Good Morning.
For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14)
As we discussed yesterday, God regards His people as His betrothed and interacts with them accordingly. He makes great promises to us — promises to provide and protect. As for us, we are asked to love Him with all of our heart, soul and strength. In fact, when Yeshua was asked what is the greatest commandment in all of Scripture, He replied:
“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength'” (Mark 12:29-30)
In Hebrew, the word translated as “one” — that which describes the LORD — is אחד echad. The last letter in this word, ד dalet, is extremely similar in appearance to the Hebrew letter ר resh. In fact, if only one slight alteration were made in the writing of the letter dalet, it would be a resh. If this were done where the word echad is concerned, the difference would change the word אחד echad into the word אחר acher, which means “another.” If you’re tracking with me, that means just the slightest change in God’s word would transform the declaration, “The LORD is one” to “The LORD is another” — just one of many gods.
The point is that, unless we are willing to love God with all of our being, the chance remains that we will look to other things to fill certain holes in our lives. These things are those other “lovers” that God warns us about; those seductions that relegate Him to just “another” thing in our life that we have high regard for. This is something that He can’t abide because, where we are concerned, He is jealous. He wants all of us and everything from us. He wants us to surrender all and die to all that He might be the sole focus of our lives.
For some that sounds like too high a price to pay but, remember, He isn’t asking us to do anything that He hasn’t already done for us. He gave His all at Golgotha and simply asks that we love Him in return. Let us strive to demonstrate our complete devotion to Him and love Him with heart, soul and strength.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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