REVELATION SIMPLIFIED

 

CHAPTER 2.20

Gleanings from the Book of Revelation:

A Weekly Verse-by-Verse Bible Study Series

 

The

REVELATION TO JOHN

 

(The Apocalypse)

 

LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES

 

CHAPTER 2

 

The Letter to the Church at Thyatira (continued)

 

Outline

1.  The Addressee – To whom the letter is addressed (2:18)

2.  The Address – To where the letter is addressed (2:18)

3.   The Addresser – From whom the letter is addressed (2;18)

4. The Approval – The acclamation of good qualities (2:19)

5.  The Accusation – The presentation of bad qualities (2:20-23)

6.   The Appeal – The application to change (2:24-25)

7. The Advice – The recommendation to change (2:26-29)

 

 

5. The Accusation – The presentation of bad qualities

(Verse 20)

 

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest (tolerate, permit, allow, let be) that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce (deceive) My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

(Verse 21)

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

(Verse 22)

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

(Verse 23)

And I will kill her children (Jezebel’s followers) with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

 

 

Thyatira: Continued

The Church at Thyatira was a thriving and flourishing Church. On the outside, it appeared to have all of the earmarks of a fruitful ministry. Quite the contrary, Thyatira practiced syncretism – the amalgamation, merging, or fusion of Christianity, Romanism, Paganism, and the procedures of the trade guilds. It disproportionately homogenized all this as biblical dogma.

 

Similar to many mega-churches today, its activity was attractively grandiose, but the love and personal relationship with Christ and sound doctrine were deficient. After a commendation to a select few for their steadfast endurance, Jesus addresses the mass in this fashion:

 

I have a few things against thee

Note: In many of the later translations of the Bible the phrase a few things are omitted and replaced with the word this, thus rendering the text as I have this against thee (you). Because they tolerated:

 

That woman Jezebel

Thyatira is the only Church letter where a woman's name is mentioned. Her name Jezebel is defined as chaste [Hebrew: איזבל 'îyzebel (H348)], However, in the Greek language, her name is synonymous with a false teacher. 

 

Question

Who is that woman Jezebel?

Answer

In the Church of Thyatira, there was a woman who called herself a prophetess named Jezebel, whom the Lord likened to her evil counterpart in the Old Testament. She was infamous for wedding the church to the world by teaching Christians how to compromise with worldly cultural practices. In doing so, the Thyatira Church became a conglomeration of Judaism, Christianity, and paganism, and the purity of Christ's teachings was compromised.

 

In the Old Testament

To correlate the Jezebel of Thyatira to the Jezebel of the Old Testament, some historical background is necessary.

 

God’s Law

Pertinent to this church are two commandments the Lord God Almighty gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Written on stone tablets are these words:

Exodus 20:3-5 - Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.

Exodus 20:14 - Thou shalt not commit adultery.

 

The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were great mariners and merchants of the ancient world and were infamous for the worship of the sun god Baal and the fertility goddess Ashtoreth or Astarte. Occasionally they made child sacrifices to the Canaanite king fire god Molech. To the Phoenicians, Jehovah was regarded as a local deity.

 

Ahab

In the chronology of the ten tribes of the northern Kingdom kings of Israel, they are all listed as bad kings until Assyria took Israel into captivity at approximately 734 B.C. In this record of evil kings, Omri, an exceptionally wicked king, caused Israel to sin and provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger (cf. I Kings 16:26).

 

Omri had a son, his successor, who ruled over Israel for twenty-two years. His name was Ahab, the seventh King of the Northern Kingdom, “and he did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that ruled before him.” (cf. I Kings 16:29-30). Thus, Ahab was the worst.

 

During this period, the Israelites were strictly forbidden not to marry foreign women, the only exception was found in Exodus 2:21 when Moses married Zipporah, an Ethiopian (Cushite) woman, who was not of the nation named in Deuteronomy Chapter 7.

Exodus 34:12-16 – Take heed (be very careful) to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

 

Deuteronomy 7:1-4 - When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

 

Ahab, so captivated by Jezebel, espoused her against the Lord’s precepts.

I Kings 16:31 – [Ahab] took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

 

Because of his wickedness, Ahab was warned by the prophet Elijah that God would pronounce a three-year famine in the land (cf. 1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17). The story reached its apex at Mount Carmel with the famous contest, between 450 priests of Baal and Jehovah God, to bring down rain. Instead, fire from the Lord consumed the sacrifices of Baal. The prophets of Baal were defeated and as a result, Ahab ordered them to be slaughtered (cf. 1 Kings 18:40).

 

Jezebel

The counterpart of the lady in Thyatira was Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, the daughter of a Phoenician King Ethbaal (meaning ‘with Baal’), king of Zidon or Sidon, an area today located in south Lebanon, coastal Israel, and Syria. 

Jezebel had a long list of offenses attributed to her. Some include:

1.  She intended to have Baal coexist with the worship of Jehovah God

 

2.  She tried to extinguish true worship by allowing Baal worship to become widespread throughout northern Israel for over sixty years

 

3.  She fed the priests or prophets of Baal at her table

 

4.  She endeavored to persecute and kill all the prophets of the Lord including Elijah (cf. 1 Kings 19:2)

 

5.  She was responsible for persuading Ahab to order the stoning of Naboth, from the tribe of Issachar, simply to gain possession of his inherited vineyard (cf. 1 Kings 21:1-16)

 

6.  She was known for harlotries and sorceries (cf. 2 Kings 9:22)

 

7.  Her horrible death was predicted by Elijah (cf. 1 Kings 21:23-24) and it came to pass (cf. 2 Kings 9:30-37)

 

Jezebel, as prophesied, was ultimately thrown out of a window, horses ran over her body, her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and dogs ate portions of her flesh so that she was unrecognizable, appearing like dung on the face of the earth.

 

Jezebel in the Church

A. Either there was a literal woman in the local assembly named Jezebel, or it may have not been her real name. However, she was symbolic of the Jezebel of 1 Kings who lived during the days of Elijah, and the faithful believers nicknamed her as such, since, most likely, no one would name their daughter after the notorious idolatrous queen.

 

B. Two older manuscripts support thy (your) woman or thy wife rather than that woman lending to the presumption she was married to the pastor of the church.

 

C. As the feminine is often used in Hebrew for the word prophetess, it may be used collectively to express a multitude, a set, or a multitude of false prophets.

 

Due to the righteous indignation of our Lord in this letter, that woman was unacceptable and had zero tolerance.

 

Her Characteristics

Given are but a few words describing Jezebel’s character and behavior:

1.  Ungodly

2.  Wicked

3.  Idolatrous

4.  Licentious

5.   Promiscuous

6.  Adulterous

7. Murderous

 

 

(Verse 20)

 

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest (tolerate, permit, allow, let be) that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce (deceive, leading astray) My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

 

Jezebel, a prophetess (claiming to be inspired), was a female foreteller who persuaded or seduced the Lord’s servants (church folk) - by corrupting the purity of Christ’s teachings and fusing them with her pagan practices. Some included:

1.  To eat things sacrificed to idols (which constitutes the term, idolatry). As mentioned previously, membership in the trade guilds involved lavish banquets where meat sacrificed to pagan deities was part of the menu.

 

2.  To embrace fornication [Greek: porneuō (from which we obtain our English word pornography: the act of harlotry - indulging in unlawful lust either by sex or by the practice of idolatry)]. Convincingly, Jezebel lured believers into compromise rather than sacrificing their employment.

 

To Teach

1 Timothy 2:12 - But I suffer (allow) not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (in religious assemblies).

This is an interesting passage. Paul, as an Apostle, is training Timothy to be a pastor and is advising him not to allow a woman to be in a public pastoral position under appropriate conditions, but to be in a subordinate role as stated in 1 Corinthians 14:34.

 

Even though the Greek interpretation is not strictly forbidding under certain circumstances, these verses have been widely distorted and misused in the contemporary church. The passage above specifically states Jezebel was teaching and seducing the Lord’s servants to commit the above atrocious acts. Therein lays a hidden danger. Jesus warned:

 

Warnings from Scripture:

Matthew 7:15 - Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

 

Jude 1:4 - For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Seduce

Seduction in this context means a fundamental departure from biblical truth, i.e., leading astray by deception.

 

 

(Verse 21)

 

And I gave her space (time) to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

 

During the Thyatira Age of church history – approximately one thousand years – there was no repentance. In verse 21, the Lord, through His lovingness and graciousness, allowed time for Jezebel to repent or change her mind, nonetheless, she resisted and refused to mend her ways, but…

 

The ongoing drama will resume in the next lesson.

 

 

QUESTIONS:

1.  What does the word Jezebel mean?

2.  What two of God’s commandments were jeopardized?

3.  What was the religious character of the Phoenicians?

4.  Describe Ahab?

5.  What were some of Queen Jezebel’s character traits?

6.   Name two things Jezebel accomplished in Thyatira.

7. How did her actions affect the total church?

 

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