Jezebel, and the whore of Babylon.
Jesus is speaking to the church in Thyatira. He said to them,
Revelation 2:19 thru 24, “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.”
“Not withstanding I HAVE A FEW THINGS AGAINST THEE, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
“And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and SHE REPENTED NOT.”
“Behold, I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.”
“And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”
Revelation speaks of an O.T. character named Jezebel. She is mentioned in, 1 Kings 16:31 and II Kings.
What do we know about her? Why does Jesus refer to her as being in the future last days of mankind?
Jezebel was a princess, the daughter of King Ethbaal, king of Zidon. Zidon is an ancient Phoenician city, in the land we now call Lebanon. Zidon, in the New Testament is written as Sidon. It is a city approximately 20 miles north of the port city of Tyre.
Jezebel was a zealous worshiper of the god Baal, Ashtaroth, and other Phoenician gods. This foreign princess became the wife of King Ahab.
Ahab was ruler, a king over the northern 10 tribes of Israel. He reigned between 873-851 B.C, a period of 22 years. His unfaithfulness to God far exceeded all the other kings of Israel. Ahab brought into the land an evil woman, a woman who introduced to the nation the public worship of many false gods and idols.
Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel brought with it, many foreign political advantages, but in time, it became a religious disaster. Not only did Jezebel introduce to the Jews the worship of the god Baal; but this idolatry gave free license to all Jews’ to indulge in every unholy excess, unrestrained by law or morality. This punctuated by religious orgies in the worship of the goddess Ashtoreth.
Ancient Jews, like Christians today, were to keep themselves pure. They had been commanded NOT to inter-marry with ungodly and unholy people. Ahab’s decision to disobey God, and marry this woman eventually destroyed the nation and the people.
Because of Jezebel, Baal worship almost supplanted the worship of Jehovah. In Jezebel’s time, Elijah the prophet challenged 450 high priests of Jezebel, Baal on Mt. Carmel. The priests of Baal were the backbone of this pagan religion, they offering up incense and burnt offerings for favors.
On certain occasions, children were offered for human sacrifice to the god Baal by Jewish and Gentile parents. The priests would dance around a altar in a frenzied state, slash themselves and praying to their false gods.
The children were sacrificed by being burned alive. They were placed or thrown into large bronze statues that were in the image of their false gods. The statues were heated by fires beneath, until red hot, then the infants are placed onto the arms or thrown into the furnace of the Idol.
Ashtoreth was the goddess of the Canaanites. The name Ashtoreth relates to the Persian word “Sitarah,” or “star” and is connected with Venus, the goddess of love. Our English word Easter comes from the word Eastre, the goddess of love, or Venus of the north. The holiday, “Easter,” celebrated by Christians’ has nothing to do with Christ, but is related to a festival celebrated by pagan cultures.
Revelation 2:20, makes reference to, “That woman Jezebel.” In the N.T. a woman is spoken of as a young maiden, yet unmarried. Two future brides to be are spoken of, the whore of Babylon, belonging to the devil and the anti-christ, the other is the bride of Christ.
She is engaged to Jesus, now making ready for her marriage to our Lord. Even in her engagement, she is to be faithful.
Concerning the whore of Babylon, because of the loyalty to the antichrist, Jesus said,
Revelation 2:23, “I will kill her children with death.”
Compare the following verses,
Revelation 17:5, with, Revelation 2:22, “Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Jesus said, “I will kill her children with death.”
Who are these children of mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots? Revelation 2:22, speaks of those who are cast into bed with the harlot Jezebel. These are the product of her fornication, children made in her image and likeness.
Isaiah 57:1-2-3, “None considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come (the taking away of righteous people will be a blessing in light of the God’s punishment to come). He (the righteous) shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness (honesty and integrity). But draw near, ye sons of the sorceress = (those who practice magic,) the seed of the adulterer and the whore = (harlot.)”
Isaiah 57:4-10, explains further how these sons of the sorceress mock God and His children. Jesus enemies taunted Him on the cross, and with the energy of a raging bull and of a roaring lions, surrounded Him, seeking His death.
They are the children of transgression and falsehood. These are the idol worshippers, lovers of the flesh who are found in every corner of society, and some in our Christian community; and those who have willfully abandoned the worship of Jesus Christ, have gone the way of Jezebel.
Ezekiel 23:43-44, “And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands, —-And the company = (righteous men) shall stone them (adulteresses,) with her sons and daughters with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters.” These adulterers are the bride of antichrist.
The warning in Revelation 2:20: Christians’ are not to tolerate this whore, her children, or her ways. Those who are begotten of her come from her, the product of lukewarm Christianity. Jesus said, “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew = (vomit) thee out of my mouth.”
Today the name of Jesus is spoken in anger, in mocking, or in jesting. Honored and glorified by the faithful alone. Even in this, few rarely acknowledge the gift of life they have received from Him.
The world at large denies the creation. Have fallen into idols worship, they glorify the flesh, bowing to images made stone and wood; eating and drinking the fruit of their own hand.
The Lord will come as a thief in the night for those who are consumed by their own lusts, being wrapped in the cloak of darkness and sin.
The children of the whore are a distinct class of people. Some are the children of Christian families, once having a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They have forsaken their first love. In their lusts, they have turned to false gods and false practices. They then marry men or women of false religions, this bringing in false idols.
As Ahab did, so are many Christian families having their sons and daughter’s marry into pagan religions, producing tomorrow’s unbelievers and idol worshippers. They glorify the flesh, and bow a knee to the prince of this world.
The future bride of the antichrist will soon receive her mark, its called the mark of the beast, 666.
Jezebel’s children shall be “killed with death.” Killed with death is a Hebrew term, meaning to slay with a most sure and awful death. Not dying a natural death, but at the hand of the Lord.
In the O.T. God prophesied of Jezebel’s demise. She would fall to her death, and the dogs would consume her. Nothing but her hands, feet, and head were left. This was God’s judgement upon her, and it came to pass. And God will turn the hungry and angry dogs of the Gentile world against this fallen church to devour her flesh.
Jezebel called herself, “A prophetess, to teach and to seduce my = (God’s) servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
Prophetess is a Greek word. The Greek sense of prophetess is, that she is the interpreter or priestess of her god. She is an oracle. She is said to be speaking and acting from a divine influence, an ambassador from her lord Satan, not Jesus or His Holy Spirit.
The symbolical Jezebel of Revelation is to the church, what Jezebel was to Ahab. As Ahab and Jezebel, were destroyed, so also will this false church.
The idea of a female prophetess in the Hebrew is sometimes used collectively to express a multitude, or a set of false prophets. These self styled Prophetesses were as closely attached to the Church as a woman is to her husband. They are powerfully influenced by evil, for the sake of evil.
Jesus said that this symbolic Jezebel came to seduce His servants, and to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
The idea of the Greek word “seduce,” is to make someone to wander, to lead astray, to mislead, to cause one to error. It is to cause people to rebel and to be lead away from the truth.
Jesus said that this seduction can cause HIS SERVANTS to commit fornication. There are various types of servants. There are,
1. Involuntary servants = (these are conquered slaves, or indebted slaves).
2. Voluntary servants. = (working for wages or for their keep).
3. There are servants who are the followers and worshippers of God, as was Moses Jehovah’s agent and ambassador. This kind is driven by their love for Christ Jesus.
4. Servants who simply worship God, but do not strive after Him. Unfaithful servants = (daughters of Jezebel) will commit fornication with their symbolic mother Jezebel.
What is fornication? In the Hebrew, it is a symbol of idolatry. A fornicator has a broken relationship with God. It represents an imperfect married state or union, a state marked by unfaithfulness.
Revelation 17:2-3, seven angels said to John, “Come here, I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been make drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
These are the sons and daughters of Jezebel.
Revelation 18:3, “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her = (Jezebel) fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed = (have become) rich through the abundance of her delicacies (luxuries).”
Jesus calls this worshipping of idols, to, “Know the depths of Satan.” These claim to be full of knowledge, boasting to know the mysteries and the deep things of God. They are pretentious, and arrogant, but this false depth of knowledge, is revealed to be the “Depths of Satan.”
Adam’s sin, as well as the sin of all his sons and daughters, was, and still is, to know good and evil. Those who profess to know the “Depths of Satan” are pretending to indulge in God’s domain. It is God’s prerogative alone to know evil fully, and He alone will never be hurt or defiled by it.
There will be no new doctrines, or commandments, only the old faith and rule of practice, which has been delivered to us in Scriptures. Do you look at, and treat the word of God like an intolerable burden?
The only burden placed on Christians is a light burden. We are to cease from every form of false worship and from partaking of anything offered to, or sacrificed unto idols. We are to love God with all our hearts and minds.
Jesus speaking to His church said,
Revelation 2:6, “But this thou hast, that thou hates the deeds of the Nicolatiatanes, which I also hate.”
Nicolaos means, conqueror of the people, and is the Greek version of Balaam, from Hebrew, meaning, “destroyer of the people.” The Book of Revelation is full of both Greek and Hebrew names such as Apollyon; Abaddon, the Devil, Satan the serpent etc.
The name Nicolatiatanes like other names such as, Egypt, Babylon, Sodom, are symbolic. The Nicolatians were not a sect, but were professing Christians who like Balaamites tried to introduce into the church a false freedom, a license to indulge to excess, unrestrained by both law and morality, it taking on the form of idol worship.
They taught that adultery and fornication were things indifferent: They mixed several pagan rites with Christian ceremonies. This form of false worship entered into Jewish worship in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. Over the centuries it has become a cancer we now call religion. This is the worship of Baal, the daughters of Jezebel, and the deeds of the Nicolatians.
To the loyal worshippers of Jesus Christ, He said, “Hold fast till I come,” and He will “give power over the nations.” The faithful shall receive the “Morning Star,” Jesus Christ.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com