The Throw-Down at Jezreel

JOHN KOEHLER | Believer in Jesus

A certain wise couple, east of San Bernardino, once told me that as a former Seventh-day Adventist, I needed to release myself from the worship of a particular day. The reason I needed to let go of my hold on the Sabbath, they told me, was that Adventists—including me—worshiped the day as an idol.

I think Paul would emphatically agree with them! To demonstrate what I mean, let’s look at what Paul thinks about his previous unsaved life as a zealous Jew. Turn to the letter he wrote to the Philippians. 

Beginning in chapter three, verse 2, Paul gives a warning to those living there in Philippi: 

“Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of false circumcision [here, Paul calls physical circumcision false circumcision, which by inference refers to true circumcision consistent with the old testament that tells us that circumcision is a cut and contrite heart]; “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God, and take pride in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh – although I myself could boast of having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason: circumcised the eight day, of the nation of Israel; of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”—Philippians 3:2–6 

Found blameless! Paul reports that he kept all 613 laws including the Decalogue. That means he kept the seventh-day Sabbath to a tee. He kept the appointed times of the three festivals, and all other laws. He did not eat an animal that had died of natural causes, nor did he eat pork. His claim is that he was without blame in law-keeping. 

Then, in verse seven, Paul explains his current view of his past behavior: 

“But, whatever things were gain to me, these things, I have counted as loss, because of Christ! More than that, I count all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish.”—Philippians 3:7

Paul’s Law-Keeping Rubbish

Mere rubbish! The Greek word for rubbish here is used one time in the whole Bible. Examine the word, 4657 Skubalon. It is defined as: refuse, rubbish, dung, or garbage. This word means and is used as: refuse, dregs, and dung. 

No direct Hebrew word for skubalon exists, but the close equivalents are galal, meaning dung or refuse, and, pesel, meaning idol, or something that is detestable. 

Paul, by using this word, has created a compound Greek word. It is a combination of kyon (2965) meaning “dog”, and ballo (906), meaning “to throw”. It literally means “dog-throw”. 

HELPS word study provides this definition of skubalon: “what is good for nothing, except to be discarded.” In other words, things labeled skubalon are detestable things, only suited to be “thrown to the dogs.” 

Every Jewish person shaped by a lifetime of going to the synagogue for the expounding of the Old Testament would have been familiar with the Jewish understanding of dogs being perceived as dangerous creatures, ones that devour waste and are instruments of divine judgement. Furthermore, Jews listening to or reading Paul would know of two great historical examples of judgement and prophecy involving dogs.

Ahab’s Blood and the Dogs

The first example drawn from the Old Testament was the prophecy of Ahab’s fate in death described in 1 Kings. This prophecy came to pass when a certain man randomly sent an arrow that just happened to hit King Ahab between his armor plates and inflicted a fatal wound. Later, at the Pool of Samaria, Ahab’s blood-soaked chariot was washed, and the dogs licked up his blood – exactly like the prophecy specified in Kings. 

Ahab’s detestable, idolatrous blood became skubalon, or waste for dogs. The Holy Spirit emphasizes this point of the defilement of idolatry and adulterous behavior even further by adding a historical detail about the Pool of Samaria, that seems out of place at first. This was the same pool in Samaria where the “harlots of Samaria also washed.” 

…by emphasizing that harlots bathed in Samaria’s pool, Israel’s defiant idolatry against God is also in view here.

What was this about? Not only was it literal—harlots bathed there—but the metaphor is painted of northern Israel’s adulterous betrayal of Yahweh by its vast idolatry. In other words, by emphasizing that harlots bathed in Samaria’s pool, Israel’s defiant idolatry against God is also in view here. In fact, the whole Bible uses this language—that idolatry is harlotry—and this vivid detail of Israel’s unfaithfulness is added to the refuse of Israel’s accumulated legacy of rebellion that was good for nothing except as refuse for the dogs to lick up.

Jezebel Eaten By Dogs

However, a second, more concise Jewish picture from the past would also have come to mind for those listening to Paul use this specific new word skubalon. In Israel’s history, a treaty between Israel and Sidon was signed, and a marriage confirmed this treaty. The marriage was between King Ahab and the Canaanite princess of Tyre, Jezebel. 

She elevated the idolatrous worship of Asherah and Baal to the position of a state religion. She raised these idols to official state or national status. 

Besides introducing Israel to Basel worship, she also brought a new paradigm to the king’s authority. Under Jezebel’s influence, Ahab agreed to new terms of sovereignty: the king would now be sovereign over the land in direct opposition to the Jewish concept—established in God’s covenant with Israel—that the land belonged to Yahweh. He had sanctioned and divided the land among to the sons of Israel. 

Even though Jezebel ruled for ten years after the death of her husband Ahab, every Jew would have known the prophecy of her demise. She was literally to be thrown from such a high window that it was to cause her body to splatter, and her corpse was to be waste for the dogs. 

Every Jew would have known that her claim to fame—the popularizing of idolatry among Yahweh’s covenant people—was to end in severe judgment when the dogs would eat her shattered body, leaving only her skull, palms, and feet. 

In that day, Jezebel became skubalon: that which is thrown to dogs. 

Beware of the Dogs!

Remember the first warning Paul gives? Beware of the dogs! 

Paul is connecting his law-keeping, which was thrown to the dogs as rubbish, to the Queen of Idolatry, Jezebel.

Paul is connecting his law-keeping, which was thrown to the dogs as rubbish, to the Queen of Idolatry, Jezebel.

What he means by this comparison is the idolatrous nature of trusting in our own righteousness—our clinging to the law’s commands and doing them in order to merit God’s favor or justification. Paul considers that everything he thought was gain, everything that he did which he thought earned him merit before God to be declared righteous—all those things were idolatrous self-worship and self-trust. 

Paul is calling “idolatry” his trusting in his human achievement in order to be declared righteous before God. In fact, his whole past of earning merit by being blameless in the righteousness of the law, by being a good Pharisee—these efforts he declared to be idolatry, because these previously perceived “gains” were not of faith, but by works. 

Paul reminds us today that the just shall live by faith. No flesh shall be saved by works of law, but by trusting Jesus and not our idols. 

In fact, consider God’s postscript to the story: consider who ordered Jezebel to be thrown to the dogs out of that high window? A king of Israel. A king named Jehu—a Hebrew name that means, “Yah is He,” or “Yahweh is He.” 

Jehu is known for destroying the house of Ahab, just as Yahweh promised! And Yahweh in flesh, the Lord Jesus, has destroyed our works of idolatry by becoming sin for us and shattering our curse of death.

Sabbath melts away as we behold the One who is the substance of the shadow—and I did have to leave behind my Sabbath idolatry, because in Christ I have found my true Sabbath rest. †