2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Yesterday, my message dealt with God’s righteous jealousy. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, also can be called Jehovah Qanna, the Lord is jealous. However, there is a huge difference between righteous jealousy and the unrighteous kind. Jehovah Qanna displays only the righteous kind. This goes directly to the motive behind His jealous behavior, His refusal to tolerate rivals [EX 20: 5]. He has to take this stance with us, so that we will understand that the only way to eternal life is in making Him the one and only Lord of our lives. Since Jesus Christ is the second person of our one and only God, it is wholly appropriate for me to cite the bottom line found in JN 14: 6. “Jesus answered them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by Me.’” While not as often cited JN 14: 7 really seals the truth here. “’Now that you have known Me,’ He said to them, ‘you will know My Father also, and from now on you do know Him and you have seen Him.’”
We find in the Scriptures some very practical reasons why Jehovah Qanna is being a very responsible Parent for us and a very present One when He displays His jealousy. EX 34: 12-17, “Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going [referring to Canaan], because this could be a fatal trap for you. Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah. Do not worship any other god because I, the Lord, tolerate no rivals. Do not make any treaties with the people of the country, because when they worship their pagan gods and sacrifice to them they will invite you to join them, and you will be tempted to eat the food they offer to their gods. You sons might marry those foreign women, who would lead them to be unfaithful to me and to worship their pagan gods. Do no make gods of metal and worship them.” The goddess, Asherah, is the wife of Baal. Baal worship involved some horrific practices, wholly repugnant to God. Public displays of sexual intercourse and the burning of babies tied to poles as sacrifices were a part of it. Both the negative physical and spiritual consequences of getting mired in this kind of ungodliness needed to be made obvious to the people. There was also a cultural consequence that could be likened to that of widespread uncontrolled drug use, acceptance of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle that is okay, and prostitution today. The root purpose of God’s actions in calling Abram out of Mesopotamia and establishing the Jewish people through Him and Isaac, his son, was to make a “nation of priests” [EX 19: 5-6; 1 PET 2: 9] with the responsibility to be “a light to the nations” [IS 49: 6]. That purpose is thwarted when any form of idolatry, the sin God hates the most, makes its way into the lives of believers. Because Gentiles have been “grafted in,” the same privileges and responsibilities to reject idolatry applies to them. RO 11: 17, “Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews.”
The Lord’s teaching and demonstration of His righteous jealousy also remind us that we should never take His presence in our lives for granted. 2 COR 11: 2 makes God’s attitude clear. “I [Paul] am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ Himself.” While Paul was speaking to the church at Corinth, he could have just as well been speaking to mankind (including us) at any time in their history. Imagine how Jehovah Qanna felt when first He was rejected as Israel’s political leader at the time the first human king, Saul, was given authority to be king of Israel in 1 SAM 10: 1! What a nightmare for God when His beloved Israel split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah! 1K 12: 1-20, which I hope you will read, tells the story of the revolt of the northern tribes that led to this sad event. The disobedience that finally led to God’s decision to allow Israel and Judah to be taken captive by their enemies, the Assyrians and the Babylonians respectively, was actually the culmination of the rejection of Jehovah Shammah as their spiritual Leader as well. The Deity’s back was against the wall. He had no other choice but to demonstrate His righteous jealousy in punishing His children. No parent can allow bad behavior on his child’s part to go unchecked and expect to see that child grow up to become a good adult.
Today as we face the challenges to our faith that are provided by the man-centered, ungodly society in which we live, we cannot afford to take Jehovah Shammah’s presence for granted. The negative consequences are simply too great. God leads me to feel some considerable urgency in sending this message for Him. I truly believe that we are getting close to the time when we will be called to a meeting in the air with Christ-that “final separation of sheep and goats” [MT 25: 32]. We are not to know the exact time when this call will come [MT 24: 36; 1 THESS 5: 2]. I have attended a number of the prophecy conferences given by the Midwest Hebrew Ministries at Bethel College in St. Paul. One presentation given by Dr. David Larson, professor emeritus of Deerfield Seminary in IL, really stuck in my mind. Dr. Larson pointed out many places in the Scriptures in which signs of the end times are discussed. Then he made the very salient point that at no other time in history other than now have so many of these signs been in place. The message is clear. We must get our spiritual houses in order without delay. We must not take our righteously jealous God for granted, and we must know that He is present with us-urging us to get rid of sin in our lives so that we can be ready for that call to meet with Jesus Christ in the air!
PRAYER: O Lord, if we were children being raised in a home where there were many confusing and inconsistent rules, our chances of becoming spiritually mature, responsible citizens with serenity and focus would be non-existent. In Your infinite wisdom, You understand that. As our Parent, You made Your commands and Your attitude simple, consistent, and clear to us. You are a Parent we can always rely upon and always trust. Even when You show us wrath and Your righteously jealous nature, it is because You love us and want only what is in our best eternal interests. Your decision to tolerate no rivals is based on crucial information You want us to know. It is because You know that we can’t worship other gods or practice any form of idolatry and be perfected during our ongoing sanctification preparing us to meet with Christ in the air. We would be like the five virgins who were not prepared in Christ’s parable for the wedding feast of the Lamb. You want us to be like the other five virgins who were ready for that momentous event [MT 25: 1-13]. The nature of the love that You have for us makes You eager to bring us close to You for eternity. We acknowledge that love and thank You for it. We dedicate ourselves to not taking Your presence and that love for granted. Today, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and, once again, our heartfelt thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at some citations which reveal Jehovah Shammah’s presence with the Jews wandering in the desert. These verses have some powerful lessons for us today. When we are in the “deserts” of our lives, as we all are at times, we can find great comfort in knowing that the Lord is there with us. He is eager to lend us strength and guidance in working our way to the foot of life’s “mountain tops” and doesn’t ever abandon us. His word lights our path and His presence uplifts us as we climb to the top. Once there, He allows us to see the path of victory over death and renews our spirits, so that we can go down again equipped to bring others closer to Him. That, Dear Ones, is just one example of the great love He has for each of us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn