 JEALOUS - A covenant Word: Putting this verse into context with the preceding verse, and removing the added italicized words, "Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, the likeness of any, which the Lord thy God has forbidden you. For the Lord thy God: a consuming fire, a jealous God." (Deut. 4:23-24) This is a warning not to underestimate, forget or take for granted the covenant with God. Why? Because the covenant God between God and His people grants Him exclusive rights to them. God, in turn, promises, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." (Genesis 17:7) In return God expects to receive their exclusive loyalty and faith. The essense of the Abrahamic covenant is God giving Himself to Abraham and His descendents. God's promise, "to be a God unto thee" is the first and fundamental promise on which all other promises rest. It is the greatest promise in scripture because it means that God binds Himself to His faithful people and tells them, "I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." (Genesis 15:1) God's grace, pardon, promises, protection, goodness, guidance, help, and blessing are given to His faithful believers in love. All Christians inherit this same promise through faith in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3:13-29) God is a "jealous God" in the sense that He is watchful in the guarding and keeping of His covenant rights with His people by the issuing of commandments. God will not tolerate unfaithfulness on the part of His people, as it breaks the covenant relationship. Our covenant relationship with God is much like a marriage covenant between a husband and wife where each partner has certain and exclusive rights and responsibilities to the other which each EXPECTS to be honored. Covenant partners have the right to expect exclusive love and loyalty, demanding that each remain completely faithful and true in the covenant (marriage) relationship. Our relationship with God must be on the same terms -- just as exclusive, just as loyal, and just as faithful. In our covenant with God, the worship of other gods is spiritual adultery. The Hebrew word 'qanna' (Strongs 7067) translated here as "jealous" is an adjective which comes from the primary root verb 'qana' (Strongs 7065) and illicits a strong competitive sense meaning, "the act of advancing one's rights to the exclusion of the rights of others." (Vines Complete Expository) Jealousy is never to be confused with its modern widely used defintion of "resentfully envious" (Webster). In the Bible, God is never described as being 'envious', therefore any negative connotations of this word do not apply to God. In scripture, whenever God is the subject of the verb 'qana', the meaning is 'be zealous', to have eager interest and enthusiasm. As an adjective, the word 'qanna' used in this scripture refers directly to the attributes of God's justice and holiness. God is the sole object of human worship and He does not tolerate man's sin. While He walked this earth Jesus referred to the world and society as an, "adulterous and sinful generation" (Mark 8:38; cf. Matthew 12:39, 16:4) Jesus is not entirely expounding on rampant adultery in human marriage relationships, but He is primarily focusing on their spiritual adultery against God. James bluntly convicts us, "You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) John mirrored this, "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15) Being a "friend of the world" IS spiritual adultery: unfaithfulness to God and our pledge of committment to Him. It involves our embracing and tolerating the worlds sin, values and evil pleasures. God will not accept such friendship for He has zeal for His people and wants them to be separate from the world and exclusive to His right. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24) Mammon is of Chaldean origin (Strongs 3126) and represents avarice, the greedy desire of wordly things more than God. Near the close of his life Joshua called the people together one final time to lead them in a renwal of the covenant with God in which they committed to serve the Lord exclusively, loyally and faithfully. The word 'qanna' is used by Joshua, "He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt and consume you..." (Joshua 24:19-20) CONSUMING FIRE: "Consuming fire" is a descriptive metaphor that gives God a physical quality in relationship to sin. Fire consumes only that which is fuel for it, so the fire fastens upon those only who, by their own sin, have fitted themselves for destruction. Because of God's sinless nature and His intolerance to sin, He issues holy anger and judgment against those who depart from His word and commandments, 'breaking covenant' by entering into some form of idolatry. As believers, we are warned against turning away from God, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries... It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:26-27, 31) "See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more we shall not escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven: for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:25, 29) The Bible reveals to us that the present world order shall one day be overthrown by God and the whole material universe shall be shaken to pieces. (Haggai 2:6-9,21; Hebrews 12:25-29) The present form of the world is not eternal: it will be destroyed by fire and replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelation 20:11, 21:1; 2 Peter 3:10-13) All that will survive in it's present form will be the Kingdom of God and those who have remained faithful in covenant and belong to it. (Hebrews 12:28) WHAT'S AN IDOL? Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters... you cannot serve both God and Mammon... He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." (Matthew 6:24) The Bible makes it plain that an idol in and of itself is nothing but a mere piece of wood or stone carved out by human hands that has no power of its own: "we know that an idol is nothing in the world." (1 Corinthians 8:4) But behind EVERY idol is a demon controlled by satan whose purpose is to convince the believer to turn away from God and return him to 'sin and death' status. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils." (1 Corinthians 10:20) The Bible clearly says that believers can't live in both worlds at the same time, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." (1 Corinthians 10:21) WHAT IS IDOLATRY? Idolatry is allowing tangible things or abstract quests to become the focus of your desires, values, and dependence, displacing reliance on and faith in God Himself. "The graven images of their gods shall you burn with fire: you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto you, lest you be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God." (Deut. 7:25-26) For this reason covetousness (greed for wordly possessions) is called idolatry. Idolatry can involve professing allegiance to God and His Word while at the same time giving equal or greater allegiance to persons, institutions, traditions, or authorities on earth. Nothing may be placed higher than one's faithful relationship to God and His Word as revealed in the Bible. "For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, WHO is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." (Ephesians 5:5)No inheritance means that you are out of God's will by breaking covenant. Idolatry explicitly appears in the false world religions, as well as in sorcery, satanism, and other forms of the occult. Satan as, "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4) has the power to produce lying signs and false wonders and to bestow physical and material benefits to people. The relationship between idolatry and demons is seen more clearly when we realize how intricately pagan religious practices are linked with spiritism, sorcery, divination, enchantment, witchcraft, necromancy, etc. "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things [being a whoremonger, unclean person, or covetous man, WHO is an idolater] comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 5:6) The wrath of God is the form of 'consuming fire' that is the attribute of a sinless God who cannot abide with sin. IN A NUTSHELL: After the fall in the garden of Eden the world came under the law of sin and death.
Today, there are two primary forces operating in the world: the law of sin and death and the law of life by Christ Jesus.
The world is operating under condemnation, under the curse of the law ever since the garden of Eden.
God chose the Israelites to enter into covenant relationship with Him which freed them from the law of sin and death so long as they remained loyal to THE covenant.
The blood of Jesus sealed a new covenant and brought the law of life and Christ into operation 'for believers only'.
Satan's objective is to get you to break covenant with God in which case you fall back under condemnation, back under the law of sin and death which will consume you.
The covenant we have with God as New Testament believers is sealed in the blood of Jesus. God's commandments to us are given to help us to remain faithful to the covenant -- doing our part -- so that He can inturn, do His part for us.
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." (1 John 5:18-21) |
