Reading: 2 Kings 8-11, Psalm 103

We open the story today with another story about Elisha and the Shunammite Woman that we have read about before. Here Elisha warns her of famine, causing her to flee to the Philistines. When the famine ends, she returns and asks for her land and home back. She arrives at court at a convenient time, as Gehazi the servant of Elisha is just wrapping up a tale about Elisha raising a boy from the dead- oh, and here comes his mother! The king generously restores not only her land but the missed years of production. We aren’t told that this is Joram the son of Ahab, but it seems likely given the timeline. The odd thing about this story is the absence of Elisha. What is he up to while Gehazi is regaling the king of Israel with stories about Elisha’s exploits?

He is in Damascus, the capital of Syria. You know, the country that has been a major problem for Israel for the last couple of generations. His timing is convenient, because the king of Syria has fallen sick. He sends his servant, Hazael, to Elisha. Remember that Elisha had healed Naaman, a Syrian general, as well as blinding a Syrian army, then sparing their lives. His reputation in Syria was pretty good. We get this wild scene where Hazael is told to straight up lie to Ben-Hadad, the current king, and that he will become king of Syria and do some very bad things to the people of Israel. Then Elisha leaves. We get a hint of what kind of ruler Hazael will be when he declines to wait for Ben-Hadad to die of his illness and instead suffocates him in a blanket. Nice guy.

We get an insight into the politics of the northern and southern kingdoms next, in which we learn that Ahab’s daughter has been married to the king of Judah. The long war between the two kingdoms has ended, and the royal lines have gotten tied together. This would seem to be a good sign for both kingdoms. On the other hand, Ahab’s family is not exactly a good influence in Israel. It does not seem likely they will be great for Judah either. In any event, the two kings go to war against the new king of Syria, Hazael. Likely enough they saw the transition of power as an opportunity. But it does not go super well, and Joram gets wounded in the battle.

Now, what has Elisha been up to? Well, he is not done king-making. He sends a servant to meet up with Jehu, who at this point appears to be in command of the armies of Israel while the king is convalescing in Jezreel. The servant privately anoints him king of Israel by the word of Elisha, and then runs away. Jehu tries to pass it off in the war council, but the others there will have none of it, and when he admits what happened, they waste no time in declaring loyalty to him. It appears that Joram was not the most popular king.

Okay, the next few scenes are a bloody mess. It seems like Jehu initially intends to eliminate only Ahab’s line and claim the throne. But Ahaziah king of Judah is there to, and through his mother he is also of Ahab’s family. Jehu kills them both. Then he goes full berserk, wiping out Ahab’s entire family and influence in Israel. He has Jezebel, who is still kicking around, thrown from her window into the streets where she is eaten by dogs. He has those charged to guard the 70 sons of Joram kill their charges and send him the heads in baskets (ew) which he makes into piles. Then he uses the fact that they killed the king’s sons as leverage for their support. He somewhat randomly meets Ahaziah’s family coming north, captures, and slaughters them. He meets up with a Rechabite, Jehonadab, and gains his support. The Rechabites were an offshoot of the Kenites, descendants of Moses’ father in law Jethro, who continued their ancestor’s nomadic lifestyle and worshiped the God of Israel. Having wiped out Ahab’s family and gained important allies, he turns to Baal worship. By deception he gets hundreds of Baal’s prophets, priests, and worshipers into one temple, then slaughters them all, desecrates the temple, and knocks it down.

Throughout these stories, Jehu speaks of the fulfillment of the curse on the house of Ahab spoken by Elijah. He seems to know that the covenant law violations of Ahab and Jezebel are the cause of this great slaughter, but once he is done, he does nothing to turn worship towards the God of Israel. Jehu was an instrument of judgment, but not of justice. He carries out God’s curses, but does nothing to gain his blessings. By the time he is done, the most powerful dynasty Israel ever had, the house of Omri, is extinguished. We have been reading about God’s empowerment of the prophets over against the kings for some time. This is the conclusion of that story. From this point on, the kingdom of Israel will be failing, until it’s final destruction and exile.

But what about Judah? The family of Ahab had also drawn the kings of Judah into their web of sinfulness. In what is a fairly well known Sunday School story, the next king of Judah will be a seven year old boy named Joash (or Jehoash). But how did he get there? Athaliah, now the last member of Ahab’s family still alive, seizes the kingdom upon the death of her son Ahaziah. Then she slaughters her own grandchildren to prevent them threatening her power. Joash survives due to being hidden by one of Ahaziah’s sisters, Jehosheba, a little known heroic figure in the story of Israel. The rest of king David’s royal line is killed, leaving one little boy at the only royal descendant left.

Athaliah rules for seven years while Joash is raised and taught in the Temple by Jehoiada the priest. When the time is right, he conspires with the guard captains to reveal Joash and proclaim him king. It appears the people had enough of Athaliah, because no one comes to her support, and she is executed outside the Temple. Then Joash sits on the throne, and Jehoiada confirms the covenant of the God of Israel with the people. The house of Ahab has been eliminated in both kingdoms, and even the house of David has been reduced to a one little boy, a seven year old king on whom the promise of God to David now rests.