2 Kings 10:16

A GOOD LESSON FROM A BAD KING

‘See my zeal for the Lord.’

2 Kings 10:16

I. The zeal of Jehu! How badly our own efforts after social or personal righteousness compare with it!—Put over against it our slackness, our indifference, our inertia, our negligence, in the face of great and crying wrongs, of indefensible and monstrous scandals, of serious and increasing evils. Is there not only too much in the general life about us which calls for the fiery energy, the drastic vigour, which were manifested—although accompanied by acts of unpardonable criminality—by Jehu? There is always the peril of doing too little, of taking shelter behind the plea that things will right themselves if only they are given time, of persuading ourselves that the circumstances look worse than they really are. Take the awful curses of our modern English civilisation—intoxication, gambling, vice—or the long-standing, grievous injustices which oppress many of our fellow-creatures—bad housing, overwork, insufficient wages—can they be met, ought we to attempt to meet them, with any policy other than one of uncompromising resolve?

‘What peace’ ought there to be, so far as we are concerned, towards the miseries and bestialities of debauchery, towards black crimes of lust and passion and brutality, towards the state of the streets and squares of our great towns, towards proffered opportunities to self-degradation, towards flaunted temptations to shame and ruin and life-long self-reproach? To ‘what peace,’ or even to what armistice, are we entitled to consent, so long as there is the widespread continuance of one or other of the forms of gross, indisputable, obvious, fatal wickedness? ‘What peace’ is possible—is other than unblessed and unhallowed—with ‘the principalities,’ with ‘the powers,’ with ‘the world-rulers of this darkness’?

II. The zeal of Jehu! Is it a quality that dominates our own inner lives?—What is the measure of its influence upon our struggles with our personal infirmities and faults—with ‘the sin which doth so easily beset us’? What amount of effort do we put forth to conquer and exterminate disgraceful and unworthy characteristics? Do we make any real and determined attack upon the baser side of ourselves, or do we come to terms with it, and leave it more or less undisturbed? Our Saviour spoke so strongly about the necessity for persistent, untiring endeavour. He has told us so emphatically that it is possible for men to miss everlasting happiness through not taking enough pains over the attainment of it. His teaching is echoed by the Apostle to the Gentiles. Their tone is heard in the well-known lines of a modern poet—

And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost

Is—the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin.

What are our aims, our hopes, our ideals? Are we defiled by any of ‘the works of the flesh’?—what an appalling enumeration it is! Is our heart as some Jezreel where a foul worship reigns? If so, we need—ah! how sorely—to deal with ourselves in the power and spirit of Jehu.

III. ‘Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.’—What is the form that such an invitation would take in the mouths of some of us? ‘Come and see the wretched stuff which I read. Come and hear the worthless trash which I discuss. Come and learn the contemptible trivialities which occupy my thoughts. Come and be introduced to indelicacies and improprieties. Come and have your mind stained and defiled. Come and realise what it is to be devoid of religious feeling, to be without noble motives, to be unswayed by honourable ambitions, to be frivolous, self-seeking, cunning, avaricious, worldly, unheavenly.’ ‘Come … and see’! What would our lives look like, if they were opened to public scrutiny? But to Him ‘all desires’ are ‘known, and from’ Him ‘no secrets are hid.’ While there is yet time, let true ‘zeal’ for Christ’s ‘kingdom and His righteousness’ do its work in us.

—Rev. the Hon. W. E. Bowen.

Illustrations

(1)‘Only they see not God, I know,

Nor all that chivalry of His,

The soldier-saints who, row and row,

Burn upward each to his point of bliss—

Since, the end of life being manifest,

He had burned his way thro’ the world to this.’

(2) ‘The words placed by Shakespeare in the mouth of Macbeth have been applied to Jehu—

I am in blood,

Stept in so far, that should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o’er.’

(3) ‘Such self-deceit and selfishness as Jehu’s are much less excusable in us than they were in him; for not only are God’s requirements more plainly set forth to us, so that we are wholly without excuse if we take up with any such partial obedience as Jehu attempted, but we have the blessed example of One Who never pleased Himself, but in all circumstances considered simply what was His Father’s will.’