DEALING WITH THE SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL
(Letter to the Church in Thyatira)
Revelation
2:18-29
In our day to day transactions and interactions, may it be
in the work place, business, and home or in general with the society at times
we run into people who are arrogant, intimidating, proud, manipulative,
controlling and narcissistic. We wonder what is making them to think or behave
a certain way. All of us one time or the other may have behaved that way and
hurt others in the processes or were hurt by those who behaved nastily towards
us. Unfortunately we find such people in the Church as well. How do we understand such behavior? What do
we call the spirit behind such behavior?
For the past several weeks we have been studying the seven
letters; written to seven ancient churches in the book of Revelation. The last
letter we studied was the letter to the Church in Pergamum where Christ warned
the Church about false prophets. Today we look into the letter written to the
Church in Thyatira where Christ had sternly dealt with a self-proclaimed
prophetess named Jezebel. We will also look into how Christians today could
come under the influence of the spirit of Jezebel and how do we deal with it.
Let’s read Revelation 2:18-29
I. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CITY OF THYATIRA?
It was the least important of the seven cities, Thyatira
was a commercial town situated on the Lycus River forty miles southeast of
Pergamum on the Road to Sardis. Until
the first century B.C it had little peace, but when the Pax Romana finally
arrived, Thyaitara was well situated on trade routes to take advantage of
commercial and manufacturing opportunities.
Each craftsperson (merchants, tanners, potters, bakers,
wool and linen workers) was part of a “guild” (a medieval association of craftsmen or
merchants, often having considerable power.) In those days guilds were part of the civic life; centers of social,
commerce, and religious life.” In Acts 16:12-15, we find Lydia, a seller of
purple who came from the city of Thyatira who must have been part of a guild
and possibly a patron of the church at Philippi. If she could prevail upon Paul it only to
show how powerful Lydia was. It looks like the women in Thyatira were pretty
powerful.
Keeping that background, let’s study the letter. This is the longest letter and is unique in
that it was addressed to two separate groups in the Church of Thyatira. Vs 18“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of
God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose
feet are like burnished bronze.” How was Christ described in this verse?
II. THE DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST.
The letter began with similar address like the rest of the
letters, to the elder/pastor/ Bishop of the Church in Thyatira. The difference however was that Jesus for the
first time and the only time mentioned as “the Son of God” Why here only Christ
was mentioned as the Son of God? The
reason most likely that Jesus wants to establish here that it was him not
Apollo, who is the true “Son of God” The title “Son of God” talks about the
majesty and the divinity of Christ, which is an important message to this weak
and struggling Church.
John refers to His eyes as being like “blazing fire” and
feet are like polished bronze” What do these two figures of speech mean? The
blazing eyes and the polished bronze represent two very important roles that
Christ was asserting: the role of a
Judge and a Warrior.
In the ancient world there was a
fiery-eyed deity who heaps judgment on his enemies. Polished bronze refers to one of the major
guilds of the town. The polished bronze was a purer and more refined type of
brass manufactured by the local guild for the military at Thyatira. The local
patron god Apollo was often pictured there as a warrior god riding a horse and
wielding a double-bladed battle-ax. Christ’s legs here were referred to “the
polished bronze” that was to emphasize the fact that Christ was and is the true
warrior.
Christ by way of asserting these
roles, communicates to the Church that the exalted Christ
was not only aware of every aspect of the situation, but also the judgment is
imminent. Today while many members of the church may be fooled by clever arguments
and theologies of false prophets but Christ sees through every one, and the
raging fire of his judgment will soon sweep them away. His divine power is soon
going to topple the power of any man made military and the power of so called
gods who are controlling people. The church worldwide is going to witness
Christ’s divine power in the very near future. Jesus had some good things to
say about the Church in Thyatira.
III. CHRIST’S PRAISE OF THE CHURCH:
Vs 19
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and
perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. It is
interesting to note that two churches with serious problems (Ephesus, and
Thyatira) also have the most extensive list of good works. Thyatira was
commended for four things: love, faith, service and perseverance. Unlike the
church at Ephesus which had fallen from a great height in forsaking her first
love; Christ commended them for doing more than they did at first. It looks
like the Church was excelling in service, perseverance within an environment of
an ever increasing love and faith. But then what was the problem?
IV. CHRIST’S CONFRONTATION OF THE CHURCH( Vs 20)
20 “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants
into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” Why was
Christ upset with the church for tolerating the woman Jezebel? Was He against
women, even more so powerful women? No, not at all! There is absolutely nothing wrong with women
and the powerful ones. History has seen many women in general and some powerful
women doing great things for God and will continue to do so. But this
particular woman was operating in the Spirit of Jezebel, and the believers have
been putting up with her without confronting the spirit. Christ refers her to
“that woman Jezebel” who through her teachings was misleading the believers
into sexual immorality and into idolatry.
This teaching was contrary to what the
early apostles taught the gentile believers. They were told, to “avoid what has
been sacrificed to idols, tasting blood, eating the meat of whatever has been
strangled and sexual immorality. Keep yourselves clear of these things and you
will make good progress.” Acts 15:29. Now you know why Christ was upset with
the Church. The
leaders of the Thyatira allowed the spirit of Jezebel to manifest without
dealing with it. How then should we deal with the spirit of Jezebel?
V.
DEALING WITH THE
SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL
In order for us to fully grasp what this
woman was doing in the Church of Thyatira and how the Spirit of Jezebel is affecting
our Churches today we need to look at another Jezebel in the OT.Jezebel was the
daughter of the king of Sidonians who later became the wife of King Ahab the
king of Israel in the OT.( I Kings 16, 21) This marriage not only brought
downfall to King Ahab but to the nation of Israel. Just to take you back into
OT history; Sidon was the son of Canaan, Canaan was the son of Ham and Ham was
the son of Noah who saw the nakedness of his father whereby was cursed. Later
on when Israelites finally entered the land, God gave certain strict warnings
to them in regards how to deal with their enemies.
Deut 7: 1-5, “When the Lord your God brings
you into the land you are entering to
possess and drives out before you many nations the Hittites Girgashites,
Amorites, Cananites…you must destroy them totally…make no treaty with them…Do
not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters for your sons… or they
will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods…” This scripture
tells us in addition to all the evil King Ahab did, this marriage to Jezebel
proved to be more detestable in the eyes of God.
Jezebel was so evil that she comes to symbolize
all revengeful, malicious, immoral and cruel women throughout history. Jezebel
seduced her husband to introduce the worship of Baal and to set up Asherah
poles where people committed idolatry and acts of immorality which angered God
more than anything else. I Kings
(16:32-33). She killed the prophets of God. She opposed Elijah and threatened
to kill him. She took matters into her own hands and had the innocent Naboth
killed.( I Kings 21) In the end faced a horrible death in the hands of Jehu.
As an avid reader of Jewish history Jesus
understood the power of the influence of Jezebel. He saw how that same spirit
was destroying the Church in Thyatira and how it can destroy the 21st
centuries if it was not identified and properly dealt with. Jesus was and is concerned that we know and
how to deal with this spirit of Jezebel?
How does the spirit of Jezebel manifest today?
Here are a few pointers: By reading the
scriptures we understand that the spirit of Jezebel manifest itself in six
ways: manipulation, deception, intimidation, pride, fear and control. When we
come across anyone who is behaving in the above mentioned manner it is possible
that this person may be influenced by the spirit of Jezebel.
The spirit of Jezebel could
operate through both men and women who do not live under the Lordship of Jesus.
We come across people in our Churches who come under the influence of the
spirit of Jezebel. They manipulate others to get their selfish way, they move in
pride thinking that they know better than the pastor. They intimidate and
induce fear among people. They mislead the believers through their false
teachings. They take matters into their own hands. Through their deceptive and
controlling way undermine and oppose the leadership and if the leadership doesn't give in, they even threaten to kill them.
Next time when we encounter
someone with the spirit of Jezebel we must not tolerate them; but deal with
them. How do we deal with the spirit of Jezebel? Remember that we are not
fighting against flesh and blood but against the powers and the principalities
and the forces in the high places? Just like with any other evil spirit we deal
with the spirit of Jezebel by putting on the full armor of God. By standing firm in the Lord and taking up
the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God against the manipulative and
controlling spirit. When we are dealing
with it we cannot afford to move in pride. James 4:7, “Be humble then before
God. But resist the devil and you’ll find he’ll run away from you.”
After doing the spiritual
warfare in prayer if we still do not see a change in that person who is
operating in the spirit of Jezebel for the sake of the welfare of the believers
in the Church the leadership may have to take the necessary step of putting
that person out of the fellowship.
The message we take away from
this letter is that we serve the risen Lord who conquered sin and death. We are
not to be intimidated by the spirit of Jezebel. We are not to tolerate it; we
are to engage in spiritual warfare by calling on the name of Christ. After
having done all that when necessary we are to take a firm stand against the
person effected by it. When that happens, then only cane we see our church
becoming a safer place where people from all nations gather around the throne
and worship God in Spirit and Truth. There will be love and harmony in our
families and with one another. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the Churches. Amen
