This wicked queen of Israel did have physical children of her own—both of whom died young—but the title refers to her figurative offspring. And who are they? They are the ones who share her shameless character and her irrational way of thinking. The designation of Jezebel’s Children could refer to her callous disregard of innocent human life. Without a qualm or a single twinge of conscience, she devised a plot whereby the innocent Naboth was accused, convicted, and killed—just so her husband could possess his land that contained a fruitful vineyard. All those who murder in cold blood are her children—and Cain’s as well, who was the first to resort to violence without provocation. All the women who have allowed the lives of their innocent babies to be terminated without any remorse are truly daughters of Jezebel. Those who operate or support Planned Parenthood are also her kinsmen.
However, she represents evil in an even greater way—besides the one that allows for immorality and the kind of heartlessness described above. She symbolizes everyone who knows the truth but rejects it anyway. Her husband had witnessed an extraordinary event. Queen Jezebel’s prophets of Baal had tried all day to call down fire from above to consume the bull they had laid out on the altar for him. They leaped, they cried aloud, they cut themselves—all in a vain effort to prove their god’s existence (1 Kings 18:26-29). Then Elijah soaked his sacrifice with water, along with the altar and the ground around it. Then his God—the true and living God—consumed all of it with fire (1 Kings 18:30-39).
King Ahab told Jezebel what had happened, including the fact that Elijah executed her prophets. Such a tremendous event was unparalleled. The land also enjoyed rain for the first time in 3½ years. Surely the queen would now see the error of her ways and repent of all her wickedness. It never happened. Despite whatever wonder and excitement there had been in Ahab’s voice, Jezebel remained unmoved. In fact, she swore that Elijah would be dead within one day’s time (1 Kings 19:1-2).
She could have given birth to those Pharisees who rejected Jesus. They too rejected the evidence of the miracles time after time. Centuries later, the atheist Voltaire claimed that he would refuse to believe a miracle if he saw it with his own eyes. He truly was a son of Jezebel. When Jesus healed a man lame for 38 years, they sought to kill Him because He had broken the Sabbath (so far as they were concerned) and made Himself equal with God in the process (John 5:18). They cast the blind man whom Jesus healed out of the temple and claimed Jesus was a sinner, although they had irrefutable evidence that the man had been blind from birth. When Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, the chief priests sought to put both of them to death. Those who reject both the natural evidence of the existence of God (Rom. 1:18-20) and the supernatural revelation of God, confirmed by miracles (John 20:30-31) are all Jezebel’s children.