J Philip Bible Readings

We think again today of Jehu's failure to accomplish the moral and spiritual deliverance of Israel. We suggest that his failure was all the more poignant and tragic because he did so much, and had such a pronounced effect on the life of the nation, while still falling short of God's intention. We may venture to use this to illustrate a principle in Christian service. It is sometimes maintained that a particular approach in evangelism or ministry is vindicated be- cause 'it works'. But is this in itself a vindication of it, necessarily? Ought we not rather to go on and ask 'What does it work, and how deeply does it work, and how permanently does it work?' Jehu's campaign 'worked' in the sense that it produced results, and yet it failed in the sight of God; not only so, it failed so significantly that it is said in 32 that 'in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short.' Now there is a great lesson here, if we have ears to hear it. One's concern with the many forms and approaches to evangelism today is not that they do not work - have there not been good results, in many conversions? but that they do not work deliverance in the land, when another kind of approach is likely to do so, and is known to have done so in the past. Look at 31. There was a flaw in Jehu's consecration. The work was not deep enough in his own heart. The fact is, it is easier to slay idolators than to slay the idolatry in our own hearts, just as it is easier to engage in various forms of evangelism than to allow God to make us channels of His grace to men. And the one has often been allowed to become a substitute for the other. It is possible to dissipate spiritual energy in much activity for the accomplishment of comparatively little, and in so doing effectively hinder the deeper purposes of God. For a deeper regeneration in Israel, work would have needed to be done more deeply in Jehu himself. That was where the real failure lay.