King-killing has a long history. If you can’t vote them out, you carry them out. But this is different!
Regicide is the purposeful killing of royalty. This had marked Jehu’s life from the moment he was anointed by Elisha’s emissary. But the story of this man exposes a glaring flaw in many who declare their hatred of evil. What happens when they find it within? Note his explanation for the bloodbath. As he approached the two kings, they asked, “Is it peace?” To which he replied, “What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?” (2 Ki 9:22). Now what do we read of his 28-year reign? “Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin” (10:31). But regicide was not limited to the northern kingdom. In Jerusalem, Ahab and Jezebel’s wicked daughter Athaliah saw the tragedy of her son’s death as a golden opportunity: “she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs” (11:1) to claim the monarchy for herself. The consequences of this would be very different from killing Israel’s royalty. They were all pretenders anyway. But Athaliah’s grandchildren were the line of David, and someone from that line would be the promised Messiah! All the royal heirs? Then there was no possibility for a Savior—for your Savior! Oh, wait! “But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being murdered; and they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom, from Athaliah, so that he was not killed. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land” (vv 2-3). Hope seems to hang by a thread, but that thread is as strong as the titanium trustworthiness of God. Whew! That was close!