Jezebel’s Husband, Ahab: Moral Weakling

Focus: “He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria” (1 Kings 16:32).

In the Walt Disney cartoon film Robin Hood, the evil Prince John is portrayed as a skinny lion who shouts and screams and wields absolute power, but sticks his thumb in his mouth and goes into a tantrum whenever life gets difficult. Ahab was such a character—one of those moody types who would sulk like a child when he didn’t get his way.

He did some good things, though. He led Israel into victory against her enemies. He listened to prophets and went through times of repentance. But he was also a moral weakling, a man who lacked conviction and decisiveness. He didn’t even share his bride’s single-minded commitment to the Baals. In fact, it would seem that Ahab was incapable of being single-minded about anything. Ever the man to please, Ahab had himself set up a special sacred stone monument to the Baals near to the altar of the occultic temple, and just to be on the safe side, he threw in a pole in honor of goddess Asherah for good measure.

He even named three of his children in honor of Yahweh: Jehoram (“Yahweh is high”), Ahaziah (“Yahweh has taken hold”), and Athaliah (“Yahweh is exalted”). Ahab was a man of religious tokenism, willing to treat the God of heaven and the devil of hell like good-luck charms, to use and discard at will.

And he goes down in history as a man who heard what God wanted but wavered constantly and didn’t obey. Sometimes it’s difficult to stand firm and strong in the midst of the pressures of our culture. But let’s do it.

Pray: Establish me firmly in You, Lord, confident in who You are, and confident in who I am in You. Amen.