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Response
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel served as leaders of the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of great evil in the land. King Ahab was an Israelite monarch who married a Sidonian woman named Jezebel and became involved in the worship of Baal, the deity of her people. Ahab constructed a temple to Baal in the capital city of Samaria and erected an Asherah pole for pagan rituals. It is written, “Ahab did more to anger the LORD, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel who preceded him” «And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. », (1 Kings 16:33).
Jezebel was also infamous for her wicked deeds. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians. Following her marriage to Ahab, her initial recorded act was the massacre of the prophets of the Lord «for it was so, when Jezebel cut off 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 18:4). Obadiah, a devout official in Ahab’s court, recounted how Jezebel slew numerous prophets, despite his attempts to protect them: “Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water?” (1 Kings 18:13-14).
It was during Ahab and Jezebel’s reign that Elijah served as the prophet in Israel. While Satan had his agents on the throne, God had His servant in the field, performing miracles and leading a revival against Baal worship. The three-and-a-half-year drought that Elijah prayed for was part of G.God’s judgment on the wickedness of the nation and its leaders.
When Elijah confronted Ahab near the end of the drought, the king said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” «And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? », (1 Kings 18:17). But Ahab had it wrong. Elijah was not the one bringing trouble on the land. The prophet corrected the king: “I have not made trouble for Israel . . . but you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals” (verse 18).
After Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal and had them killed at Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18), Jezebel issued a death threat against him «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 tomorrow about this time. », (1 Kings 19:2). The queen went on to plot against Naboth, the innocent owner of a vineyard that Ahab coveted. Jezebel had Naboth killed so the king could confiscate his land (1 Kings 21), and she prodded her husband into many other wicked acts besides: “There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited” «But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. », (1 Kings 21:25).
Ahab’s death was predicted by the prophets Elijah and Micaiah (1 Kings 21:19;1 Kings 22:28). Jezebel’s gruesome death was also predicted by Elijah «And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, T
He dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” , (1 Kings 21:23). True to the prophecy, Ahab was killed in a battle with Syria. Later, Jezebel was thrown from a tower, “and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her” “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.” , (2 Kings 9:33). Then, “when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands” “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.” , (2 Kings 9:35). Just as Elijah had said, the dogs ate Jezebel.
In Revelation 2:20, Jezebel’s reputation lives on as Jesus speaks against the church at Thyatira: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” The woman’s name in Thyatira was probably not literally “Jezebel,” but her immorality and idolatry in preying upon God’s people was very Jezebel-like.
Both Ahab and Jezebel were leaders of God’s people who forsook the Lord and served other gods. The royal couple earned a reputation for sin and violence, and they both suffered violent deaths as part of God’s judgment on their actions.
