In the Eastridge reading plan, we’re going through 2 Kings right now. It’s a crazy book, filled with fascinating and often violent episodes showing how the Israelites either followed or turned their backs on God, usually the latter.
In Chapter 10, we read about Jehu, King of Israel and his efforts to undo the damage done by the previous kings and their promotion of vile, despicable false gods. Dramatically and decisively, Jehu destroys the family of King Ahab, including the uber-wicked former Queen Jezebel, who meets a particularly nasty end.
Jehu goes on to wipe out the prophets of Baal, massacring them in one fell swoop at a staged “assembly for Baal.”
At this point Jehu was probably feeling pretty triumphant, having done quite a bit to eliminate the false gods and bad influences from Israel. But there’s always a catch; Jehu neglected two things in truly turning his people back to God.
However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.
2 Kings 10:29, 31 (NIV)
We tend to do the same thing in our lives, don’t we? We go just about all the way toward complete surrender to God, enough to make us feel good about ourselves, but we don’t get all the way there. Sometimes we leave sin unchecked in our lives, or we don’t do quite everything God is commanding us to do. We go almost all the way to surrender but not quite there.
Almost doesn’t count. We have to be willing to totally surrender ourselves. If we don’t, we miss out on the fullness of what God has for us.
I don’t have this all figured out in my life by a long shot…but something about getting this down in written form helps me. I hope it helps you too…
Photo by Alexandra Nicolae on Unsplash