Day 112 2 Kings 9-11

            Elisha sends a member of his prophet corps to go anoint Jehu the new king of Israel so he can overthrow the family of Ahab and make good on God’s decree that Ahab and his family be wiped out.

            The prophet shows up on Jehu’s doorstep, tells him he’s the new king of Israel and that Jezebel and all of Ahab’s family are going to die horribly, the implication being that Jehu is going to help kill them, then the prophet immediately opens the door and runs, runs, away back to Elisha.  Jehu, kind of confused, comes back outside and tells his men about what happened (he was a commander in the military) and his men lay out their cloaks and declare him king.

            This is the third anointment Elijah was told about by God after the anointment of Hazael as king of Aram and Elisha as his own successor.

            Jehu rode up to the front door of king Joram, son of Ahab, and shot him in the back with an arrow, then shot Ahaziah, the king of Judah, but he ran away to Megiddo and died there.

            Jehu rode up to Jazebel’s tower and yelled up the the servents there asking if any were loyal to him.  A couple gave him the nod so he commanded them to throw Jezebel down.  She died from the fall and then Jehu’s men’s horses trampled her body.  They went out later to bury her but the body was gone, presumably eaten by dogs like God said it would be.

            Ahab had 70 sons spread across the nation and Jehu sent letters to the officials in all the cities they were in and told them to come claim the thrown of Israel if they would like it.  Everyone was afraid of Jehu, so they sent messages back to him saying that no, thank you, but no one would like to be king that much.  Jehu wrote a second time to the officials of the towns and told them that if they were going to follow him like they said they would, order number one was to send him the heads of all of Ahab’s sons.  So that’s what they did.

            Ahab’s family had worked it way into the royal family of Judah as well, so Jehu had to kill some of them too.  All three appointments have been made now though and the family of Ahab wiped from the Earth, so I guess that’s the end of that prophecy.