2 Kings 9:1-13--Jehu Anointed King of Israel

2 Kings 9:1-13
English Standard Version

Jehu Anointed King of Israel
9 Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Tie up your garments, and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2 And when you arrive, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. And go in and have him rise from among his fellows, and lead him to an inner chamber. 3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.”

4 So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 5 And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council. And he said, “I have a word for you, O commander.” And Jehu said, “To which of us all?” And he said, “To you, O commander.” 6 So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.

11 When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the fellow and his talk.” 12 And they said, “That is not true; tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’” 13 Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”

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Once the king of Israel and the king of Judah were both off the battlefield, Elisha orders one of the sons of the prophets (one of his understudies) to quickly run (this required the prophet to tie up his garments so that he wouldn't trip over them as he ran) and take a flask of oil to Ramoth-gilead (where the battle was taking place) and anoint Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel.  As soon as he was finished, the prophet was to open the door and flee, and was not to linger.

The young man that studied from and served Elisha did exactly as he was commanded to do.  He said that he had a message specifically for Jehu (though he did not call him by name, but by rank, saying he had a message for the "commander").  There were several other high-ranking officials there, so Jehu was a bit modest in saying "which of us?" and the prophet said, "For you, commander." 

Then the prophet told Jehu that the LORD anointed him king over all of Israel so that he could lead all of the LORD's people, strike down the house of Ahab and Jezebel, and so that the LORD could avenge the blood of the prophets that Jezebel killed.  The LORD said through His prophet that He wanted every male in the house of Ahab put to death so that the house of Ahab would be like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah.  Finally, the LORD said that Jezebel would by eaten by the dogs in the territory of Jezreel, and no one would bury her.  As soon as he was finished speaking, the prophet fled, just as he was commanded to do.

The men serving under Jehu of course wanted to know what kind of message he received that was so urgent.  At first, Jehu tried to play it off as the prophet being crazy and that the message he had for Jehu was nothing but "crazy talk."  Then the men wanted to hear exactly what kind of "crazy talk" this man uttered, and Jehu finally told them that the prophet had just anointed him king over all of Israel, to which all the men there put their cloaks in front of Jehu and pronounced "Jehu is king, Jehu is king."  If this reminds you of how the people acted on Palm Sunday laying palm branches and their cloaks before Jesus, it should, for it was for much the same reason that the people acted this way with Jesus as they believed that Jesus was being proclaimed king.

One final note here.  Do you remember 1 Kings 19 when the LORD gave three final tasks to Elijah before he was to be taken to heaven?  The only one that it appears that Elisha was able to complete was to anoint Elisha and these items must have been passed onto him to anoint Hazael as king over Syria (which we saw happen recently) and now to anoint Jehu as king over Israel.  The LORD promised that these three would bring justice (probably in destroying the house of Ahab) and that whoever escaped Hazael, Jehu would destroy, and that whoever escaped Jehu, Elisha would destroy.  We are finally seeing this prophecy fully play out and Jehu has finally been anointed king over Israel, so we are now expecting the LORD's judgment to come and we're expecting Syria to help.  Since both those serving as king of Israel and king of Judah right now are part of the house of Ahab, we expect judgment to come on both of them, and we of course expect that because the LORD anointed Jehu to be king over all of Israel (I believe this means one king over all 12 tribes again--at leat, that was the LORD's intent).  We also expect judgment to come on Jezebel who to this point seems to have escaped the LORD's judgment.  We'll see this all play out over the next couple of passages.