A Bible Story
My favorite bible story in that it captures the horror and atrocities that so many believers seem to either not know about, forget about, deny or gloss over.II Kings chapters 9 & 10 - the story of Jehu the hit-man
caution: due to violence, may not be appropriate for small childrenAt this point in time, God speaks through Elisha the prophet (disciple of and successor to Elijah), who directs Jehu, a high ranking soldier of King Ahab, to "strike down the house of Ahab your master". As near as I can figure, this is mainly because Ahab is worshipping some other god.
Jehu is now made "King" by God, but in my opinion, "hit-man" might be a better description. Jehu approaches King Joram (who is with King Ahaziah of Judah). Joram sends out two messengers, to ask if Jehu comes in peace, which seems like a very kindly and um, peaceful thing to do. Let's see what God's representative does with this. Jehu snides to the messengers, "what have you to do with peace?" and has them ride behind him, taking them into custody as it were, rather than letting them get word back to Joram. When they finally meet up with Joram, Joram himself asks Jehu if he comes in peace, to which Jehu replies, "not as long as your mother Jezebel is such a whore and idol worshiper!" Joram warns Ahaziah "it's a trap!" and as he flees, Jehu shoots him, in cowardly fashion, in the back with an arrow between his shoulder blades. They chase after Ahaziah and kill him also.
Confirmed kills (of peaceable souls): 2
Jehu marches on to Jezreel, where they come upon Jezebel. (This is the "original" Jezebel, probably mainly in trouble with God for introducing the worship of Baal to the area, but also for having Naboth killed for his vineyard land, which he refused to sell. "Jezebel" later becomes a general term for "bad" women). Jezebel also asks Jehu if he comes in peace. No such luck. They throw her down and stomp her to death, then settle down for a bit of Jezebel's food and wine, now that she won't be needing it anymore.
Confirmed kills: 3
Jehu then starts his official campaign against King Ahab. He sends word to the people there, specifically the elders and the guardians of Ahab's seventy children, to take over Ahab's throne and choose the best son to be King. But they were too scared to do it on their own. But then they agree to join forces with Jehu and do what he says. So Jehu now tells them to kill ALL of Ahab's seventy sons and to cut off their heads. And they obey, but apparently that wasn't quite gruesome enough so they pile the severed heads into baskets and leave them at King Ahab's gate. Horrifying. And of course, so reasonable, given that initially it was going to be okay to leave them all alive.
Confirmed kills: 73
The next morning, Jehu makes a pronouncement and then kills off all the remainders of the house of Ahab at Jezreel, "all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining." Again, horrifying, egregious, unnecessary. (kills unknown)
Confirmed kills: 73+
On the way to Samaria, Jehu meets forty-two of Ahaziah's kinsmen, and initially says, "take them alive." Of course Jehu, as a man of God, will keep his word. Nope. He slays them all at the pit of Betheked.
Confirmed kills: 115+
When he gets to Samaria, Jehu slew "all that remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out." (kills unknown)
Confirmed kills: 115++
We can practically see Jehu rubbing his hands with glee, plotting to kill the followers of Baal as he sarcastically says, "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much" (heh heh). Jehu deceptively sets up a fake worship service for the followers of Baal, saying that he has "a great sacrifice to offer to Baal; whoever is missing shall not live." They go through the motions of a solemn assembly for Baal, complete with vestments, sacrifices, and burnt offerings. He makes sure that all the followers of Baal are inside, and then has his eighty men slay all of them. They demolish the statue of Baal, and turn the place into a latrine. (kills unknown)
Confirmed kills: 115 +remainders at Jezreel +remainders in Samaria +all Baal worshippers
Estimated total kills: hundreds
That's pretty much the end of the story. After all the lies and atrocities, God says to Jehu, "because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel."
This, to me, is absolutely despicable behavior, and yet to God, this is good, and rewarding a lying, child-killing, homicidal maniac is the best plan that an omniscient being can come up with. Right. Frightening stuff, as I'm sure it was intended to be.
Oh yeah. What was that pesky 6th commandment, anyway?