1 Kings 19 – 22
Verse 19:2 will open a dialogue on occult and Satan:
Jezebel sent an urgent message to Elijah.
Jezebel’s Message: May the gods kill me and worse, if I haven’t killed you the way you killed their priests by this time tomorrow. Your end is near, Elijah.
Satan is just repeating history here with the success he had with Nimrod and Semiramis in Babylon. Jezebel took over Ahab’s heart and almost destroyed Israel. Notice how much attention the author places on Ahab’s rule, partially this is due to the evil he did.
Verse 21:29 shows that Ahab was trying to make things right with God:
Eternal One: 29 Have you witnessed Ahab’s repentance? He has shed his pride and wickedness and humbled his heart before Me. Therefore I will not send evil against his house while he is still alive; instead I will send it during the lifetime of his son.
I look at this passage and go back to Jezebel and how she controlled the game. Often we hear about the “Spirit of Jezebel” which describes a woman trying to take over men of power. As we read Ahab’s rule we see Jezebel quickly turns him away from God in almost every instance.
Before this Jezebel had sent letters to kill two men and signed it with Ahab’s name. The leaders obeyed assuming it was legit and executed these men. As with Semiramis, Jezebel took over the rule of Ahab and almost destroyed Israel. Satan decided to try a play that worked in Babylon and almost succeeded in destroying Israel.
We see the numbers faithful to God had dropped to 7000 due to Elijah showing God’s glory on Mt. Carmel. Yet God did not let this happen and ended the rule. Unfortunately we end with verses 22:52 & 53 where the next king returns to evil and Baal worship:
52 Ahaziah committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes. He walked the wicked path of his father and mother and Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) who caused the Israelites to live sinful lives. 53 He gave his heart and life to Baal and offered his services and worship to him. This caused the Eternal God of Israel’s wrath to be provoked just as it had at the wickedness of his father.
I can’t say this enough but Satan is working all the time to destroy our relationship with God. Semiramis, Jezebel and the goddess Asherah all represent evil and a conduit Satan uses to get perform this task. The enemies of God are great, and the woman appears to be the conduit to destruction.
Why? We need not look any further than David and Solomon, both great kings who allowed women to affect their rule. In David’s case, he appears to have been redeemed yet the ramification went generations onward. Solomon did not appear to repent in his later life and was led astray into demonic conjuring’s and such. Unfortunately, we see this over and over again today where a man’s weakest “link” appears to be his sex drive. Look at the fall of most of our great leaders today, there are a few financial falls, but most can be linked to sex as the root.
We men MUST run from evil and hold true to God’s word. The Lord ’s Prayer says “deliver us from evil” where I like Jabaz’s prayer that says “keep me from evil”. I honestly would rather not be in the mire of it, but at the same time as warriors for Jesus we often cannot avoid it. So maybe “protect me from evil” is better?
On last thought about the number of prostitutes mentioned in the Bible, think about this the church is the bride of Christ and therefore a church that has prostituted itself is far away from Jesus. Now this requires an exercise, but google symbols for Baal then look at the Vatican on Google Maps … see what you find (look at the square). I am not judging the Catholic Church, but I wonder why an Asherah pole along with other symbols is there. They key is be vigilant to know evil and it’s various forms, be it Jezebel or a symbol or monument, say to President Washington.