Jezebel A Study of Influence Widows of the Old Testament Teacher/Facilitator Study Guide Sylvia De Jong Italics indicate the text in the Student s Study Guide. *Indicates the author s study helps for the teacher/facilitator. Review of Widow of Zarephath God used the prophet Elijah to teach the widow of Zarephath to trust God for daily sustenance for herself and her son. Only when she shared what she had with someone in need, did it stretch to feed them all over a period of several years. a. Are you able to trust God to provide for you and then to reach out to help someone in need? Please share a way you have done that. b. When the widow s son got sick and died, what did she do? c. Was Elijah able to help? d. Does God always answer prayer to extend life, by healing the person? e. Have you been with anyone who has died? How did God give you hope? f. Do you have the assurance that, when you die, you will go to heaven? I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). *This is why men, who were guided by God s Holy Spirit, wrote the Bible (1 Peter 1:10-12). God gave us His written Word that we might know Him and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Prayer: Consider praying the opening prayer from this study in the book. Include prayer for any needs mentioned by participants Jezebel A Study of Influence Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm 1
foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19). In the Jezebel Bible study, we will see a great contrast between those whose ears and hearts are closed to God and those who hear His voice and choose to do His will. The Hebrew word for influence - ma adannah (mah-ad-annaw ) means a bond. Root word anad (aw-nad) to lace fast bind, tie. *We should seek to be bonded or tied close to those who choose to do God s will. We will no doubt be affected by their influence for good. Cultural and Historical Background 1. From the very beginning of human history, Satan has tried to draw men and women away from the purposes of God, their Creator (pg. 134). *One of Satan s strategies is to wipe out or destroy the worship of God. Satan knew the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, that one day the seed of the woman would crush his head. Try as he would, to destroy God s kingdom, he would be unable to do that. **As we read before in 2 Samuel 7:15-16, God promised David that He would give him a son who would be king after him and through that son, establish forever the house and kingdom of David. This passage speaks of David s family line descending to Jesus, King of the Jews (Matthew 1:6-16). A primary goal of Satan was to destroy that line. Map: Phoencia (Sidon & Tyre), Israel, Judah (925-842 BC). 2. One of the most colorful and wicked instruments Satan used for this purpose was a woman named Jezebel. Her father was Ethbaal, the King of Sidon and Tyre, who was also known to be a priest of Baal. King Omni of Israel and King Ethbaal arranged a marriage between Ahab (Omni s son), and Jezebel. This brought about a political alliance between Sidon and Israel (pg. 135). 3. One of the marriage agreements was that Jezebel could bring with her the prophets of Baal and Asherah (mother of Baal), the fertility god and goddess, which they worshiped in Sidon (also known as Phoenicia). Baal was also the presiding deity of the Canaanites. They believed Baal owned and controlled the land and that the increase of crops, fruit and cattle was under Baal s control. Incense and sacrifice were offered to Baal, sometimes even human sacrifice. 2
*Fertility rites chiefly marked the worship of Baal and Asherah. The people thought that the main function of Baal was to make animals, land and people fertile. To prompt their god to perform these functions, worshipers themselves performed human sexual acts of fertility. The Baal shrines were staffed with male and female attendants called holy men and women, because they were separated for this service to their god. 4. When the Hebrew people first entered Canaan, God warned them of idol worship with specific orders. Read Deuteronomy 5:6-10 and fill in the blanks. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. *Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children has to do with the model followed and pattern laid that are hard to break. People and children, who live with evil, often become evildoers. Those who live with moral values often pattern moral lives. **It is so important for God s people to choose godly marriage partners. In a culture where the parents choose a mate for their child, a great deal of prayer should accompany that choice, with both the parents and the young person praying for God s choice and will in the matter. Discuss: Can you think of a godly line of influence in your family or community or an ungodly line of influence? 5. We have studied about Solomon and his ungodly wives. 1 Kings 11:4-8 is very specific about how Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. When a national leader openly displays disobedience to God s Word, he leads the nation to open disobedience (pg. 137). Discuss: Can you think of an example of this in our nation? *A parent who disobeys God, leads his or her children to do the same. **When Solomon died the kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah. The number of those who worshiped idols grew with each ruler who did not 3
honor God. This set the scene for Jezebel, who was a very dynamic, forceful and powerful woman who would rule Israel as Ahab s idolatrous queen. 6. Queen Jezebel was accustomed to luxury (pg. 137). a. Where did Ahab and Jezebel reside? At palaces Ahab built in Samaria and Jezreel. b. Describe the palace in Samaria: It was beautiful with lots of inlaid ivory of carved elegant reliefs. Map: Samaria, Jezreel, Zarephath and Mt. Carmel. * Jezreel was Israel s closest city to Sidon, Jezebel s homeland. 7. Jezebel influenced Ahab to erect a temple and altar for Baal worship in Samaria, a second sanctuary in Jezreel and erect Asherah poles (wooden posts to represent Asherah). Ahab... did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him (1 Kings 16:33b). Discuss: Our personal responsibility to God. a. Can you think of ways we provoke God? b. Do we ever worship Him with our mouths, while in our hearts we love or want something else more than we do Him? 8. God brought judgment on Ahab, Jezebel and the nation of Israel with a three-year drought. What three miracles occurred during those years of drought? a. Ravens fed Elijah, b. flour and oil were continuously replenished, c. the widow s son was raised from death to life. *God s power provided these miracles because Elijah was vital in God s plan to keep the knowledge of the LORD from being destroyed by Jezebel. 9. While Elijah was in Zarephath, Jezebel had killed all the prophets of God she could find. 10. When God told Elijah to return to Israel, the people of Israel were called together at Mountt Carmel for a very important contest between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, to prove whether the LORD is God or Baal. What spiritual significance did the results of this contest have for the people of Israel? They recognized with joy that the LORD is the only true God. 4
11. Elijah followed the law in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and killed the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who were seducing the Israelites to follow other gods (pg. 139). Elijah prayed and the rain came. Empowered by the Spirit of the LORD, Elijah outran Ahab s chariot to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46). Read 1 Kings 19:1-2 12. Ahab arrived with the news, at the palace in Jezreel (their winter residence, about seventeen miles from Mountt Carmel). Jezebel s response? Jezebel was enraged and vowed to take Elijah s life. Read 1 Kings 19:3-4 13. Earlier Elijah ran with exhilaration (extreme excitement). Why was he running this time? For fear of his life. He became emotionally drained, exhausted and discouraged. He did not want to live. Discuss: Have you ever felt that way; so tired or discouraged that you did not want to live? *[I have experienced that, but the feeling left as surely as it came. Rest, food, prayer and time with God made a big difference.] Map: Mount Horeb/Mount Sinai. * Located at the lower end of the Sinai Peninsula. These two mountains are considered by most scholars to be the same mountain. 14. Elijah laid down and slept and later an angel awoke him to get up and eat food, which was prepared and sitting at his head. Twice he slept and ate and then journeyed forty days and nights to Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God (1 Kings 19:5-8), also known as Mount Sinai. 15. At Mount Horeb God demonstrated His power in the wind, an earthquake and fire; the Almighty God was still on His throne He still is. Then God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice. The LORD encouraged him by making it clear that His still small voice directs the universe and orders the course of history. There were still seven thousand faithful believers in Israel. God named Elisha as the prophet to follow Elijah (pg. 141). *Mount Horeb was the same place where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Moses had also run for his life into the wilderness. God asked 5
Moses to deliver His people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. God asked Elijah to deliver His people from the spiritual bondage of idolatry. **Moses and Elijah both came to the end of life in a very unusual way. Moses climbed Mount Nebo to meet with the LORD, looked into the Promised Land, then died and God buried him (Deuteronomy 34:1-6). Elijah would be taken by a whirlwind up to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) and not experience death. ***It is interesting that both these men appeared in glorious splendor with Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration where they spoke about His death which was about to be fulfilled at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31). 16. Elijah departed from Mount Horeb and found Elisha who was plowing in his father s field. Elijah went up to Elisha and threw his mantle around him. God s Spirit helped Elisha understand the significance of this act. He offered a sacrifice to the LORD in response, said goodbye to his family and left, to become Elijah s attendant or servant (pp. 141-142). 17. Some time later, King Ahab looked out the palace window in Jezreel and saw a vineyard nearby which belonged to Naboth, a neighbor. He sent for Naboth and offered to buy it or trade it for other property. Naboth refused, saying it was an inheritance of his fathers. Ahab returned to Samaria very depressed. He lay on his bed sulking and refusing to eat. Read 1 kings 21:5-7 18. What did Jezebel tell Ahab? Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up, I ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Read 1Kings 21:8-16 19. How did she get the vineyard? She wrote a letter ordering the town leaders to proclaim a feast. They were to place several scoundrels across from Naboth who accused him of cursing God and the king. He was taken out and stoned. Then she told Ahab to go to the vineyard and claim it as his own. *Queen Jezebel knew the Jewish law that concerned stoning, with the evidence of two or three witnesses, of an evil doer (Deuteronomy 17:5-6). She arranged Naboth s death to look like the law was being carried out. King Ahab did nothing to stop Jezebel from her treacherous plan to 6
have Naboth murdered. According to this Jewish law (Deuteronomy 17: 2-5) Ahab and Jezebel should have been the ones who were stoned. Read 1 Kings 21:17-19 20. Where did God send Elijah and why? To Naboth s vineyard to speak to Ahab. He was to ask him about Naboth s murder and tell him that his blood would be required for Naboth s blood. Read 1 Kings 21:20-26 21. God, through Elijah, warned Ahab of impending disaster because he provoked God to anger and caused Israel to sin. He warned also that the dogs would devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. 22. Packs of wild dogs were scavengers. Naboth was killed outside the walls of Jezreel and King Ahab would die outside the walls of Samaria (1 Kings 22:35-38). Ahab died in battle at Ramoth Gilead. His chariot was covered with blood from his wounds and as it was being cleaned in Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood (v. 38). Jezebel was now a widow (pg. 144). 23. Jezebel s evil influence was far-reaching. She enticed Ahab to Baal worship. She provided Baal prophets and places of worship to woo the Israelite people to Baal and away from the LORD. She modeled deception, murder and gross evil for her sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram and daughter, Athaliah. Consider: What you are modeling for your family and what your family history will look like thirty years from now. Will your influences be seen in their lives? *Ahab and Jezebel s family tree had bitter, evil roots. Her son Ahaziah, king of Israel, did evil and served and worshiped Baal. Ahaziah consulted Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, which resulted in his death (2 Kings 1:16-17). Her son Jehoram (Joram), king of Israel, did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father Ahab. He died a violent death at the hands of Jehu, king of Israel (2 Kings 9:24-25), which was prophesied by Elijah in Naboth s vineyard (1 Kings 21:24). **Her daughter, Athaliah, married Jehoram (son of Jehoshaphat), king of Judah, and brought the ways of her mother and father with her. Jehoram 7
killed all his brothers to make his reign secure (2 Chronicles 21:6). He made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Judah to become spiritually unfaithful, leading them astray (v. 11). ***God brought a prophecy of judgment saying that because of Jehoram s evil actions a great calamity would come on his family. Other nations came against Judah and carried away all the possessions from the king s palace together with his wives and sons, except for Athaliah and his youngest son, Ahaziah (Jehoahaz). Jehoram died from a horrible sickness, leaving Athaliah a widow. ****Athaliah s son, (Jezebel s grandson,) Ahaziah, became king of Judah. He also walked in the ways of Ahab, for his mother, Athaliah, was his counselor to do wickedly, to his destruction (2 Chronicles 22:3). When Jehu executed God s judgment on the house of Ahab, Ahaziah of Judah was also killed (vv.7-9). Read 2 Kings 9:30-35 24. God s judgment then came on Jezebel through Jehu, who went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard he was coming, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out from a window. *Jezebel was in the palace at Jezreel. As she anticipated death, her final thoughts were of her outward appearance and not of the inner need of her heart to be cleansed and ready to meet God. 25. Jezebel taunted Jehu, as he entered the gate, by calling him the name of Zimri, a man in Israel s history (1 Kings 16:9-20), who also, like Jehu, was used by God to carry out what purpose (pg. 146)? God s judgement which was to destroy an evil king and his family. *Jezebel knew it was her time to die. 26. What did Jehu ask the eunuchs, standing with jezebel at the tower window, to do? To throw her out the window down to the ground. *Eunuchs were castrated male attendants. 27. They threw her to the ground and Jehu went in to eat and drink. He sent people to bury Jezebel because she was a queen. a. What did they find? The dogs had eaten her and all that was left were her skull, hands and feet. b. What prophecy did this fulfill (pp. 146-147)? Elijah s prophecy in Naboth s vineyard. 8
28. Jehu then destroyed all the prophets and worshipers of Baal, tore down the temples, altars, pillars and Asherah poles in Israel. The people of Israel acknowledged Jehu as king. *Sad to say, Jehu allowed Israel to continue the worship of a golden calf and continued the sins of Jeroboam. 2 Kings 10:30-31. 29. When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah (2 Chronicles 22:10). *If all the royal offspring of Judah were killed, it would wipe out the royal line of David, from which Jesus Christ would come. Athaliah, Jezebel s daughter, destroyed her own grandchildren. Can a woman reach a lower point than this? Satan, her father, was controlling her. See John 8: 44. She ruled Judah as queen for six years. 30. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah (her brother) and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him. He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land (2 Chronicles 22:10-12). *Some scholars believe that Jehosheba s mother was a secondary wife of Jehoram, rather than Athaliah. 31. In the seventh year Joash was brought out of hiding and made king. Athaliah died a violent death (in Judah) after which all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest and he restored the Temple of the LORD (pp. 147-148). See 2 Chronicles 24. *God raises up people to bring about His purposes and plans. He gives them the appropriate gifts, abilities, personality and experiences to carry out His purpose. He equipped Elijah, Jehu, Jehosheba, Jehoiada and Joash to stem the tide of Baalism that was about to destroy the Hebrew people and the royal line of David. **Joash was 7 years old when he became king of Judah and reigned for 48 years from 835-796 B.C. 9
32. Jehosheba was a courageous, wise, God-centered woman who through decisiveness and quick action was able to turn a royal family and a nation around. Discuss: How would you explain Jehosheba s actions, since she was part of such an evil family? *God s purposes are brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit in a person s heart. That person must yield to God s voice and the prodding of the Holy Spirit. Personal Application 33. God is in the business of changing lives. a. Have you, or someone you have known, come from a godless family and made a change, in spite of a pagan background? b. How do you think this happened? *A great person of prayer, O. Hallesby said, No matter in what distress we may be, distress of body or of soul, we need but look unto Him, who is always near with that healing power, which can immediately overcome the death-dealing poison of sin and its terrible consequences both to body and soul. ** Anyone who is bitten can look... and live (Numbers 21:8b). 34. Jezebel and her daughter Athaliah were idolatrous, evil, self-centered and controlling women. They influenced their families and their people to do evil. Their lives were marked with deception, violence, darkness and tragic death. When a woman is controlling, it usurps her husband s and sons ability to become godly leaders. a. How can God use us to influence our children, grandchildren, our family or people we live with? What do they see in our lives? b. How do we handle stressful situations? * Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again; Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:4-7). c. How do our decisions and actions today, affect the future of our family? Our community? Our own well-being? 10
Just as God helped His special people carry out their tasks to bring about His will, He will guide us to make the right decisions or say the right things when we ask Him and trust Him to help us be a positive influence in someone s life. Exercise: Make a list of five people you influence the most. Ask God to show you ways you can be an encouragement to them and make a difference in their lives. Prayer 11