Things To learn From Jezebel And Athaliah

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Gracefully broken

4 years ago

In community: Meaningful Writings(a5e8)

In this article, we will be studying the lives of few women in the Bible. Grab your chair, get a notebook, pen and a drink as we journey.

We will be studying

1) Jezebel

2) Athaliah

Characteristics:Cruel, Domineering

Let us now sketch her character as shown throughout the books of First and Second Kings. Jezebel was a very dominating, strong woman who was married to Ahab. She influenced Ahab to turn to Idolatry. The Bible clearly attributes the evil of her husband to her influence upon him. What a terrible indictment against a woman. Again and again in this study we have emphasized the necessity of making sure our motives are pure and our choices are right. Surely, a woman can and willi influenceher husband to go in the right direction or the wrong one (See 1 Kings 21:25).

Jezebel was hard-hearted and very selfish. She had been a princess, accustomed to getting her own way, and this she continued until her death. She was responsible for the innocent bloodshed of many prophets (1 Kg.18:13), and had a passionate hatred for God and His messengers.

Even after God showed His power by defeating the prophets of Baal on Carmel, her only response was that of anger and a greater determination to kill Elijah (19:1-2). This woman was a vessel totally yielded to Satan.

Jezebel was deceptive and a murderer, wholly committed to her own evil objectives. When Ahab pouted because he could not have a vineyard he wanted, she had no scruples. She hired men to bear false witness against Naboth and had him killed. Then she presented the vineyard to Ahab with no qualms whatsoever (21:1-16). Ahab did nothing to stop her, and God held him responsible. When the Lord pronounced judgment upon Ahab, he humbled himself before God, showing a measure of repentance. Jezebel did not (21:27-29).

She was a proud, arrogant, strong-willed woman that led her husband, her children and all of Israel into idolatry.

Christian women need to learn to submit their strengths and weaknesses to the Lord. They must allow His will to become their will instead of trying to bend God's will to fit their own.

Many churches and ministries have been ruined by dominant women who manipulate their pastor husbands through prophecy, prayer, or through their emotions.

Ladies, do not demand, cry, pout, urge, nag, deprive your husband of marriage relationships, or make life absolutely miserable until your man crumbles beneath your pressure and gives in to do your will. Many men have fallen into adultery, and ministries have been destroyed because of the ungodly behavior of their wives.

Manipulation may fool some people, but it never fools God, nor does it fool the children of such marriages.

Their response, unfortunately, is usually to rebel against God, and they often take that same manipulation into their own marriages. Others adopt an evil alternative lifestyle as part of their rebellion against what they have experienced in the home. If you know you are a strong-willed woman, you need to cry out to God to change your heart and mold you into a woman of a meek and quiet spirit. This is the only kind of bride Christ will be wedded to.

If we ladies cannot demonstrate this in earthly marriage, it certainly will never work in our relationship with Christ. Marriage is a natural object lesson that depicts our spiritual condition.We can find out how submitted we are to Christ by our relationship and attitudes toward our spouse.

Points to note about Jezebel

1) She influenced her husband to turn against God

2) Hard hearted and selfish

3) As Christian ladies we must learn to submit to the Lord and our husband

4) DO NOT BE MANIPULATIVE, yes you may know your husband's "mumu button" don't use it as a instrument of manipulation

ATHALIAH

Meaning of name:whom Jehovah has afflicted.

Characteristics:Heartless, Ambitious.

She was worse than her mother Jezebel.

Athaliah was an appalling character. In some ways she seemed more wicked than her mother Jezebel.

She married Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat. This marriage to Athaliah absolutely ruined her (2 Chron. 21:4-6). When their son Ahaziah became king, she was his counselor and compelled him to walk in the wickedness of Ahab (2 Chron. 22:1-4). When Ahaziah died at an early age, she slew all of the children who were akin to the royal family, and afterwards seized the throne (2 Chron 22:10-12).

When we realize that most of these children were her own grandchildren, we see how diabolically ruthless she was. To do something this fiendish, it is clear that Athaliah had been smitten by God and given over to a reprobate mind and lacked natural affection (2 Tim. 3:3). •This is the hallmark of one who “sells himself” to Satan, to work evil in the sight of the Lord (1 Kg. 21:25).

Athaliah ruled by blind ambition and was driven by a lust for power. She continued unchallenged as queen for six years, but was slain at the coronation of her grandson, Joash. By the quick actions of his aunt, Joash had been spared from the sword when Athaliah murdered all her other grandchildren.

At age seven he took away the throne from her which was rightfully his. In the truest sense of the word, she was her mother's daughter. Ezekiel 16:44 says, “As is the mother, so is her daughter, Thou art thy mother’s daughter.” Athaliah indeed was more wicked than her mother, for in slaying her own grandchildren, she went beyond all natural, human emotions and logic to commit such atrocities.