Day Forty-one

“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.” (2 Kings 10:31 kjv)

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 10:12–31

These few brief verses reveal some of Scripture’s most interesting characters. Allow me to introduce you to Jehu, one of the bloodiest kings ever to reign over Israel—and one of the most effective. Take another look at verses 28 and 29. Jehu single-handedly destroyed Baal worship in Israel, but the next word is one we don’t want dangling on the ends of our spiritual service records: HOWEVER. Jehu’s was a pretty serious “however.” Read it again: “However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam . . . the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan” (v. 29).

What went wrong? Jehu was a successful king! He was an authentic Old Testament superhero! The enemy of evil! The rival of wrong! But he crashed spiritually.

We can learn a crucial lesson from Jehu’s example. These verses reveal exactly what went wrong in his life, and we’re all at risk. Look again at his chariot ride with Jehonadab in verses 15–16. In all likelihood Jehonadab was a reluctant passenger. No one wanted to hitch a ride with Jehu. Second Kings 9:20 says his driving was “like a madman.” Jehu was the ancients’ answer to Speed Racer. This man had bugs in his teeth. Poor Jehonadab. We never hear of him after 2 Kings 10. He may have been confined to a home for the scared-half-to-death, a place where combs don’t help.

Jehu had a serious character flaw. He was an adrenaline freak. He was happy and effective as long as life was flooding with excitement! But the day-to-day task of living faithfully? The Bible wraps up his spiritual service record with a tragic ribbon: “Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.”

You see, Jehu could run but he couldn’t walk. None of us are exempt from falling in this trap. We crave excitement—the best worship service, the most charismatic speakers. We tend to be most passionate about God when He is working wonders. We plead for revival—not always for the purest reasons—sometimes just for the excitement. Sometimes we want the God of the most high, not the Most High God.

Micah 6:8 says: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God is looking for folks who just want to walk with Him—in the quiet as well as the crisis. Because, you see, that’s where the excitement is—in having a daily, intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe.

The folks who walk with God in the “daily-ness” of life won’t have to worry about a tacky “however” dangling on the end of their spiritual service record—nor those nasty bugs in their teeth.