This chapter is tough. I could talk about how God brings judgment on those who’ve rejected Him, as Ahab did, but it’s just hard for us to understand that judgment falling on the sons of Ahab, especially when the suggestion is that they weren’t necessarily grown men.
The text is clear: The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” (Verse 30) To be clear, what God is praising in this verse is that Jehu has destroyed the temple of Baal and slaughtered every single member of Ahab’s family, as well as anyone connected to him in any way.
I definitely don’t have the answers when it comes to a chapter like this.
But two thoughts come to mind: God is good, and His goodness requires that He destroy evil.
These are the scriptures that require extreme faith. They require us to trust God’s goodness even when we don’t understand. And that is really important because there will be days in our life when things happen that we don’t understand and we will need to know that God is good.
They’re important because God is holy. Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that we will sing of forever according to Revelation. It’s also the attribute that we sometimes fail to dwell on here on earth. These days we prefer to dwell on God’s mercy, His grace, His love.
Thinking about God’s holiness is a painful reminder of how unholy we are. Considering passages like this reminds us that God will not will not allow evil to dwell in His presence. Psalm 1:5 puts it succinctly: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”
If it were up to us to earn a place among the assembly of the righteous, we would be as without hope as Ahab. But in God’s mercy and grace, He poured out wrath even greater than the devastation of Ahab’s family on His Son, so that He might pour out blessings and forgiveness on those who would trust in Him.
The text is clear: The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” (Verse 30) To be clear, what God is praising in this verse is that Jehu has destroyed the temple of Baal and slaughtered every single member of Ahab’s family, as well as anyone connected to him in any way.
I definitely don’t have the answers when it comes to a chapter like this.
But two thoughts come to mind: God is good, and His goodness requires that He destroy evil.
These are the scriptures that require extreme faith. They require us to trust God’s goodness even when we don’t understand. And that is really important because there will be days in our life when things happen that we don’t understand and we will need to know that God is good.
They’re important because God is holy. Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that we will sing of forever according to Revelation. It’s also the attribute that we sometimes fail to dwell on here on earth. These days we prefer to dwell on God’s mercy, His grace, His love.
Thinking about God’s holiness is a painful reminder of how unholy we are. Considering passages like this reminds us that God will not will not allow evil to dwell in His presence. Psalm 1:5 puts it succinctly: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”
If it were up to us to earn a place among the assembly of the righteous, we would be as without hope as Ahab. But in God’s mercy and grace, He poured out wrath even greater than the devastation of Ahab’s family on His Son, so that He might pour out blessings and forgiveness on those who would trust in Him.
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