Jezebel is a name that has become the epitome of evil, backstabbing women. Here is a woman we can all agree is known as a bad girl of the Bible. If you look at things from her side, however, she was totally justified in all her actions. There was no evil intent (as such). She was a strong, determined woman who knew what she believed and enforced it.
Jezebel was a royal princess from a line of totalatarian monarchs. She had no understanding other than that kings(and queens) had the right to whatever they wanted. Ahab wanted the land so he should have it. This means that, to her, Naboth was in the wrong to try to deny the king the vineyard Ahab wanted. She did bow a little to the culture in which she was living to make it seem that Naboth's death was due to his own lawbreaking, but the result was what, in her mind, it should have been all along. Naboth was just collateral damage. Monarchs have that right.
According to the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Jezebel was also a priest of Baal and Astarte. Even her name is a feminine version of the name Baal - honoring the god she served. So for her to try to change her adopted country to her religion was a given. She does not recognize the Israelite religion as valid - or even complete as there was no female counterpart to this Yahweh they claimed to worship. So clearing the way for the priests of the true gods, Baal and Asherah/Astarte was a necesary task. If this meant killing off all the priests of the Israelite God, so be it. She needed to have her gods served! Her missionary zeal was amazing. Put together with the power of the monarchy, she seemed unstoppable.
It is interesting to see Jezebel and Elijah compared. Both had names declaring themselves as servants of their God. Both were, according to Barbara J. Essex, "active, fanatical, violent, stubborn - and all in the name of their deities." Yet the difference is who it was they served and how they are perceived in this modern age.
Throughout history missionaries have gone in and ignored existing cultural values to impress their own. We have repented some of these, others we have not yet recognized. This story does tell us of the aweful things that Jezebel did - but she did them to serve her gods. Does that make them right? I don't think so. Neither do our good intentions excuse us. Jezebel ended with a terrible, gruesome death - no royal lying in state with respect being paid - but with being trampled and scavenged til there was almost nothing left of her.
If there is one thing I take from the study of this story, it is that we need to be sensitive to those around us, especially those over whom we hold some power. It is too easy to push our thoughts, opinions and values on others, when theirs may be just as, or in Israel's case more, valid than our own. I don't think this means we don't argue for or express our views, but it does mean we need to listen and recognize the other person as a thinking, feeling creation of God, just as we are. We also need to remember that God is so much bigger than any of us - and so it is possible that within God's vastness we are both partially right. Yes, I have gone past the Jezebel story, but it is an extension of the realization that just doing what we think is right for what we think are the right reasons does not make it right. I hope and pray for God's guidance so that the words we speak, the meditations of our hearts as well as our actions may be acceptable in God's sight.
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