God's Messy Pathway to Joy

Joy

READ vv. 1-12 (?)

INTRODUCTION: How can you have joy when your world seems to be enveloped in darkness? Some of you are battling with that right now. If that’s you, this year, just know that you are not alone today … and this year is not the first year in which it could be a fight to find JOY as we approach Christmas.

Let me take you back to the year 1989 in the country of Romania. Pastor Laszlo Tokes would know the battle for joy.

An Unlikely Time for Christmas Joy - Romania 198? Laszlo Tokes

Laszlo Tokes, the Romanian pastor whose mistreatment outraged the country and prompted rebellion against the Communist ruler Ceausescu, tells of trying to prepare a Christmas sermon for the tiny mountain church to which he had been exiled. In Communist Romania, Christians were not allowed to teach their faith to their own children. Youth Ministry in the church was illegal. As Christmas of 1989 approached, the country was becoming a powder-keg of unrest.

The state police were rounding up dissidents, and violence was breaking out across the country. Afraid for his life, Tokes bolted his doors, sat down, and read again the stories in Luke and Matthew. Unlike most pastors who would preach that Christmas, he chose as his text the verses describing Herod's massacre of the innocents. It was the single passage that spoke most directly to his parishioners. Oppression, fear, and violence, the daily plight of the underdog, they well understood.

The next day, Christmas, news broke that Ceausescu had been arrested. Church bells rang, and joy broke out all over Romania. Another King Herod had fallen. Tokes recalls, "All the events of the Christmas story now had a new, brilliant dimension for us, a dimension of history rooted in the reality of our lives … For those of us who lived through them, the days of Christmas 1989 represented a rich, resonant embroidery of the Christmas story, a time when the providence of God and foolishness of human wickedness seemed as easy to comprehend as the sun and the moon over the timeless Transylvanian hills." [And] for the first time in four decades, Romania celebrated Christmas as a public holiday.

OUR TEXT THIS MORNING begins in a place of darkness. Jehu, whom we met last week - is grabbing the throne of Israel. It has been enduring a time of spiritual darkness. He has grown up in a nation

God has had enough. He said this day was coming. 1 Kings 21:21 “Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.”

1 JEHU COMPLETES GOD’S JUDGMENT ON AHAB, vv. 1-17

2 Kings 10 continues the story of Jehu grabbing the throne of the nation of Israel. He’s taken out Joram, the son of Ahab, who was in power … he’s taken out Queen Jezebel - had her thrown from a window.

VERSES 1-10

Now Jehu continues his purge. He writes a letter to the capital city of Samaria, 20 miles away, from the secondary palace in Jezreel, where he’s just taken out infamous, evil, Queen Jezebel. Jezebel is one of those all-too-familiar super-villains you see in the world who claw their way to power through treachery, leave a stream of blood behind them and never, ever seem to have to pay a price for their evil. “Be sure your sins will find you out,” the Bible says … but that assurance never seems to come true in the case of this person.

Jezebel the foreigner, brought to Israel as a bride for Ahab, she brought her religion with her and then pulled the strings to have Baal worship installed as the national religion of Israel. Think about it: The God Who invaded hisotry and acted in concrete way - through mighty deliverance and conquest for the sake of His people: Plagues on Egyptian enslavers … rescue through uncrossable seas, miraculous manna - food from the sky, water oiut of rocks to sustain in a sun-scorched wilderness. The God Who called Israel into relationship with Himself to be a light to the nations … THis God has proven himself over and over as the God who fights for his people. He gives this rag-tag group of former slaves military victory over settled nations in the Promised land - nations much larger than they … nations who worshipped Baal.

Now here they are - secure in the land God had given - clear, tangible evidence that God is a PERSON and HE Saves, while Baalism is a false religion created with no more saving power than a lifeless statue can bring.

But because of Ahab and Jezebel, not only has Baal become the official reltions of the people of God, but the queen has made it so illegal to teach and minister the truth of the true God … that God’s prophets have experienced waves of bloody persecution at Jezebel’s hand.

“AHAB - did more evil in ISaraeel than all who had gone before him ...” Jezebel was the Bonnie to Ahab’s Clyde.

I can’t help but see the echoes of Jehu’s Israel in our day. Your worldview has consequences.

God says enough is enough. Enough spiritual adultery, enough bloodshed. It was God hw had the prophet Elisha anoint Jehu to take the throne of his people, to clean house of Ahab’s family. God is a God of justice. And Jehu answers the call with a vengeance. He’s taken care of Ahab’s son on the throne - Joram. He’s just taken care of Jezebel herself. But the job isn’t finished. Ahab still has sons alive who can fight for the family dynasty - and push back on Jehu’s housecleaning.

2 Kings 10:1 “Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the city, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying,”

Jehu writes a letter to Smaria and say, ‘You have your master’s sons there. You have weapons, you have heavy-military equipment (chariots), you have horses … Select the finest and fittest of your master’s sons, put him on the throne … and then, come and fight me for the throne.”

Well, they had heard the news - thiss Jehu has just cleaned his chariot after he killed King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah - 2 kings in one battle.

2 Kings 10:4, “But they were exceedingly afraid and said, “Behold, the two kings could not stand before him. How then can we stand?”” So they just raise the white flag - send back a message that reads, ‘We are your servants ...” (verse 5). “Do whatever you want.”

Jehu sends another letter, “Okay, well I gave you a chance to prove your loyalty to the house of Ahab, you clearly don’t have any. Now I want you to prove your loyalty to me. Put your money where your mouth is.”

2 Kings 10:6, “Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were bringing them up.”

Verse 7, no sooner does the letter arrive, than the leaders of the city round up the king’s sons - ALL 70 OF THEM … they remove their heads, pack them in boxes and call UPS to order a delivery to Jezreel.

This is a brutal story, it’s gory. I get it. But if you study history, you will know that this is life in the Ancient Near Eastern World. Archaeologists have found an inscription in a tmple, of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, 20 years BEFORE Jehu and this is how he describes a recent successful military campaign:

1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament), Volume 3 End of Ahab’s House (2 Kings 9:1–10:17)

cut off the heads of six hundred enemy troops and “took the live soldiers and the heads to the city of Amedu, his royal city, and built a pile of heads before his gate. I hung the live soldiers on stakes around about his city.”

Jehu is pretty tame in comparison. This isn’t pleasant stuff - but it is life in the ANE … you see how God works in this world AS IT IS?! .... rather than wringing His hands in helpless hope, waiting until we get ourselves as fallen humans, civilized enough for him to be able to help us? Friend - you are nowhere too low, in no situation too dark … for the LORD to work in your world.

The UPS truck arrives in Jezreel at night. Jehu gives unloading instructions - and then, the next morning, he gives a press-conference at the city gate. Framing the camera shot, as he speaks, are 2, neatly-stacked piles of heads: one on one side of the gate, one on the other.

He gives his speech in vv. 9-10. “I did conspire against the king. And, yes - I killed him - but look at all of these heads here … I didn’t do that! I wasn’t even in town. These all arrived by special delivery. Do you see what great support there is for me - I mean, these are ROYAL heads, which means I have support at the highest levels of the nation!”

Verses 12-17, Jehu heads for the capital in Samaria, going to take his throne. On the way, he runs into some relatives of Ahaziah, the recently killed king of Judah, who had just died as an ally of Joram, trying to escape from Jehu.

Jehu says, ‘Who are you?” Verse 13 they till him who they are and that they are on the way to visit Ahab’s family. The second half of verse 13, “We came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother.” Ahh, that was too much information. They are Ahab loyalists Jehu won’t have that. Verse 14 he says, ‘Take them alive ...”. They are taken alive and slaughtered nearby - 42 people in all.

Another possible remnant of Ahab’s stain in Israel is removed.

Verse 15, Jehu is headed off to his next stop, when he meets up with Jeehonadab the son of Rechab - a Rechabite. Apparently the Rechabites were a family who had sworn off of wine, sworn off farming and building houses .... they were very ‘other-worldly’ and we would consider them as ‘ultra, ultra conservatives.’ Jehu clearly wants to impress Jehonadab, because he says,

2 Kings 10:15 “And when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot.” And if you were around for last week’s message, you will know that being invited up into Jehu’s chariot can be a frightening thing. This is the guy who was recognized by his enemy on a city wall - before his physical features could be made out … the watchmen saw his chariot driving and said, “The guy is driving like a madman … it must be Jehu.” So, to be invited into HIS chariot .... that

Then, when Jehu gets him into the chariot, this is what he says, Verse 16, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.’ So he had him ride in his chariot.” That’s hilarious - “See my ZEAL for the Lord by the way I drive.” And I’m sure Jehonadab was taken for a chariot ride fit for an installment of ‘The Fast and the Furious”.

Chuck Swindoll’s devotional: “If we occasionally MUST speed, maybe it would help to sing loudly … at 45 - “God Will Take Care of You.’; At 55 - “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”; At 65, “Nearer My God to Thee”; at 75, Nearer, Still Nearer!”; at 85, “This World is Not My Home”; at 95, “Lord, I’m Coming Home.” Over 100 - “Precious Memories.”

Picture the passenger needing to have his fingers pried from the safety bar of the chariot, before his pasty-face can be extracted from the ride.

This is Jehu’s zeal for the LORD?

If you aren’t sure what to make of Jehu so-far … verse 17 gives the divine verdict on the results of his activity - even if it doesn’t directly say anything about the

2 Kings 10:17 “And when he came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah.”

So - now you struggle with the question: “Why does God work like this? Why does He allow the gore of man to bring about the righteousness of God?!” Can’t he operate in a cleaner way?!”

The answer to that is - first, well maybe he can … BUT the Bible shows, over and over that God often works … indirectly … through human instruments … and because He works in this world through PEOPLE ... THAT means that, unlike surgeons, He doesn’t have any sterilized instruments. All of them are flawed. All of them are opportunistic, self-serving Jehus.

So, God uses unholy people to carry out His perfectly holy plans and purposes.

SECOND answer - Yes, God could work in a cleaner way - but this is a purpose of Judgment on Ahab’s house. And judgment isn’t pleasant.

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2 JEHU EXECUTES JUDGMENT ON BAAL WORSHIP AMONG GOD’S PEOPLE, vv. 18-27

Jehu isn’t done, though. In verse 18, he calls the people of Samaria together to give a throne speech on the religious plans for the incoming government.

Verses 18-19, “Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. (19) Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live ...”. STOP right there. What is going on here? This is the guy who has just wiped out the king and queen who have been pushing the worship of this powerless fake god - and now he says he’s going to outdo Ahab in worshiping him?! What’s going on?!

Ahhh - Jehu is laying down a trap, that’s what he’s doing. Pick up the story in the last sentence of v. 19, “But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal.”

READ vv. 20-26

This is a plot to get all of the Baal worshipers together in one place, to get rid of this religion once and for all. The people gathered until the temple is jam-packed, from one end to the other. Jehu calls for the religious clothes that the worshipers would wear - and every person put on the garments - the team uniform that sets the worshipers of Baal apart from everyone there.

This is no ecumenical worship service - v. 23, “See that there is no servant of the LORD here among you … only the worshipers of Baal.” And once everyone who doesn’t belong is gone from the temple and the piano starts to play the prelude and the sacrifices begin … Jehu excuses himself, walks out into the light of day - where he has 80 of his men stationed aroudn the temple - and says to them, in v. 25, “Go in and strike them down; let not a man escape.”

Which is exactly what his men did … then they rip down the pillar - that symbolized Baal’s presence .... and they burned the whole thing down.

And turned it from temple to toilet … Verse 27, ‘They … made it a latrine to this day.”

So far, it seems like Jehu is quite a guy - He’s commissioned to take down the dynasty of Ahab. He does it with zeal. And he even goes beyond Ahab’s family and brings judgment down on false religion in Israel, too.

Verse 28 gives a short little summary of Jehu’s reign, so far: “Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.”

And if the story stopped right here - we would have great reason to celebrate a new direction in Israel. JOY in God has come where corruption once brought wasting disease and emptiness.

Unfortunately - the story doesn’t stop there.

Need to hear this - who are looking for a political rescue to come in the dark and divided world of today

READ vv. 29-31

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3 EVALUATION OF GOD’S CHOSEN INSTRUMENT, vv. 28-36

Jehu’s zeal was commendable in many ways: he fulfilled his mission against Ahab’ house, he destroyed the depraving influence of Baal worship among God’s people in his day … but Jehu’s zeal had the same fatal flaw that too many people have today.

2 Kings 10:31 “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.”

The sins of Jeroboam - do you remember what that means? After the Kingdom split into 2 separate nations, Jeroboam was the very first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel - and he established a new type of worship: worshiping the God of Israel, but in his own, made up way - with golden calves in the north and south - in direct disobedience to God’s clear command. It was a lethal injection that ended up destroying Israel … not in in one instant toxic shock .... but slowly — the poison increasingly infecting through generation after generation - until Israel was gone.

Jehu’s problem was the same one that so many in the church have today. He found himself in a dark time - looked at the world around him and saw obvious evil … OUT THERE. And Jehu dealt with it: Ahab is gone, Baal worship is gone ....

But Jehu didn’t wage the same ruthless warfare with the wrong inside his own heart. “Jehu was not careful to walk in thelaw of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart.”

He pursued evil - OUT THERE - to destory it, wherever he saw it … but he didn’t pursue God IN HERE - to delight in Him - to find his JOY in HIS GOD. Can you identify?

Do you remember the time Jesus was approached, during his ministry, by the sincere seeker: Out of all of the commandments God has given in the OT - “what is the first and greatest commandment?” Jesus’ response: “To love the LORD your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength … and love your neighbour as yourself.”

Jehu didn’t do that … and the result was that what could have been a brand new chapter and a fresh start for God’s people - ended up as a temporary blip of of sunshine on a long and continuing journey into darkness.

Don’t miss the lesson here for us. People look at the brokenness of the world and say - “It’s so … so dark. If only we rage against the night and fight the darkness - then maybe we can rescue joy.”

But the Bible tells us there is only one way to recover joy …

Jehu’s problem is the same problem we face in our day and age: People look at the brokenness of the world in the present and say, “If only we overthrow the evil

… so we’re out there punching at the darkness - on one crusade or another, spending ourselves, saying, “Look at my zeal! Look at my zeal! ...” and exhausting ourselves because the battle never seems to be done.

And God says, “Where’s your heart?” “Where’s your heart?”

Now the problem is that we know our hearts. We know how often much ugliness is there, so much selfishness, so much craving for the applause of the crowd, so much nastiness. You know as well as I do - that if the battle for the joy of a heart filled with passion for God was a battle that we had to fight … we would never win. The joy would always escape. That’s the problem with every other religion and worldview - They all give us the rules … like a treasure map - and say, “Go make it happen. Make yourself acceptable.” Make it happen.

And here is the wonder of Christianity - the glory of Christmas … “Joy to the World, the LORD is come” - that the infinite God takes on our flesh, joins Himself to humanity, so that He can pierce the darkness we’ve created in the mess we’ve made of His good creation … so that

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[And] for the first time in four decades, Romania celebrated Christmas as a public holiday.

Laszlo Tokes, a large, handsome man with deep, compelling voice, had become pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the center of Timisoara in 1987. Tokes quickly gained immense popularity, not only with the elderly in his congregation, but also with students from the university.

While the Communists weren’t particularly concerned about the old people, they did care about the students. Religion should have been irrelevant to this generation coming of age in the last decade of the century of Lenin.

Tokes mourned for his town and his country. The secularism of the atheistic regime had bitten deep into the hearts of the people. Still, he knew the church could help set those hearts on fire. His Reformed faith had given Tokes eyes to see what could happen when the church understood its identity, when the people stopped thinking of their faith as just a Sunday morning ritual and understood that the church was the community of the people of God that could infiltrate the world.

Tokes found dusty baptismal records of families who had once been part of the church but had dropped away because of the collaborator’s empty rites. Tokes invited them back. New converts were baptized. New tithes came in. The celebration of Communion took on new meaning as parishioners remembered the body and blood of Christ and realized that, indeed, the risen Christ was among them.

Within two years, the membership rolls of the Timisoara Hungarian Reformed Church had swelled to five thousand. But the growth was more than numbers; people were being discipled.

Both the Securiate and the ecclesiastical superiors knew they could not allow the church to continue like this. Tokes’ booming voice proclaiming the Word of God from the pulpit echoed in their minds like a bad dream. There was no place for this passionate Christian faith in Ceausescu’s Romania.

The methods of the Securiate were anything but subtle. They threatened members of Tokes’ church, and parishioners had to run a gauntlet of secret police just to enter the building each Sunday. Once the service began, agents would stand in front of the church cradling machine guns in their arms or dangling handcuffs in front of them. Merely attending church services became a silent act of protest.

Meanwhile, Tokes was denied his ration book; without it he was unable to buy bread, fuel, or meat. Parishioners, who by now had learned the real meaning of fellowship, shared from their own slim resources, smuggling firewood and food to the pastor and his family.

Then Tokes himself was attacked. Four men, their faces concealed behind ski masks, burst into the pastor’s small apartment in the church building. Laszlo and Edith happened to have visitors that evening, who helped then fight off the attackers with chairs. The assailants ran away, leaving Tokes bleeding from a knife wound in the face.

Soon after the secret police must have concluded that killing Tokes would simply make him a martyr. Instead, they would render him ineffective by exiling him to a small, remote village outside of Timisoara. A court ordered his eviction from his home and church, setting the date for December 15, 1989.

On Sunday, December 10, Laszlo Tokes looked out over the upturned faces of his congregation. “Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,” Tokes announced, “I have been issued a summons of eviction. I will not accept it, so I will be taken from you by force next Friday. They want to do this in secret because they have no right to do it. Please, come next Friday and be witnesses of what will happen. Come, be peaceful, but be witnesses.”

Five days later, on December 15, 1989, the secret police came to take Laszlo and Edith. They brought a moving van for the Tokes family’s belongings, but they never got to load the truck. For massed protectively around the entrance to the church building stood a human shield. Heeding their pastor’s call, members of the congregation had come to protest his removal.

The brick-and-concrete home of the Hungarian Reformed Church sat directly across from a tram stop. Each time the crowded cars unloaded, passengers could see the people gathered outside the church building.

“What is going on?” they asked. When they learned what was happening, many joined the group. Some were from other churches; some were just curious or supportive onlookers.

Meanwhile, Lajos Varga, a friend of Tokes, began making telephone calls, rallying believers from all over Timisoara – Baptists, Adventists, and Pentecostals, Orthodox, and Catholics. A burly, hearty Baptist pastor named Peter Dugulescu was also part of the crowd, as was Daniel Gavra, a student from Dugulescu’s congregation. Gavra made his way through the people toward Dugulescu.

“Look, Pastor,” he said, opening his jacket surreptitiously because of the Securitate agents.

The way things were escalating, Dugulescu half expected to see some sort of weapon. But the lump in Gavra’s jacket was a paper packet filled with dozens of candle stubs.

It was past one o’clock in the morning when Tokes opened the window of his apartment a final time before he went to bed. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Light from hundreds of candles pierced the darkness. Hands, cupped close to the people’s hearts, sheltered the flickering flames, and the flames lighted their faces with a warm glow.

The extraordinary demonstration continued throughout that night and into the following day. Then, late in the afternoon, the people took the protest a step further than a show of solidarity for Laszlo Tokes. For the first time in their lives, Romanians shouted their secret dreams aloud: “Liberty! Freedom!”

Students began singing a patriotic song that the Communists had banned years before: “Awake, Romania!” And much later, as night fell on December 16, someone began shouting: “Down with Ceausescu! Down with Communism!” Part of the crowd headed downtown to the city square, while the remainder kept guard at Tokes’ church.

Before dawn of December 17, the secret police finally made their move and broke through the people. As they did so, Laszlo and Edith took refuge in the church sanctuary near the Communion table. Tokes wrapped himself in his heavy clerical robe and picked up a Bible, holding it like a weapon.

The bolted church door gave way with a splintering crash, and the police swarmed into the building. They beat Tokes until his face was bloody. Then they took him and Edith away into the night.

With their pastor gone, the crowds moved from the Hungarian Reformed Church to the central square of Timisoara. By now armed troops, shields, dogs, and tanks filled the streets. But even with the army in place, the people did not retreat. For this had become a full-scale protest of Timisoara massed in a city square, shouting and singing. Daniel Gavra and many others distributed candles. And when darkness fell, the people – lighted their flames against the night.

The Communists responded with the brute force they had always employed when threatened by freedom seekers. They ordered their troops to open fire on the protestors.

the savage gunfire claimed hundreds of victims, but the people of Timisoara stood strong. Though shocked at the cost of their stand, they know there was no middle ground. They had decided to stand for truth against lies, and stand they would.

On Christmas day 1989, the world reeled with the results of that stand: Ceaucescu was gone and Romania was free. The people of Timisoara rejoiced. Churches filled with worshipers praising God. For the first time in 4 decades, Christmas was openly celebrated in Romania.