Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Meet Violence with Love | Historical Books | 2 Kings 9:30-10:17

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. In Shakespeare's classic play, Romeo and Juliet, there's a character named Friar Lawrence, and he speaks a few lines that foreshadow both Romeo and Juliet's future death. This is what he says. These violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph, die, like fire and powder. The warning that he's giving is about the intent.

Starting point is 00:00:34 intensity of young love, igniting like gunpowder. First there's a flash and then everything is consumed. But it could equally apply to the world of conquest and empire. We know by now that Ahab, his wife, Jezebel, his entire family, and his royal entourage are all delighted by violence. They murder to take what they want. They kill to silence whom they will. Their violent delights seem to affect their desired outcomes. Jezebel's violence makes the prophets of Yahweh flee. Ahab and Jezebel's murder of Naboth secures land for their desires. But these violent delights have violent ends. The grand and glorious flash of Ahab's reign flames bright. Then it's entirely consumed by the violence of another ruler. Now this is a clear pattern in the Bible that rulers and empires

Starting point is 00:01:25 characterized by violence do not march forth unseen by God. He always sends men and women who were like them to enact violence upon them, the very same violence that they enacted upon others. It's a cycle, violence leading to violence, leading to violence. We encounter one such story in 2 Kings 9 and 10. Ahab is already dead, but now his violent wife and sons reap what they've sowed. So let me just give a public service announcement because this passage is hard to hear. It's gruesome, it's dark, and it's awful. With that said, let's pick up in verse 30. Then Jayhu went to Jezreal. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair, and looked out a window. As Jayhu entered the gate,

Starting point is 00:02:10 she asked, have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master? He looked up at the window and called out, who was on my side, who? Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. Throw her down, Jayhu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot. Jehue went in and ate and drank. Take care of that cursed woman, he said, and bury her, for she was a king's daughter. But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except for her skull, her feet, and her hands. They went back to Jehu, who said,

Starting point is 00:02:46 This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite. On the ground at Jezreal, dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh. Jezebel's body will be like dung on the ground in the plot of Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say this is Jezebel. In the next chapter, similar things happen to Ahab's sons. They're all beheaded and delivered into the hands of Jehu. And like Jehu says, this is a fulfillment of prophecy. God promised Elijah that he would execute justice against Ahab, Jezebel, and his sons. And this fits with part of the Bible's vision of justice. In Genesis 9, after the flood, God's told Noah, who lived in a time when people were unjustly murdering one another, this is what he says. And from each human being too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

Starting point is 00:03:34 Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed. For in the image of God has God made mankind. It's a dark retelling of Genesis 1. That's when God makes humanity in his image for his purposes to spread his love, justice, beauty, and mercy across the face of the earth. But after the fall, God's image bearers are slaying one another. So God wants to make it clear. Those who spill blood must pay for it with their own. These violent delights have violent ends. Thus in our story, Jezebel, who spilt the blood of many, has her blood spilt by Jehu. Yet as we read this passage in the following passage about Ahab's sons, we can't help but be disturbed by Jahu's brazenness. He's the definition of cut-throat. When Ahab's sons try to make peace with him,

Starting point is 00:04:27 he sends a letter to all that are with him saying, If you are on my side and you will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreal by this time tomorrow. The story continues. Now the royal princes, these are all of Ahab's sons, 70 of them, were with the leading men of the city who were rearing them. When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered them, all 70 of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jihu and Jesrael. When the messenger arrived, he told Jihu, they have brought the heads of the princes. Then Jihu ordered, put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning. Violent delights have violent ends. While justice is served, think we're also supposed to be

Starting point is 00:05:15 disturbed by these stories. Because we're supposed to wonder, will a man of violence like Jahu really end up being any better than Ahab? And here's a spoiler warning. He's not. Jahou proves to be a man of violence just like Ahab was. And so we're supposed to wonder how will this cycle of violence ever end? If God's solution to men and women of violence is sending more men and women of violence to stop them, will it ever stop? The prophet Habakkuk, he faced a similar problem. him. When he cried out to God to deal with the evil Assyrian Empire, God responded by saying that he would deal with it by sending the Babylonians. But Habakkuk was a sharp guy. He knew the truth. Those Babylonians are just as bad as the Assyrians. And so he confronted God in prayer. He said, your eyes are too pure

Starting point is 00:06:04 to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? God answers him in a surprising way. He says that he himself will break the cycle of violence. You see, violence cannot fix violence. It only perpetuates more violence. And so God says that he would send his son not to destroy his enemies, but to love them. He would send his son not to enact violence, however just it might be,

Starting point is 00:06:38 but instead to receive violence himself. Jesus would come and say to violent men, do your best on me. And they'd try. And they would think that they'd won. But they didn't because Jesus rose again. He triumphed over violent delights, not with violent ends, but with sacrificial love.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Violence is not unique to any time or era. It exists in all times and all places. but the last year, especially in America, has been characterized by violence in a unique way, assassination attempts, murders, and even successful assassinations. Our gut is to return violence for violence, and this wouldn't be unjust. But violence only gives birth to more violence. Jesus shows us a better way. When an enemy strikes you, turn the other cheek.

Starting point is 00:07:33 Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. The only answer to the violence of this world isn't more violence. It's sacrificial love. It isn't violence but a crucified king. The answer to violence is Jesus. So if you meet your enemies face to face or online or wherever, remember your calling. Not to be like Jehu, but to be like Jesus.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Meet the violent delights of the world with love.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Meet Violence with Love | Historical Books | 2 Kings 9:30-10:17

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