Jezebel is a terrible name, and it denotes something terrible. She lived in the time of Elijah, and she lived in the time of the apostles. She has lived in every age, and she is alive today. There is good reason to expect to find her in every assembly. I have personally found her in many places. The angel of the church (the leader, the shepherd) is responsible for not allowing her to gain any influence or control and for discovering her and exposing her. Her desire is to rule. She wants to have power so that she can seduce the servants of the Lord and the saints to commit spiritual adultery and spiritual idolatry. She wants to be the one who is loved, and she wants herself and her pleasures to be people’s idols. She wants to be esteemed as a prophetess or as an outstanding servant of the Lord, a spiritual “shining star.” She wants people to look up to her, to seek her counsel, to pay great heed to her, and to admire her. She wants people to be devoted to her; she wants to have power over souls and deal with them according to her own pleasure. She is power-crazy and suffers from spiritual self-indulgence. Once a person has been caught by her net and has gradually grown used to spiritual adultery, it doesn’t take very much at all before he gradually falls into physical adultery. She usually has a very strong human spirit and is gifted in expressing herself, and very often she also has pronounced spiritual gifts. For precisely this reason it is easy for people to be deceived by her and to esteem her as a prophetess. Then it is very easy, in blind confidence, to close your eyes little by little, completely or partially. Bit by bit this Jezebel develops her own ideas and opinions (doctrines), and without people noticing it, they are led astray and end up in her strong net. That net is so strong that it is extremely difficult for a person to extricate himself from it, even after the situation has been clearly exposed by faithful witnesses. She wants to rule and dominate; she teaches. Rev. 2:20. If people would strictly adhere to the Word, they would always be kept safe. A woman shall not exercise authority or teach. 1 Tim. 2:11-12. By adhering to this scripture, just as it is, with no explanations, a person would be spared from her snares and nets forever. Here we can see an excellent example of the advantage of being obedient to the Word and the risk of being disobedient. The Scriptures speak about having “haughty looks” and about “eyes that are full of adultery.” In other words, both the lust for power and adultery can be seen in the eyes. The eye is the light of the body. There can be both big and little Jezebels. She can rule over entire assemblies or large portions of assemblies, or she can rule over just a few or over just one individual. I have seen examples of all of these. The tendency is to be too careful in dealing with such faithless souls in the hope that it is not as bad with them as it appears to be. It is best to put them to the test, the sooner the better—in any case, to keep a sharp eye on them. It is important not to shrink back from the unpleasantness of dealing with her because if you let it go for too long, the result will only be that the unpleasantness becomes even greater. Every woman who wants to be esteemed as a prophetess or as a spiritual person, and yet is not clothed with a meek and quiet spirit and is not in submission as the Scriptures say, ought to be regarded with suspicion. Likewise, any woman who holds on to her own special ideas and opinions or who carries on with any sort of specialized or independent work within the church ought to be regarded with suspicion, because it is always quite likely that this is a Jezebel tendency that is in the process of developing. In any case, no harm is ever done by being watched and scrutinized.Elias Aslaksen