Jezebel
If you remember in chapter 19 we talked about the evil seeds referred to in Jesus’ seven letters to the seven churches. We said that Jezebel and the “deep things of Satan” is referred to by Jesus in the letter to Thyatira, where Jesus says that this church “tolerated her” and her teachings. Jezebel seems to be a bridge between Semaramis who appeared in Babel and the Babylon that shows up in Revelation 17 and 18.
Jezebel was an Old Testament figure in the time of the Kings – the wife of one of the most evil Kings, Ahab (in fact the Bible says he was more evil than all the kings before him). It was already a sin for Ahab to marry an outsider. Even worse, Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, who was a king of Tyre. Tyre in the Bible was clearly headed up under Satan’s rule. In fact, in Ezekiel 28 in prophecy directed to the king of Tyre, we really get the insight into Lucifer’s position as the anointed cherub in the original Eden and his fall. While Ezekiel was prophesying against the king of Tyre, he lapsed into prophecy against the spiritual power behind that throne, which was Lucifer himself. Easton’s Bible Dictionary says King Ethbaal was a priest of Astarte. Astarte was another name for Semaramis, and the direction of this worship was toward Baal (another name for Nimrod). Jezebel was brought up knowing all of the secrets of the religion.
Remember these are not just believers in another god, these know of and hate Jehovah. They chose Lucifer’s side in the great war. Through necromancy and other supernatural means, Jezebel was likely in contact not only with fallen angels but with the spirit of Semaramis herself. Clearly there is a spirit that is associated with the mother-child worship of the Queen of Heaven and Tammuz her son, who is an imposter Christ. It seems that the person that Jesus is speaking to in Revelation 2 is a spirit behind a teaching, as we know that Jezebel lived centuries prior.
Jezebel turned Ahab’s heart to worship Baal, and had him setup a temple to Baal in Samaria where worship involved much immorality including human sacrifice, especially of infants. This was Satan’s strategy and it was devastating for the spiritual condition and future of Israel.
Over time Jezebel killed the true prophets of God and established her false prophets over the land. Obadiah thankfully hid 100 of God’s prophets from her so the word continues. We know the story of how Elijah stood up to her. Her ability to exercise false spiritual authority (witchcraft) is evident in the depressive state Elijah entered after defeating the prophets of Baal.
The Main Point of Jezebel
The story behind Jezebel is that of Satan bringing his religion directly into the heart of Israel, God’s called out people, and establishing it as authority, replacing God’s religion with his own. It is not the story of his influence on the world in general, but over God’s particular people.
In the story of Naboth in 1 Kings 21, it is clear that Jezebel did much of her evil work in the name of the God of Israel. She framed Naboth for blasphemy against God by using a couple of false prophets “children of Belial” to bear false witness against him. He was stoned for blasphemy against Jehovah. The Israelites who did this thought they were doing service to Jehovah, but it was motivated and instigated by an agent of Satan. This reminds me that Jesus said there would come a time when those who killed His disciples would think they were doing God “a service.”
Even more revealing is that Jezebel brought the worship of Tammuz into the heart of Israel. Israel was set apart for the bringing forth of the true Messiah, and we’ve already seen Tammuz as a foreshadowing of Antichrist – the counterfeit. For Israel to be involved with this kind of worship was very angering to God:
Jer_7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Ezek 8:14 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.