"Jehu son of Nimshi...whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab." -2 Chronicles 22:7
This important factum is elucidated in 2 Kings 9, where the LORD says to Jehu: "I anoint you king over the LORD's people Israel. You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets etc.."
Jehu's anointing is special; it is not only a general mandate towards kingship but a particular mandate towards revenge. Vengeance is indeed the LORD's, and it pleases him at times to use humans in meting it out, without their having any proper claim to it. Nor can it be said that this use is always omnibenevolence working good through evil. Let no one say that the sacred act of anointing someone unto a task is profane. The anointing confers holiness and purity on the individual; they and their task are SET APART by God for His own RIGHT ENDS. This means, quite simply, that humans might kill and destroy in utter holiness.
Pacifists must be reminded of this. They must also be continually reminded of the passages in the Gospel of John which identify- without mediacy- Jesus with YHWH (12:42 in particular).
It is the historical Jesus who anoints people for purposes of killing.
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