Jealous God

The last several weeks at church, we have discussed several different names of God.  Last week I was asked to teach on El Kanna, Jealous God.  Now this was not a name (El Kanna) that I was familiar with.  I knew God was a jealous God, but had not made the connection with that characteristic being a part of God's name.  I am very familiar with Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Rapha, Adonai, El Elyon and many others.  Thus, if the names and more that I just listed is a part of who God is, then El Kanna is as much a part of who God is as those names. 

Let's take a deeper look at El Kanna.  I have also seen it as El Kanno.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary describes "jealous" as: 
1 a : intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b : disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness
2 : hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage
3 : vigilant in guarding a possession

The Bible Dictionary describes "jealous" as:
When jealousy is attributed to God, the word is used in a good sense. The language is, of course, anthropomorphic (: described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes) ; and it is based upon the feeling in a husband of exclusive right in his wife. God is conceived as having wedded Israel to Himself, and as claiming, therefore, exclusive devotion. Disloyalty on the part of Israel is represented as adultery, and as provoking God to jealousy.

El Kanno, Hebrew for The Jealous God, suggests that God watches us lovingly and closely, like a faithful and passionate bridegroom watches over his bethrothed.  Kanno suggests a marriage relationship between Yaweh and ourselves.  God is a jealous God, wanting all our praise for Himself and no one else.

El Kanna is first used six times in the Old Testament and is first used in Exodus 20:5 NIV
"You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,..."


God’s jealousy is active.  Kanna communicates a sense of being committed to a course of action.  It is sometimes translated as zealous.

In my research of El Kanna, I found the following points:
The Lord is jealous of your love. Did He choose you? Then He cannot bear that you would choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? Then He cannot endure that you would think you are your own or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would sooner die than you should perish. He cannot endure anything standing between Him and your heart’s love.I also came across these points:


He is jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in this world. When we lean on Him, He is glad. But when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely on our own wisdom or that of a friend, or worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, then He is displeased, and He will chasten us to bring us back to Him.

He is also jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him alone is true love. To fellowship with the world, to search for comfort in the world, causes our Lord to grieve. He wants us to abide in Him and enjoy His constant fellowship. Many of the trials He sends are to wean our hearts from the world and fix them more closely on Him.

I also found:
 God is jealous because his people, whom He loves, are not in relationship with him as he would prefer.


 God’s jealousy is on the same level as his qualities that we typically associate with sovereignty – qualities like might and omnipresence.

 God is jealous because He is sovereign and his people behave like he is not. God created us and sustains us. He is the only one worthy to be praised and worshipped. He does not settle for being one of many. He is the one, there is no other. When we fall short of this command, God is jealous. And rightfully so.

 God’s jealousy indicates his commitment. He cannot be jealous if he does not care.

 God’s jealousy indicates his involvement. He cannot be jealous if he created a world that is on fatalistic auto-pilot.


Divine jealousy is Jehovah God’s justifiable intolerance to any and every rival.  Jealousy is God’s rightful demand for our exclusive affection and loyalty.  God’s kind of jealousy is appropriate and good.  He is defending His word and His high honor.  He makes a strong and exclusive demand on those who are His beloved.  Because of that, we must treat only the Lord, as God, to the exclusion of all other people and things.
 

God desires our well being.  He is jealous for our completeness in Him.  He knows that to be in relationship with him is the only thing that will ever truly fulfill us.  God is jealous when we don’t follow Him.  He is jealous for us.  He is jealous when our loyalties are divided.  God wants us to be the people that he intended us to be.

Human jealousy is usually a bad thing.  It is self-centered and covetous.  We want something that is not ours.  We selfishly desire someone who does not rightfully belong to us.  In relationships, human jealousy is interested in self gratification and not the well being of the other. 
The jealousy of God is genuine. Jealousy is an intrinsic part of God’s character. God’s jealousy occurs because he created people for genuine relationship with him, and those people have rejected him instead.


Is there anything in your life that you are placing ahead of God, anything or anyone who has a more prominent place in your heart, in your thoughts, than God? If so, immediately take steps to cast them down, and give Him the high and lofty place that only He deserves. He alone is worthy of all Glory and Honor and Praise!

Remember today that the God we serve is El Kanna, Jealous God!  Let's put Him first in our lives.

Blessings,