Why is ELOHIM jealous?

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• Exodus 34:14 "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD whose name is jealous is a jealous God."

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The tenth commandment says "you shall not covet".

First and foremost, it is first important to remember that covetousness and jealousy have different meanings. 

 

What is covetousness?

It is a feeling caused by a desire or longing for something that does not belong to you.

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What is jealousy?

• Jealousy is the feeling of anger or bitterness a person feels when he or she believes that some one else is trying to take away from him or her a lover or friend, or a possession.

• It is an attachment or eagerness that is born in love and is aroused by fear of the loved one loving someone else..

• It is a feeling of anger and sadness caused by the fear or certainty of the infidelity of the loved one.

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However, ELOHIM can neither covet nor envy what human beings possess, because all things come from him. 

• Job 41:11 "Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine."

• Isaiah 46:5 "To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal ? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike ?"  

• Psalms 50: 9-12 "I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens, for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof."

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But before negatively criticizing ELOHIM's jealousy, let us first ask ourselves the following two questions:

• If you are a person of good moral fiber, can you share your beloved wife or husband with someone else without having the slightest feeling?

• How would you feel if your own child, whom you have raised, surrounded with love, and in whom you have invested a lot, decides to call a neighbor who has not done the slightest thing for his or her life: "father" or "mother"?

This feeling of jealousy you will experience is similar to what ELOHIM feels when we bow down to other gods (idols and demons); because He does not only love us as reflections of His own image but more deeply He loves us with both parental and marital love.

• 2 Corinthians 6:18 " And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

• 2 Corinthians 11: 2 “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”

 

Men have become selfish creatures with a strong desire for autonomy. This desire leads many to worship other things than the only true ELOHIM.

• Deuteronomy 32:15-19 "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth. When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters."

• 1 Corinthians 10:20-22 "No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too. Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He ?"

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ELOHIM is mainly jealous of idol worship: demons and false gods that do not have the best intentions for our lives, and compete with His love preventing us from having a totally devoted relationship with Him. 

• 2 Kings 17:17 "They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger."

• Ezekiel 16:19-21 "You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you— the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.

• Psalms 106: 37-40 "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds."

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Demons have no respect for human life or human rights; but ELOHIM knows what is best for human beings and He cares that His children benefit from what is best for them. His jealousy is directly related to our well-being. It is a justifiable jealousy, He is never unfair or unjustly jealous. He sees us as His special possession, His unique treasure. His love is not a fleeting or occasional affection, but an expression of a sovereign goal: the fulfillment of his own design for justice and mercy, that we may forever live with him in complete wholeness. In spite of our unfaithfulness, ELOHIM does not forsake us into punishment, but sacrifices YESHUA his only begotten Son, in order to give way to a possible reconciliation between Himself and humanity. 

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Idolatry is a serious transgression and a great sin in the eyes of ELOHIM, especially when committed by those who have been made partakers of sanctification through the Holy Spirit. ELOHIM particularly expects total and absolute loyalty from those He has redeemed through YESHUA Ha Mashiach, and He will uphold His covenant with severe action against those who betray His love through unfaithfulness.

• Joshua 24: 19-20 "But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.”

 

We must be able to give ELOHIM what He rightly deserves, which is our total devotion and allegiance. He has a fervent zeal for our respect, love and loyalty. He alone deserves our love, honor and adoration.

• Isaiah 42: 8 "I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.."

• Habakuk 2:18-20 "What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.” But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him. "

• Isaiah 45:5-6 "I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me, so that all may know

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