Yesterday, we looked the villain Haman and today we are going to look at one of the most infamous women in the Bible – Jezebel. In fact, her name is synonymous with being a wicked, loose woman.
Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab, who was considered one of the most evil kings of Israel. He gave kings everywhere a bad name.
We find the story of Jezebel and Ahab in I Kings 16:28 – 19:3; 21 and 2 Kings 9. It covers a lot of territory that I can’t possibly fit into one blog post unless I make it so long your eyes cross! 🙂 So, we will just go over the basics of her story and then look at what we can learn from her life. Sometimes, a bad example can teach us a lot about what NOT to do.
Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal who was thought to be the high priest to Baal. She was from Sidonian, which just as a side note, was a group of people God had commanded the Israelites to drive out of Canaan. They neglected to do this which is a lesson to us that our disobedience can have some unforeseen consequences even much further down the road.
In order to understand Jezebel, who is thought to have been the high priestess to Asharah, we have to understand who Baal and Asharah were and what their worship looked like. Baal was an ancient Canaanite/Mesopotamian deity associated with agriculture. He was believed to be the giver of life.
Asharah, who was considered to be the consort of Baal, was the goddess of love, sex and fertility.The worship of Baal and Asharah involved base sexual worship (think orgies) and temple prostitution was demanded. In worship to these false deities, human sacrifice was common with children being the most common victims.
Even though Ahab was an Israelite, when he married Jezebel he went right along with this worship and built temples to these gods and basically encouraged its spread throughout the land of Israel. It’s one of the reasons God described Ahab as having done evil more than anyone before him. With Israel’s history of wicked kings, that was saying something.
Jezebel was as evil, if not more so, than her husband. Throughout the verses that tell their story, she is always urging him on and planting evil suggestions in Ahab’s ear. Even though I’ve only met Jezebel through the pages of Scripture, I think it is a pretty safe bet that she had a strong personality. She wielded quite a lot of power for a woman in that day and age. She commanded the deaths of the Lord’s prophets; she brought in a false religious system; she also had 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asharah brought in to serve these gods.
There are three main stories in which Jezebel figures prominently and they cast a pretty strong light on her character. The first is when Jezebel and the prophet Elijah have a throw down to see whose god is greater. Jezebel has her prophets build a huge alter to call down fire but no matter what they do,including cutting themselves, nothing happens. (I personally get a chuckle of how Elijah makes fun of them, asking if their god is asleep or maybe going to the bathroom). Then it’s Elijah’s turn. He douses the whole alter with water and fills a moat around the alter with water. Then he prays simply and God consumes the alter and all the water.
Elijah becomes numero uno on Jezebel’s hit list.
The second time we see Jezebel, she is encouraging Ahab to falsely accuse and have killed someone whose vineyard he coveted.
The final time we see her is at her death when her own servants throw her over a balcony onto the hard stones far below.
One of the big things we need to realize is that Jezebel had numerous chances to repent and turn to a different path throughout her life, but she chose not to.
When I was younger, I kind of saw the God of the Old Testament as one of the Law and judgement, while He showed His grace and mercy in the New Testament. But the thing is, God’s character is consistent throughout the Bible and history.
There was never a king who wasn’t given a chance to repent – even Ahab, who actually did later in his life.
Jezebel missed a lot of the opportunities and wasted the gifts she was given. The first thing she wasted was the opportunity to repent and know the true God of Israel.
When all of her prophets were killed at Elijah’s hand after the big showdown. It was obvious that the gods she worshiped could not compare to Israel’s Jehovah, but instead of repenting and turning to Him, Jezebel was consumed with anger and hatred.
I guess this is another thing we learn from Jezebel. Anger at the messenger can often signal that we are clinging to a false god. We don’t want to hear the message, so we take it out on the messenger.
When criticism comes our way – even if it is wrapped in an unpleasant package or delivery – we need to sift it for the truth that God may want to share with us.
On the flip side of that, we need to realize that sometimes if we have a message from God or His Word, we may become a target of people’s anger. A lot of people – myself included – sometimes get really blindsided by the vitriol directed at them when all they are doing is serving God. It’s not you they are angry at – it’s God.
Jezebel also wasted her authority and influence. Unlike many women back then, Jezebel had a strong personality with the ability to influence others, including her husband. While Ahab wasn’t a push over, Jezebel held him in thrall. He listened to her and he certainly gave her a lot of authority.
Instead of using that influence and authority for good, though, Jezebel used it for evil. She used her authority to order all of God’s prophets killed. She used her influence with her husband to get him to set up a false religion and to kill a man over his land.
Jezebel was considered a very beautiful woman, but she wasted her beauty. Instead of something good, it became a way to manipulate and hurt people. The very day she died, Jezebel tried to seduce Jehu so she could win him to her cause before she was thrown off that balcony.
While Jezebel is an extreme example of what not to do, I think often we have some of the same issues – if on a lesser scale. How many times do we throw away opportunities God gives us? Or have we gotten angry at someone telling us a truth we didn’t want to hear and then bashed them to others or even just in our own thoughts? Have we used our influence for good?
Beth Moore has often said that wives don’t have power, but they have a very important place of influence with our husbands. Are you using that influence for God’s purposes or your own?
While none of us are probably out killing prophets or worshiping obviously false gods like Baal, the story of Jezebel makes me stop and take stock of what I AM doing with the opportunities and influence God has given me. It makes me stop and wonder if I am listening to the messages He sends through other people or if I am choosing to be angry about it because I don’t want to hear it.
Do you see any Jezebel in you?
Blessings, Rosanne