Wild Girls Gone (Part 3)-She Let The Dogs Out”

2 Kings 9:4-10 CEV “The young prophet left for Ramoth. When he arrived, the army officers were meeting together. "Sir, I have a message for you," he said. "For which one of us?" Jehu asked. "You, sir," the prophet answered. So Jehu got up and went inside. The prophet poured olive oil on Jehu's head and told him: The LORD God of Israel has this message for you: "I am the LORD, and I have chosen you to be king of my people Israel. I want you to wipe out the family of Ahab, so Jezebel will be punished for killing the prophets and my other servants. Every man and boy in Ahab's family must die, whether slave or free. His whole family must be destroyed, just like the families of Jeroboam son of Nebat and Baasha son of Ahijah. As for Jezebel, her body will be eaten by dogs in the town of Jezreel. There won't be enough left of her to bury."

According to E.B. Johnston in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “The name Jezebel usually evokes for us an image of a painted woman who is sexually alluring or trying to be, a manipulator of men… The Bible’s condemnations of her, however, concern her role in public religious and political affairs, not her private (im) morality.”

When people are into control, power, prestige, and having it their way, they own ugly souls.

(1) Jezebel was power hungry!

I Kings 16:30-33 CEV “Ahab did more things to disobey the LORD than any king before him. He acted just like Jeroboam. Even worse, he married Jezebel the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon and started worshiping Baal. Ahab built an altar and temple for Baal in Samaria and set up a sacred pole for worshiping the goddess Asherah. Ahab did more to make the LORD God of Israel angry than any king of Israel before him.”

-She married Ahab for power. Their marriage was political, as the Syrians were becoming a threat to Ahab’s kingdom.

-She came from a powerful and treacherous family. Ethbaal, king of Sidon (Phoenicia), was a priest of Baal who assassinated the king and took over his kingdom. Unlike the Jews who had a male priesthood, the Phoenicians had priestesses, so Jezebel would have been a priestess of Baal and Baal’s cohort, Astarte. Astarte was a fertility goddess worshipped through temple prostitution. Jezebel brought in her idols, heathen temple, and a staff of Baal worshipping priests and priestesses making the Northern Kingdom of Israel more fully pagan.

-She had the true prophets of God executed- 1 Kings 18:3, 4 CEV “At that time Obadiah was in charge of Ahab's palace, but he faithfully worshiped the LORD. In fact, when Jezebel was trying to kill the LORD's prophets, Obadiah hid one hundred of them in two caves and gave them food and water.”

-She promoted heathen religion-1 Kings 18:16-19 CEV “Obadiah left and told Ahab where to find Elijah. Ahab went to meet Elijah, and when he saw him, Ahab shouted, "There you are, the biggest troublemaker in Israel!" Elijah answered: You're the troublemaker--not me! You and your family have disobeyed the LORD's commands by worshiping Baal. Call together everyone from Israel and have them meet me on Mount Carmel. Be sure to bring along the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.”

Revelation 2:20 “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.”

-She even threatened the great prophet Elijah 1 Kings 19:1, 2 CEV “Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. She sent a message to Elijah: "You killed my prophets. Now I'm going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don't do it by this time tomorrow."

(2) Jezebel controlled her husband!

-She initiated the tragedy of Naboth’s vineyard-1 Kings 21:8-13 CEV “Jezebel wrote a letter to each of the leaders of the town where Naboth lived. In the letters she said: Call everyone together and tell them to go without eating today. When they come together, give Naboth a seat at the front. Have two liars sit across from him and swear that Naboth has cursed God and the king. Then take Naboth outside and stone him to death! She signed Ahab's name to the letters and sealed them with his seal. Then she sent them to the town leaders. After receiving her letters, they did exactly what she had asked. They told the people that it was a day to go without eating, and when they all came together, they seated Naboth at the front. The two liars came in and sat across from Naboth. Then they accused him of cursing God and the king, so the people dragged Naboth outside and stoned him to death.

-She pushed her husband, Ahab, to great evil-1 Kings 21:29 CEV “No one was more determined than Ahab to disobey the LORD. And Jezebel encouraged him. Worst of all, he had worshiped idols, just as the Amorites had done before the LORD forced them out of the land and gave it to Israel”.

The Bible says that Ahab repented briefly, but then allowed himself again to be dominated by the wishes of his power hungry, evil wife, Jezebel. Sometimes a person has to stand on their own two feet and go against what they know is wrong.

(3) The Jezebel legacy lives on even today!
Jezebel represented everything that was wrong with humankind:
-She had no compassion.
-She had no nurturing desire about her. It was all selfish.
-She had no respect for human life or the dignity of others.
-She made every decision based on the simple fact of “What do I get out of it?”

-The influence of one in power can be encouraging or discouraging. Jezebels think they are the exception to the rule. That includes teaching the rejection of God’s truth, promotion of false teaching, and craving power and control.

-Usually the nastiest people we have to deal with are control mongers, and nothing exposes how control-oriented we are as having to relinquish control.
-Church conflicts are about control.
-Many marital/family conflicts are about control.
-Money conflicts are always about control.
-We are out to protect our self esteem, and control is how we attempt to protect it. Therefore, the more secure we are, the more balanced our attitude toward control.

(3) She let the dogs out!

2 Kings 9:30-37 CEV “Jehu headed toward Jezreel, and when Jezebel heard he was coming, she put on eye shadow and brushed her hair. Then she stood at the window, waiting for him to arrive. As he walked through the city gate, she shouted down to him, "Why did you come here, you murderer? To kill the king? You're no better than Zimri!"  He looked up toward the window and asked, "Is anyone up there on my side?" A few palace workers stuck their heads out of a window, and Jehu shouted, "Throw her out the window!" They threw her down, and her blood splattered on the walls and on the horses that trampled her body. Jehu left to get something to eat and drink. Then he told some workers, "Even though she was evil, she was a king's daughter, so make sure she has a proper burial." But when they went out to bury her body, they found only her skull, her hands, and her feet. They reported this to Jehu, and he said, "The LORD told Elijah the prophet that Jezebel's body would be eaten by dogs right here in Jezreel. And he warned that her bones would be spread all over the ground like manure, so that no one could tell who it was."

James 3:16, 17 KJV “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”