Jehu 2

OK, remember our game : "Cast the Characters" ?  Well in the role of Jehu, I can see really only two possible choices. First of all, it could be Mel Gibson. Kind of like the Mel of Braveheart but more like the Mel of the Lethal Weapon series : a really good guy who is a bad boy, wild and reckless, ruthless and fierce against the bad guys and a smart aleck to boot. That could work. But, I must admit, that the image that snaps into my mind when ever I read the story of Jehu is Bruce Willis from the Die Hard movies. He is a "been-there/done-that...and that and that and that" kind of guy. He too is a smart-mouth. There isn't a weapon he doesn't like. He is likable ... like a doberman pincer when it is your pet . . . but it is best that you remember it is a doberman.

So take your time, get your Bible and read 2 Kings 9 and 10. Be warned...the movie, when Peter Jackson decides to make it, will have to be rated R for extreme violence. Again...I'll wait.

{silent musical interlude to augment your reading enjoyment}

The smell hit the men before Jehu even made it to the door. The men were looking at the house because moments before the prophet, who had taken Jehu inside, bolted from the house and ran down the road like Death, himself, was chasing him. Then the smell ~ it was like Jehu had gone to a perfumer's stall and dumped every perfume in the stall on at once. It was strong and spicy and a bit wild smelling. Then Jehu walked out, dripping with oil.

Wiping it from his face he said, "So, where's my beer? What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, now Hazael..."


"Jehu, man! What did the crazy guy say to you?"


"Nothing much." Jehu said casually, running his hands through his oil soaked hair and pulling back from his face. Droplets of oil catching the sunlight cascaded in all directions like shards of a rainbow. "You know how prophets blather and babble. So...the next attack against Hazael -- I was thinking ~"


"Jehu! Nothing? RIGHT! That's a load of  &^%$.What the *&^%$_)&^%@% is going on? (OK, yes that is cussing, but we are talking about the commanders of the army...and, well, I did say the movie was rated R)

Jehu stops and scans the men, measuring them by the looks in their eyes. He could see the penny drop in each of them . . . prophet ~ oil -- perfumed ~ wait, no anointing oil. . .but the king hadn't been injured that badly...and there were plenty of Ahab's line to choose from ... but  ~   there stood Jehu dripping oil and the dust hadn't quite even settled on the road from the prophet's escape.


"Here is what he told me: 'This is what the LORD says, "I anoint you king over Israel." "

As one, the other commanders snapped their cloaks from their shoulders and spread them under Jehu, there on the steps of the house. Someone found a trumpet and began to blow it. The shouts began: "Jehu is King! Jehu is King!"

"You guys...seal the city...NO ONE leaves to go 'chat' with Joram. You, go get the chariot and the horses."

Jehu and his commanders ride to Jezreel -- that is about a 40 mile trip, as the crow flies. As they approach the city, the scene shifts to the lookout tower in Jezreel.

"Troops approach...riding fast"

The messengers interrupt Joram and Ahaziah as they sit sipping wine in the courtyard.
Joram glares at the man. "Well, what are you doing standing there? Send someone out to meet them. Ask, 'Do you come in peace?' "

So a messenger from Joram rides up to Jehu and his troops. "Do you come in peace?...says the King."

"Ahhh. Ahez...he sent you, did he? Hmmm ~ 'Do I come in peace?' Now, here's the thing." Joram says, letting his gaze wander to the men and their swords as he speaks, "you kind of have to be alive to enjoy peace...wouldn't you say? You want fall in behind Benez, there at the back? -- I thought so!"

The scene is repeated and the second messenger joins the first at the back of the troops of Jehu. Back in Jezreel, the lookout says, "Oh crap!" and sends another message. "Its Jehu...I can tell by the way he is driving that chariot...he always drives like a madman."
You see Joram and Ahaziah exchange meaningful looks and go get in their chariots.

Joram meets Jehu...{can you hear the ominous music rising as he rides up} on the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth. I, personally, think Joram was a bit slow on the uptake...terminally arrogant and stupid. He actually rides up and asks Jehu again if he comes in peace. It isn't until Jehu answers by drawing his bow that he screams, "Treachery! Ahaziah!" Joram only succeeded in getting his chariot turned so he could flee because the arrow hit him between the shoulder blades and then pierced his heart. Then Jehu tells his men to kill Ahaziah king of Judah too.

Oh wait!  Where were they again? The vineyard that had belonged to Naboth. Naboth...do you remember? He was the man who had the vineyard that Jezebel got for Ahab by framing Naboth and having him killed when he wouldn't give it Ahab. Well, the thing I love about this story is that Jehu remembered!


Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the LORD made this prophecy about him: 'Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the LORD, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.' Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the LORD."
2 Kings 9:25-26

That had been about a decade ago. And Israel was not known, remember, for being God-fearing. Yet here is this wild, crazy, drives-a-chariot-like-a-maniac, commander in the army who remembers that prophetic word. OK...yes, the prophet's word to him was that he was to destroy the house of Ahab; and the prophet did reference that word of doom spoken over the house of Ahab. But, Jehu says to his chariot driver, 'Remember how you and I were riding behind Ahab ... when the Lord make this prophecy... " The prophetic word must have impacted Jehu at the time. Had he talked to Bidkar about it then...had they chatted about it as the years passed? Because years had passed, and it probably looked like the word had been only so much hot air...this was not Ahab, this was not even Ahaziah who had been king after Ahab, but Joram...the 3rd king. But I think the reason that Jehu went directly to Jezreel to kill Joram and Ahaziah was that he DID remember that word. Somehow that word had gotten under his skin and settled in his heart where a streak of righteous indignation over the evil of Ahab and Jezebel ran deep.  His story is NOT over...and in each episode he seems driven by the words of God and a relentless decision to be the one who brings about the fulfillment of God's judgement.

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