Who Is A Jezebel?

Warning: this blog contains adult themes and may offend.

The apostle John is the only New Testament author to identify the woman Jezebel, or her spirit. Not that this stops some preachers calling out people for having the spirit of Jezebel. If I was given a dollar for every time ...  Clearly, she was a none-too pleasant person – her awful death summing up her equally awful reign over the people of God, to whom she was a stumbling block and pariah.  

But what exactly was it that was identified in Jezebel (or Jezebel as a type, as John was identifying her) that incurred the prophetic opprobrium of the Son of God?  

Firstly, the Jezebel he speaks of, that the church in Thyatira tolerated, claimed she was a prophet.  Self-proclaimed prophets, in other words people hungry for authority and notoriety, are the beginning of troubles, as in her case. Secondly, she beguiled God’s people into sexual lasciviousness and the consumption of food offered to idols.  

It is likely that the two went together – fornication and food.  Paul states idolatry and sexual permissiveness are bed fellows.  When the creature, and not the Creator is worshipped, or idolised, sexual debauchery inevitably follows. We can assume Jezebel convinced believers in Thyatira (not all) that table fellowshipping and drinking with people given to idolatry was somehow acceptable, possibly even desirable. 

Consequently, this arch manipulator was to be thrown on to a bed of suffering, analogous to her being thrown out a window in 2 Kings 19.30-37. Her condemnation was certain, but she was hardly your run of the mill church busybody or ‘controlling personality.’  Whilst these people can be troubling and at times damaging, I’m not sure they deserve to be lowered on to throne of Jezebel. That might be giving them too much attention or a case of labelling people hastily, even ill advisedly, but in so doing we lessen the damaging impact of a real Jezebel.  

If they don’t fit the bill described by John, then they likely aren’t Jezebel - not all Jezebels are Jezebel.