Class Notes: 1/2/2013

Satan's attack on the "seed of the woman" in the Davidic line part 2


In our study of the war that was announced in Gen 3:15; last time we started a study on the attack on David's seed that occurred after Satan through Ahab and Jezebel had managed to put their evil children on the throne of both Israel and Judah.

Let's refresh our minds with the individuals involved.

Reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah
Israel Reign Judah Reign
_____________________________________________________________
Jeroboam I 931-910 b.c. Rehoboam 931-913 b.c.
Nadab 910-909 Abijah 913-911
Baasha 909-886 Asa 911-870
Elah 886-885
Zimri 885
Omri 885-874
Ahab 874-853 Jehoshaphat 870-848
Ahaziah 853-852 Jehoram 848-841
Jehoram 852-841 Ahaziah 841
Jehu 841-814 Queen Athaliah 841-835
Joash 835-796

Ahab, the king of Israel, had three children by his Phoenician wife, Jezebel:
(1) Ahaziah (of Israel), (2) Jehoram ( of Israel also called Joram), and (3) a daughter, Athaliah.

At Ahab's death, his eldest son, Ahaziah (of Israel), became king of Israel. He reigned for two years but died as a result of a fall through the roof of his palace.

Since Ahaziah was childless, his brother, Jehoram (of Israel, aka Joram), became king of Israel.

Down in the Southern Kingdom, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had two sons:
(1) Jehoram (of Judah) and (2) Jehu.

At Jehoshaphat's death his eldest son, Jehoram, became king of Judah. Jehoram was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, former king of Israel, and was the sister of Jehoram, the current king of Israel. Together, Jehoram, king of Judah, and his wife, Athaliah, had a number of sons.

2Chron 22:1Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who came with the Arabs to the camp had slain all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

The reign of Ahaziah as king of Judah lasted only one year and was corrupted by his association with King Ahab's dynasty in Israel.

v2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri and daughter of Ahab.

Since Ahaziah was only 22 years old he was heavily influenced by his mother Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, who was involved in the perversion and blasphemies of the Baal cult.

He already has several sons by his wife Zibiah. The names, number, and ages of most are unknown but we do know that his youngest was an infant named Joash.

At the time Ahaziah's Uncle Jehoram (aka Joram), the brother of his mother is king of Israel and 841b.c. is the twelfth year of his reign.

At this point the line of the "seed of the woman has been reduced to Ahaziah and his children and Satan is about to intensify his attack on the line of Christ to an even greater degree.

At this point Satan has the children of Ahab and Jezebel sitting on the throne in both Israel and Judah. Their son, Jehoram, is king of Israel and their grandson, Ahaziah, is king of Judah and both are proponents of the Baal cult and a major attack and attempt to completely destroy the line of the "seed of the woman" is being set up.

This situation was apparently approaching the level of violating the rules of engagement for the Invisible War since the Lord, who controls history, began to intervene into the affairs of both the Northern and Southern kingdoms.

Human government is a divine institution. It is God's intent that government function as an organizational structure to establish order and freedom for the human race. In a client nation the laws of divine establishment are designed to maintain freedom so that prosperity can develop in conjunction with the spiritual advance of those citizens who are positive to God's word.

When both the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) became involved in idolatry and their kings were complicit in this, Jesus Christ who controls history stepped in to make changes.

2Chron 22:3-7; Ahaziah king of Judah subsequently joins with his uncle Jehoram (Joram) king of Israel to confront the Syrian army led by king, Hazael at Ramoth-gilead and in the conflict Jehoram is injured and retreats to Jezreel at the head of the Valley of Esdraelon to recuperate. Ahaziah goes there to check on him. It is here that the Lord will intervene and terminate both men but first we will get a bit of historical context.

The city of Ramoth-gilead was a key military outpost in the wars between Syria and Israel. It was located to the east of the Jordan River and was an outpost on the border of an area whose ownership was in constant dispute between Israel and Syria.

After the division of the United Kingdom, Ramoth-gilead came under Syrian control. Regaining control of this fortress was a major objective of the Northern Kingdom.

Previously in 853 b.c., King Ahab of Israel with an alliance with King Jehoshaphat of Judah had made an attempt to recapture it but the attempt failed and Ahab was killed in the battle.

The death of Ahab had brought his son Ahaziah to the throne but he died from a fall from the palace roof after only two years on the throne and his brother, Jehoram, became king of Israel.

In the twelfth year of Jehoram of Israel's reign ( 841b.c.) a sudden change in the rulership of Syria occurred when Hazael, the general of the Syrian armies, murdered Ben-hadad and became the new king of Syria.

Jehoram assumed that Hazael's coup had created at least a temporary period of instability in Syria and determined it was a good time for him to attack and try to retake Ramoth-gilead.

He received the support of his nephew, Ahaziah, king of Judah, and they both led their armies in an attack on the fortress. During the battle, Jehoram was wounded and was forced to retreat back across the Jordan to Jezreel to recover. He left the army of Israel under the command of general, Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat who was another of Ahaziah's uncles.

On hearing of Jehoram's injury, Ahaziah left the battle and went to Jezreel to check on his uncle's condition. This decision brought both kings together in the same location and made both of them vulnerable to assassination.

The Lord God describes both these men as being evil: Jehoram in 2Kings 3:1-3; and Ahaziah in 2Kings 8:26-27;

At the time the Northern Kingdom was the home of at least 70 men of the royal line and therefore the Divine decree for there to be an end of the House of Omri's rulership appeared to be improbable.

The prospects for righteous leadership in either kingdom showed no signs of occurring any time soon because both kings were young. Jehoram, king of Israel was 40 years old and his nephew, Ahaziah, king of Judah, was 22.

The Lord determined that He would no longer tolerate the line of Omri and Ahab in either the Northern or Southern Kingdoms. While both kings were at Jezreel the Lord executed His own coup.

The Lord therefore instructed the prophet Elisha to anoint a new king over Israel to replace both of Ahab's descendants. The one chosen was Jehu, the General of the Israelite army who was also a descendant of David, but not in the line of the Messiah.

2Kings 9:1; Now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, "Gird up your loins, and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth-gilead.

v2 "When you arrive there, search out Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in and bid him arise from among this brothers, and bring him to an inner room.

v3 "Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, 'Thus says the Lord, "I have anointed you king over Israel."' Then open the door and flee and do not wait."

After Jehu had been anointed he was given the following message: 2Kings 9:6; "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel.

2Kings 9:7; 'And you shall strike the house of Ahab, your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel.

v8 'For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person both bond and free in Israel.'"

v9 'And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.

v10 'And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.'" Then he opened the door and fled.

So after 35 years God has determined that this is the perfect time to execute judgment on the evil of Ahab and Jezebel and their dynasty.

Before we continue it is useful for us to understand the Lord's reason for having all these people killed.

Beginning with Solomon, the religion of the Canaanites had started to infiltrate the Israelite community. This was promoted to a greater extent after the division of the monarchies and it reached its peak in the Northern Kingdom under King Ahab and his queen Jezebel and in the Southern Kingdom under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel's son Jehoram

In Israel the king was held responsible for al the people because they were the Lord's people. The kingship was of a religious character and implied a unity of the heavenly and earthly rule over Israel through the king who, as Jehovah's substitute, sat "upon the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel. 1Chron 28:5;

The priesthood was under the king's supervision to such an extent that he might concern himself about its organization and duties, and that he was responsible for the maintenance of the purity of the culture that for Israel was the ritual plan of God and the maintenance of the proper protocols of their of worship.

In general it was the king's responsibility to watch over the religious life and conduct of his people, to eradicate the high places that were the basis of the function of every form of idolatry in the land and kill the priests of the false gods.

During the time of the United Monarchy, David and Solomon had established free trade with the Phoenicians. Ahab desired to reestablish this relationship and entered into such an agreement with Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon.

In an effort to assure the economic prosperity of Israel, Ahab decided to seal the deal by marrying Ethbaal's daughter, Jezebel. With this union came the syncretism of Baal worship with the worship of the Lord God in the Northern Kingdom.

Jezebel became the patron of the prophets of Baal and of the devotees of Asherah. She is the one who led the movement to destroy the altars of the Lord and eventually to murder the prophets of the Lord.

1Kings 18:19; "Send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table."

Her final solution was to destroy Judaism and replace it with the Baal cult. This is similar to what is happening in the culture war that is occurring our country today where the Judao-Christian culture that the country was founded on is being replaced with hedonism.

The evil of Jezebel was so great that even down to this day her name has been immortalized as an antonomasia to describe wicked, impudent, shameless, and immoral women.

The apostle John even uses her as a reference to describe the woman who influenced those in the church at Thyatira to become involved in idolatry Rev 2:20-24;.

As we have seen, Ahab and Jezebel had two sons and a daughter. Ahaziah was the crown prince who succeeded his father but only reigned two years. He was up on the roof of the palace, fell through it and was severely injured.

Ahaziah sent messengers to Baalzebub, the idol of Ekron, for a prognostication regarding his prospects for recovery from his fall that Elijah intercepted and told them to return with the message that he was going to die.

Ahaziah was childless and was therefore succeeded by his brother, Jehoram, or Joram. Jehoram who would be injured in battle and subsequently die at the hands of Jehu as part of God's Divine discipline of the Ahab-Jezebel dynasty.

Jezebel's syncretism of the Baal cult with the worship of the Lord God was only the initial stage if her plan to destroy orthodox Judaism in Israel. Her attempted mass murder of the Levitical priests was a satanically motivated effort to remove knowledge of the Lord and His ritual plan from the Jewish culture that was the basis for the protection of the "seed of the woman"

The overruling will of God had restrained the evil so, she was only partially successful in her attempt. Obadiah the chamberlain of Ahab's palace, preserved the lives of 100 of the priests during the purge.

1Kings 18:4; It came about, when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.

In the enforcement phase of satanic evil, persecution, violence, and tyranny are the techniques used by Satan's emissaries to suppress truth. Fear, emotionalism, and a breakdown of moral beliefs set the tone for the proponents of any system that is designed to destroy civic order, establishment truth, and the divine institutions.

People capitulate because of the pressure placed on them for nonconformance. It is very difficult to take a stand against public opinion, especially when those with the power to permit freedom or impose imprisonment; to grant life and or inflict death, manipulate it.

This is exactly what is in the process of happening in the USA today. Those in power are manipulating public opinion against the rule of law, establishment truth, Divine establishment and the constitution. Courageous believers will resist like Obadiah did.

The belief system promoted by orthodox Judaism is designed to restrict the desires of the sinful nature so that the soul can grow in an appreciation for God and develop gratitude for one's salvation provided by the divine sacrifice of Messiah.

The belief system promoted by heathen cults is designed to broaden the desires of the sin nature so that the soul can be brought into submission to the demons behind the idols and a commitment to observe rituals that promote Satan's objectives.

If the priests of the Lord can be eliminated, if the worship of Lord God can be ended, and if the people can be forced to forget the grace of God, then Jezebel will have the power to manipulate the people through fear, emotionalism, and unrestrained sexual expression. All these things were a part of Baal worship.

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