Jezebel

Don’t be misled; remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it:
a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows! If he sows to please
his own wrong desires, he will be planting seeds of evil and he will surely
reap a harvest of spiritual decay and death; but if he plants the good things
of the Spirit, he will reap the everlasting life that the Holy Spirit gives
him. —Galatians 6:7-8 TLB

READ: 1 Kings 18; 1 Kings 19:1-3; 1 Kings 21:5-16

Queen Jezebel could hardly contain her anger. As she rested in her
summer palace in Jezreel, she listened intently to the report of her
husband, who had just returned from a trip to Mount Carmel.

“You should have seen what Elijah did,” King Ahab said, shaking his head.
His wife had been expecting a different beginning to the tale of what
happened when Elijah challenged the priests of the god Baal to measure
their strength against the strength of his God. This story should not be
about Elijah!

Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, whose people
lived in the country north of Israel. Her father was not merely a king over
his people—he was also a priest of Baal.

After Jezebel married King Ahab, she introduced the worship of Baal into
Israel. This religion—crude and inhuman—was known for its child
sacrifices. Because of Jezebel’s influence, her husband surpassed
everyone else in doing what was wrong in the sight of God. She
“encouraged him to do every sort of evil.” She was firmly dedicated to the
worship of idols.

Ahab, a weak man, became a willing instrument in Jezebel’s hands and

offended the Lord God more than any king before him. The worst of his
many sins was his marriage to the idol-loving Jezebel. He, an Israelite king,
began serving Baal—because of her and with her.
How do you respond when others try to exert influence over your faith
or speak strongly about different beliefs?

Through Ahab’s influence, Baal then took over the place of the living God in
the Israelites’ hearts. But Jezebel was not satisfied; she undermined the
Hebrew religion till nearly all the people accepted Baal as their god. The
queen began to exercise more and more power over her husband, till finally
she ruled the people.
Perhaps Jezebel herself gave the order to kill all the prophets of the God of
Israel. But Obadiah, the foreman of Ahab’s household, saved the lives of a
hundred prophets by hiding them in a cave at the risk of his own life.

Jezebel, however, continued to encourage the worship of Baal. She

supported the prophets of Baal personally, feeding four hundred of them
every day at her own table.

In Jezebel’s thinking, the God of Israel was equal to Baal. She considered
Yahweh to be a local god who carried a message just for the Israelites. She
was pleased that Israel’s God had seemingly been unable to keep pace
with her god, Baal, within His supposedly chosen nation. So when Elijah
put forth the challenge to the priests of Baal, she was sure Baal would be
victorious. Were her priests not in the majority? So 450 priests of Baal were
matched against one lone prophet of the true God of Israel.

Do you ever feel as though God is silent while the “gods” of this
world are winning the day? What does this story teach you?

According to plan, two altars were built. One was for the Lord God, the
other for Baal. The true God had to prove Himself by sending fire to light
the wood. No human being was allowed to kindle the fire.
The priests of Baal began their ceremonies first, shouting until their throats
were hoarse. When they hadn’t received a reply by noon—no fire had
come down on their altar—they wounded themselves terribly with knives
and swords until blood gushed out. Although they continued to rave all
afternoon, their god remained silent. He was a lifeless god, incapable of
giving an answer even when 450 of his servants called on him in ecstasy.

Then Elijah started repairing the altar of his God, the living God, which had
been torn down. He worked alone, calmly stacking twelve stones, each of
which represented on of the twelve tribes of Israel.

To mark the contrast and at the same time to testify to his faith openly, he
dug a trench around the altar about three feet wide. Then he arranged the
wood and laid a bull on top. Four barrels of water were then poured over
the sacrificial carcass and the wood. That ritual was repeated three times,
clearly putting Elijah’s God at a disadvantage.

After he finished all the preparations, Elijah walked up to the altar and
pleaded, “Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that these people will know that
you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.

That very moment fire flashed down from heaven and completely burned
up the sacrifice, wood, water, stones, and even the dust. It was a
breathtaking and awesome event.

There was no doubt who the true God was. The Israelite people who had
glided away to idolatry came to their senses. Those who had shown no
preference at the beginning of the contest were now convinced.

How do our lives manifest our belief in a powerful God? What might
change in how you approach a difficult situation if you dwelt on God’s
power before responding?

Read the rest of Jezebel’s story in Wanderers by Gien Karssen—and in the

Old Testament in 1 Kings.