Jezebel stands in redemptive history as the epitome of incarnate evil. The wickedness of this conniving, bloody tyrant, who strove to extinguish the Lord from Israel, stands as a byword for covenant children down through the generations. Her end is a befitting epitaph. Here is the account in II Kings:
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes and adorned her head, and looked out the window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, "It is well, Zimri, your master's murderer?" Then he lifted up his face to the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three officials looked down at him.
And he said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot. When he came in, he ate and drank; and he said, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Therefore they returned and told him. And he said, "This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, "This is Jezebel." ' "
II Kings 9: 30--37.
Dale Ralph Davis writes in his commentary upon this text:
Jehu hollers for help. Who is for him? Several eunuchs pop their heads out. He orders them to throw Jezebel down. They giver her a lift and down she goes. Some of her blood splatters on the walls and on the horses. And Jehu tramples her. Jehu goes to lunch. After cooling down a bit he gives orders to bury Jezebel--after all, she's a blue blood. But Jehu's crew has a problem--nothing to bury. While Jehu was at his sandwich the scavenger dogs were busy with their own untended cuisine. Nothing left but some spare parts. When they inform Jehu, he's ready with another prophetic fulfillment: "It is the word of Yahweh . . . ."
We can make a couple of observations from this account of Jezebel's end. First, wicked people can meet their deaths with great flair. She was godless but gutsy. With Max Factor on her face and sarcasm on her lips she faced Jehu head on. Some of the children of this age can do that. They can be dashing even in death. Go out in style. Leave their loved ones (did Jezebel have any?) stories to tell about the brash way they walked into the Grim Reaper's field. But one's boldness in the face of death does not exempt from judgment after death. Someone may put on a memorable piece of drama at death and still be damned.
Secondly, the demise of the wicked should be the joy of the righteous. It may sound crude to put it this way but that's only because the church has stopped living in, for example, Psalms 83 and 94 and has been sucking up the bland milk of tolerance from the breasts of an anaemic culture for far too long. There is no biblical spine in our theology. . . . It is always good news for the saints when their oppressors are judged and removed. That's the world of II Kings 9: "Joy to the Church--the queen is dead."
Dale Davis, 2 Kings: The Power and the Fury (Ross Shire: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2005), p. 157f.
No comments:
Post a Comment