Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Obedience Commanded
1 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.
5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. 20 But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. 22 I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, 26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
41 Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, 42 to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. 43 The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
44 This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. 45 These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt 46 and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.48 This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon), 49 and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.
Exodus 20:5-6
A Jealous God
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Song of Songs 8:1-14
Love and Jealous
1 If only you were to me like a brother,
who was nursed at my mother’s breasts!
Then, if I found you outside,
I would kiss you,
and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you
and bring you to my mother’s house—
she who has taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the nectar of my pomegranates.
3 His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.
Friends
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning on her beloved?
She
Under the apple tree I roused you;
there your mother conceived you,
there she who was in labor gave you birth.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
Friends
8 We have a little sister,
and her breasts are not yet grown.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
She
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
like one bringing contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon;
he let out his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit
a thousand shekels of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give;
the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.
He
13 You who dwell in the gardens
with friends in attendance,
let me hear your voice!
She
14 Come away, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the spice-laden mountains.
1 John 4:8
God is Love
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Richard Dawkins an atheist who wrote the God Delusion has said that our God is an unpleasant character, and one of the reasons is that He is a jealous God...Dawkins has other reasons why our LORD is unpleasant, but I would like to focus on the jealously part of God that He mentions...And this is because God is LOVE...
The word jealous has taken on a negative meaning since the Bible was written...The word jealous originally may have held very little negativity in it...Jealous originally meant in Hebrew red or redness in the face after a strong emotion...Jealously may have originally meant warmth or heat...It was also used to mean zealous...So our LORD's heart was and is a red-fiery strong warm and zealous for us -this is not a negative thing...But as time advanced these meanings have gotten lost, and the word jealous and jealousy have became quite the negative words...
In both Deuteronomy and Exodus there are verses that God is a jealous God...And the verse in Exodus, is from the Ten Commandments, and relates to idols...In Deuteronomy God says He is like a consuming fire, and a jealous God...He wanted the enemies of Israel to know that He was like a fire and protecting His people...He guards those He LOVES with a jealous care...Solomon when he wrote the Song of Songs, writes and uses the word jealousy in the same context as love...Solomon writes: "for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave...It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame...Maybe a jealous God is a LOVING God, if Moses shares this meaning...
Maybe we need some jealously in us or to be a part of us, as long as it is not a smothering, insecure jealously...Jealously can get out of hand and be negative (especially, if it comes from one's insecurities over something very petty), but a little jealousy may help protect a relationship...When another party flirts with your spouse, you should be jealous and protective -that is a part of love...It would be appropriate for one to be jealous and even angry if one flirted and made several advances toward your spouse...If one was not jealous of these flirts and advances (and you told someone they were okay with that), one might wonder how much you love their spouse...The spouse has the only right to flirt with their spouse...It might be said that One or one can be jealous for what rightfully belongs to Him (like His nation of people) or their spouse...
When we read in the Ten Commandments that God wants us to not have idols, and this may relate to what C. S. Lewis wrote...But this is only a guess, I have...Lewis said this about Jesus: “Give me all of you!!!...I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work...I want YOU!!!...ALL OF YOU!!...I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT!...No half measures will do...I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out!...Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams...Turn them ALL over to Me, give yourself to Me and I will make of you a new self---in My image...Give Me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself...My will, shall become your will...My heart, shall become your heart.”...
If one believes that Lewis is exactly right on this, then God wants all of us, nothing else will do...He wants us completely and to do His will completely -and when He sees another part of us not given to Him but to something else (like money) or another idol -then maybe He is jealous (but again this is only a guess on wanting something completely)...
God is not insecure with an over jealous green about Him...He has the perfect amount of jealously to protect those He LOVES...And He is probably jealous of many things we do in the spiritual and worshiping sense...God is jealous of our time -He wants us to spend more time with Him and getting to know Him...He is jealous of those things that we covet -He wants us to love and have a relationship with Him and not covet others...And He wants us to love Him in a relationship that will have these jealous-type loving concerns for Him, just like we would in our earthly relationships...