AHAB GOVERNED BY JEZEBEL
from Elijah the Tishbite by Dr E W. Krummacher 1796-1868

A great many persons, in every age, are thus led blindfold by human influence. The chains with which the prince of darkness binds mankind to his yoke and banner, are not always the grosser vices and lusts: he secures thousands of souls to himself and to hell, by attaching them with the silken cords of a tender affection to persons who have taken a decided part with the enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, whatever the bond may be, whether paternal, filial, conjugal, or social, the effect is the same. The influential person or persons rule with irresistible power, and the poor captive soul thinks not for itself, has no firmness or independence; friends and party govern it altogether, and this in spite of the most distressing convictions. Nor is it by perverted human affection alone that men are kept back from the truth. There are others, and not a few, who are equally far from the kingdom of God, by reason of the homage they pay to human intellect, either in themselves or others. The corrective of all these different sorts of error would be a heartfelt belief of those plainest declarations of the gospel: ‘Ye are not your own, for ye
are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s,’ 1 Cor. 6.19,20. `He that cometh from heaven is above all,’ John 3.31. ‘1 am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,’ John 8.12. And again, `I am the way, the truth, and the life,’ John 14.6. And you who exercise influence over others, take heed that you prove not, in this respect, the agents of the great enemy of souls; for if through you any `weak brother perish,’ `his blood will be required at your hands.’ Remember, that whoso destroyeth a soul, `him will God destroy.’

Woe then unto those men of talent and acquirements, who, with revolting ingratitude, transmute the gifts and abilities which God has vouchsafed them, into weapons of darkness; who, under the influence of the great deceiver, assault the most sacred things of God! Woe unto those much-admired rulers of literature, who, in wicked self-deification, use the power they possess over the minds of men, to rivet more firmly the bonds of infidelity and hostility to Christ upon the neck of the present generation, and who exert their genius in preparing those intoxicating notions and antichristian systems which delude themselves and others to their destruction! Woe to those laurel-crowned heads, that cover the kingdom of sin with fantastic enchantments, and overturning every sacred restraint, implant the horrible delusion in the mind, that he sinneth not who only contrives to sin poetically and elegantly! Woe to those whose voices give the tone to the world, who have sufficient talent for becoming the Ezras and Nehemiahs of their time, but who are a pestilence to the age they live in, by darting forth their wit in seductive and blasphemous falsehoods, and abuse the weak understandings of those who hang in admiration upon their lips, in order, imperceptibly, under the pretence of superior light, to scatter sparks of rebellion against Jehovah and His Anointed! Woe, woe unto these betrayers of mankind! Their part will soon be acted.

A time is coming, when, from the very lips that now satiate them with their plaudits, only the dreadful thunder of furious execrations will meet their ears; and when the very hands, which now crown them with laurel, will be extended towards heaven against them, to draw down upon them the lightning of an eternal curse. Be not deceived! mistake not the present course of things for the final decision. That decision will be pronounced by Him, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who weighs with other scales than those of the deluded world, which only pays homage to external glitter. Your glory has its season and its period, like the flower of the grass. `All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away,’ 1 Pet. 1.24.

But to return to Jezebel. The fire of hell is kindled within her, James 3.6, she thirsts to avenge the blood of the priests of Baal. In her judgment, better would it have been that the whole nation had perished
with hunger and drought, than that such a triumph should have been prepared for the prophet and his God. The showers of blessing that now returned to soften the clods of the field, cannot soften her obdurate spirit. Well would it be for the world, if no such characters still remained in it, but consider, my brethren, in how many places the triumph of the gospel increases the opposition of unbelievers. What scoffing and ridicule at the outpouring of the Spirit, and what contempt of piety and conversion to God, are vented by many in their writings and discourse! The voice of Jezebel is virtually regarded by many as the voice of truth; and this in our accredited journals, in our refined circles and assemblies. in our poetry and philosophy, nay, in the chairs even of divinity professors, and in many, very many of our pulpits. But woe unto the spirit of Jezebel in every age! That woe has been pronounced by Christ Himself, and is recorded in the last book of the sacred volume. `Behold, I will cast that woman Jezebel into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, and I will kill her children with death,’ Rev. 2.22,23. This is their end.