- 140-
We believe the latter to have been the case, and it seems evidenced even by the
circumstance that Jehonadab came from Samaria to meet Jehu. We suppose that the
ministry of Elijah had made the deepest impression on Jehonadab and his tribe. The
very appearance and bearing of the prophet would appeal to them, and his words
seem as those of a second Moses. Earnestly they waited for the results of his mission
and of that of Elisha. And when the word of Jehovah to and by Elijah was being
fulfilled - Hazael made king of Syria, Jehu king of Israel, and the house of Ahab
destroyed, root and branches - they would naturally turn to Jehu, in the hope that a
national return to Jehovah would follow. It was a kind of Old Testament John the
Baptist's hope of a kingdom of God. Feelings such as these prompted Jehonadab to
go and meet Jehu, while the latter, knowing the deep impression which the Rechabite
movement in favor of the reformation of Elijah had produced in the land, would be
anxious to secure his public support, perhaps even - so strange and mixed are our
motives - to gain his approbation. But what Jehonadab saw of Jehu must soon have
convinced him that he was not one to carry out an Elijah-movement in its positive
and spiritual aspect, however fitted an instrument he might be to execute Divine
punishment. And so Jehonadab left Jehu to perpetuate in his own tribe the testimony
of Elijah, by making them Nazarites for ever, thus symbolizing their dedication to
God, and by ordering them to be conspicuously strangers in the land, thus setting
forth their expectation of the judgments which Elijah had predicted upon apostate
Israel.
We are now prepared to accompany Jehonadab, as after responding to Jehu's anxious
challenge about his feelings toward him, he mounted Jehu's chariot to go with him
and see his zeal for Jehovah. The first measure of the conqueror was to repeat in
Samaria what he had done in Jezreel, and to kill all related to or connected with the
family of Ahab. His next was, by a truly Eastern device, to seize and destroy the
adherents of the religious rites introduced under the late regime. Although this was in
fulfillment of his mission, it will be observed that it also afforded the best means of
establishing his own rule, since the national worship of Baal was identified with the
house of Ahab. Accordingly we imagine that when Jehu publicly announced that he
meant to serve Baal even much more than Ahab, and proclaimed a solemn assembly
for Baal, the gathering would be thoroughly representative. First, as we understand it,
Jehu summoned all the prophets and priests of Baal, and "all his servants" - either the
leading laity generally, or else those in Samaria itself - ostensibly to make
preparation for his great sacrifice. Next, similar proclamation was made throughout
the country. In both cases the object was to secure the attendance of all professed
worshippers of Baal. On the day appointed, the courts of the Temple of Baal were
thronged "from one opening to the other [the opposite]." To make the leaders of the
new religion the more prominent, Jehu now directed that each of them should be
arrayed in festive vestments,^295 and then, to prevent any possible mistake, since some
of the servants of Jehovah might have followed Jehu and Jehonadab to the house of
(^)