READING: 2 Kings 8-10
I had not been a Christian long when I first heard the story of Ahab and Jezebel’s encounters with Elijah, followed by their demise just as the prophet had proclaimed: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Have you [Ahab] killed and also taken possession?. . . In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood’ . . . . And of Jezebel the LORD also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel’” (1 Kgs 21:19, 23).
I first heard the story when my pastor introduced our church to the sermon, “Payday Someday,” by the famous Baptist preacher, R. G. Lee. Vividly do I remember the descriptions of bodies cast down and dogs licking blood, including this violent end for Jezebel seen in today’s reading: “But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands” (2 Kgs 9:35). More specifically, though, I remember learning that God keeps His Word. I had been learning to trust that truth when it came to His promises, but I had not considered that same reality concerning His words of judgment. This story caught my attention as a young believer—and I think of those days every time I read it.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you think much about God’s faithfulness to His word about judgment?
DAILY PRAYER: “Father, remind me that we will indeed answer to You.”
MONDAY’S READING: 2 Kings 11-13
*I first wrote much of this devotion in 2018.
