And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
The verse fixes the time when Ahaziah began to reign over Judah as the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, and so supplies the historical setting for the account of Jezebel and her house. Ahaziah was the king of Judah who accompanied Joram when the two kings went out together to meet Jehu. Jehu killed Ahaziah of Judah along with Joram. God raised up Jehu to execute judgment on the house of Ahab and on Baal worship, bringing Ahab's royal house to extinction by destroying Joram and Jezebel his mother.
The destruction shows the doom of Ahab and of Jezebel sealed when Jezebel secured Naboth's vineyard for Ahab. Ahab's taking possession of the vineyard was covetousness, which is idolatry, and Jezebel overreached herself as ambitious, covetous people do. After carrying out that judgment Jehu rooted Baal worship out of Israel, yet he continued the sin of Jeroboam by using images to represent the true God.
In his fiery zeal Jehu rode in his chariot with the good Jehonadab beside him, crying, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord, destroyed thousands more Baal worshipers, and then gave his devotion at the shrine of the golden calves. That zeal to destroy enemies and avenge self may be proper enough in a civil government, but it is not Christian principle or Christian work. His cry parallels the cries to act against the Turk after America defeated Spain and freed Cuba and the Philippines from Spanish tyranny, warning America after freeing them not to hand the people over to worshipers of the golden calves, the corporations of graceless greed.
The verse fixes the time when Ahaziah began to reign over Judah as the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, and so supplies the historical setting for the account of Jezebel and her house. Ahaziah was the king of Judah who accompanied Joram when the two kings went out together to meet Jehu. Jehu killed Ahaziah of Judah along with Joram. God raised up Jehu to execute judgment on the house of Ahab and on Baal worship, bringing Ahab's royal house to extinction by destroying Joram and Jezebel his mother.
The destruction shows the doom of Ahab and of Jezebel sealed when Jezebel secured Naboth's vineyard for Ahab. Ahab's taking possession of the vineyard was covetousness, which is idolatry, and Jezebel overreached herself as ambitious, covetous people do. After carrying out that judgment Jehu rooted Baal worship out of Israel, yet he continued the sin of Jeroboam by using images to represent the true God.
In his fiery zeal Jehu rode in his chariot with the good Jehonadab beside him, crying, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord, destroyed thousands more Baal worshipers, and then gave his devotion at the shrine of the golden calves. That zeal to destroy enemies and avenge self may be proper enough in a civil government, but it is not Christian principle or Christian work. His cry parallels the cries to act against the Turk after America defeated Spain and freed Cuba and the Philippines from Spanish tyranny, warning America after freeing them not to hand the people over to worshipers of the golden calves, the corporations of graceless greed.