Wicked Queens in the Bible
Below is the Message Audio. This is follwed by the Typed Notes.
Jezebel was the most wicked Queen in the Bible.
King Ahab of Israel forsook the word of God and went and married Jezebel, princess of Zidon, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. Queen Jezebel is mentioned in the Bible several times.
1 Kings 16:29-31: “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.”
1 Kings 18:4: and when Jezebel was killing the LORD's prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them, hid them in caves in two groups of fifty, and provided them with food and water.
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.”
Athaliah was the only female monarch to rule Judah, reigning from approximately 841–835 BC after her son Ahaziah's death. She was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, and she married Jehoram of Judah in a political alliance between the two kingdoms. Upon seizing power, she killed all royal heirs of King David to secure her throne, though one infant, Joash was secretly rescued by the Priest Jehoiada and hidden in the Temple for 6 years. After six years, Jehoiada crowned young Joash as king at age 7 years in a public ceremony at the Temple; the people shouted, 'Long live the king!' When the revolution succeeded, ending her unprecedented reign it restored the House of David to Judah's throne. Athalia rebelled and was killed. 2 Kings 8:16 to 11:16.
Maachah (also called Michaiah, was married to King Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon. She was also the mother of King Abijah. She outlived her husband and her son into the reign of her grandson King Asa. 2 Chronicles 11:21-22.
In the days of King Asa, she was revered as the queen mother, but she was later removed from her post as queen mother because of her evil act of idol worship. 2 Chronicles 15:16 “King Asa also removed his grandmother Maachah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
Herodias was a wicked queen in the New Testament. She demanded John the Baptist's execution. She had married her uncle Herod Philip, then divorced him to marry his half-brother King Herod Antipas, a union that John the Baptist publicly condemned as unlawful under Jewish law. Herodias then demanded John the Baptist be beheaded. Details are in Matthew 14:1-11: “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.”