“Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal. – 2 Kings 10:18-19 (Context: 2 Kings 9-10)

I was not real familiar with the story of King Jehu until reading this again. He was not a nice man. One could spend ample amount of time arguing whether or not the servant Elisha sent to anoint and crown Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehu, as king of Israel spoke out of turn thereby influencing Jehu to be as violent a king as he was. One might even suggest Jehu’s actions were a way for God to do a little spiritual spring-cleaning by removing idol worshippers from among his people.

Any way you look at it, Jehu was a ruthless man. In so many parts of the world, Christians are still being persecuted, even to the point of death and execution. Imagine being in one of those countries and a newly appointed ruler announces he is changing the rules and wants to embrace Christianity. All you have to do, if you’re a Christian, is join the ruler at a local church for a time of worship. Of course, you don’t realize that once all the Christians are in there, he is going to lock the door and burn the building to the ground with all the believers still inside.

As much as Jehu claimed what he was doing was for the Lord, you find out in Chronicles he was basically a hypocrite. Jehu had a thing for a golden calf and was really just taking out a vengeance on the house of Ahab. We don’t need to burn non-believers or “wrong” believers at the stake, we need to show them our God is the one and only true God.

Those men and women who worshipped Baal did so because someone showed authenticity in their worship for Baal. They follow because it gives the appearance of realness. If we want people to turn to God, our worship for Him must be more sincere and authentic than that of those who worshiped Baal. People need more reality, not more habits.