“When he arrived there, he found Jehu sitting around with the other army officers. “I have a message for you, Commander,” he said. “For which one of us?” Jehu asked. “For you, Commander,” he replied. So Jehu left the others and went into the house. Then the young prophet poured the oil over Jehu’s head and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anoint you king over the Lord’s people, Israel. You are to destroy the family of Ahab, your master. In this way, I will avenge the murder of my prophets and all the Lord’s servants who were killed by Jezebel. The entire family of Ahab must be wiped out. I will destroy every one of his male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel.”2 Kings 9:5-8 NLT
God spoke to Elisha and gave him instructions to send out his student prophet to a difficult assignment- the assassination of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. But before doing that, the young prophet must anoint and install a new king.
Elisha was VERY specific. He told him to take the olive oil, go to Ramoth-gliead, find Jehu, get him alone in a room and pour the oil over his head. Then, to tell him the Lord has anointed him to be the king of Israel. Last step – run for your life! The prophet did as Elisha instructed, but either added the following or we are not privy to what Elisha told him to say.
Either way, the rest of the message was an order for Jehu to elliminate Ahab’s entire family lineage. God said He would avenge the murders of his prophets and servants killed by Jezebel’s orders. And, in a very NSFW moment, the prophet tells Jehu what to do with Jezebel’s dead body! He says, “Dogs will eat Ahab’s wife Jezebel at the plot of land in Jezreel, and no one will bury her.” Then the young prophet opened the door and ran just like Elisha told him to do. If you want to read about Jezebel’s gruesome end, you’ll find it in 2 Kings 9:32-37.
God says he owns and operates vengeance because He is the only one who can handle it properly. God is always true, just and right – Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, He says in Deuteronomy 32:35. Not only does God properly handle vengeance and retribution, He knows it is toxic poison for us to handle even the smallest amount of it. Humans feel that holding onto revenge makes us powerful- it does not. It makes us weak! Holding onto anger, grudges and thoughts of revenge not only tears holes in our soul but it also hardens our heart. It gives the deceiver, the liar and thief, a foothold to enter into our mind causing havoc and irreparable damage.
The only way to escape the devastating fires of rage and fury is to give our grievances to God and let forgiveness flow freely. Forgiveness does not mean the perpetrator goes free, it means that we are set free of the self afflicted prison that revenge will bring. Let God be our champion of justice and not our own seething and planning our enemy’s demise!
Prayer
Dad,
One of the greatest and hardest lessons as a young believer was the time you told me to forgive my third father – my stepfather, Ben. He was viscously evil, with a super hard heart and burned out conscience. I knew he had a hard life himself, but he turned bitter and took it out on those closest to him. When you told me to forgive him, I had no understanding of why I or anyone should forgive him. But I was learning obedience and did what you asked. I told him to his face, “I forgive you for what you have done to my mother and sister!” His response was to laugh at me in most wicked voice. But as I walked away, I knew I was FREE of him! Free of his damaging words and free of the fear he brought into our family. I learned that forgiveness is powerful to the victim and shocking to the offender. Thank you for teaching me while I was so young. Learning forgiveness instead of revenge has kept my enemy list down to zero!