Jehovah's Witnesses - Origin of the Name, Part 2

The following statements in the first two paragraphs are either direct excerpts or paraphrased from the Encyclopedia Britannica, aka, Britannica, online edition, or referenced there.

The "millennialist denomination" known as Jehovah's Witnesses, grew out of the 19th century Adventist movement in the United States, and has since spread worldwide. The organization was founded by Charles Taze Russell in 1872 under the name the International Bible Students Association. Russell was a controversial Adventist teacher who rejected belief in hell as a place of eternal torment and adopted the theology of Arius/Arianism which denies the divinity of Jesus or His personhood of God. He had predicted that God's kingdom would come on earth in 1914; that misfire was later changed to a belief that in 1914 the last days began. Russell would found the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1884 in Pennsylvania, making himself president. The headquarters of the Society would transfer to Brooklyn, New York in 1909. In 1917, Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford would succeed Russell as president of the Society. 

It was Rutherford who would, in 1931, change the group's name to Jehovah's Witnesses in order to emphasize its members' belief that Jehovah (or Yahweh)- a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (יהוה), which is the sacred covenant name of God in His covenant relationship with the nation of Israel, is the only true God and that the people formerly known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were his specially chosen followers. The Hebrew people would later come to consider the name, "Yahweh", too sacred to utter by human lips, and would refer to Yahweh (or Jehovah adapted to English) as The Name (HaShem). 

Below is a copy of the text of scripture from which Judge Rutherford adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses. The translation used here is the Names of God version which translates the Hebrew tetragrammaton and which also uses the anglicized Hebrew names and titles used for God. 

In nearly all other versions of the Bible found on Biblegateway.com, the name of Yahweh or Jehovah is rendered "LORD". A couple of translations inaccurately render the tetragrammaton as "Adonai" - which may be a fallback on the use of the word "LORD" which shows up in some translations as "Lord". Adonai is a Hebrew title and name of God which refers to His supremacy and Sovereignty over all things, identifying Him as the only true God. Other names and titles of God in the passage below are "Elohim", which is a name that conveys God to be the Creator, but does so with the suffix "him" - a plural identifier - to show His superlative primacy, His fullness as Creator, Sustainer. ("El" is the Hebrew word for God that either stands alone or is joined to or is a contraction of God and other names and titles, e.g., El Roi, El Shaddai, etc. The Hebrew language uses the plural of "El", i.e., "Elohim" to point to His supremacy and that there is none above Him.) "Qedosh Yisrael" means "The Holy One of Israel."  

The message in Isaiah 43 is a continuation of Isaiah 42, where we read of God's charges against Israel for its unfaithfulness and idolatry - worship of other gods, as well as His judgment. Probably not a coincidence, yet curious, that "Judge" Rutherford selected this passage where Yahweh or Jehovah is holding "court" with His people Israel in not very flattering edicts. As the dialogue continues in chapter 43, He reminds them of their covenant with Yahweh, His desire to have them be His people exclusively. Because they violated the covenant with Yahweh, we see Him in this trial reiterating the vow to reclaim them, because they will be dispersed to various countries as a result of His punishment for their sins. He will gather them together again. This was demonstration both of God's unexplicable love for the nation which He created, and the fact that the Savior and Redeemer Messiah and Christ would come through God's nation of Israel. He does not abandon them but allows them to feel the heat of His wrath which He warned them about more times than one can count. In His covenant with the nation, in the Bible book of Deuteronomy, He lays out the rewards and punishment that would result in consequence to how they pursued or failed to pursue Yahweh, who delivered them from Egypt. Yahweh calls them as "witnesses" who are fully aware of what they have done, to testify to the fact of their unfaithfulness - in other words, God calls them as witnesses in this court scene - witnesses against their own wickedness and the truth of God's reiteration of the Law and covenant which they had broken. That is, they are witnesses for the Prosecution. 

Israel had ins and outs with Yahweh; there were some years that they were faithful, but many more where they threw Him over to worship the gods of the surrounding nations (i.e., be like the world around them), and offer blood sacrifices to them - sometimes even sacrificing their own children. Yet, Yahweh declares that He will not cast them aside forever despite their wickedness, but that a remnant, whom He would preserve, will be faithful to Him. 

In the verses previous to verse 10 where Yahweh declares Israel as His witnesses to all He had been and done, He also calls to the stand all of the nations to be witnesses to all He had been and done to the nation of Israel. There was a time when the surrounding nations greatly feared the god of the Hebrews because of the amazing conquests and provisions He made on behalf of His covenant people - especially the miraculous deliveries from the hands of their enemies. But as Israel's sins multiplied, Yahweh - according to the covenant He made with them - would gradually withdraw His protection and favor, making the nation of Israel vulnerable to those same nations they once emulated and others who would eventually overpower Israel and take them captive. In the course of the trial, Israel would have to relent and testify that all that Yahweh Elohim, their Creator and Covenant God, said was true. Chapter 44 continues the trial. Then Yahweh testifies against the idolatry that Israel practiced. 

Again, it is very curious that Judge Rutherford would pull out from all of scripture this  singular designation. Maybe he only read the one verse and took it out of context? Was it a self-righteousness or perceived justification of his position that Jesus was not co-equal to their God? Perhaps it was a proof for him of the Arianism advocated by the denomination, a testimony for him that the "Old Testament" God of Creation was perceived to be a God separate from the Son who Rutherford and Russell said was created by God and thus a creature, and the Holy Spirit, whom the denomination claims only to be a force or a power and not a person (again, scripture knocks out those claims, too). Even further, the very first chapter of the Old Testament decries that position, as does the proper translation of John 1 and Colossians 1. 

The nation of Israel as a people did not grasp the fullness of God, but rather put Him on an equal footing with the gods of the nations round about them. If only they had gained the intimacy with Yahweh that He desired with them, O what riches and revelations they could have enjoyed! They were stuck in the narrow monotheistic mindset of a single personhood rather than the revealed Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, never having grown beyond that place. That is why Jesus was foretold as a stumbling block for Israel, because His coming topples the narrow mindset as He fully identifies the relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17-18; Acts 4:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23) Thus, the first century Jewish Pharisees and religious leaders saw Jesus' claims to co-equalness with God as blasphemy - because they had never grasped the fullness of who God is.

I have written this not out of meanness, revenge or another motive meant to disparage. I am solely endeavoring for things to make sense in light of what God's Word says. (see also Part 1 of my searching here.)

So, without further ado, here is chapter 43 from the Names of God version:

Isaiah 43

 Names of God Bible Translation                                                                               
43 Yahweh created Jacob and formed Israel. Now, this is what Yahweh says:

 Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you.

    I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through the sea, I am with you.
    When you go through rivers, they will not sweep you away.
    When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
    and the flames will not harm you.
3 I am Yahweh your Elohim, Qedosh Yisrael, your Savior.
    Egypt is the ransom I exchanged for you.
    Sudan and Seba are the price I paid for you.
4 Since you are precious to me, you are honored and I love you.
    I will exchange others for you.
        Nations will be the price I pay for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, because I am with you.
    I will bring your descendants from the east
        and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
    and to the south, “Do not keep them.”
    Bring my sons from far away
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
7 Bring everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.
8 Bring the people who are blind but still have eyes,
    the people who are deaf but still have ears.
9 All nations have gathered together, and people have assembled.
    Who among them could have revealed this?
    Who among them could have foretold this to us?
        They should bring their witnesses to prove that they were right.
            Let the people hear them. Then they will say that it is true.

10 “You are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh.
    “I have chosen you as my servant
    so that you can know and believe in me
        and understand that I am the one who did this.
    No god was formed before me,
    and there will be none after me.
11 I alone am Yahweh,
    and there is no savior except me.
12 I have revealed it to you, I have saved you,
    and I have announced it to you.
        There was no foreign god among you.
    You are my witnesses that I am El,” declares Yahweh.
13 “From the first day I was the one who did this.
    No one can rescue people from my power.
    When I do something, who can undo it?”
14 This is what Yahweh, your Go’el, Qedosh Yisrael, says:

For your sake I will send an army to Babylon.
    I will bring back all the Babylonian refugees
        in the ships that they take pride in.
15 I am Yahweh, your Holy One,
    the Creator of Israel, your Melek.

Despite the People of Israel’s Past Sin, the Lord Will Forgive Them

16 Yahweh makes a path through the sea
    and a road through the strong currents.
17 He leads chariots and horses, an army and reinforcements.
    (They lie down together and do not get up again.
    They are extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.)

This is what Yahweh says:

18 Forget what happened in the past,
    and do not dwell on events from long ago.
19 I am going to do something new.
    It is already happening. Don’t you recognize it?
        I will clear a way in the desert.
        I will make rivers on dry land.
20 Wild animals, jackals, and ostriches will honor me.
    I will provide water in the desert.
    I will make rivers on the dry land for my chosen people to drink.
21 I have formed these people for myself.
    They will praise me.

22 Jacob, you have not prayed to me.
    Israel, you have grown tired of me.
23 You did not bring me sheep for your burnt offerings
    or honor me with your sacrifices.
    I did not burden you by requiring grain offerings
    or trouble you by requiring incense offerings.
24 You did not buy me any sugar cane with your money
    or satisfy me with the best part of your sacrifices.
    Rather, you burdened me with your sins
    and troubled me with your wrongdoings.

25 I alone am the one who is going to wipe away your rebellious actions
    for my own sake.
        I will not remember your sins anymore.
26 Remind me of what happened.
    Let us argue our case together.
        State your case so that you can prove you are right.
27 Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your priests rebelled against me.
28 That is why I will corrupt the leaders of the holy place.
    I will claim Jacob for destruction.
    I will set up Israel for ridicule.                   

 

 *the faith choir known as The Pentecostals of Alexandria, speak to God's faithfulness in the testimony at verses 1, 2 and 4. "I Am Not Afraid"

Our Jealous God

"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
(Exodus 34:14)

As humans, we often experience a jealousy that is tainted with an unreasonable and suffocating expression of emotion by another over our self/person. Or, we may be the one who obsesses to a level of madness that grips us like a spell that cannot be broken. We have read about so-called 'love' relationships where a partner says he or she loves the other but it is a selfish, obsessive driving emotion that seeks to control and dominate in such a way that it edges onto or crosses the border of sanity. While we would like to think that this is 'love' at its most passionate expression, it is not. The One who created love says this about what true love is: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

Too often, this jealous madness that is obsessed with controlling and dominating the other person results in harm to the other and/or to those perceived to be encroaching on the jealous one's turf - a harm that potentially becomes deadly. The song of the jealous is, "if I can't have you no one will." 

I have been in such a relationship. 

My then husband more than once threatened my life at gunpoint and took our children hundreds of miles away as leverage. When a person is victimized to such an extent, you experience your own type of madness; your reasoning becomes warped. You walk in fear and shame - especially when the outbursts and threats become public and/or on your job. I was asked to leave my employment because of the risk to other employees. I felt like less than nothing at that point. While he claimed to be religious, and put on a religious face when attending services or around members of the church, his obsessive jealousy and need for control over me was exhibited behind closed doors. He had no fear of God in his heart. His kidnapping of the children, and unrelenting search to find me after I escaped his terror shattered every aspect of my life, estranged me from my family as I did not want to put them in jeopardy. Yet, ironically, they would distance themselves from me because of the shame I had brought on them, as I became known in all our circles as the one being chased from place to place by a crazed husband.  One day he found a way to contact me because he had won the lottery but, due to state law, had to share it with me as we were still legally married. I bargained with him for the children, telling him to keep the money and let me have the children. He signed them over to me for money. We fled immediately hundreds of miles in the other direction. Jealousy clothed with the label of  "Love" was spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically damaging so much so that only a merciful God could repair what was broken, distorted, and restore my scarred my relationship with Him. He had to teach me to forgive. He had to teach me perfect love.

Jealousy that leads to strong desire to control and manipulate others is a product of our sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. God created humankind in His image; our sin mars that image, damages our personhoods, minds, souls, bodies. Sin destroys relationship with God. Our inherited sin - aided and abetted by the evil one and the moral and spiritual darkness of his evil world system - impairs our ability to perfectly express anger or jealousy. We have no pure starting point within our natural selves to provide the perfect expression of such powerful emotion. Our human anger and jealousy has no righteousness attached to it because it emanates from a place of damage and brokeness. Within our human power, we cannot even love as we ought. Within our natural selves, this lack is a critical and chronic disability that is also self-deceiving - it permeates all we do. Because our natural selves suffer in that way, when we come across a scripture like the Exodus passage quoted above, or Deuteronomy 4:24, or 1 Corinthians 10:22, we are challenged in our sin-shaped hearts and minds to understand this jealousy of God - which is a perfect expression and sovereign right.

To be honest, from a spiritual standpoint, I know for a certainty that God's jealousy is beyond my comprehension. There was a time when that lack of 'sight' was a struggle because I lived by logic. Logic can sometimes get in the way of faith, as I had to learn. Awareness of God those aspects and attributes of God's character that I cannot fully comprehend is a reason to rejoice because why would I want a God I can control and manipulate? No, instead of dampening my faith, I more and more desire for it to be stronger so that even though I cannot comprehend every iota of knowledge about our Almighty God, my growing faith becomes growing trust in Him, gratitude for His perfect jealousy over what belongs to Him. That includes me.

How must we look at this part of God's character from a Biblical viewpoint - how He has revealed Himself in scripture?

• God's perfect jealousy is based in His holiness. He is Adonai ha'Elohim Hakkadosh - the Lord the Holy One. As sinful humans, we are unable to fully grasp the Holiness of God. It is like asking a person blind from birth to describe the sunrise or sunset, or the colors of the rainbow. -Joshua 24:19; 1 Samuel 2:2
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His justice - no jurist in the flesh can render up decisions in their repertoire of law and principle that can compare to the depths of God's justice. He is Yahweh Tsidkenu - LORD our Righteousness and Elohei Misphat (God of Just/Righteous Law). His law is perfect, His judgments are always right. -Deuteronomy 10:17-19; Isaiah 5:16
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His being El Olam - the Everlasting God. the Ever-Present God Who Dwells in the Eternal Present. He owns time. As owner and Creator of time, God has the sole right to use it as He sees fit. -Psalm 90; Colossians 1:15-17
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His being a Creator God, Elohim, The Hashem - the Great I AM WHO I AM. God owns all that He created, He has invested in us beyond our comprehension. He is our El Shaddai - our All-Sufficient Sustainer God. He has always been the Potter to our being the clay - what say do we have in what He does? -Exodus 3:14; Romans 9:20-22; Psalm 104
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His Almighty Power and Wisdom. There is no God of Power like our God. His Wisdom exceeds all the brightest 'geniuses' ever born all together. In His perfect expression of jealousy for His people, God will execute His wrath against those who desire to harm them.  -Daniel 2:20; Jeremiah 10:6; Revelation 1:7-8; Jeremiah 51:15
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His perfect love - a covenant love (Hesed) that is also sacrificial (Ahavah, Agape).  -Psalm 103:17; John 3:16-17; 1 John 4:9-10  This is not a love that we can grasp because that was destroyed by Adam's sin in us: we cannot grasp it nor express it in our human capacity. We must let the Holy Spirit create within us the love reflective of God.
• Finally (at least on this list instant), God's perfect jealousy is based in His Sovereignty. He owns all things. He controls the heavens and the earth, yet He has given His created beings the freedom to choose between His Sovereignty or theirs. (And we so deceive ourselves into thinking our choice of self-lordship is going to have a different result than it had for a perfect man and woman.) He is the author of all things, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. We cannot live for a moment if God removed all oxygen from us, and yet we presume to know better than He. As Sovereign, God has the right to act, choose, give or take away, create or destroy. This perfect rightness can often ring unfair in a nonbeliever's ear, for he or she has never known a righteous, perfect Creator and Owner; his or her experience and knowledge, or lack thereof, cannot bring him or her to comprehend that kind of Sovereignty that emanates from the love described above. He has the right to set destinies, to save whom He chooses, and allow the hearts of others to harden against Him. This question of Sovereignty has been raised against God for eons, and this challenge is eloquently described in Isaiah 40-44 and elsewhere in God's testimony as recorded in Isaiah. The book opens with a declaration of Sovereignty in chapter 1 of Isaiah where the LORD God describes the wickedness and rebellion of the people against His Lordship, in verses 23-24 He says: "Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes!" God our Sovereign reserves the exclusive, absolute right to be worshiped - on this point there is no gray area. -Psalm 8:1, 9; Daniel 4:2-3; 1 Timothy 6:15; Psalm 24:1-2; Isaiah 66:1; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 10:20; Romans 1:18-25  

The foregoing is but a glimpse into the perfect holiness and righteousness of the Only True God, a perfection that is expressed through a jealousy that we cannot understand, but which acts in agape love - a sacrificial love - for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. He desires the best for His people, and places a guardrail and hedge of jealousy around them. He has vowed to never leave nor forsake them, to not let them be snatched from His hand by the enemy. God's people are His possession because He created them to become His people through the poured-out sacrificial blood of Jesus. (Ephesians 1:6-7; Ephesians 2:12-14)

Our God of love, of Might, our Wise and All Knowing God wants our complete devotion - He deserves it! He is jealous for it! When our God Incarnate - the Son of God - walked on this earth, He constantly spoke to and taught such allegiance to God. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." That we can serve only One master; that our God supplies all our needs when we put Him first in our lives. His beloved Sermon on the Mount overflows with admonition of relationship with God and how He would have us live. (Matthew 5-7) The parable of the prodigal recorded in Luke 15:11-32 illustrates God's love for us - that He does not force us into relationship with Him, that He is forgiving beyond our capacity to understand, that He desires our heart worship - our whole lives to be lived in Him and with Him; that to do so brings an inner joy unimaginable. His final earthly hours were filled with prayer and pleadings for all who would believe and obey, whose hearts were to be tied to His and to the Father, who would be one with Him and with the Father. (John 14 to 17) In Matthew 10, we hear Christ's strong implication of God's sovereign right of worship and devotion - His jealousy over His human creation - without using the word jealous. He spoke to the desire of the Father for our worship to be exclusive - not divided among other interests or gods. Christ's very presence as God in human form was to begin the gathering of those whom the Father, in His sovereign will, would set aside for salvation: His coming would set a sword, a plumb line, a line in the sand to separate those who would receive Christ and thus receive the Father and those who would choose to be their own lord or to worship the devil (as noted in scripture above - there are only 2 masters: God and the devil). He would anoint and appoint those that the Father would choose to serve Him and to carry out the work He began. In His last week on earth He foretold that there would come a time when He would, in God's righteous jealousy, His perfect love demonstrated, return for those whom He had chosen, who love Him with all their whole heart, mind, and soul, whose lives are committed to Him and are awaiting His return. That He would make known to all in an astounding set of events and acts His fierce love for those who love Him. (Matthew 24-25) O what a God! Isn't He wonderful! -Isaiah 25:19; Psalm 9:1.

Hallelujah! Praise our Jealous God who loves us with a fierce love of protection, of blessing, of provision of all things good and enduring. Who loves us forever and will never abandon those He loves. Who walks with us and lives in us. May we all cling to Him in this life and rejoice in His glorious and righteous jealousy in the life to come. Amen.

"For the LORD (EloHim, Yahweh) is a Jealous God" part 2

The Israelites had now experienced a great time of growth and prosperity and had gained considerable victories in the land to which God had brought them. They were living large. Their 'modern times' were in full swing! Modern housing - they no longer had to live in tents. A marketplace close to their settlements, social activity and times of celebration.  The 'latest' in fashionable clothing, meaningful work - this was living! There were still Canaanites living nearby who for some reason did not get removed from the land - some were kind of nice and kept their properties up and sometimes you would come across a marketplace that the Canaanites owned or visited. They looked different from the Israelites in some respects, and dressed and lived differently. They definitely worshiped differently ... 

A people of promise. God in His grace and providence had anointed/ordained a man named Abraham, who could trace his origins to the family of Shem, son of Noah. Because of his demonstrated faith and the grace of God, God promised Abraham that his descendants would become as numerous as the stars and the grains of sand. The people who would first be identified with this promise was the nation of Israel, descending from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As the Genesis record continues to show, the people of Jacob moved from Canaan during the famine to Egypt when one of Jacob's (aka Israel's) youngest sons had been elevated to the governor and second in command of the region and who administered the plenty that God had provided for that purpose in His providence. After 400 years in Egypt, according to God's divine timing, He redeemed the people from the bondage of slavery for the purpose of bringing them to a place where they could worship Him according to His determination outlined in the 10 commandments and laws that He would give the people to guide them to true blessings as He restored them to the land of their forefather Israel. 

The people of Israel did eventually occupy the land - God assigned areas for each tribe according to His will for them. (It is interesting who was given the northern region and who was given the southern region.) God did give them victory over those interlopers who had claimed the land for themselves and warred against God's purpose. However - and this is important to know - not all of the Canaanites were driven out, due in part to the unfaithfulness and disobedience of the Israelites to carry out God's command to drive the wicked from their midst.

Additionally, the Israelites, after re-inhabiting the land - were straightforwardly instructed not to intermingle with the people of the land - primarily because they were pagans who did not worship the true God, the Savior of Israel. The peoples of Canaan were not ignorant of who this God was, which is why God allowed for the proselyte (a converted Canaanite; also called stranger in some Bible translations) to become part of the blessing and not be annihilated with those rejecting God. (compare Romans 1:18-23; Exodus 12:9; 1 Chronicles 22:1-3; 2 Chronicles 2:16-18; 2 Chronicles 30:24-26; Ezekiel 14:6-8) 

Years would pass, and the initial generations of Israelites returning to the land would pass away. Judges 2 indicates that eventually generations were born who did not know the God of Israel, i.e., folks had turned to the pagan gods of their neighbors. Why would they do that - after all these were the people, or at least their grandparents and great grandparents were the people whom God had brought from captivity in Egypt after miraculous signs were performed to demonstrate God's glory and sovereignty. They and their parents and grandparents had witnessed God's saving hand against their enemies. They had witnessed and enjoyed the blessings of abundance in a land God had given to them. (compare Psalm 77-80) Why, then, would they turn their backs on God?

For the same reasons essentially that Adam and Eve, and us today, do so. To satisfy our own desires for dominance, self-rule and worship. To feel good and enjoy the fleeting pleasures disobedience gives. 

But our God is a Jealous God who will not tolerate forever the wandering away of His chosen people. (compare Exodus 20:4-6; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:23-25; 5:9; 6:15; Joshua 24:18-20) His perfect Jealousy, born of a sovereign right to command obedience and worship, is not to be toyed with. As in the example of the wayward child in Part 1 of this blog, God knows what is best for His created beings, despite what the lust of our hearts tell us. He has the right to chastise His people and set up the necessary guardrails to protect them and command their exclusive worship. He has provided the means and instrument to restore His people - which He provides at great cost. He has redeemed or purchased His people at great cost, in His grace and providence. HE HAS THE SOVEREIGN RIGHT and is worthy above all things to be praised and worshiped. 

We, too, are the people of the promise through the seed of Abraham - in the person of Jesus Christ. We thus need to recall that the reason that God had faithful men record the accounts of His chosen people, of His salvation plan and process, is for us, for those who would follow those generations. (compare 1 Corinthians 10:1-11) We, too, are chosen people in a 'promised land' - a place of relationship with God where we are to worship Him exclusively. God's holy Word, His record of the actions and consequences of His people in past days, are for our benefit so that we can discern and make choices in line with God's will for our lives through a careful review and consultation of those accounts. (compare 1 Corinthians 10:12-15; Psalm 119:66; Proverbs 1:1-2; 2:3-9; Philippians 1:9; Hebrews 5:13-14) Will we be enticed by or lured to the practices and culture of the world? Yes. Will we be tempted to think like the world? Yes. Jesus tells us that in His Gospels and we are warned about it in the letter of Revelation. We are still flesh, therefore, our divine 'war' is with those fleshly desires to subdue them by following the Holy Spirit's direction in our lives. Is it easy? No, nor was it easy to live in the culture and sensual environments in which God's people in the past lived. They, too, were tempted with sexual immorality, greed, and idolatry and many succumbed, just as many of God's people fall to those desires today, and become subjected to God's correction. We must take care to seek God's will in all things, or suffer the same consequences suffered by those in the past who chose to go their own way. 

For our God is still a Jealous God, who is jealous for the people whom He chooses! Let us 'work out our salvation', i.e., follow the course God has set for us with all determination, with fear and with trembling, as before a Great and Loving God, who has our best in mind at all times. (Philippians 2:12-13)

"For the LORD (EloHim, Yahweh) your God is a Jealous God..."

Can you ever remember a time when your mother warned you about taking a certain course of action? "Don't go over there to play, there are bad weeds there!" But, so-and-so was playing over there last week and nothing happened to him, you said to yourself. So off you go to play in the weeds. Only a few hours later you are itching and scratching your legs because there was poison ivy mixed in with the weeds. "If only you had obeyed me," your mom later says, "you wouldn't have to suffer like this." And she puts gobs of stuff on your legs to help reduce the itching. Or, "don't go across the street to so-and-so's house - there's something funny going on over there/I haven't met the parents yet." But so-and-so goes to your school and you played with him or her at recess. He/she is o.k. Your mom just doesn't know him/her like you do. So off you go across the street and play with so-and-so. You have had fun. Your mom wasn't right this time! You keep on going over there and playing with so-and-so in the yard and all is great. One day it starts to rain just as you all were getting your game on and so-and-so says come on - dash into my house so that we don't get wet. You hesitate for a second because you hear your mother's words in your head, but then again, you're getting soaked and it is easier to go into his/her house than go way across the street to your house. When you get inside, it is kind of dark, and smells of funny smoke. Some guy is chillin' in a chair looking at TV and when he hears you all running into the house, yells some very pithy foul language at the two of you for making noise. Your friend does say bad words from time to time, but you have never heard anyone say what the guy said, nor the threats he made to you if you made any more noise. He looks like the kind of person who would do what he says. You tell your friend that you've got to go home and, um, do your homework (you just make up anything at that moment), and run out of the house and when the door slams you can hear the guy cussing. 

Scary stuff.

Well, the above may not have exactly been your experience. But I can almost guarantee that you, someone of your acquaintance, or even someone in your group of siblings or extended family have had something kind of close to that. I can think back to some of my childhood and adolescent years when I wanted to be independent of my mother's judgment and rules. I thought that some of them were kind of out there, or that she couldn't understand how things were 'nowadays'. So when I finally began to take the Bible seriously, I couldn't believe how much I could see real life in it and episodes that mirrored some of the things that happened to me! The stories and principles were like right now, instead of old timey stories for bedtime. I saw those little scenes of a wise and experienced person giving sound advice so that people could have victory and success in their lives, and saw it being played out over and over and over again in the lives of the people who lived in the nation of Israel. And over, and over again even when the God who made all the universe, who could see into every nano-molecule, gives warning after warning about the consequences of certain behaviors and activity, the children of Israel dis it, and wind up getting in big trouble. Each and every time - it might vary in the amount of time each time the problems start due to disobedience, but they always come. And each time, the disobedience impacts not just the ones doing the disobeying, but also their children and grandchildren. [Exodus 20:3-7; Deuteronomy 4:1-40; 6:1-19]  

So how did these 'Bible people', these Israelites, get started? We all know the story about the Exodus from Egypt, with Pharoah and the 10 plagues and all of that, but how many of you know the backstory - the story behind the story? Why was a nation of Jews living in, of all places, Egypt? Why did God have such an interest in them? Was He God only of the Jews? Why would God tell the Israelites to move out of Egypt - the only place they've known for all of their lives, and go mostly on foot into a land a few hundred miles away that they have never lived in, and then to war against the folks who were living there so as to make it their home? (some people today will call what happened a kind of genocide and call God a murderer) So, is God guilty of wrongdoing? Why would this God, this Yahweh, have the Israelites traipse through the desert and wilderness for years instead of going directly to the land of Canaan? Who were the Canaanites and where did they come from? Why did God want them destroyed?

These are hard questions - especially for those of us who do not know the true God, His character, and especially his sovereignty. We seldom get a full picture of the LORD God -  EloHim, Yahweh - in every Sunday corporate worship experience, but we get enough sometimes to be curious about who He really is and why He made the statement above? Like your parents - and moms are usually the more vociferous when it comes to household rules - He has a right to direct our lives and provide boundaries and guardrails to help protect us and to enable us to thrive. He wants all of our worship, that is, our obedience (which is the foundation for worshiping God). He is still a Jealous God, i.e., He rightly deserves every creature's worship, obedience, service - He does not want to share with idols or other so-called gods. And yet, like the youths pictured above, we do it - ignore God anyway when it looks like we can't get our 'play on'. And then we have to suffer the consequences.

As the story behind the story unfolds and we get answers to the above questions, we'll get to see why this is so and what was going on those thousands of years ago that still impact our daily lives and serves as warnings still for us today.

Tease for next time... 

The Israelites had now experienced a great time of growth and prosperity and had gained considerable victories in the land to which God had brought them. They were living large. Their 'modern times' were in full swing! Modern housing - they no longer had to live in tents. A marketplace close to their settlements, social activity and times of celebration. The 'latest' in fashionable clothing, meaningful work - this was living! There were still Canaanites living nearby who for some reason did not get removed from the land - some were kind of nice and kept their properties up and sometimes you would come across a marketplace that the Canaanites owned or visited. They looked different from the Israelites in some respects, and dressed and lived differently. They definitely worshiped differently ...