By avoiding confrontation, they give up their authority to the Jezebel spirit, and this is the most important thing they give up. Ahab enables the Jezebel spirit to further its agenda by handing over its authority and never confronting Jezebel over its activities.
Cast Down Jezebel: The Series
In my previous Jezebel post I went into detail about this evil spirit’s entourage, and how its manipulation and control of others is a crucial part of advancing its agenda. I stopped at Ahab, which is the topic for today.
Ahab is the name for a spirit embodied by the Old Testament King Ahab, a spirit which remains under the thumb of its partner Jezebel even now. Ahab is almost always involved in whatever Jezebel is up to. As I move forward, keep in mind that Ahab can refer to both the spirit and/or the person carrying the spirit.
Also remember that spirits have no gender: An Ahab spirit can enter a woman, and/or a Jezebel spirit can enter a man.
Who Was King Ahab?
Let’s start with a refresher on who King Ahab was. I wrote about this in my second post. Ahab was a king of Israel, and the most evil king they ever had—1 Kings 16 famously says of him:
(32) He made an altar for Baal in the Baal temple he had constructed in Samaria. (33) Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to anger the LORD, the God of Israel, than any of Israel’s kings who preceded him.
1 Kings 16:32-33 (CEB)
This happened because Ahab married a woman from one of the pagan nations called out by God in Deuteronomy 7:3-4. Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians. If you’ve been following my Jezebel series so far you’re well-familiar with who she is. She turned his heart towards Baal and Astarte (the pagan gods of the Canaanite Sidonians; read Part 3 for more info), like God said would happen. Jezebel then used her power as queen of Israel to spread Baal and Astarte worship throughout the country. Ahab allowed this as king. Ahab cooperated with the idolatry.
To quote from Part 2: “It was only a matter of time before [Jezebel spreading pagan worship throughout Israel] happened, because in Ahab, Jezebel had found an easy target for her natural talents of seduction, manipulation, and control.”
Ahab’s passivity to his wife allowed corruption to grow unchecked and spread far and wide. As Steve Sampson puts it in his book on Ahab, Discerning and Defeating the Ahab Spirit: “[…] Ahab perpetuated his disobedience [marrying a pagan] by never standing up to Jezebel. Instead, he abdicated to her his God-given authority as king (and husband).” This is the main dynamic between Ahab and Jezebel, even today. A person with an Ahab spirit is passive and submissive to a person with a Jezebel spirit.
But it doesn’t stop there. Seeking love and acceptance from the Jezebel, the Ahab will do whatever the Jezebel wants and give it everything.
Abdicating Power and Authority
Ahab is Jezebel’s enabler, its most important one. Ahab will usually have something Jezebel needs, something Jezebel can exploit or steal. This is why the Ahab spirit and the person carrying it hold a special place of importance in Jezebel’s entourage. One of the most important things Ahab gives up is its authority, as Steve Sampson says above. Jezebel was able to spread her idolatry much further by exploiting her position while Ahab did nothing to stop her.
Jezebel uses Ahab to further its own goals. Ahab will go along with this for a few reasons:
- Ahab seeks Jezebel’s love and approval
- Ahab is passive and carries a spirit of passivity
- Ahab is emotionally wounded and insecure, so its lack of self-confidence makes Ahab use Jezebel and others to fight its battles
- Ahab cannot assertively confront people in general, and uses passive means to achieve its own goals
That final item is an important aspect of Ahab’s personality. Ahab is more than the spirit of the “beta male” or something like that. ‘Beta males’ are total followers without much of an agenda. Ahab does have an agenda and plots of its own, and it will work towards those, but using passive means. As Steve Sampson says:
Ahabs can be just as selfish, controlling, and even manipulative because they give their power away in order to get love in return. Ahab himself did things for Jezebel in order to get what he wanted.
Steve Sampson, Discerning and Defeating the Ahab Spirit, Page 30
Ahab does not only use Jezebel to get what it wants either. Ahab is a political creature, building alliances to increase its reach and network of people who might help it. Jennifer LeClaire explains:
The Ahab spirit is a cowering spirit. It will not take a forthright stand for what it believes but will use dishonesty, manipulation, and political alliances to get what it wants. […] Ahab is certainly a master of manipulation in his own right.
Jennifer LeClaire, Jezebel’s Puppets, Pages 80-81
Two manipulators? Oh great! Yeah, when you’re up against a Jezebel spirit there’s almost always an Ahab around too. But their manipulative natures will not be your only problem.
Covetous, Conniving, Murderous
Ahab and Jezebel are made for each other, since Ahab is as evil as its counterpart. There’s a famous incident in 1 Kings 21 that shows King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s evil better than any other.
On Ahab’s part, this story shows that Ahab is: Covetous, passive, scheming, and evil (murderous). I will explain this after the story.
I’ll summarize the story of 1 Kings 21:1-16. Then I’ll post a link to Bible Gateway for you to read the whole thing if you like.
A man named Naboth had a vineyard in Jezreel next to Ahab’s palace. Ahab asked to buy it in exchange for a better vineyard or its price in silver. Naboth wouldn’t sell, because the vineyard was his inheritance from his family. Ahab became depressed at this, as verse 4 tells us. Then Jezebel comes in and takes control of the situation. She says, “what are you laying around for?” She mocked Ahab for being the king of Israel and being depressed about being refused the vineyard. She said she would get it herself. She wrote letters, sealed with Ahab’s seal, to the elders of Naboth’s village. She instructed the elders to have men bring false accusations of blasphemy against Naboth, and then have him stoned to death. This happened in verse 13. When the filthy deed was done, Jezebel told Ahab that she got the vineyard for him.
Here’s the full story of 1 Kings 21 (CEB) on Bible Gateway. Choose the Bible version you want to read with the menu at the upper right.
Let’s look at how this story shows the four traits of Ahab I mentioned: Covetous, passive, scheming, and evil (murderous)
- Covetous: Ahab desperately wanted something he couldn’t have
- Passive: Ahab allowed someone else to handle the problem, to fight his battle
- Scheming: Ahab knew that Jezebel would handle it, and he could get what he wanted (accomplish his goals) through her
- Evil: Ahab didn’t care that one of his own subjects had been murdered; he was happy about the vineyard and came out of his depression instead!
Like Ahab wanted that vineyard, the Ahab spirit wants what it can’t have. Focusing on or fantasizing about whatever (or whoever) they can’t have allows the Ahab spirit to grow stronger in someone. Coveting is a major part of Ahab’s personality. Jonas Clark explains:
Ahab has a coveting spirit and falls into a state of deep depression if he doesn’t get his way. Those with the Ahab spirit suffer with an ongoing struggle with depression. […] Jezebel’s influence on Ahab intensifies his ungodly lust for the possessions of others.
Jonas Clark, Jezebel, Seducing Goddess of War, Page 126
The Ahab spirit uses others in its own passive ways. It gathers “yes-men” around it for encouragement and a self-esteem boost since Ahab is emotionally unstable. Its goal is to get others to fight its battles and also get what it wants. Note that Ahab allowing Jezebel to take the vineyard let Ahab get what he wanted while ‘keeping his hands clean,’ although his hands weren’t clean before God. The LORD says as much in 1 Kings 21:19: “[…] This is what the LORD says: So, you’ve murdered and are now taking ownership, are you? Then tell him: This is what the LORD says: In the same place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, they will lick up your own blood.”
Note that God said nothing about Jezebel here. If you hand over your authority to Jezebel like Ahab did, God holds YOU responsible for what it does!
Finally, Ahab is evil. He didn’t care that one of his own subjects had been murdered, all he was thinking about was the vineyard which he happily took ownership of. On top of that is the fact that he tolerated Jezebel, and allowed her to spread her idolatry throughout the land. Never tolerate Jezebel, never cooperate in its sin.
Anyway, these are the reasons why I say that the Ahab spirit is not like the spirit of a “beta male” or something like that. First there’s the fundamental concept of demonic spirits having no gender. An Ahab spirit can enter a passive, emotionally damaged woman as easily as it can enter such a man. Yes betas are passive, but Ahab is different. Ahab had his own agenda and was using Jezebel in his own way to get what he wanted. Ahab also had no problem doing his royal duties when he had no other choice, such as when he shook off his depression to fight against the Syrians.
It’s important to understand that while Ahab is part of Jezebel’s entourage and its most important enabler, it also has goals of its own—covetous, sinful goals. And enabling Jezebel to achieve its agenda is already evil in and of itself. So now let’s look at how the Ahab and Jezebel spirits work together.
Jezebel and Ahab: How they Malfunction Together
The Ahab and Jezebel spirits inside people recognize each other on a spiritual level when they meet, and the people carrying these spirits often get into abusive and dysfunctional Jezebel/Ahab relationships. The Jezebel controls the Ahab while the Ahab gives up what it has in exchange for love and validation. The Ahab also uses the Jezebel to achieve its own aims (when it has some), so they both use each other. It’s unhealthy all around. As Jennifer LeClaire says in Jezebel’s Puppets:
Ahab needed Jezebel to execute his will, and Jezebel needed Ahab for the purpose of power—but Jezebel ultimately pulled Ahab’s strings, put words in his mouth, and carried out her agenda using his authority behind the scenes.
Jennifer LeClaire, Jezebel’s Puppets, Page 57
So these two need each other: They have a codependent relationship. This type of disordered relationship will easily attract demons to the people involved because the abuse and dysfunction causes hurt and resentment to grow. Not to mention that emotionally wounded people very often get into these relationships.
The emotionally wounded Ahab, with low self-esteem and insecurities, needs the love and approval of Jezebel to ease its pain and insecurities. That’s why Ahab will give Jezebel everything it wants or needs—and Jezebel often needs something Ahab has. This could be their money, connections, power, position, and so on—anything Jezebel needs to achieve its aims.
Ahab’s problem is passivity in general. By avoiding confrontation, they give up their authority to the Jezebel spirit, and this is the most important thing they give up. Ahab enables the Jezebel spirit to further its agenda by handing over its authority and never confronting Jezebel over its activities. This is collaboration, and it’s sin.
The resources, connections, and so on that Ahab often has access to make Ahab highly important to Jezebel. This is why anytime you know for sure there’s a Jezebel spirit riding somebody, look around, because you can be confident there’s an Ahab spirit around too. It’s usually in the background trying to lay low while it works on its own plans. Finding one spirit may lead you to the other.
The person with the Jezebel spirit will be the one dominating and in control of the relationship. The Ahab will take the passive approach and yield to Jezebel rather than confront it. Over time this leads to the Ahab growing bitter and resentful. Perhaps this is why people carrying the Ahab spirit have a poor attitude, as Jonas Clark explains:
Ahab has a contentious, argumentative demeanor […] Ahab has a nit-picky persona that argues over the most trifling matters. This spirit is known to major in the minor and minor in the major, and actively seeks out points of dispute during every day conversation.
Jonas Clark, Jezebel, Seducing Goddess of War, Page 123
The story of Naboth’s vineyard illustrates how these two spirits still operate in conjunction with each other today. Although the people ridden by these evil spirits use and abuse each other to advance their agendas, don’t forget who’s in charge: The Jezebel spirit. Ahab may hold special importance as Jezebel’s main enabler, but at the end of the day Ahab is merely another pawn and tool in Jezebel’s evil entourage.
That’s all for this Week
I hope you enjoyed this post and gained a better understanding of the Ahab spirit, how it operates, and how it enables Jezebel. In next week’s post I’ll be discussing the good guys for a change. Next week I’m writing about Jehu, the relentless warrior who defeated both Jezebel and Ahab. We can learn from his example to cast down Jezebel (and Ahab) in our own lives.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
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Books Referenced
Jonas Clark, Jezebel, Seducing Goddess of War, Spirit of Life Publishing, 2004
Jennifer LeClaire, Jezebel’s Puppets, Charisma House, 2016
Steve Sampson, Discerning and Defeating the Ahab Spirit, Chosen Books, 2010
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