Does the fear of the LORD confer immunity to Jezebel? [I Kings 19]

We use the name Jezebel as an insult, and rightly so. This woman sponsored the persecution of the prophets of the LORD, and was corrupt. She was quite capable of using the law to kill, to sponsor perjury, and turn justice into oppression.

But Jezebel is but one woman. The question is if this has been institutionalized: it is happening as a form of policy, that the person who wants to keep their land faces the full force of the law who remove them from it. We live in a society where land is taken for eminent domain — and sold to developers. Where parents live in fear of children’s aid deciding their kids need to be lifted from them because they do not march lockstep to damnation.

Of course, Jezebel is also the name of a website run by Gawker, and it is reliably left-wing. From this morning.

(It is worth noting that the site may be called Jezebel, but the URL points to Gawker, that site that is failing, due to #Gamergate and Operation Disrespectful Nod)

In a stunning victory, the far left “Old Labour” (contra the “New Labour” of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown) candidate Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party.

Corbyn won nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, the Guardian reports, dwarfing his nearest rivals Andy Burnham at 19% and Yvette Cooper at 17%.

The British people are “fed up with the injustice and the inequality,” Corbyn said. “The media and many of us, simply didn’t understand the views of young people in our country. They were turned off by the way politics was being conducted. We have to and must change that. The fightback gathers speed and gathers pace.”

Much of the opposition party establishment has expressed ambivalence or outright disdain for Corbyn’s more radical positions—according to the New York Times, he has proposed nationalizing British energy and rail companies—generally coded in concern that if the party moves further to the left it will be unelectable in the general election. Several senior party officials have gone so far as to say they will not serve in his shadow cabinet.

(Always screenshot SJW sites. Because Link Rot).

Well, Corbyn thinks Jezebel is a good thing, that the crown should just take, run, control. He’s a socialist. But the crown has always had that tendency: bad kings take, good kings build. Ahab was a very bad king, with an equally wicked Queen, and she ensured that her enemies were convicted and killed though innocent. Because progress.

Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” And as soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

(1 Kings 21:1-16 ESV)

Now, the left are an easy target. They are obvious, and often stupid. But their ideas infect everyone. If Jezebel can do this, so can they. Peter Hitchens on Corbyn — having noted that Corbyn treats adults as adults and does not use PR — had this to say.

Actually, I dislike many of Mr Corbyn’s opinions – his belief in egalitarianism and high taxation, his enthusiasm for comprehensive schools, his readiness to talk to terrorists and his support for the EU. Oddly enough, these are all policies he shares with the Tory Party.

But I like the honest way he states them, compared with the Tories’ slippery pretence of being what they’re not.

My hope, most unlikely to be realised, is that a patriotic, conservative and Christian equivalent of Mr Corbyn will emerge to take him on, and will demonstrate, by his or her strength of conviction, that there is an even greater demand for that cause than there is for old-fashioned leftism. In any case, I think any thoughtful British person should be at least a little pleased to see the PR men and the special advisers and the backstairs-crawlers of British politics so wonderfully wrong-footed by a bearded old bicyclist.

What is wicked here is the use of the courts to oppress the honest, the righteous, and the upright.

The development of Kangaroo courts such as Human Rights Tribunals (where you are guilty regardless) or family courts (where you are guilty regardless and the court works out of the public gaze). It is the idea that there is one law for me and another for thee.

And I think we need to take an implication. Ahab was pagan, and controlled by his wife. However, he remained accountable: this was all done in his name. If you move away from the clear teachings of scripture, man, you will find yourself being controlled by women, or letting your greed control you, or letting injustice remain. And society will lose that basic trust that allows it to survive.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and the fount of Justice, true.

But it may immunize us from the Jezebels in our midst.