1 Kings 21:23; 2 Kings 9:30-37 Elijah: Prophecy and Death of Jezebel

1 Kings 21:23; 2 Kings 9:30-37 Elijah: Prophecy and Death of Jezebel

“Jezebel” is a name synonymous with evil; she is the epitome of the wicked woman. So infamous is her name that, to this day, no one names their baby daughter “Jezebel.” Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, a priest of the cruel, sensuous, false god Baal. Ethbaal, the priest-king of Tyre who murdered his own brother to take over the throne, was hardly a good father figure.  Jezebel followed in her father’s footsteps and was herself a power-hungry murderess who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted resulting in Elijah’s prophecy:

1 Kings 21:23: “And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’”

• Grammatical Usage: “dogs” or in the Hebrew, “hak·kə·lā·ḇîm” refers to literal dogs, animals of contempt in the Middle East
• Literal Interpretation: “And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘A pack of contemptable dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’”
• Contextual/Comparison: God keeps His Word, God continually uses His Word.

1. THE JEZEBEL SPIRIT
2. There are two different women in the Bible named Jezebel. The first one was in the OT in context of Elijah (approx. 850 BC; 1 Kg. 16-21; 2 Kgs. 9) and the other is the NT in context to the church of Thyatira ( 2:18-29).
3. We gain insight into the End-Time drama by understanding the intensity of “OT Jezebel’s” persecution of Elijah and the prophets of Israel and the nature of “NT Jezebel’s” seduction of the church in Thyatira. The spiritual principles seen in “both Jezebels” will be fully manifest in the End-Times. Both contribute to understanding of “End-Time Jezebel’s” persecution (murder and theft) and seduction (immorality and sorcery) as a manifestation of the spirit of Babylon.
4. The four primary spiritual strongholds across the earth in the End-Times are murder, sorcery, immorality and theft ( 9:21). Immorality stimulates the physical body outside of God’s will as sorcery stimulates the spirit. Sorcery often works in context to mind altering substances (drugs, alcohol. etc.) “They did not repent of their murders or sorceries or sexual immorality or thefts” (Rev. 9:21)
5. There is a progression in Satan’s End-Time strategy. First, he uses immorality to dull the spirit and harden the conscience. This opens the way for people to embrace sorcery which emboldens murder and theft as will be seen in persecution of the Church and Israel (1 Tim. 4:1-2)
6. Immorality dulls the spirit which causes the Church to stop operating in the power of God. It causes guilt which produces hopelessness, so people quit pursuing the deep things of God.
7. The church of Thyatira is affirmed for growing in their ministries, endurance in persecution and love. Yet, they lacked zeal to confront believers engaged in Jezebel’s immorality and idolatry ( 2:19-23)

1. Those who sacrificed to idols did it to gain the power of demons and to interact with them (1 Cor. 10:18-21)

2. OT JEZEBEL: HER IDOLATRY (SORCERY) AND IMMORALITY
3. Jezebel was a queen of Israel and a witch or priestess of the Baal and Asherah (Phoenician gods) who seduced Israel into immorality, idolatry (witchcraft or sorcery) and murder.
4. She was raised in Sidon, a prosperous seaport city of Phoenicia on the Mediterranean Sea about 20 miles north of Tyre. As a foreign princess, her father Ethbaal, king of Sidon (in Tyre) gave her in marriage to Ahab to create an alliance with Sidon and Israel (about 870 BC).
5. As the new queen of Israel, she moved to Jezreel and established a center of Baal worship there (1 Kgs. 16:31-32)
6. Jezebel had influence through her position as queen and her strong personality. She promoted immorality and sorcery throughout Israel and stirred Ahab up to do great wickedness (1 Kgs. 21:25)
7. Jezebel’s position of influence was in being the queen. However, the passion of her heart was to operate in the occult realm of the spirit. She joined occult religion with the State government resulting in a “demonic theocracy” that will also be seen in the Antichrist’s empire (2 Kgs. 9:22)
8. She used the powers of the state to establish Phoenician idol worship on a grand scale in the king’s court in Jezreel. She financed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 of Asherah with state money (1 Kgs. 18:19)
9. The conflict at the end-of-the-age will be between two Houses of Worship (two global worship movements). The Antichrist will raise up a state-financed false worship worldwide movement ( 13:4, 8, 12, 15). The Holy Spirit is raising up the most powerful worship movement in history (Rev. 22:17; 5:8; 8:4; Lk. 18:7-8; Isa. 62:6-7; 24:14-16; 26:8-9; 30:18-19; 42:10-13; etc.). This will be the most power, passionate and dangerous time in world history (Rev. 13:8)
10. The False Prophet will function as a “Jezebel like partner” to the Antichrist in his global empire.
11. Ahab and Jezebel named their three children after the Lord (Ahaziah, Jehoram, Athaliah). Ahab consulted the prophets of Israel (1 Kings 22:6). They embraced the “respectability of religion”.

3. OT JEZEBEL AND HER PERSECUTION OF ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
4. Jezebel murdered and hunted down God’s prophets. End-Time saints will lose their lives as John the Baptist did for confronting the spirit of Jezebel (2 Kgs. 9:7)
5. Jezebel hunted for the prophets to destroy them. They hid in caves from. Spiritually, when God’s people yield to Jezebel’s immorality, they retreat in shame and spiritual dullness to “hide in cave” (1 Kgs. 18:4, 10)

1. Ahab, as the head of State, engaged in a “propaganda” war that blamed Elijah as the one who troubled Israel because he prayed to release a national judgment of drought that lasted for 3 1⁄2 years. Elijah put the responsibility on him. After Israel repented, he prayed to release rain (1 Kgs. 18:17-18)
2. Elijah called for a showdown between the “houses of worship” of Baal’s prophets and the Lord (1 Kgs. 18:19-45; 2 Chr. 7:13-14)
3. Elijah was raised up like John the Baptist to turn Israel back to God. Both Elijah and John the Baptist fulfilled God’s purpose in only turning a small number of people back to God ( 1:15-17)
4. Elijah killed Jezebel’s prophets at Mt. Carmel with his sword. (1 Kgs. 18:40; 19:1). As God granted a great victory through Elijah so also the End-Time will see great victories by releasing Jesus’ judgments through the sword of the Spirit ( 6:17; Ps. 149:6-9)
5. After Elijah killed Jezebel’s prophets at Mt. Carmel, she swore an oath to her gods (demons) to kill Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:1-3).
6. The contest between Elijah and Jezebel will be replayed yet with a higher measure of power (13:13; 11:5)
7. Jezebel’s theft is seen when Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to Ahab. Jezebel murdered him to take his property (1 Kgs. 21:1-16). She wrote a letter to the elders of Jezreel bribing them to have Naboth killed for blasphemy against God. She provided the initiative to do this evil.
8. Jezebel lived 14 years after Ahab’s death as the queen-mother and continued to rule in Israel through her two sons (King Ahaziah and King Joram) and to promote evil through her daughter who was married to the King Jehoram of Judah (2 Chron 21:6). Jezebel’s daughter Athaliah married Judah’s King Jehoram, (Jehoshaphat’s son). She had the same spirit of wickedness as her mother (2 Kgs 11). Thus, Jezebel also seduced Judah with her evil.
9. Elijah prophesied that Ahab and Jezebel’s children would be killed by God’s judgment (1 Kgs 21:20-23; 2:22-23)
10. Jezebel’s two sons were killed. Jezebel’s oldest son, King Ahaziah, died, after a short reign in the complication incurred from an accident (2 Kings 1). Jezebel’s only other son King Jehoram died after reigning 12 years (2 Kings 9:24).
11. Jehu an officer in the guard of Ahab, killed Jezebel for her harlotries and witchcraft. Jezebel was thrown from her palace window by the eunuch officials of the royal harem in Jezreel and eaten by dogs in fulfillment of Elijah’s prophecy (1 Kgs. 21:19-24; 2 Kings 9:31-36)

4. JEZEBEL OF PROPHECY
5. The NT Jezebel acts like the Jezebel in the OT and therefore, may have deliberately taken this name in her brazen boldness to show her confidence in endorsing sin.
6. The spirit of Jezebel against the spirit of Elijah is a war of two houses of worship.
7. The spirit of Jezebel is the operation of immorality and sorcery (witchcraft) for the purpose of stopping people from worshipping Jesus and partnering with Him in the prophetic power. The NT Jezebel kills the prophets spiritually by seducing them to immorality. Today, the spirit of Jezebel with its immorality (pornography, adultery, etc.) kills the prophetic spirit.
8. The introduction to the spirit of Jezebel is most clearly seen as the spirit that operates behind pornography. NT Jezebel taught “liberty in grace” in context to attending idol feasts which involved immorality. Immorality is at the top of almost every list of sins in the NT and it is emphasized in the Book of Revelation as one of Satan’s primary weapons against the Church in the End-Times ( 9:21; 14:8; 17:1-4; 18:2-4, 9-10; 19:2; 21:8).
9. The spirit of Jezebel escalates to wholesale murder of Christians and Jews ( 7:21, 25; 8:24; 11:33-35; 12:7, 10; Rev. 6:9-11; 7:9, 14; 9:21; 11:7; 13:7, 15; 16:5-7; 17:6; 18:24; 19:2; Mt. 10:21-22, 28; 24:9; Lk. 12:4-7; 21:16-19; Jn. 15:18- 16:4). The OT Jezebel hated Elijah and killed the prophets. Herod and Herodias operating in the spirit of Jezebel killed John the Baptist who operated in the spirit of Elijah.
10. The two faces of the spirit of Antichrist emphasized in the Book of Revelation are the spirit of Babylon and the spirit of Jezebel. The multitudes in heaven rejoice at the fall of Babylon ( 19:2)
11. This emphasizes three aspects of the revelation of Jesus that are necessary to gain victory over Jezebel ( 2:18)

• Son of God – emphasizes Jesus’ deity and power to withstand Jezebel. Jesus is the all-powerful Lord God of Elijah who will “personally come from heaven in fire” to end the great contest via the Armageddon campaign (2 Thes. 1:7-8)
• Jesus has eyes like a flame of fire – in Scripture, fire symbolizes both the impartation of holy love and the release of judgment. He releases either the “fire of grace” or the “fire of judgment”.
• Jesus’ feet are like fine brass – in Scripture, brass is a symbol of judgment against sin. Jesus’ feet of bronze speak of His promise as a warrior to tread in triumph over Jezebel. This revelation of Jesus gives us confidence we will win the battle against Jezebel. The Antichrist and his armies will be thrown down by the Jesus’ End-Time judgments (2 Kgs 9:33)

1. Jesus warned the saints in Thyatira of coming under judgment ( 2:20-23)
2. We cannot allow the status quo to go unchallenged as long as the spirit of Jezebel, immorality and witchcraft, abound (2 Kgs. 9:22).

As with all who defy the Lord, Jezebel’s end was not a pretty one, although it was more gruesome than most, an object lesson to all who set themselves up against the one true God. Her doom was sure, having been prophesied by Elijah in 1 Kings 21:23. Even as she saw her death approaching, she remained defiant to the end, painting her face and adorning herself in queenly garments. She looked out the window and shouted her defiance to Jehu, who commanded her to be thrown out the window to her death, where she was trampled by the horses’ hooves and almost entirely consumed by dogs. The terror visited upon Jezebel was a testimony to the Israelites, and to us, that God’s power is supreme and those who defy Him will meet a terrible end.

• Conclusion: Am I truly submitted to God and His plan for my life?