Ahne Dumalo
Many people have heard someone being called a “Jezebel Spirit.” Due to our society’s lack of Biblical literacy, I don’t think people even know what they are saying when they hurl this phrase out there. I think it’s similar to calling someone a fool. In the Bible, being called a fool is someone who turns away from God, and it’s a pretty rough insult. Jezebel is an interesting woman in the Bible with a rather dark story. To call someone a Jezebel Spirit is to imply that they are a destructive, evil woman.
Who Is Jezebel?
She is the wife of King Ahab, who was one of the Kings of Israel. You can read about him in the Book of Kings. For some context, the book features all of the Kings of Isreal after David and his son Solomon, who failed miserably. The book points to a need for a greater king to come.
She became known as the archetype for all evil women, but the way she created strife and divided the Kingdom of Israel. Yet, she managed to get people to turn from worshiping the one true God and defied prophets like Elijah and Elisha.
She persuaded her husband to introduce the worship of Baal, a nature god. She was swift to destroy anyone who got in her way. She is the reason numerous prophets died in the Old Testament.
Because of the Jezebel Spirit, God used the prophet Elijah to unleash wrath on those opposed to him. This led to him winning a contest against those who worshiped ball to see who could ignite a bull offering between Yahweh and Baal. When she heard of this, she swore to kill him, and he had to run for his life.
How Did The Jezebel Spirit Become Famous
One of the reasons that she earned her name is because of the extent of her evil and how long it lasted. So many of the women we featured in the Bible were too perfect, but they were not depicted like Jezebel.
You know when you’re watching movies and can’t wait for the bad guy to get theirs near the end? That is how it must have been being around her. Her death was gruesome. She was thrown out the window, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs. It was not a pretty sight, but not many people would have felt bad for her.
She went out of her way to terrorize and abuse her power. Some people do bad things, and we can understand why. For example, someone may get cheated on and kill their spouse. That is evil, but many can understand how someone could get angry.
Jezebel was the other type of evil where you can’t even make sense of it. She was so horrible to people that you can’t even understand what is happening when you read about her. But she is in scripture for a reason, and it’s really to miss it because we demonize her like Judas.
What Can We Learn From The Jezebel Spirit?
Men Need to Lead Their Household
People hate this in our culture today, but we have seen what happens when a society becomes corrupted. We know what happens when men don’t lead the household. We see broken families produce more broken kids, who go on to have even more broken families, and the cycle continues.
Men leading the house has come off as a phrase that sounds like a dictatorship, but people forget that Ephesians 5 makes it clear that men should lead their households well because they are following Jesus so closely.
Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated his flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. – Eph 5:25-31
Men lead by being so in love with Jesus and his ways that we teach our families to be more like Jesus! Will men make mistakes? Yes, but if you follow Jesus, you will quickly repent your sins and return to him.
Jezebel married King Ahab, and he essentially allowed her to turn him into a puppet. He was King in name, but she was calling all the shots. Her pride and ego were getting people killed and introducing idols to the people.
Striving For Power Can Corrupt
You will eventually drown yourself in sin when you are obsessed with being more assertive. We know that all authority comes from God from Romans 13. If you are meant to have power, he will give it to you. If you find yourself always striving for it, you must consider whether the power comes from God or the enemy. Not that she cared about this, but it’s something that all Christians should believe.
The Jezebel Spirit wanted power to match her mighty ego. The problem with energy and money is that when we live for those things, we are never satisfied with the amount of money we have. So, no matter who she killed or how much she had, she would always need more.
God is Still Faithful Despite The Jezebel Spirit
Even though God showed up in a significant way through Elihah, in 1 Kings 18, you see Elijah boldly step to all the people who chose to follow Baal. He challenged them because he knew that God would be faithful to prove he was the true God. Ultimately, it did nothing through all of the stuff Jezebel did to show she had power. Many people turned from Baal that day, realizing they were worshiping the wrong God.
You have to remember this throughout all of the scripture. God is faithful, and he has already crushed evil. God proves his faithfulness to the Israelites repeatedly when they keep trying to choose to follow anything but Him. God could have been showing mercy, but he kept extending it more.
So What?
When Jesus was raised from the dead, he proved that sin could not hold him in the grave. Death would not hold him back. Jesus defeated the betrayal of Judas, and he defeated every Jezebel Spirit. Nothing can stop or hold back the mission of God. Not you, not me, or any other Jezebel Spirit that exists in this world.
God is on a mission to reconcile all of creation to Him. Unfortunately, some will not respond to that call. Don’t let it be you or anyone you care for. If anyone does not know, I pray that you will continue to witness to them by how you live your life. Pray for an opportunity to show them the one true God like Elijah did.
