Finishing The Job

Day two hundred eighty-nine

I have been given a lot to pray about lately.  There are answers to seek, others to pray for, and I have a lot to thank the Lord for.  My prayer this morning mostly consisted of praying on behalf of others.  I am always honored when someone asks me to pray for them, it means that they believe that I have a relationship with God and that they trust that I will actually do it.  Plus there is something special about knowing that you are part of a group of people praying for the same cause.  It gives you a deeper connection to others and increases your love for those that you are praying for.  Thank you to all those that include me in their circle of friends to pray for them, I love you guys!

2 Kings 10:29-31
Our story continues...

Jehu had been anointed king over Israel and had been told that he should destroy the house of Ahab (this was to fulfill an earlier prophecy given by Elijah).  In chapter 10 we see Jehu fulfill this prophesy with zeal.  He has the heads of Ahab's 70 sons sent to him in baskets and heaped in piles at the city gates (vv 6-10).  Then he slew all Ahab's relatives, great men, kinsfolk, and priests in Jezreel until none remained.  He would even destroy all the worshippers of Baal! 

Jehu took his job seriously, but in verse 29 we see that he blew it:

"Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan." 

If you remember in1 Kings 12, after the civil war which divided the nation of Israel into two kingdoms, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel was worried that if his people traveled down to the temple in Jerusalem three times a year to offer sacrifices, that their hearts would be turned away from him, and they would want to stay down there.  So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. These calves had been there ever since, for the last hundred years!

Jehu decides not to destroy these calves and to let the idol worship continue.  He’d done so well following the Lord's commands, but for some reason or another, he just couldn't seem to finish the job.  Why oh why would he not finish the job?  He had come so far and had been obedient down to the last man, why would he stop with the golden calves? Could it be that He felt that it was a political necessity to permit calf-worship to consolidate his influence?  If so, then it had become about his desires and not the Lord's.  He had stopped short of all that God wanted him to do.

Jehu's reluctance to get rid of the golden calves was symptomatic of his heart. He was good at doing the right thing when it suited him, but his heart was not 100% committed (v 31). 

"How terrible a warning is the story of this man - that it is possible to be an instrument in the hand of God and yet never be in fellowship with Him." ~Morgan

It would be easy to add Jehu's name to the list of disappointing leaders in the scriptures, but before we could write one letter of his name on the list we would have to ask ourselves,  "Do I always finish what the Lord asks me to do?"

Ouch, that one hurts.  Sometimes tiredness takes precedence over prayer, bills get paid before tithing, entertainment beats out scripture study, visiting teaching is a phone call, and fear prevents sharing the gospel.  We have plenty of reasons why we can't always finish the work we have been given, but what does it say about our relationship with God when we have too many excuses?

As I sat contemplating where I am in my relationship with God I started to feel shame, regret, and sorrow for all the times that I hadn't finished the work He had given me.  Was I just as bad as Jehu?  To be honest, I didn't really want to finish this post.  I didn't like where it was going!

Then I found some solace in verse 31: "But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin."

There is a difference between me and Jehu, I felt bad about my lack of finishing, while he took no heed and never changed his heart. There is hope!  My heart still feels a need to love the Lord and be loved by the Lord! 

This chapter has opened my eyes to the idea that how I get the job done is just as important as finishing.  Finishing the job is important, but where my heart is while I'm working is even more important.  What is reflected in my heart goes beyond just me, it can influence others, in both positive and negative ways. 

We are often told that there is much work to be done.  One look at the state of the world today and we know that this statement is true.  We are all invited to be a part of the work, but not all of us will finish the job.  It will take a lot of effort to keep the zeal we have at the beginning of our task to get us through to the end.  The key is to keep our hearts focused on the Lord, if we can do that, then the work part will be as satisfying as the finishing part!