Jezebel! One of the most sinister figures in the Word of God! This wicked woman not only wrought incalculable mischief amongst God’s chosen earthly people in the days of Elijah’s testimony; her name is used by the Holy Spirit in Revelation 2:20 as the symbol of a frightful system of evil which has intruded itself into a more sacred circle than Israel ever was. One of Ahab’s many sins was his marriage with idolatrous Jezebel. “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” (1 Kings 16:31). The Israelites were expressly forbidden to intermarry with the corrupt nations of Canaan; “thy daughter shalt thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” The inevitable consequences of disobedience in this respect were divinely stated: “they will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Jehovah be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly” (Deut. 7:3-4). Here there is no suggestion that a God-fearing husband or wile might win for the truth an ungodly partner; the very opposite result in sure. The influence of a woman over a man is considerable; it is of the greatest importance therefore that everyone who knows God should be divinely mated. Many a man besides Ahab has been ruined by a marriage contract entered into in defiance of the Word of God. A great contrast to Jezebel is found in Abigail. Well might David, after she had restrained him from violence, say, “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy advice” (1 Sam. 25:32). Happy is the man who in any age and in any land, meets an Abigail!
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! 1 Kings 21:22 suggests that his whole course might have been different had his wife been an Abigail instead of Jezebel. When Elijah pronounced the divine sentence upon him after the murder of Naboth, we read that “he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.” This was excellent; and Jehovah so far relented towards him that the judgment was at least deferred. No man’s weakness of character excuses his wickedness; still, God in His pitifulness, does take account of the influences which surround us all. “There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up” (1 Kings 21:25). But he should never have married the woman!
Idolatry was no new evil amongst God’s favored but faithless people Israel. Their whole course in this respect is traced with much detail in Ezekiel 20. In Egypt, before the deliverance, they worshipped the gods around them (ver. 8); they worshipped idols in the wilderness, although perhaps covertly (ver. 13), and they worshipped idols in the land (ver. 28). The worship of Baal in particular is noted in Judg. 2:11-13; Gideon was instructed by God to throw down the altar of Baal which his father had erected, and also to cut down the Asherah which stood by it (Judg. 6:25); just before Jephthah was raised up for the people’s deliverance, they confessed that they had forsaken God, and served Baalim (Judg. 10:10).
The “Groves” so frequently referred to in the history of Ahab and Elijah were really statues of Ashtoreth. Baal seems to have represented the sun, and Ashtoreth the moon. In the divine indictment of the Northern Kingdom, when the people were carried captive into Assyria, we read: “they left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal” 2 Kings 17:16. Note how “all the host of heaven” is here linked with Baal. In Jeremiah 7:18 Ashtoreth is called “the queen of heaven.” From Job 31:26-27 we gather that homage to the sun and moon was the earliest form of idolatry.
There was a moment in Samuel’s day when this evil was apparently sincerely judged. The prophet urged the people to put away the strange gods from amongst them, and prepare their hearts to serve Jehovah only. “Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtoreth, and served Jehovah only” (Sam. 7:3-4). This was good, for Jehovah is a jealous God, and will not share our hearts with any other (Exod. 20:5; Hos. 10:2). Hence our Lord’s rebuke to the tempter in the wilderness, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 6:10). Jezebel’s coming into Israel put the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth upon a firm footing. It became the religion of the State, with priests and prophets in abundance who ate at the royal table (1 Kings 18:19). With all this wickedness before us, this gross defiance of all the commandments of God, we can understand somewhat the fiery indignation of Elijah’s soul, and the sternness with which be testified against it. Do we feel strongly concerning the widespread disobedience to God and His Word in our own time? Does it turn us to prayer? Does it lead us into complete separation to God, and do we seek courage to protest against it all by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us?
It is important that we should transfer our thoughts for awhile from the first book of Kings to the Apocalypse. The re-appearance of Jezebel’s name in the closing book of the Bible suggests that the gross evils which confronted Elijah long ago confront us also, although in a somewhat different form. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun, and history constantly repeats itself!
The epistles to the seven assemblies in Asia are familiar to all Bible readers. There were doubtless assemblies in the places named, and in each case the message sent was what was needed at that time. Jezebel’s name figures in the epistle to Thyatira. The Lord said, “Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel.... and she teaches” (R.V.). There is a twofold rebuke in these words, which the Authorized Version obscures. First, there was toleration of a wicked person, in defiance of 1 Corinthians 5:13; and second, the person a woman was allowed to teach, contrary to the prohibitions of 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12. What a condition of things in the very first century of our era! What early departure from the revealed will of God! The Thyatiran woman called herself a prophetess; i.e., she claimed to teach by divine authority; but her teaching was vile, and intended to lead souls astray. We need not suppose that her name was really Jezebel; the name is used symbolically. On the same principles Jerusalem is called in Revelation 11:8 “spiritually Sodom and Egypt.” This means that that which should be the holy city of God will be in the world’s final crisis just Sodom and Egypt repeated. The Jezebel of Thyatira, whatever her real name, is just the reproduction of the vile Sidonian princess with whom Elijah had to do.
Thyatira is only mentioned twice in the Scriptures, and in each case a woman’s name is connected with the city. But how great the contrast between pious Lydia, who esteemed it an honor to lodge four preachers of the Gospel (Acts 16:15); and Jezebel who sought to deceive Christ’s servants who would listen to her, and who would fain have destroyed those who ref used to listen.
Although the epistles were addressed to assemblies then existing, the fact that they have been accorded a place in a prophetic book suggests that the scope of their teaching goes beyond what was merely local. The number seven is itself significant. From amongst many assemblies in Proconsular Asia these were divinely selected because their varied conditions furnished a prophetic sketch. In Revelation 2 and 3 we have an outline of the extended history of the professing Church from the days of John down to the end. In Ephesus things were orderly, false pretenders (male or female) had no footing there; but love had grown cold. In Smyrna we have persecution; and in Pergamos we find the Church making her home where Satan’s throne is; i.e. in the world; Thyatira follows with Jezebel. It does not call for much knowledge of Ecclesiastical History to see in these circumstances a picture of what has actually taken place in the Christian circle. First, love grew cold; then God allowed the flames of persecution in order to revive the affections of His saints; then when persecution ceased early in the fourth century, and the Government began to patronize the Church, worldliness became characteristic; and out of that condition. Popery developed, of which the woman Jezebel is the apt symbol.
Here is the Lord’s description of the “Christian” Jezebel. “She calleth herself a prophetess, and she teaches and seduces My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not” (Rev. 2:20-21). In the religious system which Jezebel represents it is affirmed that “the Church” teaches, and that everyone should obey her voice under pain of eternal judgment. The very principle is false. The Church is never represented in the Scriptures as a teacher at all, but as taught by the gifts given by the Head for that purpose (Eph. 6:11). Seven times in Revelation 2 and 3 we read, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches;” therefore, instead of hearkening to the Church, he that would be true to the Lord must hearken to the voice of the Spirit speaking to the Church frequently in terms of censure. The divine voice is heard in the Scriptures, which “are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
Fornication, as mentioned in the Apocalypse, means worldliness illicit intercourse with that from which all who fear God and reverence His Word should keep absolutely separate. Rome has always sought the favor of the world’s rulers for her own ends; and the rulers have too often paid court to the harlot for some supposed advantage to themselves. The going to and from the Vatican on the part of professedly “Protestant” leaders in recent years has been very noticeable, and nothing but mischief can come out of it. The nations and their rulers in their present grave difficulties need GOD. Trafficking with Jezebel is more likely to deepen than to assuage His displeasure with them all.
Rome’s idolatry is notorious. Her images, pictures, shrines, and relics are abundant. The Lord in His mercy has given her ample opportunity to repent of her manifold and long-continued transgressions; but she repents not. Terrible judgments are determined upon the harlot, and upon all her admirers.
From Revelation 2 we must pass briefly to Chapter 17, where we see “Babylon the Great, mother of the harlots and the abominations of the earth” riding upon a scarlet colored beast. This “mystery” woman is the final development of Jezebel, after all true saints have been removed to the Father’s house on high. The fact that the woman is shown riding upon the beast suggests that the religious power will acquire considerable influence over the governments at the time of the end. But the harlot’s supremacy will be short-lived. The infuriated kings will, when the moment is ripe for it, turn upon her, “make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” It is the will of God, little as the kings mean it so (Rev. 17:16-17). This is the end of that which calls itself “the Roman Catholic Church,” largely augmented in its last stage by much that is at this moment distinct from it. Ahab’s Jezebel had a gruesome end (2 Kings 9:33-37); that which has reproduced her amazing enormities, and practiced them in the name of “Him that is holy, Him that is true” (Rev. 3:7) will have a fearful end also. Meantime, God would have all who love His truth stand in stern separation from everything that is even remotely suggestive of Jezebel and Babylon (Rev. 18:4).