Spirits Amongst Men-King Herod: The Jewish King who missed the Messiah
The term “power couple” is liberally applied to men and women who are both generously blessed with wealth, prestige, & status due to their family lineage or own successful endeavors. But many of those in the public eye have come across their success in thanks to their occult practices and worship of the demonic. Whether it’s failed presidential candidates participating in “spirit cooking”, now scorned Hollywood Elites encouraging new forms of “sacred prostitution” for both actors and actresses to get roles, or supposedly-suicided elite-insiders with whole islands dedicated to abuse of the innocent & worship of ancient gods, these practices have not died out in our modern culture. The penalties inflicted upon of those in power who rebel against the One True God, will mirror the consequences faced by Wicked King Ahaz & Queen Jezebel.
Our previous article detailed how King Ahab was notorious amongst the kings of Israel as being the most evil and corrupt leader the nation had ever had. King Ahab was heavily influenced by his wife Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Tyre, a former priest of Asherah. Jezebel may have been a high priestess of either Ba’al or Asherah, the King and Queen of Heaven. “There was never anyone like King Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel” (1 Kings 21:25-26).
The Fiery Battle between the prophets of Ba’al and Prophet Elijah ended with 400 prophets of Ba’al being executed, and Jezebel intensified her persecution of followers of the True God of Israel.
Despite Queen Jezebel’s best efforts to completely eliminate Elijah’s School of Prophets, King Ahab still relied on their insight as he recognized they received supernatural knowledge that the prophets and seers of Jezebel’s court lacked. When confronted by a huge confederated army under King of the Arameans, Ben-Hadad, King Ahab trusted a Prophet of God and placed his junior officers in charge of leading the assault, a typically foolish decision by most military standards. But by placing the inexperienced officers in the front lines, God showed that the battle was won by His Strength, rather than the strength of Kind Ahab’s military.
The prophet instructed King Ahab to fortify the surrounding cities, since King Ben-Hadad would be attacking again the next spring. When confronted a second time, the Israelites inflicted a crushing defeat again, but instead of destroying Ben-Hadad and the rest of his army when they were trapped, King Ahab tried to be diplomatic and signed a peace treaty and established trading relations with Ben-Hadad and his allies. The unnamed Prophet of God explained that because Ben-Hadad was not killed as God had instructed, King Ahab would take his place instead.
When King Ahab lusted after an ancestral vineyard belonging to Naboth, Queen Jezebel created a conspiracy to have Naboth executed under false charges of cursing King Ahab and God. After Naboth was murdered, God sent Prophet Elijah to confront King Ahab in the vineyard he had confiscated illegally. Prophet Elijah declared that where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs would like up King Ahab’s blood as well. And because Queen Jezebel had lead King Ahab astray into worship other gods and conspired to steal Naboth’s land through his murder, Jezebel would be devoured by dogs by the wall of the palace.
King Ahab’s final confrontation with God’s Prophets came when he asked for advice regarding the recapturing of the territory of Ramoth-Gilead. Prophet Micaiah had previously been very sarcastic and disrespectful to King Ahab and responded to King Ahab’s desire for insight with a similar contemptuous air. When pressed further, Prophet Micaiah explained that the false prophets that King Ahab had been listening to, were being tricked by a deceiving spirit which had King Ahab believing that his military campaign would be successful, when in fact, God intended to use the battle to kill King Ahab. for not relying on His Prophets. During his battle to try to retake Ramoth-Gilead, King Ahab was shot by an unaimed arrow which struck him between the seams of his plated armor.
In a fitting twist of irony, King Ahab died watching the battle and his blood drenched the floor of his chariot, which was taken to a pool in Samaria where the prostitutes gathered to bathe. It was there that the dogs licked up his blood as the Word of the Lord had declared (ref. 1 Kings 22:1-38).
After the surviving members of her family had been killed off during a coup by the army general Jehu, Jezebel planned to face her death looking beautiful and gracious like a queen, so she put on her makeup and did her hair to impress that final image upon the people of her city. She address Jehu with contempt, before her eunuch assistants tossed her from her window, where her body was further crushed by Jehu’s horses’ hoofs. After Jehu took control of the castle and eat and drank, he commanded his men to burry Jezebel’s body, but only her skull and feet and palms of her hands remained after the stray dogs of the city had eaten her blood and her flesh. The newly crowned Jehu remembered Prophet Elijah’s words that “the dogs would eat the flesh of Jezebel and her corpse shall be as trash on the surface of the field, so there would be no place for people to mark Jezebel’s grave” (ref. 2 Kings 9:30-37).
For their roles in bringing idolatrous worship onto a national scale throughout Israel, making political and economic alliances with other evil kings, and the conspiracy to frame and murder a righteous man for his land, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were punished with crushingly dishonorable deaths. They were shown the Power of God during the challenge between the Prophets, but refused to turn from their false idols and repent and instead continued to attack God’s Messengers. God is long-suffering and forgiving even to those who had previously chased after other gods, but leaders who ignore His Word can only gain so much for their loyalty to their occult worship. In the end, those they abused will have Justice as the wicked will have an everlasting death.
Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator
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