Attributes - Part 7

God is jealous. What?!? Many times in the English language, the word jealous has been replaced with the word envious. Our God does not envy. The root of the Old Testament word, Kannaw, which the English translators translated as jealous, means, “to be zealous about or desirous of” or “to be excited to anger over and to execute judgment because of.” When the Bible speaks of God’s jealousy it is assessing His anger and wrath. I Kings 14:22 says, “And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.” Some attributes of God are things that we are meant to immolate. God is love and we are to love, God is holy and we are to be holy. Why, if God is jealous should we not be jealous? The answer is obvious. The negative response to jealousy comes when we are jealous or envious over something that does not belong to us. God could never have this kind of jealousy because everything belongs to HimJ

God is perfect. He is infinitely perfect in every way. Psalm 18:30 states, “As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.” and in Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.” God is the standard of perfection. This sort of perfection must need lead to jealousy and judgment. He is perfect when He shows mercy and perfect when He shows wrath. No matter what happens in this world, God in His perfection and in all of His attributes never changes. He alone remains the same.

God is love and truth. The Hebrew word for truth means, “faithful”, “reliable”, “correct”. The Greek word means, “upright”, “real”. In other words, true statements deal with reality. Many of the verses we have already covered deal with God’s truthfulness. God’s word tells us over and over that it is impossible for God to lie. (Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man commeth unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 Not only is God truth, but His words are true. The Bible is called, “the word of truth”. In I Peter 1:24,25 it says, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever…” I find it very curious that man, who is here today and gone tomorrow, fancies himself the standard of truth.