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Four powerful lessons from two pathetic kings...

1. There is grave danger in relationally assimilating with the sinful (8:16-29; cf. Ex. 34:16; 1 Kgs 11:1-5; Ezra 9:1,2; Neh. 10:30; 13:23-27; 2 Cor. 6:14f)
- Marriage
- Close partnerships

2. Justice delayed is not justice overlooked; judgment deferred is not judgment forgotten (9:1f)
- Sin drives everything that is wrong in this world; fleeing evil requires first dealing with sin.

- Revenge is never entrusted to man, although God uses men to carry out His wrath—God’s end goal is to satisfy justice and to bring peace (something people can’t do through revenge) Rom. 12:17-21

- Judgment begins on the inside!

3. Beware when your zeal against wrong things is greater than your passion for what is right (10:28-31)
- Jehu hated Baal worship more than he loved God’s truth, and was more ambitious for power than he was zealous for righteousness (10:11-14; cf. Hosea 1:4)

- Lots of “religious” people know what’s wrong and oppose it, but don’t love what’s right enough to really embrace it.

4. There is no simple straight-line journey from injustice to peace—there must first be justice (9:22-37)
“Have you come in peace? (is all well?)...How can there be peace (idolatry, witchcraft, the blood of the innocent)?
- Peace comes when payment-in-full of that which was violated, brings justice. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
- Peace with God can only come through God’s payment-in-full through Jesus which “justifies” us.

The line from injustice to peace with God is impossible without the justice of Jesus’ substitutionary death—the cost of injustice is too great—only a perfect righteous infinitely costly sacrifice satisfies an impossible debt. Most relational injustices can only find peace through forgiveness the cross has purchased. All human injustice toward God can only find peace and reconciliation in Christ at the cross.

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