“So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men on the outside, and had said, “If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be his life for the life of the other.” Now it happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them; let no one come out!” And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal. And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.” II Kings 10:24-28 NKJV
a. As soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering: Jehu chose to offer the sacrifice to Baal first, and then to call for the execution of the worshippers of Baal.
b. And tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump: Ahab built this temple for his wife Jezebel (1 Kings 16:32); Jehu tore it down. He worked to completely eliminate the worship of Baal from Israel, making him a unique king among the other rulers of the Northern Kingdom.
i. Beginning with the first king of Israel – Jeroboam – Israel was steeped in idolatry. Jeroboam began with false representations of the true God (the golden calves described in 1 Kings 12:25-33). The successive kings of Israel continued his idolatry (Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri), until the reign of Ahab. Under King Ahab, Israel moved from the false worship of the true God to the state-supported worship of Baal(1 Kings 16:29-34). The son of Ahab (Jehoram/Joram) continued this practice until he was assassinated by Jehu, who destroyed the infrastructure of state-sponsored Baal worship in Israel.
ii. He destroyed this temple of Baal and utterly desecrated it. To say he made it a refuse dump is literally that he made it a public toilet. “A place for human excrement; so all the versions understand it. Nothing could be more degrading than this.” (Clarke)
(Guzik)
The True God!
Our nation is also steeped in idolatry. We have removed The True God from our government, schools and courts and just like the days of Jeroboam the writing is on the wall. I am reminded of another time that the writing appeared on the wall!
“In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” Daniel 5:5 NKJV
“Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. “And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.””
Daniel 5:24-28 NKJV
But there is hope in Jesus! Please pray for a revival in our country, that we as a nation turn from idolatry and return to The True God.
Blessings
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