Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Moses said that God's name is "Jealous" (Ex. 34:14), and that is true. The same truth was spoken by other prophets and wise men, among them Joshua (24:19), Ezekiel (39:25), Joel (2:18), Nahum (1:2), Zephaniah (1:18; 3:8), and Zechariah (1:14; 8:2). With His own voice out of heaven, God plainly told Israel that He is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5). The prophet Elijah was also jealous over Israel because of her worship of other gods (1Kgs. 19:10, 14). The apostle Paul admitted to the assembly at Corinth that he was jealous over them because they had begun to fall away from the liberty of the Spirit of God (2Cor. 11:2). They were turning their affection toward false teachers, and Paul was provoked to great jealousy for their attention.
A righteous man is jealous over his possessions. The possessions of a righteous man are precious (Prov. 12:27), and he will, of course, be jealous over them if another tries to take his God-given possessions away. Jealousy is part of holiness.
Jealousy has strength, and it can protect and nurture. It is a very powerful feeling that can provoke a person to go to extreme measures. "Jealousy", wrote Solomon, "is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement heat." There are many people lying in their graves today because of the jealous rage of an offended spouse. Jealousy raging in a man's breast is completely without mercy. "Jealousy is the rage of a man; therefore, he will not spare [show mercy] in the day of judgment" (Prov. 6:34). It is a dangerous thing, young person, to desire another man's wife or another woman's husband. Be wise. Ask God for YOUR mate; do not seek someone else's. All who do so risk the danger of facing the implacable firestorm of jealousy.
I have seen a man tormented by jealousy to the point that he did things that no one but an insane person would do. There is no reasoning with a man who is consumed by jealousy. When a man is in that state, he is motivated entirely by deep, burning feelings, and his reasoning capacity is greatly diminished. The agonizing pain of burning jealousy is a consuming emotion, one that can over-ride the best judgment of an otherwise intelligent person. If jealousy ever seizes upon your heart, my friend, you must turn to Jesus for help. Jealousy is a mighty weapon, a dangerous weapon, and only with God's help can any man use it prudently.
For His beloved Old Testament people, the Israelites, God provided a way to relieve a jealous husband of the spirit of jealousy before the emotion grew to the point of unreasoning violence (Num. 5). But who can stand before the wrath of God, once His jealousy is provoked? Who can help the man who provokes the Almighty to jealousy? It is best not to do that, for once the Almighty is provoked to jealousy, there is no way to escape, with the lone possibility of submitting ourselves in abject humility and confession of our foolishness.
The greatest provocation of God that has ever existed is the religion of Christianity. The wrath of God that is sure to come upon that man-made religion will utterly destroy both it and every soul who is a part of it. That is why the Spirit of the Almighty is passionately crying out to His people, with the most earnest compassion, "Come out of her, My people!" (Rev. 18:1-5). God's people, thinking that Jesus wants them to be a part of Christianity, will not come out. Their hearts are divided between Christ and Christianity, even though they do not realize this. But our Jealous God is raising up men who will feed God's people with knowledge; and when they gain that knowledge, when His people at long last see that He is not the God of Christianity, when God's people at last understand that it would make Jesus happy (thrilled!) for them NOT to be "Christians", then they will forsake that Mother of harlots (Rev. 17:1-6), and the pleading prayer of Jesus for the unity of his followers will at long last be answered (Jn. 17:21-23).