Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’ – 2 Kings 9:37

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 10, 2013): 2 Kings 9

A few years ago my family went for a vacation drive. We were actually on our way back from a family gathering in Eastern Canada, and some people do not realize that the shortest and most direct way to get from Eastern Canada to Western Canada is to go through the United States. And since we were heading into the States anyway, I had some wonderful memories of South Dakota, especially of the Wall Drug Store and the badlands of South Dakota. So we made a family decision that we would return home through South Dakota, and actually spend a few days just enjoying the rugged beauty and attractions and awesome history of the State.

One of the things that we ended up doing (and I am not sure that I know why, because this is not a common family activity for us) was that we spent some time walking through cemeteries – because there, in the cemeteries of the state, were buried names that I had known since my childhood. People like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane have found their final resting place in South Dakota. And we could walk through the graveyard and see the monuments and remember the stories of these people from the Old West. Both the good and the bad can be found there – and an era can be, albeit nostalgically, remembered.

The curse of Jezebel is that there will never be a place where people can go just to remember – there will never be a place where people can go to shed a tear for Jezebel. And maybe that is the worst outcome that any of us can face. Just as Elijah was the stranger that just seemed to appear, Jezebel would be the princess who just seemed to disappear. While Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire to heaven, For Jezebel it was the dogs that came and carried her remains away before anyone could do anything to honor her body in any way. It is a fate that most of us would not wish on our enemies.

All that we have left of Jezebel is this caricature of an evil women. In a time and a place where monuments were important, Jezebel left none. For a person to live and then die and yet the passing of life is not mourned, well, it is as if that person never lived – never made a difference. For Jezebel, on the day of her death the world drew a sigh of relief. And she became the Queen and the Princess that never really was. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 10