our lives.  The things that add richness and the things that feel like losses.  I wonder about those things and how they pass by God’s throne.  These forces of evil in the world, wreaking havoc in our lives.  How those things reshape the edges and can redraw our paths.   The dark valley-places where God weeps with us, where we are tucked under His wing and in the cleft of the rock.  And the glory-places and sacred spaces of His very Presence. Holy moments.    Not once does He close His eyes or turn His face away.

Jehoiada, the high priest, makes his move in the 7^th year of Athaliah’s reign.

2 Chron 23:11 “Jehoiada and his sons brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; they presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king.  They anointed him and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’”

The Chronicler ensures that all the details of proper consecration are included.  Almost as if he poses all the characters for a historical photograph.  All you see is the little boy with a crown on his head and all the people cheering.  Not all the bodies along the way. 

I think about all the violence in our world.

All the innocence that is lost in our world every day.  

And it makes your eyes wet.

Come Lord Jesus.
Come quickly.