2 Kings 10:24

2 Kings 10:24 says, And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him.  When the prophets of Baal went in to offer sacrifices, Jehu had appointed eighty men to keep any of them from escaping and told them that if any did escape, the one who allowed this would die.  This would be a strong motivation to keep this from happening.  We will never be able to round up all non-believers today and destroy them, and this isn't what we are called to do.  We are to go out among them and witness to them.  Their fate will always be between God and them.  Fortunately, neither will we be killed for not reaching them, but this should not leave us less motivated to do so.  Verse twenty-five adds, And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.  After Jehu finished the burnt offering, he told the guards to go in and kill the prophets of Baal.  They did this, and then threw their bodies out of the city.  Though we are not called on to kill those who oppose God, after we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice through putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we need to destroy and cast out all those things that were idols in our lives and not allow them to have power over us anymore.  Verse twenty-six continues, And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.  They then took the images of Baal from his temple and destroyed them.  Once more, as stated before, we need to remove every idol from our life once we become a Christian, even if it is something that we have valued highly before.  Verse twenty-seven states, And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.  They then totally destroyed the idol to Baal and broke down his temple.  In our personal life, we are to do the same thing, and I believe we are then to replace the things removed with the works that we do for God.  Removing idols is important but replacing them with works for God is even more important.  Verse twenty-eight adds, Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.  When Jehu did this, he destroyed the worship of Baal in Israel, at least physically.  We may destroy the physical idols that people worship today, but that does not mean that we have stopped their worship of them.  Our emphasis should be on spiritually changing what people worship by leading them to a relationship with Jesus Christ so that they will destroy all the idols in their lives.  Verse twenty-nine continues, Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.  Even though Jehu destroyed the prophets, idols, and temple of Baal, he allowed the idols created by Jeroboam, the golden calves in Bethel, to continue to exist.  We cannot remove some idols from our lives and allow others to exist and be successful in our Christian life.  We must remove everything that would come between God and us.  We can have no golden calves, those things that come between God and us, still allowed to exist in our lives.  Verse thirty declares, And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.  God told Jehu that since he had done well in destroying the house of Ahab that his descendants would sit on the throne for four generations.  Though our relationship to God will not save our children, if we are followers of Christ and obedient to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, it should lead them to want a relationship with Him as well.  Verse thirty-one adds, But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.  Though he removed the family of Ahab and the prophets of Baal, Jehu did not follow God.  We may do everything right physically to show that we are worshipping God, but if we don't really have a personal relationship with Him, it will all be for show.  We cannot be saved simply by removing things from our lives but can only be saved by a personal relationship with Him.