Jehu's Deception

2 Kings 10:18-28 tells of how King Jehu of Israel lures the ministers of Baal to their doom by announcing to all the land that servants of Baal are to gather or be killed.  He insists that, whereas Ahab before him served Baal a little, he will serve Baal much.  The promise of a great sacrifice to Baal and/or the threat of death for refraining succeeds in bringing the priests of the pagan pseudo-deity together.  The temple of the false god becomes full, and those in allegiance to Baal worship start their sacrifices.  Jehu has lied, as is affirmed early in this passage (10:19).  He has assembled the priests to slaughter them.  This he accomplishes before having the temple's sacred stone carried out and burned and its structure torn down.

The Bible does not say that God approved of the lies used to set these events in motion.  Even so, Mosaic Law in isolation from this narrative already indicates that God approves of what followed, that being the killing of Baal's priests.  Anyone who sacrifices to another/false deity (Exodus 22:20), worships nature or other gods (Deuteronomy 17:2-7), or even entices others to worship something besides Yahweh (Deuteronomy 13:6-11) deserves to die, so it is not the ultimate outcome itself, the death of the priests of Baal, that would be problematic.  His methods leading up to the actual killing would be the issue.  The wording very directly asserts that Jehu did act deceitfully, and intentionally so.

Under ordinary circumstances, one is to never lie (Leviticus 19:11).  In fact, God is said to hate deceitful people (Deuteronomy 25:15-16, Psalm 5:5-6), who deserve to be destroyed in the lake of fire and kept outside of New Jerusalem (Revelation 20:15, 21:8, 22:15).  Lying to avert a greater sin on one's own part or someone else's is the better course of action than the alternative, and the story of the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1, as well as that of Rahab and the Israelite spies in the book of Joshua, exemplifies this.  They are all blessed in one way or another for purposefully misleading Pharaoh or the king of Jericho and his servants respectively, all of whom were enemies of God.

With Jehu, there was no need to lie to simply execute priests of Baal, which is already just in itself and does not require deception.  He does not deceive in order to save the life of someone who does not deserve to die, like Shiphrah and Puah.  His lies are gratuitous.  Yes, the killing of those who worship other gods/goddesses is not evil, and God does tell Jehu afterward that he has done what is right (2 Kings 10:30), albeit partially in reference to killing the sons of Ahab before this.  Jehu's actions towards the ministers of Baal are not fully righteous or fully evil.  Some of God's commands are upheld during this time, and some are not.

Lies are not all Jehu is guilty of from this point in the account onward.  Jehu does destroy Baal worship in Israel (10:28), yet he does not turn away from the worship of golden calves (10:29).  Immediately after telling of how God commended Jehu in verse 30, verse 31 says again emphasizes that he (the king) did not perfectly adhere to Mosaic Law, as is demanded of us all (Deuteronomy 30:11, Ecclesiastes 12:14, Malachi 3:6).  As with many monarchs of 1 and 2 Kings, not excluding David and Solomon, Jehu errs severely when he does refuse to do all of what is obligatory.  Yahweh rewards his selective righteousness by saying his descendants would reign to the fourth generation (2 Kings 10:30 again)--even as he begins decreasing the size of Israel's territory (10:32-33) during the rule of a very morally mixed man.