After
all the historic divine manifestation and demonstration through Elijah which
ought to have been a testimony that should be celebrated. King Ahab on reaching
home told his wife Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed his
four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. The king did this either as a
testimony or report to his wife. Thereafter, there began manifestation of the
enemies of revival.
One
of the enemies is the spirit of Ahab: The fight against revival is not against
humans but against spirits of the enemy that influence humans to achieve their
evil purposes. When such spirits are arrested, those they influence and
manipulate will be set free- 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-18; Col. 1:9-14. The
spirit of Ahab and Jezebel is very dangerous to the church of Christ. It is a
fight that involves all our spiritual muscles and must be renounced in our lives,
families, and churches.
King
Ahab succeeded his father Omri on the throne in the northern kingdom of Israel.
His wife Jezebel was a heathen princess, the daughter of king of Tyre and Sidon
who was formerly the priest of a shrine called Astarte before he overthrew his
brother and became king. Ahab's wife was the decision maker and very energetic
in character. His wife soon became in complete control over him that he
eventually established the idols of her choice (Baal- Melcarth). Ahab built this
idol a temple and an altar in Samaria, and he made a groove for impure
merry-making and immoral activities of the goddess Ashtoreth. Baal- Melcarth
was a male god while Ashtoreth was a female goddess. So strong was the tide of
corruption and idolatry in the land that it appeared that the knowledge of the
true God was forgotten forever among the people of Israel.
The
great prophet Elijah was raised and he opposed the royal power of Ahab and Jezebel
and succeeded in returning the people of Israel back to their God and the mode
of His worship.
Ahab
had a taste of excellent architecture, and erected his royal residence in
Jezreel , near the vineyard of Naboth that he desired to add the vineyard to
his pleasure grounds. But the refusal of Naboth earned him an early death as he
was falsely accused and put to death in order to remove him (as an obstacle)
and this made Elijah prophesy against the total extinction of the house of
Ahab.
The
name ''Ahab'' means father's brother and the name Jezebel means ''unhusbanded''
or ''non-cohabited''. By virtue of the meaning of the names, Ahab ought to be a
God-fearing man, this was partially made manifest when he repented during the
pronouncement of God's judgment upon his house by prophet Elijah. This
repentant act made God to post-pone the punishment until after his death- 1
Kgs. 21:28-29. Ahab sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of God because
of his wife, Jezebel- 1 Kgs. 21:25-26.
Jezebel
on the other hand, lived out the meaning of her name. She forced her husband
through her overbearing spirit to take the place of the wife while she became
the husband and leader. The spirit of Jezebel makes a man under arrest that he
ceases in his functions and stripped of his manhood power and becomes relegated
to the position of the woman. Such a man becomes Ahab in the family; and this
is the beginning of moral decay and disorder in the family.
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