Last time around, some evangelicals compared Donald Trump to the biblical king Cyrus as an imperfect instrument of God’s work. This time around, some of those same evangelicals have shifted biblical metaphors.
Now, Trump is a modern-day Jehu. In case you’re not up to speed on all the kings of the Hebrew Bible, he’s the one who ordered Jezebel killed, took over the Kingdom of Israel and got rid of idols — well, most of them. And that eventually led to God’s judgment against Jehu as well.
The website GotQuestions summarizes Jehu story as thus: “Jehu was a reformer of sorts who was used by God to clean up the mess that Ahab had made. Of King Ahab it is recorded that he ‘did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him’ (1 Kings 16:30). Marrying Jezebel, daughter of the king of the Sidonians, Ahab was seduced into her idolatrous worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. Although God was patient for a time with Ahab, his many sins eventually brought God’s judgment upon his family line (1 Kings 21:20–22). This judgment first lands upon Ahab’s own head, as he is shot and killed in a battle against the Arameans (1 Kings 22:34–38).”
It’s a bloody story told in 2 Kings.
GotQuestions adds this interpretation: “Jehu left no man standing who was in alliance with King Ahab, as God had commanded long before through Elijah. Entering the temple of Baal, Jehu slaughtered all the priests of Baal and destroyed the temple and its sacred stone, thus eradicating Baal worship in Israel (2 Kings 10:23–28).”
“Entering the temple of Baal, Jehu slaughtered all the priests of Baal and destroyed the temple and its sacred stone.”
Oh, and this too: “The Lord blessed Jehu for his obedience, granting him a dynasty that would last to the fourth generation.”
One of those comparing Trump to Jehu is Jonathan Cahn, the 65-year-old son of a Holocaust refugee who leads a Messianic congregation, Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, N.J. He’s also an author and self-declared prophet linked to the New Apostolic Reformation.
Days before the U.S. presidential election, Cahn spoke at a National Faith Summit held outside Atlanta. There he made a prophecy about Trump he also posted to his YouTube channel, which has more than 1 million followers.
“President Trump, you were born into the world to be a trumpet of God, a vessel of the Lord in the hands of God. God called you to walk according to the template; He called you according to the template of Jehu, the warrior king,” Cahn said.
The word “template” is a key to his statement, which builds on the idea that God works the same way today as God did in the past, that there is a “template” for God’s work.
Jonathan Cahn demonstratiing how to blow a shofar during a live audience appearance on the Christian Broadcasting Network. (Screencap)
Earlier, Cahn compared the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to God’s rebuke to Israel and said God was sending a message to repent and be cleansed of legalized abortion and gay rights. That was the theme of his book The Harbinger, which spent 100 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold 2 million copies.
Cahn has been comparing Trump to Jehu since 2016 — an idea explained in his book The Paradigm.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency summarized: “Just as Jehu killed the idol-worshippers who had taken over the kingdom, Trump would ‘drain the swamp’ of Washington and ‘make America great again. In this contemporary rendition, Hillary and Bill Clinton play the role of Ahab and Jezebel, the evil rulers who had led the kingdom astray. Jezebel is also seen as wicked in the Jewish tradition, but she is far more prominent as a symbol in evangelical discourse today, representing feminism, sexual promiscuity, and moral decay.”
As an add-on to this, some evangelical leaders called Kamala Harris “Jezebel” when she was elected vice president in 2020. Likewise, Trump has added fuel to the fire by calling all manner of names including saying she is “a totally corrupt person.”
Che Ahn
Now, Cahn is not alone in seeing Trump as a Jehu figure who will take down Harris as a Jezebel figure.
At the Million Women March on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Oct. 12, NAR prophet Ché Ahn predicted Trump’s victory and declared, “Jehu will cast down Jezebel.”
All of this is very disturbing to Matthew Taylor, a scholar who specializes in the New Apostolic Reformation. He works with the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore and is author of a new book on the NAR.
In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Taylor said: “Since Harris became the candidate this summer, we’ve seen the Jehu image really rise to the surface much more,. This is the story (Cahn and Ahn) want running through their followers’ heads, their lens for interpreting the election and its aftermath.”
And that portends violence, Taylor warned in a post on X: “If Trump wins in this election, the Jehu ‘template’ tells Trump’s Christian supporters: Some real-world violence may be needed to purge America of her demons.”
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