Sorcery, palace intrigue, political
power, bloody retribution, and a government coup. Kings and queens, powerful,
influential families, honest men and conniving liars. Sounds like an hour of HBO’s
“Game of Thrones”, doesn’t it? But it’s not; it’s the Bible. (I really don’t
know why people spend their time watching that kind of stuff on television when
they could be reading the real thing.) Anyway, that’s what we’re looking at today
in our pursuit of peace. And what we learn is that peace requires that we cast
aside, or even demolish, those things in our life that God finds detestable.
When we don’t He does some serious house cleaning.
As we open our treasure map today,
we’ll journey forward in it to the second book of Kings, chapter 9. In it we
find King Ahab has died and Ahaziah—Ahab’s son-in-law—has ascended to the
throne of Judah. And Ahab’s son, Joram, rules over Israel. Even though the
country has split in two, these two relatives maintain good relations with one
another.
But there is BIG problem for Joram.
He’s reigning over Israel, and God has hand-selected another man, named Jehu,
to rule over Israel. God wants Joram OUT. The problem for Ahaziah is that he
has continued in the evil ways of Ahab. The Bible says in chapter 8, verse 27:
“And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of
the LORD, like the house of Ahab…”
And Ahaziah and Joram have another
problem. Her name is Jezebel, and she’s the surviving wife of Ahab, the former
queen, Joram’s mother. She’s really why Judah, and the Israelites, started down
a horrid path of idol worship. Baal worship to be exact. The Canaanite god.
Jezebel was not an Israelite. She
was the daughter of the King of Sidon, and she did more influencing of Ahab
than the other way around. She had a man named Naboth murdered because he
refused to sell his prized land to her. And it is she who incited Ahab to, if
not outright abandon, worship of God, to at least combine it with the idol
worship she’d been raised to practice. And that worship was Baal worship.
On the website “The Voice: Biblical
and Theological Resources for Growing Christians”, they explain some of what
occurred in Baal worship, which was focused on a cosmic war between the gods
and bountiful crop production.
“The actual worship of Ba‘al was
carried out in terms of imitative magic
whereby sexual acts by both male and
female temple prostitutes were
understood to arouse Ba‘al who then brought
rain to make Mother Earth
fertile (in some forms of the myth,
represented by a female consort,
Asherah or Astarte).”
Another practice Baal worship is
known for is sacrificing first born children to Baal, in a horrifying practice
of placing the infant on the red hot outstretched hands of the idol. I suppose
it was their version of offering up their “first fruits” to their god.
In essence, they practiced state
sanctioned and promoted prostitution, public demonstration of sex acts, which
everyone was invited to view and participate in, and child sacrifice.
If you read the other accounts of Jezebel
in Scripture, you’ll learn that she is an evil, vengeful, conniving, bloody, demonic
woman who got her daughter married into the House of David and ran the country
with an iron fist. She killed God’s prophets. And God’s has plans for her.
In verses 6-10 of chapter 9, you’ll
read the words of direction given to Jehu by the servant of the prophet Elisha
after he anoints Jehu king. ‘“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I have
anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. You shall strike
down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants
the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of
Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab
all the males in Israel, both bond and free. So I will make the house of Ahab
like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the
son of Ahjah.”
And if that’s not enough, then the
prophet gets to the really gory prophesy. “The dogs shall eat Jezebel on the
plot of ground at Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.’”
Wow! Yuck! When God says he won’t
stand for any idol worship; that His people must NOT compromise in their
worship of Him, He isn’t kidding. And we should take note of it. Serious note.
From that point on, Jehu is on a
covert mission to overthrow Joram and Ahaziah. He knows that there will be no
peace until these two men are killed, along with their descendants. He doesn’t
want a civil war, so to avoid that and succeed in his coup, he must take Joram
and Ahaziah totally by surprise.
In verses 20-22, we find Jehu riding
his chariot furiously toward King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah
riding out in their chariots to meet him, ironically, on the very property that
Jezebel killed Naboth for. When Joram sees Jehu, he asks him if he comes in
peace (Shalom).
And Jehu’s response scares Joram to
death. “What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her
witchcraft are so many?”
And that’s the issue wrapped up in a
nutshell. The effect this evil woman has had on an entire nation, God’s people,
and her children and grandchildren. God will not be mocked. Eventually His
patience comes to an end. He may put up with evil for a while, but eventually
He does something about it, and He does it swiftly.
Joram turns his chariot around and
takes off, and as he fleesd, Jehu kills him with an arrow shot from his bow,
straight through Joram’s heart. After watching this happen, Ahaziah speeds off
in his chariot and is pursued by Jehu and his men. Jehu gives the order to kill
Ahaziah, which the men do. Then Jehu goes searching for Jezebel.
Someone has passed on the
information to her that Jehu is on his way to Jezreel. And what does she do?
She prepares for his visit by putting on her eye makeup, adorning her head, and
then peeping out through the upstairs window at Jehu. Kind of a pathetically
funny picture, isn’t it? An old woman either getting herself all dolled up to
try to influence a man with her looks, or putting on her war paint and royal
robes to remind him of who she is. But I’ll let Dr. J. Vernon McGee describe
the scene for you.
“This is one of the most sordid and
sadistic chapters in history. It is gruesome, it is ghastly, and it is a gory
sight. Added to that, it is grizzly. It is one of the most revolting and
repulsive scenes on the pages of Scripture. Jezebel is the queen mother. She has
been living in luxury in the palace at Jezreel. The terrible prophecy [of her
death and how she would die] of that horrible [prophet] Elijah has not been
fulfilled. [And, since it has been fourteen years since the prophecy and Ahab’s
death, Jezebel probably thinks it never will be.] Suddenly out of the north
came a swift chariot. It was Jehu driving furiously. He had just slain two
kings, the king of Judah and the king of Israel—her own son, Joram. What does
she do? She paints her eyes and arranges her hair, and looks out of a window.
This proud queen still thinks she can seduce her captor—captivate him with her
charms. She had a grandson twenty-three years old. She is no longer young; she
is an old woman. No secret formulas for lotions, powders, sprays, and creams
can make this faded queen look attractive.”
But Jehu is not taken by her looks
or her words, and he commands three eunuchs, who are on her side, to throw her
out of the window. They do, and the result is horrific. Like a melon being
dropped from a height, she splits open. Her blood splatters on the building
wall and on Jehu’s horses. Then he shows his utter contempt for her, and his hateful
coarseness, when he runs his chariot over her body, trampling her. After he has
a meal (more evidence of his crudeness and hate), he gives the order for her
body to be buried, because she was “a king’s daughter.” Only then does he show
any kind of respect for Jezebel.
But when the servants go out to
gather her body for burial, all they locate are her skull, her feet, and her
palms. The dogs have made a meal of everything else. Just as the prophet said
would happen. And Jehu reminds the people of it. “This is the word of the LORD,
which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the plot of
ground at Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of
Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel,
so that they shall not say, “Here lies Jezebel.”’ There will no place for
admirers to go to worship her, no place for anyone to pay their respects. (Didn’t
I tell you that “Game of Thrones” has nothing over true stories?)
It is a bloody end to a very bloody,
evil woman.
What are some of the truths we can
take away from this gory story?
First, this story, and Jezebel’s
violent end, should strike fear in the hearts of unbelievers who stand in
direct defiance of God and actually promote anti-God worship and practices, and
those who worship other Gods. Particularly those who practice human and child
sacrifice, which is still being carried out in parts of the world. All we have
to do is read the Book of Revelation to learn how bad things will be in the end
times. So bad people would rather have rocks fall on them to avoid the pain and
suffering God rains down from Heaven.
And I think it should also strike
fear in the hearts of believers who play around the edges of their faith and
hedge their bets. They’re playing with fire by adding godless practices to their
faith. What might godless practices look like? Getting involved in séances to
contact the dead (also known as necromancy), study of astrology, Taro card
reading, visiting fortune tellers (who practice what’s known as divination),
witchcraft, and cultic magic. They would also be things hidden, things in
darkness, practices of divination and sorcery. Channeling spirits, New Age
practices, and, yes, Transcendental Meditation (TE). Some theologians even
include yoga in this list. And abortion.
And the serious
question to ponder is the same type of question Jehu poses to Joram: Can we
really have peace (Shalom) as long as we’re practicing harlotries? As long as
we’re compromising in our personal lives and in our nations? As long as we’re
worshiping other gods and standing in direct defiance to God’s will and
direction?
What are we
reading, watching, doing that contribute to these practices. How have we
compromised? If you can't readily identify anything, take the question to God in prayer. He'll give you the answer.
We can never
enjoy true, lasting peace (Shalom) until we put these things away.
When God says you shall have no
other gods before Me, He really means it.
____________________________________
So, until next Monday, may your week be
full of blessings that you receive and give, your heart be full of joy and
thankfulness, and your days be filled with laughter. Build a little heaven in
your life right now, and watch your heavenly garden grow!
Blessings,
Andrea
When the eyes of
the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right
here on earth. ~ A. W. Tozer
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