Sermon: The Redemption of Zeal
Scripture: 2 Kings 9: 1-13; 14-26
Preached: November 16, 2014 pm, vesper communion
Preamble:
Earlier this fall we looked at one of the last acts of the prophet Elijah – his confrontation of King Ahab after Ahab had killed Naboth and stolen his vineyard.
Last week we looked at the prophet Elisha and the impressive Shunammite woman.
This week we will be looking at the last act of the prophet Elisha – his sending a young prophet to anoint Jehu as King, something the prophet Elijah had already been told to do in 1 Kings 19 about 20 years earlier.
2 Kings 9: 1-13
Then the prophet Elisha called a member of the company of prophets and said to him, ‘Gird up your loins; take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. When you arrive, look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi; go in and get him to leave his companions, and take him into an inner chamber. Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, “Thus says the Lord: I anoint you king over Israel.” Then open the door and flee; do not linger.’
So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. He arrived while the commanders of the army were in council, and he announced, ‘I have a message for you, commander.’ ‘For which one of us?’ asked Jehu. ‘For you, commander.’ So Jehu got up and went inside; the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, ‘Thus says theLord the God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. You shall strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and no one shall bury her.’ Then he opened the door and fled.
When Jehu came back to his master’s officers, they said to him, ‘Is everything all right? Why did that madman come to you?’ He answered them, ‘You know the sort and how they babble.’ They said, ‘Liar! Come on, tell us!’ So he said, ‘This is just what he said to me: “Thus says theLord, I anoint you king over Israel.” ’ Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king.’
INTERLUDE — SUCCESSION OF ZEAL
There is something of a succession of zeal in this story:
* the zealous prophet Elijah
Is succeeded by Elisha, who receives a double portion of that zeal;
* and Elisha sends this young prophet to do the anointing of Jehu, and this
young prophet is described by Jehu’s friends as a madman — which in fact is someone extra full of zeal.
Ironically, once his friends discover what this “madman” prophet had said and did, they immediately take off their cloaks,
spread them out,
blow the trumpet,
and proclaim Jehu is king.
The question is, what happens to that zeal now?
Let’s keep reading.
2 Kings 9: 14-26
Thus Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against King Hazael of Aram; but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him, when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. So Jehu said, ‘If this is your wish, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.’ Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, where Joram was lying ill. King Ahaziah of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
In Jezreel, the sentinel standing on the tower spied the company of Jehu arriving, and said, ‘I see a company.’ Joram said, ‘Take a horseman; send him to meet them, and let him say, “Is it peace?” ’ So the horseman went to meet him; he said, ‘Thus says the king, “Is it peace?” ’ Jehu responded, ‘What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.’ The sentinel reported, saying, ‘The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.’ Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, ‘Thus says the king, “Is it peace?” ’ Jehu answered, ‘What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.’ Again the sentinel reported, ‘He reached them, but he is not coming back. It looks like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi; for he drives like a maniac.’
Joram said, ‘Get ready.’ And they got his chariot ready. Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu; they met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.
When Joram saw Jehu, he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ He answered, ‘What peace can there be, so long as the many whoredoms and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?’ Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, ‘Treason, Ahaziah!’ Jehu drew his bow with all his strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart; and he sank in his chariot. Jehu said to his aide Bidkar, ‘Lift him out, and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind his father Ahab, how the Lord uttered this oracle against him: “For the blood of Naboth and for the blood of his children that I saw yesterday, says the Lord, I swear I will repay you on this very plot of ground.” Now therefore lift him out and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
When I was in Seminary they had a golf tournament.
It was called the Jehu Classic.
Why Jehu?
Because “Jehu drives like a madman.”
That word “madman” only occurs a few times in the Old Testament.
It is no accident that it appears twice in this chapter:
once to describe the young prophet,
and once to describe Jehu.
Later Jehu will describe himself as someone full of zeal for the Lord.
Full of zeal.
We stopped our reading at verse 26.
At this point Jehu appears almost heroic.
He appears to be the instrument of delayed justice.
Ahab had deserved death, and now, 20 years later, his corrupt son Joram is struck down in Naboth’s vineyard of all places – what poetic justice.
If we were to cast the part of Jehu for a movie,
we might ask a younger Liam Neeson,
or a young Clint Eastwood to play the part.
But Jehu’s zeal does not stop there.
Simply glance at the headings in your Bible’s.
* Jehu proceeds to kill Ahaziah, king of Judah,
because he was related to King Ahab.
* Jehu goes on to have the Queen Mother, Jezebel, killed;
* he will kill all of Ahab’s descendants and all of Ahab’s sympathizers.
* he will collect the worshippers of Baal and kill them too.
In his zeal, Jehu kills hundreds in one of the most violent streaks in the Old Testament.
Israel is purged of the house of Ahab.
Israel is purged of the worshippers of Baal.
But what are we to make of this violent zeal?
LINE OF ZEALOTS
Jehu stands in a long line of zealots.
Way back in the book of Numbers, while Israel was on the border of the Promised Land, Phinehas, as son of the priest, grabbed a spear and killed the Israelite Zimri and the Midianite woman he was in bed with.
As I noted, both the prophets Elijah and Elisha were full of zeal.
Much later, the family of Mattathias, the Maccabeans, became zealots and rose up to revolt against their Syrian overlords.
Later yet, in New Testament times, a group called the Zealots, organized to rebel against the Romans.
The zealots were all ‘madmen for the Lord,” ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect the purity of the land, the people, the law, the temple.
QUESTIONING ZEAL
If you are anything like me, you might be feeling a little uneasy with all this zeal.
We look around the world today and we see
Hindus in India who, in their zeal, destroy a Muslim mosque to build a
Hindu shrine.
The Boko Harem in Nigeria who in their zeal burn down churches.
The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas who in their zeal denounce
everyone, even the grieving families of war veterans.
So what do we do with Jehu’s zeal?
Do we applaud it?
Or do we abhor it?
Interestingly, even the Bible itself gives a very mixed review of Jehu’s zeal.
Yes, in 2 Kings there is approval of his purging of the house of Ahab, but there is not blanket approval — he is described as not following the way of the Lord.
And in Hosea 1 the disapproval is even sharper.
There we read that the house of Jehu would be punished for all the blood they spilled.
That is the continuing tension surrounding this word zeal in the Old and New Testaments.
On the one hand, we are not to be lukewarm, apathetic, carelessly tolerant of injustice and godlessness.
But on the other hand, we are not supposed to be so reckless in our zeal that we end up hurting everyone around us.
I think of the American Abolitionist John Brown who lived just before the Civil War and was a real factor in starting that war.
Read a book like James McBride’s recent novel The Good Lord Bird which is all about John Brown, and you have to be impressed by the zeal of this man in his struggle to free the slave.
And yet, he killed innocent people. He allowed the ends to justify his means.
PAUL
For me the apostle Paul is a very helpful in navigating this topic of zeal.
Again and again he reminds the readers of his letters that in his misguided zeal, he ended up being a persecutor of the church – a killer of innocent people.
Paul knew, for his own experience, that there is nothing more liable to corruption than religious zeal.
And that is why, when he makes a list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, he includes in that list zeal – most translations translate it jealousy, but the word is zeelos – the word for zeal.
What Paul knew is that his own earlier zeal
is the very thing that got Jesus arrested.
It was the very thing that got his sentenced to death.
It was the very thing that got Jesus crucified.
Of all the things that should cause us to pause,
to re-consider our own zeal,
it is the death of Jesus.
Jesus died at the hands of zealous people:
people who were
convinced they were right,
convinced God agreed with them
and convinced that his blood needed to be shed.
CONCLUSION
We come to this supper – this Lord’s Supper — remembering the death of Jesus.
But we also come asking God
not to eliminate our zeal,
but to redeem it;
not to get rid of our passion,
but to purify it;
not to use our zeal to tear others down,
but to use it to lift others up.
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