Jehu is not in any sense an interesting person. He was an energetic and bold man, prompt in action, determined and thorough-going, unfeeling and unscrupulous, well fitted for his particular work a work of judgment upon those who had sinned beyond mercy. His fault was that, while he had a real zeal, he had no true obedience. He is handed down to us, not as an example, but rather as a warning, while upon his tomb we read the condemning inscription, "Zeal without consistency; zeal without obedience; zeal without love."
I. Zeal is the same word as fervour. In its forcible original meaning, it is the bubbling up of the boiling spirit; the opposite of an impassive, cold-hearted indifference; the outburst of the generous indignation which cannot bear to see right trampled under foot by might; the overflowing of gratitude, devotion, and love to God. The zeal of Jehu was of a lower order than this. Yet even Jehu may reprove. We show our zeal chiefly by the infliction of arbitrary punishments upon offenders, not against the moral law of God, but against the moral law of the world. Such zeal is commonly divorced and dissevered from obedience.
II. We may apply to ourselves, in the way of counsel, a warning from the unfavourable part of the character before us. Jehu had a zeal for God, but Jehu nevertheless took no heed to walk in God's law with all his heart. (1) "Took no heed." To the heedlessness of human nature most of our sins may be traced up. (2) "With all his heart." The fault in our service is that the heart is not right with God. Christian zeal, like Christian faith, worketh by love.
C. J. Vaughan, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 171.
Reference: 2 Kings 10:18; 2 Kings 10:19. E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. i., p. 413.
Was Jehu then a hypocrite? Was all his zeal for the Lord false and affected? Any one who said so would quite miss the point of Jehu's character and the moral of his history. It is because there is so great a mixture of good and evil in his deeds, because there is so much in his character that deserves to be imitated while there is also, at the same time, a deadly flaw in it, which mars its beauty, that his history is worthy of particular study.
I. Notice, first, that in the double mission which Jehu was called to perform the destruction of the house of Ahab and of the worship of Baal there was no self-denial necessary on his part. The duty to which he was called was not one which violently crossed any propensity, or stood in the way of any selfish feeling. His words to Jehonadab, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord," are a key to the state of Jehu's mind when he set himself to reform the religion; his zeal was to be the prominent object to be looked at; the awful spectacle of God's people revolted from the worship of Jerusalem, the painful duty of slaughtering thousands of the followers of Baal, was to be as nothing compared with the spectacle exhibited to Jehonadab by Jehu's zeal.
II. Jehu's zeal burnt brightly, and scorched up everything before it, as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was "zeal for God when it answers my purpose," not "zeal for God, cost me what it may." He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,3rd series, p. 48.
References: 2 Kings 10:31. E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons,p. 174; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xii., No. 685. 2 Kings 10 Parker, Fountain,April 26th, 1877. 2 Kings 11:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 972. 2 Kings 11 Parker, vol. viii., p. 217. 2 Kings 12:2. D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3101. 2 Kings 13:14. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 113. 2 Kings 13:14-19. A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet,p. 309. 2 Kings 13:14-21. J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains,p. 163, and Good Words,1861, p. 527. 2 Kings 13:14-22. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 164.