Temples and Toilets

Prayer

2 Kings 8-10, the fall of the house of Ahab

As we come back to the story of 2 Kings, I thought it might be helpful to do a run-through of where we are in the historical timeline, as far as the kingdom of Israel goes. We’ve covered several hundred years of history including a lot of kings and other characters. I want to walk us through the kings of both the united kingdom of Israel and the kings after it splits into the northern and southern kingdoms.

United Kingdom - Saul, David & Solomon

Divided Kingdom, nation of Israel (northern tribes) and nation of Judah (two southern tribes)

Slide 2, 930 BC to 880 BC

Slide 3, 885 BC to 841 BC

When we last left off two weeks ago covering 2 Kings 6-7, our focus was more on Elisha, and his interactions with the Arameans. If you remember, we covered two stories, both involving sieges, the first being the Arameans laying siege to Elisha’s town of Dothan, and God opening the eyes of Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, so he could see the divine army, the chariots and horses of fire, that were protecting them from the Aramean army. And then how God blinded the Arameans so Elisha could lead them up the road right into the capital city of Israel, Samaria, where they were surrounded by Israel’s army. The second story was the brutal siege of the Arameans of Samaria, so bad that people resorted to eating their own children. And God miraculously saved the Israelites by causing the Arameans to hear invading armies so they fled in a panic, abandoning their camp with all the food and supplies left behind.

As we pick up today with 2 Kings 8-10, we’ll first touch on a bit of the southern kingdom of Judah, but most of our attention will be events in the northern kingdom of Israel, and God fulfilling his promise of destruction of Ahab’s family.

First, the kingdom of Judah, where Jehoshaphat twenty-four years reigning as king comes to an end. His son, Jehoram, takes his place. Here’s the essential thing to know about Jehoram and, as we’ll see, his son, Ahaziah.

2 Kings 8:17-19, He (Jehoram) was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.

So the evil of Ahab’s house now infects the southern kingdom of Judah as well, through marriage. Jehoram marries one of Ahab’s daughters, a woman by the name of Athaliah, and she leads him, and through him the nation of Judah, into greater idolatry. And that evil influence continues into the next generation, as we’ll see with Jehoram’s son, Ahaziah, 2 Kings 8:25–27 -

In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family. So now even the kingdom of Judah, and David’s descendants, are falling deep into idolatry.

And it’s all a result of this marriage connection between Israel and Judah, Jehoram, the king of Judah, marrying one of Ahab’s daughters. So the kings of these nations are now allied together. So when Joram, the son of Ahab, goes to war against the king of Aram, Hazael, Ahaziah, his brother-in-law, goes to war with him. In this war, Joram is wounded and returns to Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and Ahaziah goes with him.

And that’s where we want to pick up the story we’re focusing on today, most of which takes place in the northern kingdom of Israel. It begins in 2 Kings 9, where we find that familiar face, the prophet Elisha, moved to action by God, vv. 1-3, The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3 Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!”

I love that part - after you anoint him king, run! It’s dangerous business anointing a new king while the old one is still alive and kicking. So this young prophet goes to Ramoth Gilead. Now Jehu is the army commander of Israel, and he’s sitting with other army officers when the prophet arrives. The prophet pulls him aside and does as Elisha had instructed, 2 Kings 9:6–10

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. 7 You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. 8 The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’” Then he opened the door and ran.

As reluctant as Jehu is to tell the other officers what happened, he does, and they respond enthusiastically, spreading their cloaks on the ground before him (which, by the way, is the only other place we see this other than Jesus entering Jerusalem riding the donkey). They’re blowing the trumpet and shouting out, “Jehu is king!” It’s clear that the Lord is not the only one ready to get rid of rule of Ahab’s family.

So Jehu makes his way to Jezreel, where the king of Joram is resting from his wounds, and, as I mentioned before, king of Judah, Ahaziah, is there, too. The lookout sees the troops approaching so Joram sends out a messenger, whom Jehu tells to fall in behind him - and he does. That happens a second time. Third time Joram, along with Ahaziah, ride out to meet Jehu. It does not go well for Joram - Jehu draws his bow and shoots Joram as he tries to flee. Ahaziah tries to run as well but he is put to death as well. So now both the king of Israel and the king of Judah are dead.

Then it’s Jezebel, the wicked queen’s turn. Jezebel hears the news, so she actually takes the time to freshen up - puts on eye makeup, arranges her hair (which is just a funny little detail, but a telling one). She looks out the window to speak to Jehu as he approaches. But Jehu just ignores her and asks who is on his side. There’s no hesitation, several of the eunuchs with Jezebel look down at Jehu, and at his command, throw her down to her death - where indeed the dogs eat her flesh and lick up her blood.

Jehu goes on to purge the nation of Israel of the house of Ahab, sending letters to all the officials and the elders and the guardians of Ahab’s children to see if any of them are willing to fight him for the throne of their father. There are no takers. So he sends a second letter to the officials, telling them that if they are on his side, they are to bring the heads of their master’s sons and come to him at Jezreel. The language here is ambiguous - the word “head” could refer to the sons’ guardians. None of them take it that way, they all come with the literal head of the sons of Ahab - so now they are complicit in the destruction of Ahab’s family.

Jehu doesn’t stop there, not by a long shot. First, 2 Kings 10:11 So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor. Then, he encounters relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah on his way to Samaria, he has them killed as well.

2 Kings 10 ends with Jehu killing all the priests of Baal. Pretending to want to be even greater in his devotion to Baal than Ahab and Joram were, he calls all the servants of Baal together to the temple of Baal in order to offer a great sacrifice. As they go in to make the sacrifices he surrounds the temple with men who go in and kill them all. The destruction of Baal worship ends with this, 2 Kings 10:25–27 The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. 26 They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27 They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

As faithful as Jehu was in destroying the house of Ahab and ridding the land of Baal worship in Israel, he was not completely faithful to the Lord. He engaged in sins of Jeroboam, the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. As 2 Kings 10:31 puts it, Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit. 2 Kings 10 ends with a summary of Jehu’s reign over Israel.

Temples and Toilets

So I want to turn our attention this morning to what Jehu’s men do to the temple of Baal, because it reveals something essential about what we hold to be sacred, what’s valuable, what matters most. As we just saw, they destroy the temple completely - go right into the heart of the temple, the inner shrine, pulling out the sacred stone and burning it. Then they tear down the temple itself. Then that final act of desecration - “and people have used it for a latrine to this day.” They make the former temple a toilet. Kinda gives the old saying, “praying to the porcelain god” a whole other meaning.

The people do it because it ensures that that site, that temple, will never again be used as a temple, it will never again be considered holy. It denigrates it completely. I haven’t seen it for a while, but you used to see those stickers on cars, of cartoon kid (resembled Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip) with his shorts pulled down, with a mischievous grin on his face, peeing on something. The sticker might be on a Chevy truck with the kid peeing on a Ford logo or something like that. That’s the idea, total disrespect.

It was a way of declaring what utter garbage the worship of Baal was - all this place is good for is human excrement. That’s it. And I don’t want to get too graphic here, but remember that this was long, long before the days of flushing toilets where all our waste material is helpfully removed far from us. Back then, it stayed right there. No one in their right mind would worship there.

The apostle Paul actually says something similar when he describes the dramatic change in his own life, from what mattered tremendously to him at one point, what he in a very real sense “worshiped” and how that changed completely, to the point where it became worthless to him, rubbish. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul is warning them against those who would encourage them to focus their attention of being obedient to the law, being confident in their own flesh, their own capacity to be faithful to God. We’d describe it today as being good, trying to be as good a moral person as I can be. Listen to what Paul writes, Philippians 3:4-6:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

So Paul starts by recounting his accolades, his faithful Jew resume - his point is to say you don’t want to go there. You don’t even want to begin to compare yourself to how good a Jew I was, in terms of following the law. I had all the credentials - Jewish, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee - I follow the law to a “T”. And on top of all that, I persecuted the church. It’s an impressive list. That’s what Paul worshiped, that was his temple - how righteous he could be. How morally superior he was. When it came to being a good person, he was at the top of the list. But that temple became a toilet for Paul, Philippians 3:7-11:

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

As Paul puts it, it’s now garbage to him: useless, throw it all away, flush it down. It’s not worthy anything to me anymore. There’s only one thing I worship now - Jesus Christ. There’s only one thing that’s worth everything to me now - knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He’s what I want to gain - my resume now lists only one thing - Jesus. Knowing him. Gaining him, having more of him in my life. It’s his righteousness that matters, not mine. It’s his grace I rely on, not my deeds, what I can do in my flesh. It’s the power of his resurrection, and even the sharing in his sufferings that I want to know, not my own strength.

Let me be clear here, Paul’s point is one of comparison. Anything, everything we value in comparison to knowing and gaining Jesus is trash. Some of the things we value in life are good, even wonderful - but compared to Jesus, pure rubbish. It’s similar to when Jesus says that if you are going to be his disciple, you must hate even your mother and your brother and your sister. He doesn’t mean it literally. It’s a comparison to make the point of how much more worthy, how much more precious it is to know Jesus. He is the great prize, the treasure hidden in the field that we should sell all we have in order to obtain.

And it’s helpful to consider for a moment - is this true for me? How convinced am I, in my heart of hearts, that nothing else in life comes even remotely close to knowing Jesus, to gaining him?! Because that’s true, I’m willing to “lose” everything else, because Jesus is better, far better. That he is better than all the love of my family. Better than any amount of money. Better than good health. Better than the admiration of others. Better than all my little luxuries in life. Better than - you fill in the blank. Whatever that is, compared to Jesus, it’s trash.

Is my heart hungry for Jesus because I believe that his grace is lavish, that his love is always deeper and greater then any love I could ever know? That he is the one who can give my the peace my heart longs for? That in knowing Jesus, I can know joy? That’s my hope and prayer for us, that we would join Paul in this, that to know Jesus, to gain him, would be everything. It’s the temple of his heart that we want to enter into. Everything else would just be the toilet.

Spiritual Disciplines - Is how we come to know Jesus. We develop habits in order to be with him (“know him”), to become like him (“gain him”), in order to do the things he did.

Discipline of fasting - “for whose sake I have lost all things”. Fasting is the willingness to give up anything for the sake of Jesus (he alone is Lord!), to share in his suffering in order to know the power of his resurrection. We normally think of fasting in regards to food, but it can be an activity, something in my schedule, a habit I’ve developed - want to give it up because it’s got too much a hold on my heart, my thinking (watching too much TV, on my phone too much, too attentive to stock market).

Discipline of solitude - time we set aside to know Jesus, to be with him, every day.