Spiritual Schizophrenia: Prologue

“And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” – 1 Kings 16:33 (NKJV)

135 years had past since King David was the king of a once united Israel, his son, Solomon would expand its horizons but like with all good things it came to an end. After the death of Solomon, the fighting of the “OAM’s” takes place and the wreckage that Rehoboam and Jeroboam leaves behind pave the way for this passage to be written, “…and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel for twenty-two years. Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before”. So, it’s safe to say that David descendants now rule the southern region (known as Judah) and a bunch of really not-so-nice people ruled the north (known as Israel). Not that it made understanding that YHVH was total sovereign over all this mess.

Rabbinic and Talmudic literature tells us that, even if he was displaying “noble traits of character”, Ahab was an enthusiastic idolater whose apostasy was so defiant that all the doors of the city of Samaria had “Ahab hath abjured (solemnly renounced) the living God of Israel”. But the thing here that makes Ahab a full-blown spiritual schizophrenic is he paid great respect “to the Torah in twenty-two letters” and financially supported students of The Law outta the royal treasury. Guess he was doing this in case his “minor sins” could be forgiven him and it kept in power for 22 years. Interesting math there don’t ya think?

“And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.” – 1 Kings 16:31

But then came Jezebel, the Sidonian/Phoenician, who was fanatical about her religion. So much so, that worshipping YHVH musta seemed dull and commonplace by comparison to the lewd dances, sacred orgies and blood spill that was done all in the name of Baal and his female counterpart, Ashtoreth. Jezebel’s evil prophets, 450 for Baal, 400 for Ashtoreth were imported from Phoenicia, given the digs of a newly constructed temple and were told to go out into all the land and convert Gods people into idolaters. Oh, Jezebel wanted every true prophet of YHVH dead and the rightful worship to Him stamped out…maybe she was another woman from the Bible who went around the palace screaming “OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!” History doesn’t tell us that, but I’m still gonna imply it anyways.

Its in all this mess, God would hide 7,000 people who would not bow the knee to this phony excuse for block of wood worship and encourage Israels top prophet at the time, Elijah, to deal with Ahab. And then Elijah would look at all these people summoned to Mount Carmel and tell them that if Baal was God follow him BUT if God was God, follow Him. I believe this is a moment in Biblical history that we can fast forward to now. How so? Peer pressure that’s how… and the fear of death.

So much is taking place in this world that has no place in a Christian home let alone God’s church but it’s happening anyway. Folks are allowing peer pressure and the fear of being “cancelled” to rule their hearts. Granted, people wanna be accepted by their peers but this cancelled nonsense??? Who in their right mind thinks that what God creates can get cancelled? My short answer, NOT ME!! So where do we go when we need a word from God? The 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel, where else?

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” – John 15:18-20

So long as we stay in God’s Word and in God’s Will we’ll be in better shape than 850 prophets of a lie. Now to be fair, those folks didn’t have the Red Letters BUT they still had Torah and it’s their own fault that they allowed their erosion of Ahab and Jezebel to take place. And so are we if we allowed the fear of being “cancelled” in a world that’s already condemned. This way the priestly prayer of John 17 is so important for all of us to keep in the forefront of our minds. If we can cling to that, then God gets to cancel the jezebel spirit. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a husband, a father, has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can e-mail him at cphughes515@verizon.net