Word of the Week: Esh Oklah, El Kanna

Kyle Ackerit, another Prospective Student Minister, took on this week's post. Kyle is a freshman this year. His dedication, maturity, and pure potential have been a blessing to us at TCF and we are excited to continue to watch him grow in the Lord. Check out what he's got to say below!


Consuming Fire, Jealous God
Esh Oklah, El Kanna

Deuteronomy 4: 23-24 says “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” When I was first introduced to the thought that our God is a jealous God a while back, I didn’t think it made any sense. Sure our God is all knowing, all powerful, and wonderful… but jealous? The reason this didn’t make sense to me at first is because we tend to immediately apply our definition of human jealousy. Edward Mac says “This word (jealousy) did not bear the evil meaning now associated with it in our usage, but rather signified ‘righteous zeal,’ Jehovah’s zeal for His own name or glory.”

El Kanna… the Lord our God is jealous. He wants each and every one of us to be constantly faithful to him. God is all consuming because he wants every last bit of us. Though that might sound scary at first, isn’t it comforting to know that God wants all of us? Even the bad things! We can give EVERYTHING over to him and then we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Hebrews 12: 28-29 says “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” God’s wrath is real. Just because we believe in God’s awesome mercy doesn’t mean that sins don’t still anger God. God sent his son to die on the cross for us. Hopefully you’ve had time these last few days to think about that. But we can only be saved if we choose to be. There is a quote from Anne Spangler’s Praying the Names of God that I really like. It is by Ignatius of Antioch from the first century that says “we must either fear his future wrath or love his present grace - one of the two!”

When we think of anger, we might think of someone throwing a tantrum or getting revenge for something someone else has done to them… but this is not the kind of anger that God has. God’s anger is a “consuming fire,” an expression of his justice and holiness! What’s not just is the fact that God is willing to offer us anything better than hell. Even a life that is extremely honoring to God still has not deserved heaven. We can be thankful that God has offered us grace, even though we did absolutely nothing to deserve it. Praise God that he is a consuming fire and hates everything that is evil. Do you hate what is evil? Do you hate the sin in your own life?

God is a Jealous God, who loves us with an everlasting, all-consuming love!