Dive into the dramatic saga of Israel’s ancient monarchy with a focus on the infamous reign of Ahab and his ruthless queen, Jezebel. This episode unravels their reign, marked by sin and the pursuit of power, ultimately leading to divine retribution. Explore the cultural and historical context of their story and how it resonates with themes of repentance and justice.
00:00:02 Introduction to Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 03 :
Old sins do not just go away. It’s not so much that God sicks the hounds of heaven upon a man. It’s more the simple fact that sin does something to a man’s character. The act of sinning doesn’t improve things. It just continues to make them worse. I’ve sometimes wondered if sin takes on a life of its own. One thing I know, having committed sin, one is drawn to it again and again. And I’ve come to see over the years that liberating a man from sin is a much bigger job than just saying, hey, I forgive you. The forgiveness is one thing. The consequences of sin is another thing altogether. A case in point is the singular sins of Jezebel and Ahab, the king of Israel and his queen. Ahab was a weak man at heart. Jezebel, his wife, was not. She can only be described as a vicious woman. Ahab was cruel, but you know, he was a piker compared to his wife. There was a time Ahab tried to purchase a plot of land. It was a vineyard that abutted up against the palace wall, and he wanted to convert it into a garden of herbs. I speculate that that’s because of the smell of the garden of herbs that might get rid of some of the stink around the palace, but that’s another subject. Naboth was the man who owned the land he wanted. Ahab made him an offer, and Naboth turned him down. The land had been his family for generations. He didn’t want to give it up. Well, Ahab was so frustrated, he went to bed sick. Now, you have to consider how spoiled a man has to be to go to bed sick because he can’t buy a piece of property. When Jezebel got the picture, she was scornful. She said, get up and get dressed. I’ll get that vineyard for you. So what this woman did was go out and arrange the judicial murder of this man and came home and told her husband, go take the land. The men she sent out there stoned poor Naboth to death and splattered his blood around the place and the dogs licked his blood. So Naboth is dead. The callousness of some people is beyond understanding. Naboth was no more to Jezebel than a dog or a cat. No, no, he wasn’t anywhere near that high. He wasn’t as big deal as a rat to her. When Ahab went to take possession of the land, who should meet him but Elijah? When this deed had been done, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, spoke to him. You’ll find this in 1 Kings 21, verse 17. He said, Go down and meet Ahab, the king of Israel. He’s in Samaria. Behold, he’s down there in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession of it. And you shall speak to him. Here’s what I want you to tell him. Thus saith the Lord, Have you killed and also taken possession? You should go ahead and go on and say to him this, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your blood, even yours. There’s a sense of divine justice that comes into play. There’s a symbolism that’s involved in this. Naboth was killed. His blood was splattered over a particular area. And dogs licked it. God says, you’re going to die. And in that very place, the dogs will lick your blood. And whenever Elijah showed up, Ahab said, have you found me, O my enemy? Elijah answered, Yes, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. I am going to bring evil upon you. I am going to take away your posterity. I am going to cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel. I am going to make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation that you have provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin. Oh, and by the way, of Jezebel, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dies of Ahab in the city, the dogs will eat. Him that dies in the field, the fowls of the air will eat, the vultures. And then it goes on to add this footnote. There was none like Ahab. who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. Ahab was the worst of a bad lot. Nobody was like him. He was the bottom of the barrel. And this is the focal point of one of the great ironies of the Bible. This man, as bad as he was, and we have testimony that he was the worst of the whole gang of them, he repented. And seeing his repentance, God relented. I’m not going to go so far as to say that God forgave him, but he did relent. And he said, I will not bring the evil in his day. I will bring it in his son’s days. Now, this is a fascinating illustration because I think a lot of times we think maybe we’ve gone too far with God. Maybe he won’t forgive us. But none of us is anywhere near in the category of an Ahab. And if he could repent and God would relent, then surely we can do the same. It’s an important idea and important for us never to forget. But you’ve got to remember this, too. The forgiveness of God may or may not have anything to do with the consequences that come as a result of this sin. Why, for example, would God let Ahab off the hook and leave his sons on the hook? The answer is that because by this time in his life, a lot of damage had already been done to his sons. The example that he had set, the example their mother had set, the arrogance of royal power had all taken root, and it was going to take his sons down the same road that he had gone. Could they also repent and be forgiven? Yes, they could. The big question is, would they? All sins do not go away of themselves. Trust me. They will come back. And they came back for Ahab’s family in the person of one Jehu, who became king of Israel and was commissioned of God to take care of some unfinished business with the family of Ahab and with Jezebel. In 2 Kings 9, Joram, alongside Ahaziah, king of Judah, joined battle with this Jehu, and Joram was killed. Joram was a son of Ahab. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember how that when I and you rode together after Ahab his father. Now remember, Jehu was one of the big generals, I guess it would be, of Ahab’s armies. And he and this man Bidkar, his captain, had actually ridden side by side after Ahab. He said, You remember that the Lord laid this burden upon him. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, the blood of his son, says the Lord, and I will requite you in this plat, says the Lord. So take him and cast him into the plat of ground that belonged to Naboth, according to the word of the Lord. There was another king present in this battle. He was Ahaziah, the king of Judah. He saw all this take place, and he fled by way of the garden house. And Jehu pursued him and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibliam. And he fled downstream to Megiddo and died there. His servants put him in a chariot and carried him to Jerusalem and buried him in the grave of his fathers in the city of David. This ended the reign of Ahaziah, king of Judah. But we aren’t finished with the house of Israel yet. Stay with me and listen to this short message and I’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
The book of Kings includes so much valuable history and it lays the foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible. The entire series of programs on Kings and the book of Samuel is available for a special price this week only. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44 and tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 03 :
So Jehu proceeded on down to the city of Jezreel. When Jezebel heard he was coming… She painted her face and put her hair up, made herself up completely, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she leaned out and said, Had Zimri peace who slew his master? Really a sarcastic remark. Zimri was a man who had assassinated the king and took his place. He only lasted a matter of days before he was dead in turn. And all she is using here is some irony, some sarcasm, saying, okay, you went out and killed Ahab. Do you think you’re going to have peace? This expression, had Zimri peace who slew his master, has entered into my vocabulary as a warning against stabbing your leader in the back. If you undercut the person who has been your boss, you’ll never know peace. He lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs from the palace, and he told them, Throw her down. So they grabbed hold of this woman, threw her out of the window, and she crashed to the stones below. And some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, the horses as well. And he just rode his horses right across this accursed woman. Well, he went into the palace, ate, drank, fed himself. I’m not sure how long this was. But finally he said, go see to this cursed woman and bury her because she is, after all, a king’s daughter. So the servants went out to do that, and they couldn’t find any more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. And they came back and told Jehu, and he said, This is the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite. He said this, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel. So they shall not say, This is Jezebel. God did not want that accursed woman buried somewhere where everybody could go by and see her and say, Oh, Jezebel is buried here. Well, Jezebel was scattered all over the fields in the form of dung. 2 Kings chapter 10. Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria. 70 sons. This man was a busy king, I should say. A lot of wives, of course. And Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, and all the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab’s children, saying, Now as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and there was all, you’ve got Ahab’s sons there, and you’ve got chariots, you’ve got horses, you’ve got a fenced city, you’ve got armor, look out the best and fittest of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. Jehu basically saying, I’m not through. Well, they were scared. They did not want to face him. They said, behold, there were two kings could not stand before him. How on earth can we make it? And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu saying, we are your servants. We will do all you bid us to do. We are not going to make any king. You do what is good in your own eyes. So he wrote him another letter and said, All right, if you are mine, if you will hearken to my voice, take you the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king’s sons, being 70 of them, were with the great men of the city that had brought them up. Came to pass. They got the letter. They took the king’s sons and killed 70 persons and put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jezreel. It’s a gruesome business. Baskets with 70 heads in them. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They brought the heads of the king’s sons. And then he said, Lay them up in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until morning. Now, why on earth do people do things like this? Well, basically, it’s as an example. They want to impress upon people’s minds what is taking place and what it means. The British, for example, whenever a man had committed mutiny back in the old days, would sometimes hang him, draw him and quarter him, and they would hang his body in a metal frame at the end of the harbor where ships had to come and go out by it. And they allowed that body out there to rot away until there was nothing but bones and the bones fell out of it. They did this so that everyone would see the results of mutiny. Well, having done it, it came to pass in the morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, Jehu did, You’re righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master and killed him. Who killed all these? It’s an extreme example of irony that he is saying. You may sit there and say, I killed my master. Now consider who killed all these people. Obviously, you did. Now let’s let everyone understand that there shall never fall to the earth anything of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done what he said he would do by his servant Elijah. So Jehu slew everyone that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men, and his kinfolk, and his priests, until he left them none remaining. It’s really sobering to read things like this. God passed judgment on the house of Ahab, and Jehu followed it up. I think it bothers some people who wonder, well, why would God be so vindictive? I mean, why pursue this in this way? Well, I think it harkens back to a question I was asked by a woman who wanted to know why, at the time of the Exodus, God had to kill all the Egyptian children to get Israel out of Egypt. After all, he is God. Couldn’t he have done it another way? Couldn’t he have just not hardened Pharaoh’s heart and just had Pharaoh let the Israelites go? Yes, he could have. But there was a matter of justice involved. Egypt had committed a great evil. of Israel in killing, not just the firstborn males, but all the boy babies of the children of Israel. God could not let that stand. You know, sure, he could come down there, soften Pharaoh’s heart, let Israel go, and here is the land of Egypt. Murderers, not just the Pharaoh, not just the Pharaoh’s household, but all the Egyptians were involved. Murderers who were being let off scot-free. God couldn’t do that. The example that that would set for all mankind would have been totally wrong. Vengeful? Yes. But what is often not understood is that vengeance is the central pillar of justice. God said, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. If vengeance were a bad thing, why would God be doing it? It is the task of any government to execute vengeance on the part of the poor, the weak, and the oppressed on behalf of God. And if God did not carry out vengeance against evil in high places, his word would not amount to a thing. And so, when you have people who have reached the absolute pinnacle of evil, and have taken life after life, and everyone knows it, you just can’t let that stand. Well, Jehu arose and departed and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way, he met with some of the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. And he said, who are you? Well, we are the brothers of Ahaziah, and we’re going down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. Presumably, they were on their way down not knowing that Joram and Jezebel were dead. He said, take them alive. They took them alive, and then they killed them at the pit of the shearing house. Forty-two men. He didn’t leave one of them. Now, what’s beginning to happen here is, Once you embark on a way of blood, it is sometimes very difficult to turn back. The power of being able to take men’s lives, the power of being able to call upon other men to arrest them and to slay them, this power is beginning to get to Jehu. It will be a long time before we read in another prophet that God is going to avenge all the blood that this man shed at Jezreel. Nevertheless, he was carrying on. And when he left there, he lighted upon Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him. And he saluted him and said to him, Is your heart right as mine is? Is my heart right with you? And Jehonadab answered and said, It is. Well, if it be, give me your hand. He gave him his hand, and he took him up into the chariot. And he said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So he made him ride in his chariot. They got to Samaria. He slew everyone left of Ahab in Samaria until he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah. And Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little. Jehu shall serve him much. Now what? What’s going on here? He says Ahab served Baal a little. I’m going to be a bigger worshiper of Baal than Ahab was. Well, there’s something pretty significant happening here. Stay with me through this break.
SPEAKER 02 :
When I get back, I’ll tell you what it is. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings Number 19. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, with the reputation that Jehu is beginning to get, you would think someone would wonder a little bit about this next event. He says, okay, I’m going to become an even bigger worshiper of Baal, so get all the prophets of Baal, all of his servants, all of his priests. Let nobody be wanting. I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. In other words, you’re going to die if you don’t get in here. So you’ve got a good incentive. We’re all going to have a big feast. I’m going to worship Baal down here, and don’t stay home because I’m going to cut your head off. But the scripture goes on to say, Jehu did it in subtlety to the intent of that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. I’ve been a smart guy, and you’d heard this coming down. Maybe you decided this is a good time to migrate to Judah, but they came. Jehu proclaimed a solemn assembly for Baal all over the country. All the worshippers of Baal came, so there was not a man that didn’t come. They came to the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to the other. And he said to him that was over the vestry where the clothing was kept, bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. So there was no question now about who was a worshiper of Baal and who was not. They all were wearing special clothing to worship him. There’s one mildly encouraging note. If you could get all the worshipers of Baal in Israel into that one building, maybe most of the people weren’t into that. Well, Jehu went and Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal and said to the worshipers, Now search and look that there be with you here none of the servants of Jehovah. We don’t want anybody in here but the worshipers of Baal only. And so when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed 80 men and surrounded the place and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that lets him go, his life shall be for the life of the man he let go. And everybody by this time believed Jehu when he talked about killing people. It was plain he didn’t mind it at all. It came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, he said to the guard and his captains, Go in and kill them. Don’t let one of them come out of that building. And they smote them with the edge of the sword. And the guard and the captains cast them out and went to the city of the house of Baal. They brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and they burned them. They broke down the image of Baal, broke down the house of Baal, and made it a draft house to this day, a stable. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. He wiped out Baal worship entirely. I suspect that if there was some poor soul who hid out in a cave somewhere, he would never in his life ever again, not while Jehu was alive, admit that he had worshipped Baal or did or ever would. It’s only been in recent years that I begin to understand why the men Jehu killed deserve this end. Many of the religions in this part of the world encouraged temple prostitution, and they didn’t staff those temples with adult women who had made their own decision to do this. They were temple slaves, and they went into that slavery, little children, girls and boys, who were sold as temple slaves. It continued down through the generations. There’s even some level of it going on in places of the world to this day. where little girls and little boys are sold to be used as sex slaves in a house of worship. Well, Jehu was determined to put an end to that kind of thing. And he did. However, he made one very stupid mistake. He did not depart from the peculiar sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He didn’t leave this. He stuck with the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. Now, why would he do that? Oh, the answer is relatively simple. This was the method whereby Jeroboam had secured his kingdom. to prevent the children of Israel from, when he said to himself, if they go down to Jerusalem to worship year by year the Lord of hosts, their heart will return to their brothers in Judah, their heart will return to the king of Judah, they will reunite the kingdom again, and I’ll be as good as a dead man. And Jehu, recognizing that would happen, decided that he was going to maintain that particular distinction. And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in executing what is right in my own eyes, and you have done to the house of Ahab according to all that I had instructed to be done, your children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, because he just couldn’t break with the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin. Can’t help wondering at the appeal of this. And the answer can only be that it was a matter of power. It was the holy days, and he just couldn’t take the chance of allowing the Israelites to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast. There’s more.
SPEAKER 02 :
Until next time, I’m Ronald Dart. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560 White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
SPEAKER 01 :
Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net.
