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Some
women’s names seem to go out of style for a while.
For instance, the name Gertrude does not seem to be a popular name for
girls today. Minerva
and Oma are not popular.
Neither is Mabel now days.
But one name has been unpopular for centuries among Israelite women
especially. It
was a name that seemed to mean “chaste” or “unconnected” or “unhusbanded”.
Her name was
Jezebel! She
was the daughter of a king (1Kings 16:31), the wife of a king, the mother of
kings, and the mother-in-law of a king and the grandmother of a king.
Marriages are usually happy occasions but God was anything but happy with
this marriage of the king of Israel, Ahab, to Jezebel the daughter of the king
of Sidon. Sidon
was filled with Baal and Asherah worship.
Asherah was Baal’s cohort and many sexual practices in vice took place
as a result of their worship.
Following her hated marriage to Ahab she moved to Jezreel where the
king’s house was.
She brought Baal worship and Asherah worship into Israel with their
legalized prostitution (1 Kings 16:32-33).
Ahab accommodated her in this paganism resulting in God’s sending
Elijah to oppose this Baal worship and bring a 3-year drought into the land (ch.
17:1-2).
Jezebel tried to kill all the prophets of the Eternal (1Kings 18:1-4).
But in the third year of the drought, Elijah was sent to Ahab who had
been searching for him.
Elijah decided to have all the prophets of Baal and Asherah meet with him
and they would call on their gods and he would call on the Eternal.
The one who answered by fire would be the true God (1Kings 18).
Elijah was told that Jezebel had tried to kill the prophets of God.
But Obadiah, Ahab’s servant, hid 100 of them in caves and fed them with
bread and water.
By contrast, the prophets of Baal and Asherah ate from Jezebel’s table
– the sustenance of the king’s palace (chap. 18:19).
When the people saw that the Eternal was the true God and that the
prophets of Baal and Asherah (not “groves” as in the KJV) could not call on
their god for anything, they sided with Elijah who asked them to seize and
destroy all the prophets of Baal.
When Ahab told Jezebel about this she was furious and vowed to kill
Elijah who fled to the southern area.
There were two major crimes that infuriated God against Jezebel.
One was killing God’s prophets.
But the one that provoked God to pronounce destruction on her was the
incident of Naboth’s vineyard (chap. 21:1-10).
This passage shows just who was boss in the Ahab-Jezebel union.
Ahab wanted the vineyard of Naboth but when Naboth would not sell it to
him, he became depressed and unhappy.
Jezebel asked him why he looked so unhappy and he told her.
She stated, “Do you now reign over Israel?”
In other words, “Are you the king or not?”
“Cheer up”, she said, “I will give you the vineyard of Naboth.”
(1Kings 21:6).
In effect, she showed who really was the ruler of Israel!
What she did was, in effect, to murder Naboth but setting up false
witnesses to claim they heard Naboth curse the king.
They took him out and had him killed.
They also killed his sons (2Kings 9:26).
This was so heinous a crime that God sent Elijah to state that He was
going to destroy Ahab and all his children and that Jezebel’s body would be
eaten by dogs in the area of Jezreel where they lived. Ahab’s death was
prophesied and it came to pass (1Kngs 21; 22:34-40).
Following that Ahaziah his son became king but fell through a latticework
and because he sought Baalzebub he died (2Kngs 1:1-2, 17).
Joram reigned in his place and was finally killed (2Kngs 8:22-26).
His son, Amaziah (named for his brother) became king –Jezebel’s
grandson.
Ahab had given his daughter in marriage to Jehoshaphat’s
son. His
name was Jehoram and he walked in the ways of Ahab because Jezebel was his
mother-in-law and he was influenced by her and his wife (2Chron. 21:5-7;
22:1-4).
Jezebel’s death was in ignominy.
Dogs consumed her body and she had no burial place (2Kngs 9:27-37).
Jezebel was a strong willed woman who held power for more than 30 years.
She married to a weak willed man who never seemed to stand up to her for
anything. It
was said of Ahab that he “sold himself to do evil” ((1Kings 21:25).
It is not wrong for a woman
to be strong or strong willed.
Consider the Proverbs 31 woman and other great women.
Strong will is not a problem.
Evil will is!
She was the very opposite of Sarah, Ruth and the holy women of old.
No Israelite mother would ever name her daughter, Jezebel, for that name
is synonymous with evil doings (Rev. 2:20).
She perished and her name is only used as an example of evil,
manipulation and destruction – a warning to all who would follow her evil
ways!
– David L. Antion