1 Kings 18:19 “Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.”

There’s an old saying “know where your bread is buttered”.

Perhaps you’ve heard it, if not, look it up! It’s basically an idiom which tends to be used when you’re being advised to recognize and act in accordance with where the source of your benefits… and hence your best interests… lie.

For instance, if you get yourself into a good situation in life, maybe a good job, you will then behave in a way to protect and preserve it. Protect and preserve where your money is coming from!

With that thought in mind, notice the phrase in the verse above “prophets… which eat at Jezebel’s table”… Elijah is speaking here, and telling Ahab to round up the prophets for a “duel” at mount Carmel to determine who is actually the true God… and we find out that these prophets knew where their bread was buttered! I mean, quite literally!

… not much has changed from what Elijah had to deal with!

There are many reasons you don’t hear the truth of God’s word from people and places you should, such as the pulpits of church buildings. And by truth of God’s word, as in, the preaching of the cross of Christ… the powerful and commanding declaration of truth that the Holy Spirit blesses to open, enlighten and convince the hearers of God’s truth, to convict lost sinners of their need for Christ and to rebuke, exhort, nourish and encourage the saints to sanctification in Christ.

… but one of the main problems is what Elijah was saying here “prophets… which eat at Jezebel’s table” … they were owned! Ownership of pastors and preachers is as big a reality and problem as ever.

Who owns you? If you are owned by anyone or anything else other than being God’s servant and God’s freeman entirely at his disposal, only needing his approval, only requiring his provision, only trusting his sustaining power and sufficiency for whatever comes next… you’ll never have the liberty to preach the word, whatever it says, no matter how it is received. Many people in pulpits speak of a liberty that they are yet to experience.

You know the ratio of false prophets to true prophets of God was 850:1 in this chapter? It’s hardly changed, as saith the scripture “a faithful man who can find?”

The truth is, even if one of these 850 prophets who Jezebel owned did have any misgivings about Baal… they were so integrated and assimilated they couldn’t do a thing about it, the sacrifice would be great, because their lives and livelihoods and peers and “job security” and even “daily bread” was in Jezebel’s hand… and there is “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.

And the thing is, church has become business, and big business for some, despite “make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise”. And job security and security in life in general has become more important to people “called by God” these days than faithfully declaring scripture free from the control that can be exercised upon their message such as financial repercussions, flow of resources, destruction of name and opportunities of promotion and advancement… hence “know where your bread is buttered”.

All the great men of God in the Bible were not owned. Noah didn’t have a glass pulpit and wrap around mic and fat salary… but the Bible calls hims “a preacher of righteousness”. John the Baptist had no parish, parsonage or pension … but he wasn’t owned! There was a reason he lived in the wilderness and preached by the Jordan River… while everyone else was owned by Jewish religion and Pax Romana… he didn’t owe anybody anything, but the love, kindness and truth of God. People went out to see that because it was so different “he was a burning and a shining light”.

So whenever you pop into a traditional style church and don’t hear the truth today… it doesn’t mean God’s word has changed… it hasn’t. Hell is still real, the lost are still going there, sin is still condemned, and God still commands all men everywhere to repent.. salvation is still extended!

… sadly just many people in pulpits don’t love God enough or fear God above all else enough to tell you the truth. They’re usually owned by some Jezebel who is the unseen hand in their messages, not the hand of God, and never the power to save.

If you’re in this case, or at a church with someone in this case, until they break free “why loose ye the colt?… the Lord hath need of him”, they’ll never see the flow of the Spirit of God in and through their lives, it’ll be dead and dry business… until you leave the table!That’ll cost you some buddies some securities… but the life of faith is far more exciting. And Jesus Christ’s table is better than Jezebel’s… his spread is better! “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”…. and he can furnish a table even in the wilderness!

If you are called by God, you need to be free to tell others what God has given you… breaking free from ownership is when you go from Jezebel’s alumni to an Elijah of God, watch the fire fall then!

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