Steven A. Bush - March 27, 2022
Jehu Slays the Yayhoos
If Chapters 9 and 10 of 2 Kings were made into a movie, they would be rated R for strong bloody violence. God raises up a warrior named Jehu as King of Israel to slay and replace the wicked King Joram and his evil mother, Jezebel. Jehu wastes no time. And he also takes out the king of Judah, executing the royal families of both nations. Then Jehu slaughters the priests of Baal while torching their temple and repurposing it as a latrine. God's just judgment! But could a far more severe judgment be coming one Day? And could it actually come at the hands of Jesus? Jesus is often depicted as a Gandhi-like figure with long hair and a beard, a Galilean Mr. Rogers, certainly not Jehu-like. But 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 speaks of Jesus' return: "And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from His glorious power." (NLT) Jesus has borne the punishment for our sin on the cross. That's called love saturated in mercy! But rejecting His atoning sacrifice has eternal consequences. Jesus' mercy indeed triumphs over judgment but we dare not spurn that mercy...