2 Kings 9

Before we get into the meat of today’s blog, I have to point out this verse because it actually made me laugh out loud: "The guard in the watchtower said [to the king], 'Your Majesty, the rider got there, but he isn’t coming back either. Wait a minute! That one man is driving like he’s crazy—it must be Jehu!'" (vs 20) Ha! It seems there were bad drivers all the way back in Bible times. Either that, or Jehu was a teenager.

Anyways, the point of today’s blog centers on the issue of peace. Jehu had been anointed as the new king of Israel and commissioned to fulfill God’s prophecy about Ahab’s family—which basically entailed killing Jehoram and Jezebel. So Jehu set off to find Jehoram. When he was approaching, Jehoram sent a number of messengers out to him with the question: Do you come in peace?

Finally, after realizing it was Jehu (because he was driving like a crazy person), Jehoram went out to meet him personally. And he asked him the same question: "Have you come in peace, Jehu?" (vs 22) Jehoram was worried about peace. There is one of two possibilities here. He was either worried about his own personal safety, or he was asking Jehu if the war with the Arameans was over. Either way, Jehoram was hoping for peace. So he must have been dismayed by Jehu’s response: "How can there be peace as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?" (vs 22)

Jehoram didn’t understand what a lot of people don’t understand: God is the only way to peace. If we are not interested in honoring God and giving Him first place in our lives, we will never experience real peace. We might experience the absence of conflict (even for long periods of time), but that is not the kind of peace only God can give.

God’s kind of peace (as represented in this passage by the Hebrew word shalom) includes the idea of completeness, soundness, safety, prosperity, tranquility, contentment, and friendship. It is an active peace, not just the passive absence of conflict. Jehoram was concerned about the kind of peace that could never last, but God wants to give us the kind of peace that will never disappear. It is something we can only find in Him.

That old saying really is true: Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace.