As noted in my last post, Jezebel grew up in the Sidonian royal family, which worshiped Baal. When she married Ahab, King of Israel, she imported her religion to Israel. Jezebel, like most, grew up with a set of traditions, beliefs, and ways to do things. For Jezebel, this meant that she followed Baal.
Jezebel flexed her muscle and convinced her husband Ahab to abandon his father’s God and worship hers, much like Solomon’s wives lead him astray. I Kings 16:32 relates that Ahab built Baal a new temple in Samaria. And in that temple, he placed an alter for Baal worship. Ahab also set up an Asherah pole.
What was Baal worship? According to the Holman Bible Handbook, Baal means “master” and was a storm god. His usual title was “Rider of the Clouds” and he is often depicted with a thunderbolt in his hand. Jezebel had 450 prophets of Baal at the temple, for which she provided food.
Asherah was Baal’s female consort who was revered as a fertility goddess. Jezebel provided food for 400 Asherah prophets.
In other words, Jezebel put her money where her heart was – with Baal. She likely spent time with these prophets, and the prophets viewed her favor as something to capture and maintain - both for financial stability and to simply continue to live.
In I Kings 18:16-46, Elijah challenged these 850 prophets to a show down on Mount Carmel. It appears that Jezebel was unaware this was going on, as she does not find out until later what happened. Ahab, however, was present, as were the ”people from all over Israel.”
Elijah told the people to chose between God and Baal. He had the prophets of Baal prepare a sacrifice and call on Baal to set it on fire (Baal was viewed as a fire god as well). From morning to noon the prophets called out to Baal, but nothing happened.
Elijah taunted them, indicating that Baal must be asleep or busy or deep in thought. The prophets started shouting louder and slashing themselves. Midday passed and the evening sacrifice arrived. But Baal did not.
Elijah built an altar and had trench placed around it; wood and the meat sacrifice were placed on the altar. He then had the people fill four large jars with water and they were poured out over the wood, sacrifice and altar. Again, and Again, the jars were filled and poured out. Elijah then prayed and “the fire of the Lord” fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil and the water in the trench.
When the people saw this, they cried out that “The Lord, He is God!”
Elijah ordered the prophets of Baal be seized and killed.
Ahab was dispatched to eat and drink, because Elijah prophesied rain (a drought raged in Samaria for years which caused a famine). And Ahab finally got back to Jezebel to report that all of her prophets were dead.
Jezebel was furious. Her yes-men were gone. Her money was spent for naught, and she’d have to start training or recruiting a new prophets. Baal worship and indoctrination would be set back for a few weeks, months or years.
Maybe she even believed that Baal would have vengence on her for her failure to protect Baal’s servants.
In any event, she sent a message to Elijah, stating “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Jezebel was a woman used to getting what she wanted.
Elijah, terrified, fled into the desert.
So was Jezebel truly a believer in Baal? Or was it just a way for her to get power and control the people? A way to cloak her plans in a divine manner?
From Wikipedia
Ba’al (pronounced: [baʕal]; Hebrew: בעל) (ordinarily spelled Baal in English) is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning “master” or “lord” that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant, cognate to Assyrian Bēlu. A Baalist means a worshipper of Baal.
“Ba’al” can refer to any god and even to human officials; in some texts it is used as a substitute for Hadad, a god of the rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name Hadad, Ba’al was used commonly. Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of “Ba’al” refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven, but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as cult images, each called ba’al and regarded by the writers of the Hebrew Bible in that context as a false god.
Asherah, The goddess, the Queen of heaven whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been Asherah or possibly Astarte. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival):[2]
Hmmm…The consort of God, queen of Heaven. Some say she was worshipped by the Hebrews up till 500 BCE.
Then she was demoted and God was made a bachelor by the Hebrew authors
Interesting comment. The Bible as a whole seems to speak to a “bachelor” God, as you put it.
It is entirely possible that the Israelites added a consort during the time they were blending their monotheistic religion with the polytheistic religion of the Canaanite tribes.