The Unsettled Account: The Legacy of Jehu
Introduction: History's Ledger
We come now to the end of a chapter, and the end of a reign. The Bible is a book of histories, and it is therefore a book of endings. Kings rise and kings fall. Dynasties are established and dynasties are overthrown. God writes the story of redemption not in abstract propositions, but in the blood and dust of human affairs. And because He is a God of perfect justice, He keeps meticulous books. Every account is settled, every debt is paid, and every promise is kept. Nothing is overlooked. The ledger of history is balanced to the last farthing.
The reign of Jehu, which we have been considering, is a tangled and bloody affair. He was a man anointed by God to be an instrument of righteous fury, a divine axe swung against the corrupt and idolatrous house of Ahab. He did his work with a terrible and zealous efficiency. He wiped out Ahab's sons, executed Jezebel, slaughtered the priests of Baal, and tore down their temple. For this, God commended him and promised him a dynasty of four generations on the throne of Israel. And yet, as we saw in the verses immediately preceding our text, Jehu had a fatal flaw. He was a zealous reformer up to a point. He destroyed the worship of Baal, but he did not tear down the golden calves of Jeroboam. He was careful to cut down his political rivals, but he was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart. His was a partial, political, and ultimately self-serving obedience.
And so, as the historian closes the book on Jehu's life, we are left with this summary. It is a sober and almost mundane accounting of his reign. But we must not mistake the plain language for a lack of significance. These transitional verses are freighted with theological weight. They teach us about the nature of God's sovereignty, the consequences of sin, the principle of federal headship, and the way God's patient, covenantal purposes grind forward, even through the compromised obedience of His instruments.
The Text
Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his place.
Now the time which Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
(2 Kings 10:34-36 LSB)
The Official Record (v. 34)
The historian begins with a customary formula, pointing to a more extensive, secular record.
"Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?" (2 Kings 10:34)
This is not the book of Chronicles that we have in our Bibles. This was the official court history of the northern kingdom, a public record of the king's political and military achievements. The Holy Spirit, through the author of Kings, is making a crucial point here. He is not writing an exhaustive political history. He is writing a theological history. He is selecting and arranging the historical facts to reveal the hand of God in the affairs of men. The secular chronicles would have detailed Jehu's "might", his battles, his policies, his building projects. But God's book is interested in something else entirely: Jehu's heart, his obedience, his covenant faithfulness, or lack thereof.
This tells us how we are to read all of history, including the history being made in our own day. The world has its chronicles, the newspapers, the cable news channels, the academic journals. They record "all the acts" and "all the might" of our modern-day rulers. But God is writing a different story. He is not primarily concerned with GDP, or foreign policy, or approval ratings. He is concerned with righteousness and justice. He asks one fundamental question of every ruler, every nation, and every man: "Did you obey Me?" The inspired record of Kings is given to us so that we might learn to see the world from God's point of view, to read history through a theological lens.
The world sees Jehu's might and is impressed. God sees Jehu's might, but He also sees the idolatrous high places that Jehu left standing. The world's chronicles are written in disappearing ink. God's chronicle is eternal, and it is the only one that will matter in the final judgment.
The Inevitable End (v. 35)
Verse 35 records the end of Jehu's life and the beginning of his son's reign.
"And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his place." (2 Kings 10:35)
The phrase "slept with his fathers" is a standard euphemism for the death of a king. It speaks of the finality and the common destiny that awaits every man, no matter how mighty. Jehu, the furious driver, the bloody executioner of God's judgment, the man who held the power of life and death over Israel, now sleeps. His might could not hold off death. His zeal could not grant him one extra day. He is gathered to his ancestors, and his deeds are sealed.
This is the great leveler. The grave makes no distinction between the righteous king and the wicked, the zealous and the slothful. But the judgment that follows does. Jehu's body is buried in Samaria, the capital he ruled from, but his soul goes to stand before the God he partially served. His life is now a closed book, and the consequences of his actions will now ripple outward through the generations.
And the first consequence is immediate: "And Jehoahaz his son became king in his place." This is the principle of federal headship in action. A father acts not just for himself, but as a representative for his household and for his descendants. Jehu's obedience, partial though it was, secured a blessing for his son. God had promised him a dynasty, and here we see the beginning of that promise being fulfilled. Jehoahaz ascends to the throne not because of his own merit, but because of what his father did. The covenant promise given to Jehu extends to his son.
But this principle is a double-edged sword. Just as the blessing is passed down, so is the corruption. Jehu passed on a throne to his son, but he also passed on a kingdom that was still fundamentally compromised by the sin of Jeroboam. He bequeathed to Jehoahaz a political stability founded on idolatry. The son will inherit the father's crown, but he will also inherit the father's sin. And as we see in the subsequent chapters, the sin of the father will become the scourge of the son. The very idolatry Jehu tolerated will become the means by which God chastises the dynasty Jehu founded.
The Divine Reckoning (v. 36)
Finally, the historian gives us the total length of Jehu's reign.
"Now the time which Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years." (2 Kings 10:36)
Twenty-eight years. This is not a random detail. In the Bible, time is never just duration; it is always a measure of opportunity, a season of probation. For twenty-eight years, Jehu had the opportunity to complete the reformation he began. For twenty-eight years, he had the chance to tear down the calves at Bethel and Dan. For twenty-eight years, he could have turned to the Lord with "all his heart." But he did not.
God is patient. He gave Jehu a long reign. He gave him stability and power. He gave him a clear commission and a promise of blessing. But the twenty-eight years ran out, as all our years do. And at the end of it, the account is closed. The time for obedience is over, and the time for judgment begins. The historian's simple statement is a solemn reminder that God has appointed a time for every man. Our lives are a stewardship, and the clock is ticking. We will all give an account for the years God has given us.
Conclusion: The Greater Jehu
So what are we to make of this bloody, compromised king? We see in Jehu a picture of the law. The law, like Jehu, is a zealous and violent instrument in the hand of God against sin. It comes with fury, exposing our idolatry, condemning our rebellion, and executing the sentence of death upon the house of our old Adam. It does a necessary and good work of tearing down the Baals in our lives. But the law, like Jehu, is ultimately powerless to finish the job. It can never deal with the root problem, the golden calf of the sinful heart. It can bring external conformity, but it cannot produce a heart that loves the law of the Lord.
Jehu's partial obedience could only secure a temporary, earthly dynasty that would eventually crumble under the weight of its own sin. His legacy was a mixed bag of blessing and curse. He was a necessary axe, but he was a flawed axe.
This is why the story cannot end with Jehu. This is why we need a greater Jehu, a better King. We need a King who does not just destroy the outward temples of Baal, but who cleanses the inner temple of the human heart. We need a King whose obedience is not partial and self-serving, but perfect and complete. We need a King who not only executes God's righteous judgment against sin, but who absorbs that judgment in Himself.
And we have such a King in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true anointed one, who came to destroy the works of the devil. His zeal for His Father's house consumed Him. On the cross, He swung the axe of divine justice against the entire house of sin and death. But unlike Jehu, His work was perfect. He did not stop halfway. He dealt with the sin of Jeroboam. He dealt with the sin of Adam. He dealt with all of it.
And because of His perfect obedience, He has secured for His people not a temporary dynasty of four generations, but an eternal kingdom. He is the ultimate federal head. Just as we inherit sin and death from Adam, and just as Jehoahaz inherited a compromised throne from Jehu, so too by faith do we inherit perfect righteousness and eternal life from Christ. When we are united to Him, His record becomes our record. His twenty-eight years, or rather His thirty-three years of flawless obedience, are credited to our account. He sleeps in the grave, but rises again, having conquered death itself. And now He is enthroned, not in Samaria, but at the right hand of the Father, and His reign will have no end.