For a woman to be called “a Jezebel” is a serious matter. It is a name synonymous with “adulterous,” and a reputation that no one would want to stick to a good woman.
In Revelation chapter two, the adulterous woman in the church in Thyatira is labelled, “Jezebel.” Such was the evil nature of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, that her name had become a byword.
I have my doubts that Jezebel’s final demise has been discussed in Sunday School classes lately. Even in this time where children know too much of what they should not know, somehow the murder of an evil queen on the orders of a man “anointed by God” (2Kg.9:6), is fit only for adult Bible classes.
Jehu was God’s messenger of death for the household of King Ahab (2Kg.9:7); Jezebel, was on his hit-list.
Surrounded by fawning slaves, and hearing of Jehu’s approach, “she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window (2Kg.9:30).
Whether Jezebel considered Jehu’s arrival at her residence to be an opportunity to display womanly wiles in hopes of him making her his queen, or instead to face her death in all her queenly refinement, we may never fully know.
But Jezebel was no Juliet: In her opening line to Jehu, who stood on the landing below, she told him he was a killer of kings who were destined to reign but a week.
In response, Jehu was no Romeo. If he was supposed to receive her (accurate) accusation of regicide as flattery and then expected to bat off the king-for-a-week jab as banter, he didn’t seem to be playing along.
Instead, he lifted up his face and called for anyone who was loyal to him to throw her out the window; that they did!
Space prevents me from telling you what happened to Jezebel’s body. Suffice it to say that it, and how she met her end, are probably why she has remained on the Sunday School teachers’ censorship list all these years.
John Staiger
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