Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #24 of Revelation 2, and we are currently looking at Revelation 2:20:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

In our last study we were looking at Scriptures in the Old Testament which speak of Jezebel, and we saw that she was a very wicked woman.  She was queen of Israel, Ahab’s wife, and the Bible tells us that she stirred up Ahab to perform all kinds of evil deeds, and she cut off the prophets of JEHOVAH.  She had them killed.  She also plotted Naboth’s murder.  The Bible has nothing good to say about her, and God finally sent Elijah to Ahab to prophesy that Jezebel would die, and dogs would eat her.  We find the historical fulfillment of this prophecy of Elijah in 2Kings 9:30:

And when Jehu was come to Jezreel…

Jehu was a king of Israel that the Lord appointed, and he gave Jehu the task of destroying the kings of both Israel and Judah because they were part of this wicked family.  Jehu was very zealous in obeying this particular commandment in God, and he did well in performing it as he killed the family of Omri, and in this passage he would slay Jezebel.  Spiritually, we would have to say that Jehu seems to be a figure of Satan, as Satan was also raised up by the Lord in order to bring destruction, just as Jehu was given the task to destroy and kill.  The Lord loosed Satan at the time of the end, and Satan entered into the churches to rule as the man of sin, and he became king over the churches and congregations just as Jehu became king over Israel.  Satan did the will of God in the sense that God used him as an instrument to wreak havoc spiritually, and to destroy the churches.  He was very good at that task, just as Jehu was excellent in the task of killing individuals of this wicked family.

It goes on to say in 2Kings 9:30-37:

And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of JEHOVAH, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

Here, Jezebel meets her end, and the prophecy of God concerning the dogs licking her blood was fulfilled.  It is a picture of the judgment on the churches and congregations during the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God.  It was as though Jehu slew Jezebel.  Satan destroyed the wicked individuals within the churches and congregations, and we know that this is the spiritual picture because when we turn back to Revelation 2, it says in Revelation 2:20-22:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

That lets us know that we are understanding the historical situation regarding, “except they repent of their deeds.”  The Lord is using Jezebel as a picture of an unfaithful church that has gone contrary to the Word of God and His commands, and God gave space for her to repent.  In other words, the Lord is likening the church itself to Jezebel, that wicked woman, and He is giving “her” space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.  Therefore, God says, “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.”  Historically, the woman Jezebel was not cast into great tribulation.  The only time that “great tribulation” comes into view is at that time period at the end of the world.  So there is no way we can miss that the Lord is identifying Jezebel as the apostate church at the time of the end, the church that did not keep His Word.

Again, it says in Revelation 2:20:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

God is speaking to the church in Thyatira, which relates to the churches during the church age (at least to some degree), and He says they suffered that woman Jezebel to teach.  The word “suffereth” can be understood to mean that they allowed it.  For instance, this word is used in Acts 16:7:

After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

That is, God the Holy Spirit would not allow them to preach the Word in Asia.  They were forbidden to do so by the Holy Ghost.  Where it says, “the Spirit suffered them not,” it means that God did not allow it. 

But in Revelation 20, the church allowed Jezebel to teach.  They permitted her to teach in their midst, and this is completely against the Law of God.  Remember what God says in 1Timothy, where we will also see the word “suffers,” although it is not the same Greek word but also carries the idea of allowing or permitting.  It says in 1Timothy 2:11-12:

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

The Apostle Paul was writing this, but he was not a “chauvinist,” as some would say.  He was not giving his opinion.  Remember that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and God moved Paul to write these things.  This is the will of God concerning women; the Lord’s will is that women are to learn in silence during the church age.  And after the church age, it is no different, and I will explain that later.  But the woman is to be in silence with all subjection, as God commands, “But I suffer not a woman to teach…”

But the people in the church in Thyatira were suffering that woman Jezebel to teach, and that is in direct opposition to what God commands in this verse: “…I suffer not a woman to teach…”   God does not permit or allow a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.  We know that this a command that goes all the way back to the beginning because it tells us in 1Timothy 2:13-14:

For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Therefore this commandment of the Bible spans all time.  Women are not to teach men.  When it comes to being in “mixed company,” women are to listen and learn from a man that does the teaching.  Women may teach other women.  Women may teach children.  There are a lot of opportunities in that area if a woman is qualified with understanding and is faithful.  Then she may teach if the opportunity presents itself, and she can teach other women or little children.  But a woman is never to teach men.  She is not to teach in person.  During the church age, she was not to be an elder, deacon, or pastor.  She was not to teach on some special occasion.  A woman is not to teach outside the church in a mixed Bible study.  God does not allow that.  And a woman is not to teach on the internet today, which is something new over the last several years as we are able to communicate with one another electronically.  The same law applies to that as well.

We know that this is a Law of God that is to be obeyed, and there are spiritual reasons for this, just as the Laws regarding a marriage relationship.  God gave Laws to protect the marriage so that the marriage relationship would work well, develop and grow for the best.  So He commanded that the husband is to love the wife, and the wife is to submit to her husband, and yet we know there is a spiritual reason for these commandments because the husband is a picture of Christ, and the wife is a picture of the body of Christ, the true believers.  So there is a spiritual dimension and spiritual meaning that God illustrates through the actual marriage of two people.

But even though there is a spiritual aspect to it, the two people are still to follow God’s command, and the wife is to submit to her husband, according to the will of God, in order to demonstrate in a living way that this is how the bride of Christ ought to behave toward her Husband, the Lord Jesus.  So even though there is a spiritual application, there is still the obligation to obey the commandment that typifies that picture.

Likewise, God has given direction to women to “learn in silence,” but He did not give that command for no reason.  There is a very important spiritual truth that underlies this command, and that is because the “man” who teaches is Christ, or a picture of Christ, and the “woman” who is to learn in silence is the bride of Christ, the body of believers.

Let us look at it this way.  God commanded the woman to learn in silence.  So as a woman would sit in the congregation during the church age, she had her Bible out, and she was listening to the teaching of the man (an elder, pastor, or deacon), and she did not speak during the worship service and teaching, but she learned in silence.  As she was doing so, she was a demonstration that was witnessing right back to the man teaching the congregation that this was exactly what he ought to do when it comes to the Word of God.  The individual elder or pastor, or whatever man was teaching, must be quiet spiritually when it comes to the Bible.

Of course a man must use his mouth as he is teaching.  The pastor had to preach.  God commanded that, and it was pleasing to Him and according to His will, but as far as what he said, if the pastor was following God’s methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture, allowing the Holy Ghost to teach, then the man was teaching the congregation, and the woman was learning in silence.  The whole body of believers was learning in silence as the “man,” God the Holy Spirit, was teaching the Scriptures.

On the other hand, if the elder were a teacher that went to the Bible, but did not follow God’s methodology of Bible study, but he came up with ideas out of his own mind, his own understanding, or from other men’s commentaries, and it was contrary to God’s Word, then a “woman” was teaching in a spiritual sense, even though the teacher was a man.  That would be a violation, spiritually, of God’s command: “But I suffer a woman not to teach.” 

And yet there is still a physical aspect for women to keep the commandment, and in so doing, she would be a picture of how each one of us ought to approach the Word of God in our studies, and in coming to conclusions and coming to doctrine.  We want the “man” to teach always. 

And that is the picture here in 1Timothy 2, and that is what the church is being faulted for in Revelation 2:20:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach…

Again, Jezebel is a picture of an unfaithful woman, a woman that is teaching when God suffers not a woman to teach.  She is a picture of a church that is leading people away from the truth of the Bible, and away from Christ, and away from the path they should go.  As a result God was pronouncing His judgment and condemnation.  He told them, “This is your sin.  This is your error, and you must turn from this.  You must not suffer Jezebel to teach.  I will give you space to repent, but if you do not repent I will cast you into great tribulation, and judgment will begin at the house of God.”

You see, God is likening the whole corporate church to a woman, an unfaithful woman like Jezebel.  She was a wicked and evil woman who had no business teaching because God did not allow a woman to teach.  But the church permitted and allowed this, and as a result they turned into “other gospels,” and they lost the blessing of God.  They lost the Spirit of God as God came to visit in judgment, and He saw that they had not repented.  The churches were continuing to teach their own ideas, with their “high places,” and their false confessions and creeds that they adhered to, as they continued to maintain false doctrines.  It was nothing but a declaration that  a “wicked woman” was teaching in the congregations.  Therefore God judged them.

It is fitting that in the last few decades in which the Bible has taught that the churches were under the judgment of God that we saw women teaching in churches like never before.  Women were elders, pastors, deacons, and bishops, and so forth.  It had become a very acceptable practice for women to teach.  And the church was spiritually guilty of this throughout the entire period of the church age, and God cast them into great tribulation because of it.