Latest / Scripture Central / 1 Kings 12-22 I Worst Female Villain in the Bible I Handmaidens, Harems & Heroines I Lynne Wilson

Transcript

1 Kings 12-22 I Worst Female Villain in the Bible I Handmaidens, Harems & Heroines I Lynne Wilson · Scripture Central

0:00
It's this widow of Zarephath cooperation, her generosity, her
0:03
kindness that brought her immediate blessings as well, I
0:08
believe, as eternal divine blessings.
0:11
In desperation, he sends his wife to put on some sort of a
0:16
costume in disguise and says, you go talk to the prophet.
0:19
She would have had to see this apostasy in their marriage.
0:22
You know, she would have had to see that not only did the
0:24
apostasy come into her husband's life, but also into the people's
0:27
lives. Now this widow's generosity,
0:30
even under her dire condition, speaks phenomenally of her
0:33
goodness. Now her heart is torn open,
0:36
she's brutally honest, and she pleads to know why God has done
0:42
this to her. But the widow does not yet know
0:45
that suffering is not always a direct consequence of sin.
0:50
She carried out murderous plots for more land.
0:53
She scared all the prophets of Jehovah into hiding, including
0:57
Elijah. Remember, he goes to The Cave.
0:59
It appears that her goal was to change the worship of Israel
1:03
from Jehovah to bomb. We don't know anything about
1:06
Elijah's marital status. It was never even mentioned.
1:10
We're left to speculate. And she becomes the most
1:13
detailed female antagonist of God in the entire Old Testament.
1:20
Hello, Welcome back to Scripture Central.
1:22
I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson, part of the team that tries to build
1:26
enduring faith in Jesus Christ. And this week we are looking
1:30
specifically at the handmaidens and the harems and the heroines
1:33
in First Kings chapter 12 through 22.
1:37
And they are quite a group, and some of them find their Messiah
1:40
and others do not. We've got the wife of Jeroboam.
1:44
We've got the queen Jezebel. We've got the widow of
1:47
Zarephath. We've got the mother of Elisha,
1:49
the wives of Ahab Zuba and the mother of Hazia.
1:52
We have some fabulous women's stories in this text.
1:56
Some are good and some are bad. And just as a refresher,
2:00
initially when the 12 tribes came into the promised land,
2:03
Joshua put them in 12 different geographic locations.
2:07
But by 950 in Solomon's Kingdom, he said you can live wherever
2:12
you want. So it didn't matter if you were
2:14
from the tribe of Manasseh, you could move down South.
2:18
So today, as we look at Jeroboam's Kingdom after
2:23
Solomon, he has now separated out the northern area, but it's
2:28
not necessarily just the 10 tribes because they've been
2:30
living wherever they wanted. So we have the southern Kingdom
2:33
continuing on from Solomon's posterity with Rehoboam and
2:37
Jeroboam. The Lord calls and the Lord asks
2:41
for him to serve there. However, he was not a good cake.
2:47
You know, Jeroboam, make these two golden calves.
2:50
He says to the people, you know, I don't want you to have to go
2:53
clear down to Jerusalem. So here Israel are your gods.
2:56
And notice this lowercase G who brought you up out of the land
3:01
of Egypt and he's put one cap calf down South and Bethel and
3:05
one up north and Dan and these are the boundaries showing the
3:08
God of their Kingdom. It's it's awful.
3:11
You know, it says in verse 30, this thing began a sin.
3:16
The people walked, I'll clear up to Dan, you know, this is up by
3:20
Mount Hermon and all the way down, but they would not be able
3:25
to go just a little bit further South to Jerusalem.
3:28
So Jeroboam shrines are a disaster.
3:31
And the people also now have to assign priests who are not
3:35
Levites because these are not the worship of Jehovah.
3:38
Now the first woman in our section is in First Kings
3:41
chapter 14 and she is the wife of Jeroboam.
3:45
Now even though the Lord called him, he did not obey the Lord.
3:49
But he was probably most likely married before he he ever was
3:53
anointed by the Prophet Abuja to become the next king of these
3:58
northern tribes of Israel. So if his wife had had been with
4:03
him for years, she may have known that King Solomon's heir
4:08
Ribo was very unwisely taxing the people.
4:12
He failed to keep the Kingdom of Israel together.
4:15
She would have known that God commanded her husband to This is
4:18
in First Kings Chapter 11. Walk in my ways and do what is
4:23
right in my sight. But Jeroboam did not obey God.
4:26
He did not do what the prophet said.
4:29
And he departs and there's fighting and wars and with the
4:34
Judah all along. This is chapter 12.
4:37
We do not know if she's in favor of these things.
4:39
I assume that she was aware of them.
4:41
She's part of following what he says, but she would have had to
4:46
see this apostasy in their marriage.
4:49
You know, she would have had to see that not only did the
4:51
apostasy come into her husband's life, but also into the people's
4:54
lives. I don't know if she discouraged
4:56
or encouraged it, but there is a tragic multi generational effect
5:00
of this. We do know though that when she
5:03
is first married, her son is dying.
5:06
Her husband is then serving as king.
5:09
He's already offended the Prophet Ahuja and he knows that
5:14
he can't go talk to the Prophet because he hasn't been on good
5:16
terms with him. So in desperation he sends his
5:20
wife to put on some sort of a costume, a disguise and says you
5:24
go talk to the prophet. So she agrees she they're
5:28
they're desperate for help for their little 1.
5:30
I don't think she really understood or had much faith and
5:34
how God works because she cooperates with his plan.
5:37
She puts on a costume. She takes 10 loaves of breads
5:41
and cakes and honey as a gift before him when she goes up to
5:44
Shiloh. But when she gets there, the
5:48
prophet, even though he was losing his eyesight before she
5:52
arrived, the Lord revealed to him, quote, the wife of
5:55
Jehovaham cometh to ask thee for her son, for he is sick.
6:01
That's the first Kings 14 five. So she must have been frightened
6:06
before she even entered the door.
6:08
The Prophet calls out and addresses her wife of Jeroboam,
6:13
you know. Then he, he makes jokes about
6:15
her disguise, you know. So in this terribly humbled
6:19
state, humiliated and embarrassed, he gives her them
6:22
the news, the excruciating news that her son would die, as well
6:27
as every other member of the family.
6:30
So she is called to be the messenger of this tragic
6:34
announcement. The prophet says, go tell
6:37
Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord God of
6:40
Israel. For as much as I exalted thee
6:42
from among the people and made the Prince over my people.
6:46
Israel then continues on. All will be cut off from the
6:50
House of Jeroboam. This is first Kings 14-7 and
6:54
then down to 14. You know, she doesn't receive
6:58
hope. She doesn't receive any kind of
7:00
pardoning, which I suggest that she was not an innocent victim
7:03
because in other biblical counts, we see wives who refuse
7:06
to follow their wicked husbands. You know what, Abigail?
7:08
Ada Zilla. But that's not what we see here.
7:11
We also see that the Lord does not pardon her for her innocence
7:16
or for the surrounding wickedness of her like He does
7:19
in Genesis 19. Although I don't want to throw
7:21
stones, I don't know whether she was guilty or not, but she does
7:25
not receive forgiveness or hope from the prophet.
7:28
So the queen heard the Lord's voice through the prophet and
7:32
then witnesses God's justice. You know, the consequences of
7:35
breaking God's covenants are more severe for the leaders.
7:39
We see this repeatedly in the Old Testament, and just as the
7:43
prophet Ahjad had prophesied, when the queen returns to Tirza
7:48
to tell her husband the gruesome fate of her son as soon as she
7:53
stepped onto the threshold of the door, he dies first.
7:56
Kings, 1417. So tragic situation.
8:02
The next figure is the wife of Ahab Jezebel.
8:08
First Kings, Chapter 16, chapter 18, Chapter 19, chapter 21,
8:13
Second Kings. You know, she saturates the time
8:18
with Elijah as our prophet. Now she's a Phoenician Princess.
8:22
She's born to King Ethel Ball of the Sidonians entire.
8:26
So she's right along the Mediterranean.
8:27
She grew up right on the seacoast there and in the Book
8:30
of Kings, she is the most well developed female figure.
8:34
She takes center stage during this 9th century of the northern
8:38
tribes of Israel, and she becomes the most detailed female
8:42
antagonist of God in the entire Old Testament.
8:45
In fact, Jezebel is sort of like the foil to the great prophet
8:49
Elijah. You know, she's constantly
8:51
attempting to show her power through wickedness and
8:55
oppression, just as he throws shows his power through divine
8:59
and righteousness, you know, through his work.
9:02
But Jezebel's family, it comes from these Baal worshippers,
9:07
these these Pagan gods. Baal is not only the God of
9:10
fertility, but also thunderstorms and weather.
9:13
So when you look at the things that that happened by Elijah the
9:18
prophet, you see that he is directly attacking the things
9:22
that Baal stood for. You know the weather well, no,
9:26
Elijah seals the heaven, but all has no power to provide rain.
9:29
You know these kind of things. Also, hundreds of years later,
9:33
Josephus adds that Jezebel's father, in addition to being the
9:37
king, was also a priest in the cultic worship of the goddess of
9:41
Asteroth, which we see a lot because Jezebel, as part of her
9:47
claim to power, she claims to be a high priestess in these
9:50
idolatrous faiths. You know, you remember she tries
9:53
to carry out these heathen worships.
9:56
Even after her marriage, she arraigns with this with Ahab as
10:01
he apostasizes to join her paganism.
10:04
He allows her to feed 450 priests of Baal and 400 priests
10:10
of Asteroth at the royal table. Remember, this is the time of a
10:15
three-year famine. Elijah sealed the heavens and,
10:19
and, and her feeding these 850 people is bankrupting the entire
10:24
country. It, it's, it's really
10:26
horrendous. And she's this figure of evil
10:30
and wickedness here in these verses, Jezebel used more power
10:34
than any other queen in the Bible.
10:36
She wrote letters under King Ahab's name.
10:38
She sealed them with his seal. She carried out murderous plots
10:43
for more land. She scared all the prophets of
10:46
Jehovah into hiding, including Elijah.
10:48
Remember, he goes to The Cave. It appears that her goal was to
10:52
change the worship of Israel from Jehovah to ball.
10:57
And once she could do that, that religious move would set in
11:01
motion a political annexation of the northern tribes of Israel to
11:06
become a vassal state under the Phoenicians.
11:09
So she has this grand scheme that is acted out in her
11:13
behavior. But Elijah attacks her priests
11:18
of Baal, attacks her priests of Asteroth.
11:21
And Jezebel from that point forward was Elijah's greatest
11:24
enemy. Moving on though the second
11:26
Kings 9 we learned that Elijah prophecies of Jezebel's demise
11:31
and in chapter 21 it reads thus saith the Lord in this place
11:36
that where they were at the time in verse 19 shall dogs lick thy
11:40
blood. Now remember in the law of
11:43
Moses, dogs are an unclean animal.
11:47
But this does not happen immediately.
11:49
It's 22 years of Jezebel and Ahab's destructive reign, and
11:55
you know that the finally the Lord raises up the military
11:59
leader Jehu to destroy them, but there's one of their sons
12:03
becomes king before they are all destroyed.
12:06
Second Kings, Chapter 9. We'll talk a little bit more
12:08
about that destruction when we get there in a couple of weeks.
12:11
The next woman is also a Phoenician, but she is not a
12:16
Jezebel. This is one of the greatest
12:18
examples of faith we have. In fact, the Lord uses her as an
12:21
example of faith when he is alive in the Gospel of Luke.
12:26
This widow of Zarephath also lives right along the
12:29
Mediterranean coast. On my slides and on my hand out.
12:32
I have a map here to show you she.
12:34
Their little town of Zarephath is right in between the two
12:38
larger towns of Sidon and Tyre, but they're all along this
12:42
Phoenician coastline. The Phoenicians had the best
12:45
property and she he though is a humble follower and believer in
12:51
Jehovah. Very different situation than
12:54
Jezebel. You recall the after Elijah
12:58
seals the heavens, the Lord calls on him to go to a brook,
13:03
and that's in the Israelite community, and there a Raven
13:07
feeds him. But when the river, when the
13:09
Creek drives up, God sent him about 85 miles West all the way
13:14
outside of Israel into this area of Phoenicia, where he is told
13:20
that the widow of Zarephath will feed him.
13:23
Elijah must have been puzzled as the Lord told him to go into the
13:26
land of Phoenicia. But when he arrives at the gate
13:29
of Zarephath, he saw this poor starving widow gathering sticks,
13:35
and he had the audacity to ask her, Would you please bring me a
13:39
little water in a jar and I may have a drink?
13:42
And then he goes down to verse 11.
13:44
I'm in First Kings chapter 17. Would you please bring me a
13:47
piece of bread? This is the NIV translation.
13:50
Now this widow's generosity, even under her dire condition,
13:55
speaks phenomenally of her goodness, because rather than
13:58
becoming defensive and accusing him of insensitivity to women
14:01
and children, including him of greed or self-centered behavior,
14:06
she called on God as her witness.
14:09
Verse 12 in the ASV translation reads as Jehovah thy God liveth.
14:17
Now know what she's calling right there.
14:19
She is using the divine name, suggesting that she already knew
14:23
he was. So we have another Phoenician
14:25
living in Israel, Jezebel, who does not know God.
14:28
But we have a Phoenician living in Phoenicia who does.
14:32
You know that by contrasting these two women, we get an even
14:35
more clear picture of how good she is and how bad Jezebel was.
14:40
But she does not necessarily say, my God.
14:43
She honors Elijah as a prophet. She says, thy God.
14:48
This really speaks of God's universal acceptance of people.
14:53
You know, we've already had Rahab converting.
14:55
We've already had Ruth the Moabitess converting, the great
14:58
grandmother of David, you know, and this widow honestly and
15:02
humbly explains her dire circumstances.
15:05
She's down to her very last handful of grain and drops of
15:10
olive oil. You know, biblical widows are
15:12
often found in abject poverty, and she is one of the most
15:15
disadvantaged. But the prophet listens to her,
15:19
and he gave her an assignment. I don't know if he was trying to
15:21
test her meekness or to help grow her faith, but he says to
15:24
her, don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said,
15:29
but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have
15:33
and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and
15:37
your son. That's the MIV translation.
15:41
This is absolutely amazing. But Elijah adds a promise to her
15:46
to give her hope, and I'm so glad he adds this promise.
15:50
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
15:52
The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crews
15:57
of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the
16:02
earth. That's verse 14 that is
16:05
beautiful. And in this case, it's this
16:08
widow of Zarephath cooperation, her generosity, her kindness
16:12
that brought her immediate blessings as well, I believe, as
16:17
eternal divine blessings. You know, she's a foreigner and
16:21
yet she's trusting a prophet of God.
16:24
I don't know if she recognized him or he had to tell her who
16:26
she was, but the fact that she would know that she could trust
16:32
him, I assume came from the Spirit because it sounds like
16:38
she had never known him before. That they're encountering that
16:41
city gate was the first time. It also appears to me that
16:45
previously her faith had allowed her to to develop some of these
16:51
good characteristics. Now, just generally speaking,
16:54
ancient women often shared the role of a servant.
16:57
So this widow stepping in to serve him was not unusual.
17:03
And as the poor widow, her dwellings were probably very
17:06
small, just one room. We're told that Elijah stayed
17:09
though, in an upper room or a loft.
17:13
Now, that may have been a rooftop shaded by branches or
17:16
palm fronds, but it sounds like all three are living in the same
17:20
home. And we're told in verse 17 that
17:22
the widow was the mistress of this house.
17:26
Now, if Elijah did not marry her, it would have been very
17:29
unusual in that culture, especially for a prophet of God
17:32
to stayed in her bedroom. But the archaeologist looking at
17:36
this time period have found many rooftops that are used sort of
17:40
like a second room in ancient Israel.
17:42
And these rooftops may have been where Elijah set up his place to
17:47
live. I don't know.
17:48
Certainly sleeping outside during a drought would have had
17:52
its advantages because there's no rain, there's no dew, you
17:54
know? But he also could have built an
17:58
extra wall or a separate roof. You know, We have no idea.
18:01
But as we continue reading the in the next scene, it appears
18:05
that this widow is now called an Isha.
18:09
She's no longer called a widow. She's called the woman or the
18:12
wife. Now we don't know.
18:14
Is he just referring to that woman or does the narrator now
18:18
introduce the phrase of wife? There's no evidence that Elijah
18:23
marries her except for the fact that they're sharing the same
18:27
walls. It brings up an interesting
18:29
question though, because we don't know anything about
18:32
Elijah's marital status. It was never even mentioned.
18:35
We're left to speculate if he too were a widower or if if his
18:40
wife lives someplace else. I don't know, but he could have
18:44
been involved in her status changing from the title widow to
18:47
wife. I think it's significant though,
18:49
that Elijah holds the keys to the ceiling power.
18:52
Elijah knew what eternal marriage was.
18:55
You know, he had the ability to seal in heaven from the rains
18:58
and he had the ability to seal families.
19:01
So we aren't told what her situation and what their
19:04
relationship was. But as the story continues on,
19:08
we are told that the widow's son becomes very ill.
19:11
In fact, in the BSB translation of verse 17 it reads and his
19:15
sickness grew worse and worse until no breath remained in him.
19:20
Now the word for breath there is the Hebrew dasham, which is the
19:23
same word used in Genesis. This is God's divine breath that
19:27
he gives to Adam, that every living thing has this divine
19:31
breath. So in addition to losing his
19:35
life, he's losing this piece of divinity.
19:38
It's a beautiful connection, and its departure signals its
19:43
withdrawal of God's sacred life. So when his breath leaves him,
19:51
the widow's material world, as well as her faith and her hope,
19:56
probably fall, tumbling into a crisis.
20:00
You know everything she's valued now is taken away from her and
20:03
her words explode with grief and accusation at the prophet.
20:07
Oh man of God, she calls him. What have you done to me?
20:14
Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of
20:18
my son? This is the BSB translation.
20:21
So she turns on the prophet, and she continues to call him though
20:24
Man of God. Now that's the same title she
20:27
used before, which was a title that gave her comfort.
20:31
But now her heart is torn open, she's brutally honest, and she
20:36
pleads to know why God has done this to her.
20:40
But the widow does not yet know that suffering is not always a
20:44
direct consequence of sin. But God will transform her
20:49
understanding through this crisis.
20:51
You know that the very crisis that broke her is going to help
20:54
her learn that it has nothing to do with her wickedness.
20:58
So Elijah takes this lifeless body from his mother's clinging
21:01
arms and carries the babe or the young man up to the his bed
21:07
upstairs. So the mother has not lost all
21:12
of her hope because she is releasing her son's body to the
21:17
prophet. I think this speaks of her
21:19
faith. You know, she has had no promise
21:22
so far. She has no precedent.
21:24
There is no other person raised from the dead be prior to this
21:27
point recorded in the text of our Scripture but she simply
21:32
surrenders what she could not bear to lose into the hands of a
21:36
man that she had just accused, but she has faith to surrender
21:43
to God. You know in her raw and anguish
21:47
state. You know, I see that as the
21:49
hinge that is going to open the miracle that now follows.
21:55
Because while this widow waited downstairs, unable to see what
22:00
Elijah was doing and possibly not even able to hear his
22:03
prayers, Elijah brought her case before God.
22:07
And in the text, it says that his prayer, I think it's very
22:10
striking, his prayer to bring to the Lord her hospitality, her
22:16
vulnerability, her loss. You know, nowhere in there does
22:20
he try to defend himself. He's not protecting his own
22:23
reputation. You know, he's defending the
22:26
widow. I love it.
22:28
Elijah becomes this advocate for her before the throne of God,
22:33
and it's interesting to see this widow as a powerful type of
22:37
Christ. So Elijah asked God if he is the
22:41
source of this calamity. It's evil in King James, but I
22:44
think calamity is is better or tragedy and in verse 21 of the
22:50
BSB it says he stretched himself over the child three times and
22:55
cried out unto the Lord. Oh Lord my God, please let this
22:59
boy's life return to him. Now the number 3 in Hebrew
23:03
signals completeness and sometimes divide attention.
23:07
We've read this in Deuteronomy and and Jonah and Hoshiya, you
23:11
know, we see this number used is significantly, but this dear
23:16
widow as she listens, her faith is contributed to part of the
23:23
miracle. In fact, her faith is the
23:25
catalyst to the miracle. She brings the boy to the
23:28
prophet and we're told in verse 22, the Lord listened to the
23:33
voice of Elijah and the child's life returned to him.
23:37
And in fact, it doesn't say life, you know, it says the
23:41
child's soul in Hebrew. His soul returns to him.
23:45
You know, this is the first raising of the dead.
23:48
It's powerful. And this Gentile widow in
23:52
Phoenicia is part of the catalyst that brings this to
23:57
pass. God chose her because of her
24:01
heart. So Elijah takes the child.
24:04
He brings him downstairs. He gives him to a mother.
24:07
Look, your son is alive, he declares.
24:10
This is verse 23. And in this beautiful structural
24:14
symmetry, the boy who left the mother's arms in verse 19 dead
24:20
now returns and life is restored.
24:23
The lost is found. You know that as the her circle
24:26
of grief closes, a new circle begins that opens her testimony
24:32
and faith and we hear a beautiful witness.
24:34
She says in verse 24, Now I know that you are a man of God.
24:40
She uses that same title again, and that the word of the Lord
24:44
from your mouth is truth. She reminds me of so many other
24:49
people, including Soraya and the Book of Mormon.
24:51
Her faith has been tried and her faith has been tested, and she
24:57
comes out with stronger faith in her confession.
25:00
She says the word of the Lord from your mouth is truth.
25:05
You know, this is not just polite gratitude.
25:08
I think this is a full declaration of her faith, her
25:12
theology, and she's moved from accusing to appreciation.
25:17
You know, her faith journey went the entire gamut, and everything
25:22
before this has been building her testimony of God's power
25:26
through his prophet. And that's why I think centuries
25:30
later, Jesus himself singled her out as a Gentile, a woman of
25:38
great faith to shame the unbelieving Israelites.
25:42
You know, he says in Luke 425, there were many widows in Israel
25:46
in the day of Elijah, yet Elijah was sent to none of them, only
25:53
to Zarephath in Sidon. So only to the Philistines, to a
25:57
woman who was a widow, you know, Jesus is constantly empowering
26:02
and raising the women. And we see her as this example
26:05
of great faith. The next woman I'd like to talk
26:07
about is the mother of Elisha. It's very, very short.
26:10
And Elijah the great prophet cast his mantle upon Elisha.
26:15
And Elisha says, let me just go kiss my mother and father and
26:18
which I think is dear. It shows you this beautiful
26:21
parental relationship and respects.
26:24
They have a conversation back and forth.
26:25
We don't hear much more about it, but Elijah responds, Go
26:30
back, what have I done to thee? You know, I don't care about you
26:33
anymore. I think he's, he's just testing
26:35
Elijah's resolve. And Elijah answers with a very
26:38
decisive action. You know, he slaughters his ox
26:41
and then he's been using plowing.
26:42
He burns the plow as a farewell feast.
26:45
And he follows Elijah permanently.
26:48
And and we see that later on. So his mother, though unnamed
26:52
over the next years, would have witnessed her son's total
26:55
consecration to her, prophetic to this prophetic service and
27:00
this pattern of discipleship. You know, she would have seen
27:03
this. And I don't think we need to
27:06
look at this story as suggesting that he's dishonouring his
27:08
family by not going back to say goodbye.
27:11
I think that we need to recognize that when a call is
27:14
given, 1 needs to act, sometimes immediately.
27:18
And there are certain things that supersede earthly
27:21
relationships, and one of those is our, our, our love and
27:26
commitment to our Savior. We go from this wonderful woman
27:29
now to a few wicked ones. In addition to Jezebel, there
27:33
are other wives of Ahab who are awful, and you know these.
27:37
And when Ahab is being taken down by Syria, the king uses
27:42
these wives of Ahab as political pawns.
27:45
These women in chapter 20 of First Kings are reduced to just
27:49
war spoils. You know, their fate is
27:51
determined by men's negotiation. You know, they, they, they, they
27:55
use the phrase even the good, the goodliest.
27:58
You know, it suggests that the most beautiful, the most
28:01
valuable above them are his trophies of conquest.
28:04
It's just tragic, this royal wives in a polygamist court in a
28:08
harem. These women represented nothing
28:10
more in Ahab's households than political alliances and and
28:14
dynastatic legitimacy. You know, it's, it's really very
28:17
sad as they're taking over. But their surrender would signal
28:22
Israel's complete humiliation. But the messenger repeats this
28:26
demand and the wives peril intensifies as they're cataloged
28:32
along with the silver and the gold that he's going to take.
28:35
And Ahab's consolation with the elders reveals his initial
28:39
compliance. You know, I didn't deny him
28:41
that. You know, Ahab's going to let
28:42
all the women go. I, I wanted to, I was going to
28:45
allow him to take them all captive.
28:47
Oh, it's just shows you who Ahab is.
28:50
He's it's awful. And Ahab lists these wives
28:53
before his treasure. So I would suggest that that
28:56
meant they were more valued to him.
28:57
I don't know. But his soul authority over
29:01
their fate underscored their powerlessness.
29:04
You know God intervened, though God ultimately spared them from
29:09
the Syrian captivity and the narrative explains that they
29:14
were in a very precarious position as the royal wives in
29:17
the ancient warfare. But as Ahab will not be spared
29:21
and in the Lord prophecies in first Kings chapter 21 that
29:26
there's a pool I guessed near the king Ahab where prostitutes
29:29
wash. So the very fact that in verse
29:32
38, we're even talking about harlots washing in public let
29:38
you know that there is a really grisly scene here that's under
29:41
score the degradation of the King's death.
29:45
But his blood, which is going to be treated, that should have
29:48
been treated with reverence, is going to become contaminated
29:51
with the water of the city. And it's being used by the most
29:55
marginalized women. You know the the Hebrew tomb for
29:58
prostitute or harlot Zanot denotes either a common
30:03
prostitute or a prostitute in the cultic practice with Baal.
30:08
And because Jezebel is a Baal and and and her husband a king,
30:13
Ahab has also now started worship and behall.
30:15
Yet they may have been prostitutes in that worship.
30:19
I don't know. But it does suggest that these
30:22
women may have served a very idolatrous Jezebel and Ahab as
30:27
well. The bottom line is their
30:29
judgement is very ironically bitter.
30:33
So we hear the next generation, the next generation of Ahab's
30:36
family, these marriages between royal lines.
30:41
First Kings 22, we learn about the wife of Ahaz, and then we
30:45
learn about the mother of Ahazia in verse 52.
30:50
But these are beyond the scope of our reading this week.
30:54
So I'd just like to end by saying we are also living in a
30:58
day and age where there is much wickedness and where we have in
31:02
our political systems wicked leaders.
31:05
And it is our responsibility to hold to our covenants, to call
31:09
upon God and to be like the widow of Zarephath and trust in
31:15
the Lord God, Jehovah in all we do.
31:18
No matter what is happening, we can trust Him, and I trust Him.
31:24
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.