QUESTION:  Please explain who Jezebel is.

 

ANSWER:   1 Kings 16:30-31 tells us, “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.”  Ahab, the king of Israel was an evil man who had no regard for walking in obedience to the Lord.  He married Jezebel and served and worshipped Baal, a false god among the Canaanites.

Jezebel was especially evil and ferocious.  1 Kings 18:4 tells us that, “…when Jezebel cut off (killed) the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)  1 Kings 18:19 tells us that Jezebel had 450 prophets of Baal at her table.  She killed the prophets of the Lord and entertained the false god of the Canaanites.  Later in 1 Kings 18, Elijah made a great show of proving that the Lord God is the true God and Baal was a false god who had no power.  We then read in verse 40, “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.”  Elijah killed all these false prophets of this false god, Baal.

We then read in 1 Kings 19:1-3, “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.”  Even after accomplishing great things for the Lord, Elijah was so afraid of Jezebel that he ran for his life after she told him that she would kill him.

Eventually, because of Ahab’s great sin, Elijah was sent to him with a message of doom from the Lord.  1 Kings 21:19 says, “And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.”  Elijah also prophesied Jezebel’s death in verse 23, “And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.”

After the death of Ahab, we read that King Jehu visited Jezreel and said of Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:33-36, “And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.”  This then ended the life of Jezebel, an enemy of the Lord and His people.

Jezebel is mentioned once in the New Testament.  Revelation 2:20 says, “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”  Here she is mentioned as a symbol of an evil seducing system in the professing church.

The name Jezebel means ‘unchaste’ or impure.  I’m reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste (pure) virgin to Christ.”  1 Timothy 5:22 instructs us, “…keep thyself pure.”  May we be so careful as not to entertain any false gods that tend to come in between us and the Lord.  Rather, let us keep ourselves pure by walking with the Lord and obeying His Word. (219.2)