Good Morning.
“You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” (Exodus 20:5)
The Hebrew word translated as “jealous” is kana and conveys the idea of being “envious to protect ownership” of something — in this case, the Almighty’s unique claim to being the one and only God. By referring to Himself as jealous He demands exclusive rights to the title GOD. That means His people are not to worship idols, whether they be little statues on the bedside table or those that appear on the television and movie screens.
Furthermore, that which He created is not to be worshiped whether angels, heavenly bodies or saintly men. We honor kings and presidents and, dutifully, we respect their emissaries. However these emissaries do not hold the position of king or president and shouldn’t be regarded as such. Likewise, while it is appropriate to respect God’s creation and His representatives, it is not appropriate to consider any of them as being worthy of worship and veneration.
In sharp contrast to this concept, the ancient gentile nations believed in multiple gods, in fact, the Romans and the Greeks thought “the more gods, the better.” Their belief was that if the pantheon of the people was richer, the nation would be greater. In short, their gods were NOT jealous. Consequently, the people who worshiped them were tolerant of multiple philosophies and customs and were willing to co-exist with most anything, regardless of the depravity it might encompass. Thus we see how very important it is to acknowledge that our God is the only God and to demonstrate that fact by how we live our life. We are not to put anything before Him; we are not to allow anything or anyone to be considered equal to Him lest we invite their philosophies into our heart and mind.
As His prospective bride we must consider Him as our exclusive Groom; we can’t allow anyone else to take our heart and interject into our life thoughts and deeds that would lure us away from Him and His ways. He has made His intentions towards us known and abundantly clear — i.e. He loves us with an unfailing love. We are called upon to demonstrate whether we feel the same for Him. If He is our first and true love, we must guard against those influences that would seduce us away from Him.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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