There’s No Straddling The Fence
“But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.” II Kings 10:31
Those of you who are familiar with the Old Testament during the time of the kings will remember how the nation of Israel was split in two after the death of King Solomon. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah while Jeroboam, not of the line of King David, ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel. From the two of them came a succession of kings, some good, but most of them evil. Some of the kings of Judah and Israel had the same names, thus it takes diligent study to distinguish between them.
Ahaziah of Judah was Jehoshaphat’s grandson. Jehoshaphat was one of the good kings over Judah. Ahaziah was the son of Jehoram of Judah, but Ahaziah’s mother was Athaliah, the daughter of King Ahab, one of the most wicked kings over Israel. Because of his relation to King Ahab, Ahaziah was influenced by the idolatry and evil of Ahab’s family which reminds us that it is wise to be careful with whom one associates. God’s prophet, Elisha, sent one of the students of the prophet’s school to anoint a man named Jehu as the new king over Israel. King Ahab was already deceased at this time, but his wife, Jezebel, was still alive and plotting her wicked deeds. Writing about Jezebel before, I called her a “mean, straight-razor totin’ woman” because she was about as evil as a woman could be. Ahab and Jezebel had a son, also named Jehoram, who was placed on Israel’s throne after the death of Ahab. Jehu was given the kingdom of Israel in exchange for destroying all who were left of Ahab’s family and associates, which he did, killing Ahab’s son, Jehoram, and causing the death of Jezebel. He also ordered his men to kill Ahaziah of Judah.
Once the mission of eliminating all who were associated with King Ahab, he set about to eliminate Baal worship along with the house of Baal and the idols associated with Baal worship. However, Jehu wasn’t completely committed to removing all idols. He left the golden calves that King Jeroboam, first king of Israel after the split, had set up in Bethel and Dan. For the right things that Jehu had done in eliminating Baal worship, God was pleased. Doing a wrong thing doesn’t destroy the effects and/or results of a right thing that is done, but neither does doing a right thing negate wrong that is done. Repentance is the only solution for the wrong done. No amount of good deeds can absolve sin. God did reward Jehu for his courage in wiping out the worship of Baal by promising that his offspring to his fourth generation would sit on Israel’s throne. That did come to pass.
Jehu’s worship of the golden calves was a careless error on his part, but he committed a much greater sin in not walking with God according to His law. Jehu took no pains to observe the law in worship, to study the law, or to listen to the words of the prophets, but walked as he pleased. Why had he been so zealous to rid Israel of their main false god, Baal, and then refuse to honor God in worship and service? My guess is that he, like so many today, try to remain neutral in the war of good and evil, God and Satan. He didn’t necessarily desire to promote a false god, but he also wasn’t interested in promoting the one true God. He was like the folks who attempt to straddle the fence with one foot hanging over eternal life and one foot hanging over eternal death, believing that if they stay on the fence, they can avoid the flames of hell, but also avoid having to be accountable to the only One who can hold all people accountable. However, in the final analysis, the fence straddlers have to slide off one side or the other, either choosing the least path of resistance, following the crowd on the broad way which leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14) or taking the narrow way which requires a commitment to walk the straight path without veering in any other direction. It is not a hard choice if one considers the end result.