Online Sermons
Lesson #11 - Jezebel
Series: One WordLESSON #11 – JEZEBEL
Intro: Jezebel was the notoriously wicked wife of King Ahab who governed the northern kingdom of Israel (c. 874-853 B.C.).
The story of Ahab and Jezebel is recorded in 1Kgs.16:29ff. Ahab & Jezebel’s deaths are noted in 1Kgs.22:34-37 & 2Kgs.9:30ff. In the New Testament the eponym Jezebel is ascribed to another. Who was this Jezebel?
Our English dictionaries define a jezebel as “a scheming wicked woman”.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) JEZEBEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
King Ahab of Israel married princess Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Tyre and Sidon (Phoenicia).
~ Josephus notes that Jezebel’s father Ethbaal had been a priest of Astarte who assassinated the king and usurped his throne.
The marriage of Ahab to Jezebel was essentially an alliance designed to fortify commercial and militaristic interests. With the nation of Aram on the rise, the Phoenicians needed Israel’s agricultural products and land-locked Israel needed the markets made available via wide-ranging fleets of the Phoenicians. From a secular point of view it was a brilliant diplomatic coup.
~ However, religiously it was a DISASTER that led to the nation of Israel becoming wrapped up in idolatry.
As a devotee of Baal, Jezebel imported this pagan worship to Israel.
~ She was not only an ardent supporter of Baal worship but she used her influence to silence the prophets of Jehovah,
even to the point of extermination (1Kgs.18:4). She also tried to execute Elijah (1Kgs.19:1-3).
~ Two important summary statements concerning her are as follows:
1Kgs.21:25 / …(Ahab) sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him.
2Kgs.9:22b / ‘What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many.’
Jezebel was eventually killed by Jehu and her flesh was consumed by dogs as Elijah predicted. cf. Kgs.21:19 with 2Kgs.9:30f.
2) JEZEBEL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The only mentioning of Jezebel in the New Testament is found in Rev.2:20 in the Lord’s message to the church at Thyatira. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman JEZEBEL, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches
and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
? As to the identity of this Jezebel, the following interpretations are sometimes offered.
1) She was actually a first-century prophetess who attempted to lead Christians astray.
e.g., Acts 21:9-10 mentions that Philip the evangelist had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.
2) My view is that JEZEBEL was an epithet (i.e., a symbolic name) for AN APOSTATE JERUSALEM.
While there were many false teachers who troubled the church, none were more pronounced than Jerusalem’s judaizers.
~ In Rev.11:8, Jerusalem the great city is symbolically called SODOM and EGYPT, two of ancient Israel’s arch-antagonist.
Note: There is only one great city being judged in the book of Revelation and this city was that which crucified Jesus.
~ In Rev.16:19-20 that great city is called BABYLON (another reference to one of Israel’s wicked enemies).
~ In Rev.17:1 & 5, Jerusalem is spoken of as THE GREAT HARLOT … and the mother of all harlots
~ In Rev.18:10 we read, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.
cf. Rev.18:2, 16, 19, 21 & 24. Note, in particular how vs.24 parallels Jesus’ words to Jerusalem in Mt.23:34-36 - -
In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.
