You Tolerate That Woman Jezebel

You Tolerate that Woman Jezebel

Revelation 2:18-29

Linden Heights Baptist Church

August 6^th, 2017

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. 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.

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. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’^[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

INTRODUCTION

A man recounted a recent conversation he had with his grandson, “my grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday.  He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62.  My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “Did you start at 1?”  Another grandparent recounted this conversation, “When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, “I’m not sure.” “Look in your underwear, Grandpa,” he advised, “mine says I’m 4 to 6.” Children make some most interesting observations.  Like the grandfather found when he was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog’s duties.  “They use him to keep crowds back,” said one child.  “No,” said another. “He’s just for good luck.”  A third child brought the argument to a close. “They use the dogs,” she said firmly, “to find the fire hydrants.”

My brother made an observation when he was just eight or nine years old.  We were visiting the Shrine to the Immaculate Conception.  This is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States.  In fact it is one of the largest Churches in the world.  Annually over one million people visit the Basilica located in Northwest Washington, DC.  It was especially captivating for a group of young people unfamiliar with the art work associated with the Catholic tradition.  There are paintings all over the place.  The giant dome that is over sixty stories high has an enormous painting.  And it was to this painting that my brother was responding.  He asked, “why is Jesus angry?”  The picture on the dome in the center of the Basilica could be drawn out of the imagery of today’s passage.  Jesus with eyes of flame looking upon His church. 

ОСТОРОЖНО

In learning a language one typically begins by learning words and phrases.  You begin with what you want to say in English and then you translate the concept into the language you are learning.  When I was learning Russian, I experienced something that I had been told would happen, but it was difficult to imagine without actually having this happen.  When you are immersed in another language for a period of time there are certain phrases that you learn because you just know they express what you want to express in a particular moment.  You are not actively translating them in your head.  One of the first terms I learned in this way was the Russian word осторожно.  I did not learn this word from a textbook.  It was used those quite frequently.  Boris Vasilyvich the man I lived with would regularly shout it out as we walked down the street.  Basically it means…watch out.  Or something to that effect.  Watch out…he would shout.  He wasn’t angry.  He didn’t use such loud voice because he wanted me to feel bad.  It was out of concern for my safety.  I encourage you to remember this as we hear what seems like a very out of character response from Jesus.  There is something in the church in Thyatira that is potentially disastrous. 

If one were to read just the first part of this letter one might form the mistaken assessment that this is a congregation that has their life together worked out.  Just look at this glowing commendation in verse 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.”  They are moving in the right direction.  They are now doing more than they did at first.  I know your love.  Your faith.  Your service.  Your perseverance.  I think it is often the case that these qualities would be important indicators for us to think about our life of devotion to Jesus.  They have increased in these areas.  But there is something lacking.  They are lacking intolerance.  Say what.  This is not what we expect Jesus to say.   I think sometimes our theology can be quite reflected in the Beetles song.  All you need is love.  We can do anything as long as we have love.  What else do we need.  Apparently for the church in Thyatira they needed more intolerance. 

I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet.  This seems especially disorienting for us in our present day.  I think there are several things that are stunning about this.  For one thing we read in other places where Jesus taught with very strong language offering a warning about being judgmental.  In Matthew for example we read do not judge or you will be judged.  With the measure you use it will be used.  We think of the encounter when Jesus was brought the woman caught in the act of adultery.  And Jesus famously responded the one who is without sin cast the first stone.  So we don’t expect to find this language.  And then in addition or together with these concerns is our own general sense that there is something to be celebrated in the person who marches to the beat of their own drummer.  There is in fact a magazine entitled Jezebel.  And the spirit of this magazine could probably be captured with the bumper sticker sentiment well-behaved women rarely make history.  What was she teaching?  What exactly was the sexual immorality and the idolatry that she seemed to encourage people to engage in.  What are these deep things of Satan?  Here of the letters that we have looked at so far we come to one that is filled with imagery and language that seems almost impenetrable.  Let’s think for a moment about Jezebel.

JEZEBEL

We learn about the life of Jezebel in 1 Kings.  She is not the main character in the material where she appears.  She was the wife to King Ahab.  She was the notorious wife of King Ahab.  She did was vicious in asserting her way.  I think this is one thing to remember when we think of slogans like well-behaved women rarely make history.  I think there is a place to encourage people to strike out and be bold.  At our best this is what we mean by such expressions.  We want to encourage young ladies and young men for that matter to be undeterred by fear in pursuing goals.  But this doesn’t mean we want young Johnny or Suzy to grow up to be selfish monsters.  We don’t want our young people to live only for themselves.  We don’t want them to make decisions based on whatever passing fancy has captured their attention.  We realize that such influences lead to places of great harm towards oneself and to others.  I read in the headlines just yesterday of another case of neglectful parent leaving a vulnerable child in a car.  The child died.  We grieve such injustice.  And even when we use slogans celebrating the rebellious we don’t really mean to affirm what all such rebellion leads to. 

Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD.  I am reminded of Joseph Stalin’s quote if one man dies of hunger it is a tragedy if one million die of hunger it is a statistic.  Jezebel killed many, but she also orchestrated a very personal act of murder.  King Ahab had a neighbor that owned land that he wanted.  The reason he wanted it.  Well it was close to his palace, and he wanted to have a vegetable garden.  He was willing to pay for the garden.  But Old Naboth wouldn’t budge.  This was his ancestral land.  He was not willing to sell it for any price.  The king was dejected.  When Jezebel learned of the situation she gave Ahab some advice.  Here is how you can get what you want.  Are you not the king?  She called for a banquet and arranged for some men whose testimony could be purchased.  When the time was right she had them make the accusation that Naboth was trying to over throw the king.  He was a rebel.  And rebels would be punished.  Naboth is killed and Ahab takes his land.  He is able to get the garden he wanted because Jezebel saw a way for him to act on his longings.  But did you notice this morning the first scripture reading did not have Jezebel in it?  The passage is from this time frame.  And you find Ahab in the story, but no Jezebel.  This is because I want to bring our attention to another person in Ahab’s life. 

This is the prophet Micaiah.  You see when the king of Judah was considering joining forces with Israel to fight against the Assyrians the King of Judah asked about what the prophets had recommended.  But he became suspicious when all of their answers were exactly what the King wanted.  He asked are there no other prophets that we may consult.  Oh there is another but I don’t like him.  He doesn’t ever tell me anything I want to hear.  Ahab wouldn’t listen to messages he didn’t like.  This is why Jezebel was so powerful in his life.  She told him what he wanted to hear and directed him to her purposes.  When Micaiah warned the King that this military endeavor would end with his death he didn’t want to hear it.  He though enough about this warning to change his clothes.  He did this so that the opposing army wouldn’t recognize him as the king of Israel.  It didn’t matter.  It didn’t matter that he was wearing armor.  A chance arrow hit its mark right between his armor slaying the king on the field of battle.   Jezebel’s counsel seemed good.  It seemed wise.  It seemed clever.  It seemed exactly what the situation called for.  Miciah seemed unreasonable.  Micaiah seemed to be an enemy.  And yet Micaiah offered a way for life.  But too often we chose the way of Jezebel.  This is the warning in this letter.

EYES OF FIRE

What do we do with these harsh words about children being killed and all those who have stayed in Jezebel’s bed?  We take them seriously.  We set out to understand them.  They are colorful and meant to arrest our attention.  They are meant to get us to lay aside any initial hesitation we might have to not think these warnings are important.  I remember the first and it may be just about the last horror movie I have ever gone to see in the theatre.  It was Gremlins.  Okay maybe horror is a little strong.  But if you remember the main plot line these little cute animals go berserk if you feed them after midnight.  And if you get them wet they multiply.  The next thing you know they have this horde of monsters destroying everything.  The monsters will be stopped.  This is not meant to be I think a description of innocent suffering that will be inflicted upon the children for the misbehavior of their parents.  This is to say the power of the nations that is propped up by deceit and injustice will meet the King of Righteousness.

So what should we do with this knowledge?  I am ready to be less tolerant!  No I think if you walk away with this interpretation you may be in danger of making an equally if not even more egregious error.  We have a tendency to focus on certain failings.  These tend to be the failings that for whatever reason are most on our radar.  Here is what I want to suggest is the way to resist the temptation to give Jezebel a place in our lives.  We want to be people who ourselves keep open our need to be confronted.  We need to be people who value Miciah’s words.  We need to be cautious when people are encouraging us with that which doesn’t demand very much or promises to deliver on the very things we want without reference to the cost of discipleship.  But to be able to do this we need a virtue that is requires constant vigilance to maintain.  Summer is coming to an end.  Students are starting back to school.  Maybe if you have had a pool that you are soon to be closing it up.  I don’t know school starts pretty early these days.  You know if you have a pool or you know someone who has a pool this is not something you just fill up and it stays pristine.  It takes constant vigilance to keep the water from turning slimy.  To be people who listen to Miciah there is some vigilance that we need.  Let me offer a few thoughts on how we might do this.

APPLICATION

Here’s the challenge, how do I know what I need to hear to change?  What if I am stuck always thinking I’m not good enough and never worthy to be forgiven?  On the other hand I may think I’m pretty much on the right track well else do I need…except Naboth’s vineyard.  We are helped with one another when we have holy friendships.  Just wearing a collar doesn’t make one holy…nor does wearing a cross make one’s friendship holy.  But when we have friends who are seeking to live faithfully to Jesus we draw strength from one another. 

We find our sensitivity directed in trustworthy ways as we listen to scripture.  I want to be a person who asserts this routinely.  So often we can find our ideas about God shaped not by scripture but by a mix of folk ideas about what is pleasing to God.  You might have picked these ideas up around the dinner table.  You might have picked them upon on the internet or watching some religious programming or reading science fiction.  Let your ideas about what God has promised and what God calls you to be grounded in scripture. 

We find guidance in prayer.  Prayer is simply talking to God.  What does your life of prayer reveal about the importance you place on prayer for the making of decisions in your life?  Can you imagine if you have a brother who is an expert mechanic and you engine is making some strange noise…that you wouldn’t think to call him up and ask for his advice his thoughts.   Now sometimes our prayers may be the simple pray for help.  Guide me.  Give me wisdom.  Give me insight.  Give me peace.  Take from me my feelings of fear, my misplaced feelings of grief or shame.  Give me courage.  Give me strength.    

We find ourselves guided in when we make worship a central part of our lives.