Jezebel was the daughter of a king and the wife of a king. She was a woman who knew power and how to use it (I Kings 21: 7-15). As the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, she was instrumental in introducing the worship of the pagan god Baal into Jewish culture. More than that, she spent at least part of her life having the prophets of God, the men who spoke for God and would oppose the worship of Baal, killed. She told the prophet Elijah, whom God used to bring rain to a drought-barren land of famine, she fully intended to kill him also, causing Elijah to run for his life and hide in a cave. Under her influence, I Kings 21:25 says “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.”
Such is the power of a woman! In a time and place where women had few rights and little power; where women were largely secondary to their husbands and bound to answer to them, Jezebel wrecked havoc at will. She helped a self-centered, whiney man become one of the most evil of all time-unique in a world already filled with malevolence!
Unfortunately for Jezebel, her power was still limited. She may have been able to order the slaying of hundreds of men who opposed the God she worshiped; she may have been able to out-connive the innocent; and she may have even made the most powerful man of God in the land of Israel run frantically for his life, but she was never any match for the living God. At the height of her power, when she was murdering and outsmarting and terrifying God’s people, these words were delivered (I Kings 21:23) And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: “Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.”
Do you think in that moment she believed this prophecy? Everything is looking good. It is only the pesky word of God that keeps creeping into the joy of her life and annoying her. And, as we do when we think we have control, she continued on with her life. The truth about time is, no matter how much we have, it is very little. I know this for a fact. Being over 50, I am amazed. I have no idea how this happened. Looking back, my life has been but the blink of an eye; I have not idea what is left, but it has be incredibly fast and I am not ready. I still want all the things I always wanted. I am not ready to be done. But the time will come, just like it came to Jezebel. In 2 Kings 9: 10; 30-37 we are told of Jezebel’s demise. She does not die like a queen or a daughter of royalty; in fact, she is humiliated before the entire world.
Her son has just been killed by Jehu and he is coming. In her last display of arrogance, she dresses for his arrival, only to be pitched out the window by her own servants and run over by Jehu’s chariot and horses. When Jehu sends his men back to look for her, she has been eaten by dogs and only her hands remain. Such is the end of her power and greed! While it may seem unfair that she had years from the time of her death was foretold until she died, those years were nothing; a flash; a second in time and ahead lay all eternity.
There is a day of reckoning for everyone! From the most powerful to the most insignificant of us, our time will come. Your time will come. We all will answer. Will you be ready?