The Furious Drive for Peace Text: 2 Kings 9:14-26
Introduction: The Peace of Man and the Peace of God
We live in an age that is desperate for peace, but has no earthly idea what it is. For the modern man, peace is a synonym for truce. It is the absence of open conflict. It is a quiet life, a cease-fire, an agreement to disagree. It is a desire to be left alone, to have all the sharp edges of reality sanded down, and to have all moral distinctions blurred into a comfortable, gray haze. This is the peace of the spiritually asleep. It is the peace of the graveyard. It is the peace that Joram, king of Israel, desperately wanted in our text today.
But the peace of God is something else entirely. The peace of God, the biblical concept of shalom, is not the absence of conflict but the presence of righteousness. It is not a truce with evil, but the total victory of good. It is wholeness, rightness, justice, and flourishing that can only exist when everything is rightly ordered under the sovereign authority of God. This kind of peace is not quiet; it is loud. It is not passive; it is active. And it is not obtained by negotiation; it is established by conquest.
The story before us is the story of a head-on collision between these two definitions of peace. It is a story of divine judgment, executed with furious speed and terrible precision. It is a story that makes our modern, sentimental sensibilities recoil. We see a newly anointed king, Jehu, driving like a madman, his heart set on fulfilling the bloody oracle of God against the house of Ahab. We see deception, treachery, and a king shot through the heart with an arrow. And if we are honest, we are tempted to side with the watchman on the tower, nervously watching the dust cloud approach, hoping against hope that the messenger will return with good news: "It is peace."
But the Bible does not allow us this comfort. The Bible forces us to see that sometimes the most gracious act of God is not to send a diplomat, but an executioner. Sometimes the only road to true peace runs directly through a violent confrontation with sin. This passage is a stark reminder that God is not a cosmic therapist seeking to manage our dysfunctions; He is a holy King who judges evil. And He does not forget. The blood of Naboth, spilled years before, still cries out from the ground, and God has sent the bill collector.
The Text
So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram with all Israel was guarding Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram, but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Arameans had struck him with when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said, "If this is your mind, then let no one escape or leave the city to go declare it in Jezreel." Then Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." And Joram said, "Take a horseman and send him to meet them and let him say, 'Is it peace?' " So a horseman went to meet him and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?' " And Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Turn behind me." And the watchman declared saying, "The messenger came to them, but he did not return." Then he sent out a second horseman. And he came to them and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?' " And Jehu answered, "What have you to do with peace? Turn behind me." And the watchman declared saying, "He came up to them, but he did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives in madness."
Then Joram said, "Get ready." And they made his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and found him in the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. Now it happened that when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he answered, "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many?" So Joram turned about and fled and said to Ahaziah, "There is deception, O Ahaziah!" And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart and he crouched down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Lift him up and cast him into the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for I remember when you and I were riding together after Ahab his father, that Yahweh lifted up this oracle against him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says Yahweh, 'and I will repay you in this property,' says Yahweh. So now, lift him up and cast him into the property, according to the word of Yahweh."
(2 Kings 9:14-26 LSB)
The Divine Appointment (vv. 14-21)
We begin with the stage being set, not by men, but by the meticulous providence of God.
"So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram... Then Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there." (2 Kings 9:14, 16)
Jehu has just been anointed king by Elisha's prophet with a clear, bloody commission: destroy the house of Ahab. His first move is that of a shrewd military commander. He secures Ramoth-gilead, effectively imposing a media blackout so that word of his coup does not precede him. Meanwhile, King Joram is convalescing in Jezreel. He is wounded, vulnerable, and completely unaware that the instrument of God's wrath is now hurtling toward him. Notice also that Ahaziah, king of Judah and a grandson of Ahab, has come for a visit. God is gathering all the principals in one place. This is not a series of unfortunate coincidences; it is a divine summons.
The tension builds from the perspective of the watchman on the tower. He sees a company approaching and Joram, the sitting king, sends out a messenger. The question is simple: "Is it peace?" This is the question of a man who wants the status quo to continue. He wants reassurance that all is well, that his comfortable arrangement can proceed. Jehu's response is chilling and masterful: "What have you to do with peace? Turn behind me." He does not answer the question; he questions the questioner's right to ask it. He is saying, "Peace is not your department. You are a follower. Now, follow me." The messenger is absorbed into the advancing judgment. He is co-opted. This is what happens when the church sends messengers to the world asking for peace on the world's terms. They don't come back; they get absorbed by the world's agenda.
Joram sends a second messenger, and the same thing happens. The watchman's report is now famous: "...the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives in madness." This is not the madness of insanity, but the madness of absolute, single-minded purpose. This is the zeal of a man on a divine mission. He is not ambivalent. He is not weighing his options. He has been given a charge by God, and he is executing it with everything he has. This is the kind of furious zeal that should characterize the church, a holy madness to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven.
Finally, Joram and Ahaziah go out themselves. And where do they meet? The text is explicit: they "found him in the property of Naboth the Jezreelite." This is the scene of the crime. This is the very plot of land that Joram's father, Ahab, coveted and his mother, Jezebel, secured through conspiracy, false witness, and murder (1 Kings 21). God ensures that the judgment for the sin will be executed at the precise location of the sin. His justice is not general; it is poetic and precise.
The Question of Peace (vv. 22-24)
Now we come to the central confrontation, where the definition of peace is put on trial.
"Now it happened that when Joram saw Jehu, he said, 'Is it peace, Jehu?' And he answered, 'What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many?'" (2 Kings 9:22 LSB)
Joram asks the question for the third time. He is still hoping for a political negotiation. He thinks this is about power, about a potential rival. Jehu's answer rips the veil off and exposes the rotten spiritual reality underneath. He reframes the entire situation. This is not about politics; it is about theology. This is not about a rivalry between two men; it is about the covenant lawsuit between Yahweh and the apostate house of Ahab.
Jehu lays the charge directly at the feet of the one who was the true power behind the throne: Jezebel. And what is the charge? "Harlotries" and "sorceries." This is not just a personal insult about her promiscuity, though that was likely part of it. In the Old Testament, idolatry is consistently described as spiritual adultery, as harlotry. Israel was the bride of Yahweh, and to worship Baal was to cheat on her divine husband. The "sorceries" point to the pagan, demonic rituals that were part and parcel of Baal worship. Jehu is saying there can be no shalom, no wholeness, no rightness in the land as long as this state-sponsored idolatry and spiritual rebellion continues. You cannot have peace with God while you are at war with His first commandment.
Joram immediately understands. "There is deception, O Ahaziah!" He finally sees that this is not a negotiation but a trap. But what he calls deception is in fact the truth breaking in. The arrow that follows is swift and final. "Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart." This is the execution of a capital sentence pronounced by God years earlier. Jehu is the bow, but God is the archer. The arrow finds its mark because it was sent by the word of the Lord.
The Logic of Judgment (vv. 25-26)
The final verses provide the explicit theological rationale for this bloody event. Jehu is not acting on personal ambition alone; he is acting as a self-conscious agent of God's revealed will.
"Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, 'Lift him up and cast him into the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for I remember... that Yahweh lifted up this oracle against him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says Yahweh, 'and I will repay you in this property,' says Yahweh. So now, lift him up and cast him into the property, according to the word of Yahweh.'" (2 Kings 9:25-26 LSB)
This is remarkable. In the heat of a violent coup, Jehu pauses to preach a short sermon. He connects his present action directly to the past prophecy. He remembers. God remembers. The sins of the fathers are now being visited upon the son, not because God is unjust, but because the son has continued in the wicked ways of his father. Joram had not repented of his family's sin; he had perpetuated it. The dynasty was rotten to the core.
Jehu explicitly quotes the word of the Lord. His final command is not "because I said so," but "according to the word of Yahweh." This is the foundation of all legitimate authority. This is the principle of theonomy. The civil magistrate's duty is not to invent law, but to enforce the law of God. Jehu understands that he is not a law unto himself. He is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the wrongdoer (Romans 13:4). The body of the wicked king is thrown onto the very ground he possessed through wickedness, a grisly sacrament of God's perfect and inescapable justice.
Conclusion: The Furious Driver of the New Covenant
This is a hard story. But it is a story that we desperately need to hear. We need to be reminded that sin has consequences, that idolatry is treason, and that God's justice, though it may seem slow, is always certain and always precise.
We are all like Joram. We ride out in our chariots of self-sufficiency, hoping for a peaceful negotiation with God. We want Him to affirm our lives, to leave our idols untouched, to grant us peace on our terms. We want a God who will not drive in madness against our sin, but who will politely overlook it. We ask, "Is it peace?" hoping the answer is a gentle yes that requires nothing of us.
But the answer that comes back from Heaven is the same one Jehu gave: "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your heart and your secret sorceries are so many?" There can be no peace with God until the question of our spiritual adultery is dealt with.
And this is where the gospel comes in, because God has sent another anointed one, a true King. His name is Jesus. And He too drove in a furious madness, a holy zeal, not to Jezreel, but to Jerusalem. He drove with his face set like flint toward the cross. And on that cross, the divine appointment was met. On that cross, the question of our harlotries and sorceries was answered once and for all.
Like Joram, Jesus was struck. The arrow of God's full and righteous wrath against our sin, an arrow we deserved, was drawn back with full strength and it struck Him. It went through His heart. He was cast out, thrown onto the cursed ground outside the city. He received the full measure of the oracle of judgment against us.
Because of this, when we now come to God through Christ, the question "Is it peace?" receives a different answer. The answer is yes. It is a blood-bought peace. It is a peace established not by a truce with sin, but by the total, violent, and victorious conquest of sin in the death of Jesus Christ. He has made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). Therefore, let us turn from the harlotries of this world, get in behind the one true King, and follow Him. For He alone is our peace.