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Yesterday it was encouraging to read about the church’s love and faith, their service and patient endurance, especially in the midst of the intense persecution they faced as Christians. However, the church is also reprimanded:
Revelation 2:20-23 ESV
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
So who is Jezebel?
- Sidonian wife of King Ahab and promoted Baal worship (1 Kings 16:31-33)
- Killed prophets of the Lord (1 Kings 18:4, 13)
- Opposed the prophet Elijah and threatened to kill him (1 Kings 19:1-2)
- Had Naboth killed and her death is prophesied (1 Kings 21)
- She is killed by King Jehu, and the prophecy of her death is fulfilled (2 Kings 9:30-37)
Jezebel is a woman of great wickedness who persuades her husband and others to oppose Yahweh and commit evil deeds. Her legacy is preserved in 1 Kings 21:25: “Truly, there was no one like Ahab who had sold himself by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, whose wife Jezebel urged him on.” (Lexham Bible Dictionary)
It is unknown whether the Jezebel in Revelation is this Jezebel in the Old Testament or just a symbolic name of a false prophetess who tries to convince Christians to commit immorality.
What do you suppose we are tolerating in the church today? Are there practices we easily dismiss or look the other way instead of calling out the sin that is harming us? How are we deceived into thinking certain behaviors are okay to tolerate?
Jesus who says in v. 23, “I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works,” is the same God who speaks this truth in Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Revelation is written to the church in Thyatira, but it is written for us as well. Let us heed this warning and pray as King David prayed:
Psalm 139:23-24 ESV
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!