{"id":7617,"date":"2016-05-25T00:05:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T07:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7617"},"modified":"2016-05-24T10:41:15","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T17:41:15","slug":"to-the-fourth-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/05\/25\/to-the-fourth-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Fourth Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

And that\u2019s the story of Jehu\u2019s wasting of Baal in Israel.<\/p>\n

But for all that, Jehu didn\u2019t turn back from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, the sins that had dragged Israel into a life of sin\u2014the golden calves in Bethel and Dan stayed.<\/p>\n

God commended Jehu: \u201cYou did well to do what I saw was best. You did what I ordered against the family of Ahab. As reward, your sons will occupy the throne of Israel for four generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even then, though, Jehu wasn\u2019t careful to walk in God\u2019s ways and honor the God of Israel from an undivided heart. He didn\u2019t turn back from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into a life of sin.<\/p>\n

It was about this time that God began to shrink Israel. Hazael hacked away at the borders of Israel from the Jordan to the east\u2014all the territory of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh from Aroer near the Brook Arnon. In effect, all Gilead and Bashan. (2 Kings 10:28-33)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Idols are abhorrent to God, but like most Israelites, Jehu just didn\u2019t get it. He had led a rebellion, killed Joram, a son of Ahab, and killed every member of Joram\u2019s family, including Jezebel, Ahab\u2019s wife and the queen mother. Then he wiped out all the prophets, servants and priests of Baal, tore down Baal\u2019s temple, and desecrated his altars.<\/p>\n

Despite all of that, however, he did not undo the problem that Jeroboam, the first rebel king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had created at the founding of the nation: the golden calf idols in Dan and Bethel. Jehu only got rid of Baal worship. Though that was a good thing and God blessed him for it, guaranteeing that his royal dynasty would endure for four generations, it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

Why? Human beings are the image and likeness of God, to be loved just as God is loved. Creating idols stands in the way of recognizing the full value of human beings as God\u2019s only image. We\u2019re supposed to catch a glimpse of God in each other, not get distracted by idols. Loving God is easy, since he doesn\u2019t cut us off on the freeway, or otherwise bug us. But as John pointed out, if we claim to love God, who we can\u2019t see, but hate the people whom we do, then we really don\u2019t love God. How we treat the real image of God\u2014other human beings\u2014reflects whether and how we really love God.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s the story of Jehu\u2019s wasting of Baal in Israel. But for all that, Jehu didn\u2019t turn back from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, the sins that had dragged Israel into a life of sin\u2014the golden calves … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}