Wednesday 2021.08.11
In today's OT portion, I read in 2 Kings chapters 9 and 10 about Jehu ben Jehoshaphat ben Nimshi, a Captain of Israel's army, being anointed King of Israel by the prophet Elisha. King Jehu proceeded to kill his evil predecessor King Joram ben Ahab of Israel in a battle at Jezreel. In the same battle which he also killed the evil King Ahaziah ben Jehoram ben Jehoshaphat of Judah. After that King Jehu entered the city of Jezreel and killed the wicked Queen Jezebel wife of Ahab.
Although King Jehu began his reign over the kingdom of Israel as a godly king, he fell into the sin of worshipping the golden bulls set up in Bethel and Dan by the first Israelite King Jeroboam ben Nebat towards the end of his twenty-eight year reign(2 Kngs 10:28-30).
Meanwhile in the southern kingdom of Judah, the evil Queen Athaliah bat Ahab mother of King Ahaziah ben Jehoram ben Jehoshaphat took control over the kingdom of Judah after her son Ahaziah was killed by King Jehu of Israel in the battle at Jezreel. She put everyone in the royal family to death and ruled over Judah for six years. (2 Kings 11)
One of the sons of Ahaziah, however, escaped the massacre by Queen Athaliah when he was rescued by his aunt Jehosheba bat Jehoram, half-sister to Ahaziah. His name was Joash. Eventually, Joash was anointed King of Judah by the priest Jehoiada in the seventh year of the reign of King Jehu of Israel. Like King Jehu of Israel, King Joash of Judah started out as a godly king but departed from the LORD towards the end of his forty-year reign. (2 Kings 11 and 12)
