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Scripture: 1 Kings 16:31, 1 Kings chapters 18-19, 2 Kings chapter 9
And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him (King Ahab of
Israel) to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to
wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served
Baal, and worshipped him.
(1 Kings 16:31)
Jezebel was a queen who lived with her husband King Ahab in an ivory house.
(1 Kings 22:39) A house that I’m sure we would call a palace. They had
eunuchs to serve them and guards to protect them. They had a whole kingdom
of people to respect them. They had sons to carry on their family name and
to continue carrying the royal line. So what in the world could possibly be
Jezebel’s problem? She was a selfish and greedy individual who was more
than willing to lie, cheat, steal and kill to get her own way. Surely, none
of us have that problem…so why should we study Jezebel? Jezebel is a
warning to us today for many reasons…all of them are found in her bad
examples.
First Jezebel chose to worship Baal. While we don’t worship idols in
a church or while attending religious retreats Satan is very good at putting
idols in our way. Anything or anyone that we allow to come before the Lord
in our lives and hearts is in fact an idol to us. They not only worshipped
Baal, they actively sought to destroy anyone who disagreed with them.
We believe we are more civilized than they were but in our society today there
are constant battles taking place. We don’t see a lot of it in here in
the Ozarks but there are people who will kill someone for the color or the
brand name of the clothing they wear. Americans are raising a generation of
young people many of them pre-teens that refuse to wear clothing unless it
has a designer label or came from the "right" store. Our society has people
who can not sleep without a television or stereo playing. We are a rich society
that is living in excess. Fast food whether from a restaurant or just convenience
items from the store have enabled families to short order cook for each individual
so no one has to eat something they may not like.
The extremes of the things we may place as gods was shown in the news this
week. The woman out west whose personal god is alcohol allowed two of her
three children to starve to death while she lay in a drunken stupor, her bed
littered with empty beer cans. Oh, I know our culture is willing to justify
her conduct by calling her drunkenness a sickness or addiction, but sometime
in the past she chose to begin drinking and did not choose to stop before
it became an addiction.
God has commanded us to "Have no other gods before Him" and the blessing of
God in our life in part relies on our obedience.
"But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and
keep it." Luke 11:28
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love
him." James 1:12
"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams."
1 Samuel 15:22
God will judge those who attack His servants and practice heresy. His holiness
demands justice and without repentance there is no remission of sin.
"And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head,
and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I have anointed thee
king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the
house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets,
and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel." 2
Kings 9:6-7
Jezebel actively worshipped idols and practiced witchcraft/sorcery. It would
be nice to know that no one we know is involved with witchcraft and sorcery
but sadly that is not the case.
50 years ago or more our society began to make witchcraft and the occult a
joke. Do you remember the "Topper" series of movies about the friendly ghost
that helped solve crimes? What about "Bewitched" that made witchcraft appear
to be fun and useful? "I Dream of Genie" came with a bit of glamour, naivete,
and laughable spells and goofs. Then we added the cartoon characters like
"Casper the Friendly Ghost" and "Scooby-doo" that is often chasing a ghost
of some sort. Books have followed by the hundreds that are often written for
children but make witchcraft seem fun and harmless. The current children’s
books of the "Harry Potter" series are again holding wizardry up as a gift
to be prized. There is a new cartoon series that will begin n January on the
Disney channel that is about young witches learning to control their powers.
There are many other television programs both current and in re-runs that
glamorize witchcraft.
We could sit back and say it is just make believe but all of these things are
still against the teaching of the Bible. When we add to these horoscopes,
magic 8 ball, taro cards, and the never ending group of chanelers who will
allow you to commune with the dead, we should be able to see the danger to
Christian beliefs.
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