2 Kings 10 -- What It Takes To Take Out Sin

God had given Jehu the job of ridding Israel of Ahab's family.  He ordered Ahab's 70 sons to be beheaded, and their guardians were scared enough of Jehu to DO it.  He also ordered the death of Ahab's other family members, his close friends, and his priests.

He then said something that at first sounds very disturbing:  "Ahab served Baal a LITTLE, but Jehu will serve Baal MUCH."  That was a ruse to get all of the Baal worshipers together in their temple, where he ordered them wiped out.  Inside the temple, they killed them all, brought out the pillars and burned them, then tore down the stone pillar of Baal and wrecked the temple itself.

There's a little "reading between the lines" to be done on the next part to get the entire picture:  "And they made it into a SEWAGE PIT, as it is today."  In other words, everyone was asked to come "contribute" at the world's largest port-a-potty.

Baal worship appeared to be over in Israel, but there was something else that remained.  You can here it in God's words.  The Lord said to Jehu, "You have done well in obeying what I said was right ..."  But Jehu was NOT careful to follow the teachings of The Lord, the God of Israel, with ALL his heart.  He did not stop doing the same sins Jeroboam had done...."  The two golden calves were still up, representing God in place of the Ark of the Covenant in Judah.

The WORLD (and I imagine a great many Christians, to) would say this was horrible that men and women had to be KILLED for worshiping Baal, and they would deplore the beheading of those sons of Ahab.  The WORLD would mourn the loss of such an historically rich site as the Baal temple because of religious intolerance.  That goes to show how deeply sin becomes rooted into our lives, and the extent to which God KNOWS He must go to get it out.

The very reason we suffer from besetting sins is because we are doing the very same thing Jehu did -- we aren't willing to follow God with ALL our heart, holding back some just for ourselves with our entitlement mentality.

Father, please vividly point out to me what has to go in my own life to be able to say I'M following You with all of MY heart.  I know I've still got lots of work to do.  Help me to hate sin as much as You do -- enough to want to do to IT what those people did to the destroyed temple of Baal.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford