2 Kings 10 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+10

I think perhaps this phrase perfectly sums up Jehu’s dedication the Lord. He talks a big game while he is killing and slaughtering and making morbid public displays – that’s all stuff he likes to do. Jehu is clearly a blood man. He could talk about performing all the the Lord had promised and fulfilling His Word as long as it was that thing which he enjoyed. But that was the end of His obedience to the Lord.

The chapter before us shows to things in glaring contradiction – Jehu’s energetic dedication to the destruction of Ahab’s house and his total apathy towards restoring the true religion. He followed in the sins of Jeroboam – that is, he didn’t call the people back to the Lord but had them “worship the Lord” at the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up. Why would he do this? Either because he didn’t care, or more likely, because he like Jeroboam didn’t want his people leaving Israel to go to Jerusalem as they had been commanded and then move down there. It was self-interest. Either way, it is clear that while he spends tremendous energy killing Ahab’s house and the prophets of Baal, he spends nothing on teaching the true Word of God for forgiveness and salvation. Why? Because while he liked killing, he didn’t care about God. He didn’t have faith. And so he didn’t love God nor did he love the things God loved.

When you and I find ourselves only obeying God’s Word “as far as it suits me,” the answer is not just to do it anyway but first to receive Christ’s forgiveness for that sin and then to have a change of heart – to desire those things which God desires. The latter is only caused by the former. “We love Him because He first loved us.” Christ’s death and resurrection set us free from the penalty that our sins deserve (the same penalty that Ahab’s house received) and strengthen us to love all God’s Word – Psalm 119:97 – Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

In Christ
Pastor Ude