Today's Scripture Reading (January 26, 2026): 1 Kings 11
A long time ago, there was a
television series called "The Love Boat." "The Love Boat"
had a devoted audience, but it didn't garner much love from critics. Every
week, the story about this cruise ship featured three love stories. One of
those love stories featured an elderly couple with a secret. He had just
retired from his work; she had scrimped and saved so that she could give him the
cruise as a reward for his retirement. Except that she had another secret. She
had been in control of the money throughout their marriage, and they had lived
a life we might call "working poor." He didn't care. All that
mattered was that his wife had remained by his side.
The wife, who controlled the
money, had apparently attended Dave Ramsey's Financial University. (Okay, at
the time of The Love Boat, Ramsey was probably still in grade school, but she
had learned money management from somebody.) She had saved money throughout their
marriage and invested it in the Stock Market. Her dirty little secret was that
as they embarked on their retirement, they were multi-millionaires. However,
her husband wasn't sure this was good news. He had brought brown-bag lunches to
work every day for years; they had scrimped, the couple rarely ate out, and now
he finds out he didn't need to do any of it. His wife had probably made more
money on the Stock Market over the last forty years than he had earned at his
job. Yes, out of that saving had come this cruise, but there was so much more.
As the husband reviews the list of
stocks his wife had invested in, he asks this important question. How did she
choose the stocks? She answered that whenever he called her by a nickname, she
would go out and buy a stock that began with the same letter. He started
cycling through the names. When he called her Dear, she bought DuPont. When he
called her Honey, she bought Hewlett-Packard. And then he noticed that at the
bottom of the list was another stock name – Xerox. And he looks at his wife and
asks, "What did I call you to prompt you to go by Xerox?" She smiled
and noted that it had been one of her best investments, bought the day her
husband was angry with her and called her a Jezebel; she couldn't spell
Jezebel, so it accidentally became Xerox.
The historical Jezebel ruled
Israel as the Queen Consort of King Ahab. But as you read through the account
of the reign of Ahab, there is little doubt who the monarch really was. Ahab
was a figurehead under his wife's rule. Jezebel was a princess, the daughter of
the King of Sidon. And she brought with her the gods she had worshipped in her
Father's house: Ba'al and Asherah. And she demanded that the nation worship
with her.
Her nemesis was the prophet
Elijah, who continually sought to draw the nation back to the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. But he couldn't. One of my favorite stories in the Hebrew
Bible is the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al and
Asherah. Elijah wins, and the story ends with Ahab and Elijah racing off Mount
Carmel before the long-awaited rains come sweeping over Israel. It was a moment
of victory for the God of Israel. But as Ahab arrives home to tell Jezebel what
has happened, her reaction is not to worship Yahweh or Adonai, but rather to
demand that Ahab place a price on the head of Elijah.
And Elijah falls into a deep
depression that doesn't end until he has his own meeting with Adonai on another
mountain. There he hears God whether Solomon ever met a woman he did not want
to sleep with in the gentle whisper, "Eijah, what are you doing here?"
Marriages have to work in the same
direction. Usually, they work best if both partners understand the direction
before entering into the relationship. This is actually true of all
relationships. Can we test each other and strengthen each other, yes, but
ultimately, the relationship must be moving toward the same place. I have often
wondered what would have happened if Ahab had not married Jezebel. However,
Ahab was so weak that he naturally allowed his foreign wife to lead, regardless
of who that wife might have been.
Solomon wasn't weak, but his
priority was to amass the power and financial gain that God had promised.
Sometimes I wonder whether Solomon ever met a woman he did not want to sleep
with. Although never officially mentioned among Solomon's 1000 women, the Queen
of Sheba came to Solomon because of his wisdom. And rumor has it she left
pregnant with Solomon's child. That child became Menelik I, founding the
Solomonic Dynasty in Ethiopia. The last descendant of Solomon to rule in
Ethiopia was Haile Selassie, who was deposed in 1974. The Solomonic dynasty of
Ethiopia may reflect King Solomon's lack of wisdom and insatiable need for power,
which led him to be more concerned with keeping his foreign wives happy than
with keeping the God who had placed him on the throne of Israel happy.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 1
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