“Real to Reality”                                                                                                                                                A Ministry of ReCovering All... Mark and Cathy Eaton

                                     Jealousy or Evil

     When one thinks of the "Violence" done in the Name of God, it is shocking!  Some suggest that God is full of Wrath and Jealousy.  "Jealousy" in Hebrew implies "Zeal and enthusiasm."  "Wrath" is a word in Hebrew that needs further explanation.  We spent so much time on the Origin of Evil rather than its function.  The Origin of Evil is simple.  God (Elohim) is unlimited, unbounding Love and Energy.  Man began to form a separation from His Creator and form God in his own image.  That image or imagination began to form in the mind of man.  The Comprehension or restriction of the Divine into an earth bound formation formed Ra.  "Evil has been declared the Absence of God. "  I come to tell you, God is never absent.  Where are you that Love cannot search and find you?  God set up the Divine Contrast to display and demonstrate His Character.  Evil functions in that role.  The comprehension of God gave way to fear.  Fear is the illusion we feel in at the Absence of God.  Fear breeds anger.  Guilt is the anticipation of anger.  "Offend" in Hebrew links back to the Hebrew root "Anger."

     This is the error of most "Divine Foreknowledge."  God isn't interested in "knowing" the future; He is the Future, because He is always now.  There is nothing but present Truth with God.  God doesn't share revelation about our future, He reveals His Presence which changes the future.  The Hebraic idea of "Wrath" deals with "intense heat and passion."  Who wouldn't desire this?  "Jealousy" in Hebrew is qara which means "inflamed Red."  Why would we resist the Intense Heat of God's Passion?  We have turned "God's Wrath" into a new formation of Judgment.

     When I saw this new "Origin of Evil" I thought, who can hear it? Then I read Eugene H. Peterson view of "Evil."  Eugene H. Peterson spent years studying "The function of evil rather than the origin of it."  It comes from hours and hours of study, plus He went to school to study Hebrew.  I realized that his idea of evil was sparked by his view of the Hebraic Salvation of God.  It is translated by him as "Spaciousness."  "Affliction" is rooted in the "Pressure" that comes when the filter we created fails us, this is belief systems.    We must move out of the "Divine foreknowledge "hysteria into God's Wholistic view.

There are several things that we notice almost immediately about the nature of Jealousy.

  * Jealousy is always competitive

  * Jealousy is always build on a false image

  * Jealousy is built on the fabrication of falsehood

    I remember a Pastor sharing on the Evil of Jealousy one time.  He shared the insight that Jealousy is always competitive.  He shared how a person in college he knew got into a food eating contest.  This person's jealousy nearly cost him his life.  He kept eating out of competition.  This is evil or counterfeit  jealousy.  How can we hear this then go read the bible and still believe the same?  As we read the word we immediately notice that "God is a Jealous God"  What?  How could God be full of the very nature we are told to abhor?

    You will see the question on many websites about Universalism.   As well as the counterfeit jealousy, functions on competition,  or to uphold an image.  God's Jealousy is built on an Image of Love.  That Image of His Lavish Passion to form us into His Image.  "God is a Jealous God and will have no idols (images) before me."  I grew up hearing about the "Jealousy of God."  He had a secret club that we had to be perfect to be in.  I have questions that harassed me about this for years.  Could there be something about Jealousy that is more of a Passion than a competition?

Has our human idea of "Jealousy" distorted our View of God?