SERIES M --- PROPHESIES AND MIRACLES --- LESSON 22

BAAL’S DEFEAT

JEHU DESTROYS BAAL

From 2 Kings 10:17-36

When Jehu arrived at Samaria, he executed all of King Ahab’s friends and relatives, as Adonai through Elijah said would happen. Then Jehu tricked the followers of Baal by pretending to follow their god instead of Adonai. Summoning all the people, Jehu said to them, [Ahab served Baal a little, but I will serve him much. Call together all the priests, prophets and followers of Baal. If anyone does not come, he will be executed.] Jehu did this to get the followers of Baal all together so he could execute them. The word went throughout Israel and all the prophets, priests and followers of Baal gathered at a solemn assembly at the house of Baal, filling the building. [Be sure that every person who worships Baal has a special robe,] Jehu told the man in charge of the robes. The man obeyed and brought a robe for each of Baal’s followers. Jehu and Jehonadab went into Baal’s temple to talk with the people who had assembled there. [Look around you and make sure that everyone here is a true follower of Baal,] he said. [We do not want any of Adonai’s followers here.] Then, as the priests of Baal prepared to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu stationed eighty warriors around the building. [Whoever lets one follower of Baal escape will pay for it with his own life,] he warned them. When Jehu finished offering the burnt offering inside the temple of Baal, he went outside and gave orders to his officers. [Get in there and kill them all,] he said. [Do not let one escape.] The warriors obeyed and went into the temple of Baal and killed every person, then dragged their bodies out. Next, they went into the inner sanctuary of Baal’s temple, hauled out the pillar which Baal’s followers had used in their worship and burned it. They broke down the entire building and made it into a public toilet and so it has remained as of the time this was written. In this way Jehu destroyed the worship of Baal in the land of Israel. He failed however to destroy the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up at Bethel and Dan to lead the people of Israel into idolatry. [Since you have obeyed Me in destroying Ahab’s family, I will allow four generations of your family to be kings after you,] Adonai told Jehu. However, Jehu did not entirely please Adonai, for he still worshiped the golden calves of Jeroboam which had led Israel into so much sin. In those days Adonai allowed Hazael to capture parts of Israel. In several expeditions against Israel, Hazael took much of the land east of the Jordan River, including all of Gilead, Gad and Reuben and parts of the land of Manasseh from the Aroer River, which is by the Arnon Valley up to the land of Gilead and Bashan. All the other things that Jehu did are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. When he died, he was buried at Samaria and his son Jehoahaz ruled as king in his place. Jehu ruled as king of Israel at Samaria for a total of twenty-eight years.

COMMENTARY

THE BLACK OBELISK OF SHALMANESER III

The rulers of Mesopotamia, like those of ancient Egypt, recorded their achievements on stone monuments. These memorials ensured that a king’s name and memory would live on after his death. Typically, a monument boasted of a monarch’s accomplishments in war; the lands conquered, captives taken and tribute collected. One of the most famous ancient monuments is the black obelisk of Shalmaneser III, ruler of Assyria from 859 to 824 B.C. The scenes and script chiselled into four sides of the obelisk relate the history of Shalmaneser’s military campaigns. Of his thirty-five years on the throne, the king spent thirty-one in warfare. Shalmaneser led the Assyrian army in battle farther from its homeland than anyone before. They journeyed north to the mountain kingdom of the Urartu and south to the Persian Gulf. Campaigns to the west pushed Assyria’s border from the Tigris to the Euphrates. But Shalmaneser did not stop there. Year after year his armies crossed the great river on inflated goat-skin rafts, pushing through northern Syria and down to Israel. Most of these campaigns were not actual conquests. Shalmaneser usually exacted an oath of allegiance and returned home with the wealth of the defeated ruler. Tribute usually included livestock and wine as well as chariots, cavalry horses, battle equipment, gold and silver, linen, expensive garments and rugs, valuable ivory and ebony. Five panels on each side of the obelisk depict representatives from five nations delivering gifts to the king. Other panels show the humbling of the king of Israel. They present Jehu kneeling before Shalmaneser; a posture expected only from inferior rulers. The text describes the golden vases, tumblers and other costly tribute Jehu surrendered to the Assyrian invaders. Shalmaneser’s pride was evident even in the artistry of the obelisk. Monarchs usually erected limestone or alabaster monuments, for those soft stones were plentiful in Assyria. But the Assyrian king’s is sculpted in black basalt, a volcanic rock known for hardness and durability. Basalt was rare, and required a journey to a special district north of the country or to a region of extinct volcanoes to the west. The high cost of cutting and transporting such stone blocks did not stop Shalmaneser. At his death the king knew that his monument would endure while others disappeared in the decay of time.