Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 254
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 10:26–11:6
single one escape!” So they killed them all with their swords, and the
guards and officers dragged their bodies outside. Then Jehu’s men went
into the innermost fortress of the temple of Baal. They dragged out the
sacred pillar used in the worship of Baal and burned it. They smashed the
sacred pillar and wrecked the temple of Baal, converting it into a public
toilet, as it remains to this day.
In this way, Jehu destroyed every trace of Baal worship from Israel. He
did not, however, destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan, with which
Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to sin.
Nonetheless the Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well in following
my instructions to destroy the family of Ahab. Therefore, your descendants will be kings of Israel down to the fourth generation.” But Jehu did
not obey the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He
refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
At about that time the Lord began to cut down the size of Israel’s territory. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country east of the
Jordan River, including all of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. He
conquered the area from the town of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge to as far
north as Gilead and Bashan.
The rest of the events in Jehu’s reign—everything he did and all his
a chievements—a re recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.
When Jehu died, he was buried in Samaria. Then his son Jehoahaz
became the next king. In all, Jehu reigned over Israel from Samaria for
twenty-eight years.
When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah, learned that her
son was dead, she began to destroy the rest of the royal family. But Ahazi
ah’s sister Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah’s infant
son, Joash, and stole him away from among the rest of the king’s children,
who were about to be killed. She put Joash and his nurse in a bedroom,
and they hid him from Athaliah, so the child was not murdered. Joash
remained hidden in the Temple of the Lord for six years while Athaliah
ruled over the land.
In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign, Jehoiada the priest summoned
the commanders, the Carite mercenaries, and the palace guards to come
to the Temple of the Lord. He made a solemn pact with them and made
them swear an oath of loyalty there in the Lord’s Temple; then he showed
them the king’s son.
Jehoiada told them, “This is what you must do. A third of you who are
on duty on the Sabbath are to guard the royal palace itself. Another third of