Mr. Ahab and Mrs. Jezebel Omri
1 Kings 18: 1-21
Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

The events described in 1 Kings 18:1-21 actually took place in Israel, the chosen nation of God. So we can actually say that this event actually took place in the Church.  Though it was in Israel, the Bible says the Jezebel and some of her followers were worshipping Baal.

This tells us straightaway that there are idol worshippers in the church. While some people are worshipping God, some are worshipping idols and some are combining both. Even in our Pentecostal churches today, you will be surprised to know that there are people who are combining both.

I know the story of a certain Reverend who was in charge of a particular church. Whenever people were sent to replace him, the person sent will sit on this Reverend’s seat, take ill and die. About three people were brought in quick succession and all of them died.

Then they brought a young man to the church. This young man before taking up his new seat prostrated before the Reverend and begged him saying he was a young man and he had only been sent on an errand.

He asked this man to forgive him whatever the problem may be, that he didn't want to die like those other people. Then this Reverend said, “Okay don’t worry, everything is going to be okay. You are a wise one.” The young man survived.

Another story is told of a Bishop who had an accident and died. By the time he was taken to the morgue and stripped of his cassock, they found all sorts of strange things around his waist and body. So you see some people come to church in the morning and in the evening, they will go to a soothsayer or whatever it is that supports them at night.

As a matter of fact, some people think that you need to combine both so that if one doesn’t work the other will.  
The other thing that happened in Jerusalem was that there was a drought. It is possible to have a drought in church.

Ahab and the children of Israel were having a drought in their lives because Ahab was a wicked king and they had not decided which God or gods they wanted to serve. If there is wickedness in church then there will be a drought.

From time to time, you find out that the cause of your problems is bad leadership or because you yourself are undecided or it might just be pure disobedience. Most of the time people tend to blame everybody else for their problems except themselves.

Ahab blamed Elijah for his problems. He called Elijah, the trouble of Israel. The first thing you should do when having problems is to do a self-check and ask yourself where you have gone wrong. There is something you can learn if only you would stop and ask yourself, “What is the Lord trying to tell me in this situation?”

            Perhaps it might be relevant to examine the character of Ahab further. Who is an Ahab? Ahab means, ‘father’s brother’. It means therefore that Ahab is an uncle.   From one perspective, an uncle is somebody who tries to be your father but is not actually your father.

Ahab is a pretender. He is not the real thing. You will find that most times Uncles do not do a successful job of fathering. They try their best but are not always successful.  Ahab is described as a wicked king who marries Jezebel and introduces idol worship into the church.

Uncles tend to introduce something slightly different to your situation. You will find therefore that in most churches and situations, Ahabs are people who have made a mistake or who usually make mistakes. They make grave mistakes in marriages, careers, businesses, and circumstances they find themselves.

Ahab was an Israelite who made a grave mistake in marriage by marrying a Canaanite. The time when Samson was after Delilah all over the place, he had the spirit of Ahab all over him. So when you go all over the place making grave unpardonable mistakes, especially with the opposite sex then you have the spirit of Ahab over you.

Ahabs have this spirit over them because they see mainly in the flesh and in the physical. When Lot was with Abraham and they were choosing their inheritances, Lot had the spirit of Ahab upon him. He couldn’t see beyond the physical because what he saw was the well-watered land of Jordan.

He made a grave mistake of a business location, which came back to hunt him. So you find out that when you make a grave mistake as a Bible-believing Christian, you have the spirit of Ahab working in your life. Ahab was a king, you will find that Ahabs are people who are strong and have been successful in the secular.

They are familiar with money and success. In a lot of churches, you therefore find Ahabs and what they try to do is to take over the churches. They try to be influential in the church.

Because they have been leaders in the physical, they try to be leaders in the spiritual, but they are not equipped to be spiritual leaders, so they end up introducing witchcraft into the church. In some of our orthodox churches you therefore find some pews with the names of the donors written on them.

You see the altar all done in marble and written on it is ‘donated by the family of so and so.’ That is the spirit of Ahab at work.  Every soul is equal in the sight of God. It doesn’t matter how much you have in your bank account or whosoever you may be.

When you see a dead body, it is a dead body. It doesn’t matter whose it was or what it was or what will become of it. It is the soul of that body that is important.

            You will discover also that the spiritual is always on top of the physical. This can be found in 2 kings 13:16. When the king had a problem, he went to Elisha who put his hand on top of the king’s hands. But these days you find people who come to church and try to control the pastors. Ahabs are like that.

Ahabs are greedy and self-centred. They seek to protect their own selfish interests. They are always looking for self-recognition. Are you always trying to attract attention to yourself? Are you always trying to get the best seat in the church and be recognised?

Are you always looking around to see who has noticed you? Then perhaps you are an Ahab. People start a school and put their names on it. They start a church and put their names on it. They always want to be acknowledged and known.

It is the pride and ego in all of us. Once you are criticised by someone, that person becomes your enemy and that is one of the problems with leadership. Leadership should be able to accept criticism and contrary opinions.

Anyone that thinks that everyone that criticises him or her is an enemy has the spirit of Ahab. Ahabs wish to control Elijahs. (They wish to control the pastors). They criticise and condemn anything they are not a part of. You notice that in the scripture in 1 Kings 18, it was Obadiah that found Elijah. The problem with Ahabs is that they are not able to find God. Most times you find Ahabs walking away from God even if they are strong with God or they are in the church.

1. Why are Ahabs the way they are?

Ahabs have deep-rooted spiritual difficulties, otherwise known as generational problems.  1 Kings 16:21-28 gives us a clue to this deep-rooted difficulty. Omri the father of Ahab carried out a coup against Zimri in order to become the king.

He moved the capital from Shechem to Samaria. The history of Israel goes in 2 lines. Solomon was the last king of a united Israel. The kingdom was divided into 2 after his death.

His son, Rehoboam became the king of Judah (with 2 tribes) with the capital in Jerusalem while Jeroboam took over the rest of Israel (made up of the remaining 10 tribes) with their capital first at a place called Shechem, then Samaria. Nadab, Jeroboam’s son became king after him (1 Kings 15) after which a coup took place and Basha became the king (1 Kings 15:27).

After Basha, Elar his son became king and after him Zimri through another coup succeeded him. Zimri was the commander of the Army when he carried out his own coup. Omri, Zimri’s Chief of Staff also carried out another coup and became king and after his death Ahab his son took over.

            King Omri walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Jeroboam was one of the worst and most evil kings of Israel. Most of the time in the book of Kings, they compared other kings with Jeroboam.

They either say the king did better than Jeroboam or he did worse than Jeroboam. Ahab therefore was coming from deep-rooted ancestral spiritual problems.

He did almost everything that his father did. He was always being referred to as the son of Jeroboam. He worshipped idols. It was actually Jeroboam that introduced idol worship into Israel because he was afraid the people might defect and go to Rehoboam if they went up to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:26-33).

The problem in the life of Ahab had therefore been there for generations. Most Ahabs therefore are people with serious generational problems, which later come to the surface in their lives. Before I became a Christian, I used to have a disease called asthma.

Then one of my uncles died from asthma. My niece woke up one day and was suffering from asthma. Three or four other cousins also suffer from this disease.

You therefore find some things running down in generations. We have problems in our lives being caused by previous family agreements and/or covenants with one form of spirit or the other.

Genesis 12:1-12 shows us that the children of Israel are enjoying a previous family covenant up till today, an agreement Abraham signed with God. Some great-grandfathers have died and have committed their families to one idol or the other that is now chasing the great-grandchildren all over the place.

Even some environments have been tied in to some agreements that are now affecting the people of that area. Some people are under different family clouds that have to be broken. We have to condemn the spirit of Omri which hovels over the life of Ahab in our own lives.
 

1. Ahab was the way he was because of the influence of intra family rivalry on his life.

Among the children of Israel, another thing that you find is that there are lots of intra family rivalries especially where there is a multiplicity of things like multiplicity of wives.

Jacob the progenitor of the Israelites had 4 wives. Ahab was a child of Israel and he was therefore affected by this situation. David was a perfect example of this. There was Absalom who was a traitor, who tried to overthrow his father.

Then you find Amnon who slept with his sister committing incest. Then there was Adonijah who also had the spirit of Absalom ruling over him and wanted to take over the crown from Solomon. Intra family rivalries generally affect the well being of an individual.

I once read the story of a man who had a wife at home. He went to the bank one day and met this other lady and decided to marry her against all sound advice. It was discovered when this new wife got home that she couldn’t have children while the elder wife was having child after child.

This young wife started going from one spiritualist to the other and as far as she was concerned, the elder wife was the source of all her problems. To compound the problem, this man (the husband) went and brought in a third wife who also was unable to conceive.

She and the second wife started going all over the place to try and destroy the first wife, causing problem here and there.   So you find in these types of polygamous homes, problems upon problems. You find children of certain wives having certain kinds of problems simply because a particular wife had decided that that line had to be closed.

So there is the spirit of Ahab governing and threatening such homes. The Bible says that the heart of man is grievously evil, who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) There is evil in the hearts of men always.

We don’t want the other person to progress and when we progress, we roll out the drums and we begin to shout. The Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (2 Peter 5:5).

Your deep-rooted family problems can be from your aunt, your brother, your sister or even your wife or husband. The reason why Joseph had a problem was because his brothers were against him.

“How come it is Joseph that has a vision, how come it is only Joseph that has a revelation, how come it is only Joseph that has a direction, let’s deal wisely with him?” What they did not realise was that if Joseph was promoted, they also would be liberated.

What they should have done was to have God on their own side. I want to share with you a psalm called Psalm 35, it was the Psalm David. I want you to pray this psalm against those who are pursuing you.

What you should really be praying for your enemies is that they get to know God. But from time to time, you need to get aggressive with your enemies or with the spirit behind them. 

1. Another problem that Ahab had came from his marital association.

I want to advice my single brothers and sisters therefore to be careful whom they get married to. It was Jezebel, Ahab’s wife that introduced him to idol worship and told him to kill all the prophets.

She was also the one that advised him on how to take Naboth’s field. She was also the one that told him to go after Elijah and destroy him. That which you associate with will always influence your life one way or the other.

Because a man is tall, handsome and exciting doesn’t mean he is God’s choice for your life. Our women are making too much effort at the physical things and are not looking at the spiritual. The partner you go into business with also matters.

You need to know that the people that you associate and deal with affect your life, be careful who you choose. 
           
Next we need to look at Jezebels
In every Christian gathering, there is always a Jezebel. Jezebel means unmarried and fruitless. Jezebels are persons with a dual personality. Wherever you find an Ahab, there will always be a Jezebel.

Most of the time, they look innocent, sweet and untouchable. Jezebels hardly want to come to the front. They operate from behind the scenes. They want control of power without putting themselves forward or in charge.

They want to have their way all the time. Jezebels have a love of beauty and makeup (2 Kings 9:30). You also find out that Jezebels are adulterers, men devourers and idol worshippers (Ezekiel 23:36-44).

Someone like Solomon also had this Jezebel spirit operating over him. It was when Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter and thereafter one thousand women that his life started going down and he started having problems.

It was the curse on Jezebel that finished the life of Ahab (1 Kings 21:21-25). Jezebel came from Sidon, a Canaanite town full of idol worships. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, an idol worshipper. She brought her idol worship into the church.

Jezebels are the ones who carry ornaments and talismans all over the place. They are the ones looking for signs and wonders all the time. They combine their idol worship with their worship of God.

When Jesus visited the city of Sidon where Jezebel came from, he came across another Jezebel (Matthew 15: 21 – 28). Jezebel is a spirit in Sidon that results from severe demon possession.

It is an uncontrollable spirit that takes full possession of whoever it occupies such that they cannot help themselves. This woman’s daughter was vexed with the demon. Some people do not even realise that they are Jezebels.

The original Jezebel did not repent and she met a disastrous end. It is my prayer that there will be adequate repentance for every aspect of our lives in Jesus name. In Matthew 15:21, the Bible tells us that the Jezebel from Sidon came to the feet of Jesus and repented.

There is only one solution to the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel in the church today and that solution is repentance. 1 Kings 21:26-27 shows us that Ahab himself repented and put on sackclothes.

Is there a bit of Ahab in you? Is there a bit of Jezebel in you? Check your life today and come to God with a spirit of repentance. Think deeply about it and talk to God with a spirit of repentance.

However, if a Jezebel does not repent it can lead to serious consequences. 2 Kings 9:7 and 30-37 show us that if that spirit of Jezebel doesn’t get out of the Church, dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel.