Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word » Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty » And The Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon Him, and He Be Jealous of His Wife

And The Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon Him, and He Be Jealous of His Wife – Part 3

- Studies

Mike Vinson
11 years ago

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And The Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon Him, and He Be Jealous of His Wife

In this series on the subject of the marriage union, we have seen that the purpose for the institution of marriage is to show us the strong and healthy relationship between Christ and His Head. When we are granted to understand the purpose for the marriage union, we are then able to understand the necessity of strong, healthy families to have a strong, healthy nation.

But God Himself has created a waster, and it is the goal of the waster to destroy our marriages:

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Last week we learned that the waster knows that the best way to destroy a marriage is to take the offensive and to tempt us to take matters into our own hands and help God to bring us a mate who is not even “in the Lord”, and with whom He has commanded us “be not unequally yoked”:

2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

1Co 7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

We discussed the matter of one spouse in an existing marriage becoming a believer, and the fact that God instructs the believer to do all in his or her power to retain and strengthen the marriage, and we saw that it is the unbeliever who leaves a marriage. The believer always seeks to nourish and strengthen the marriage.

Mal 2:16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

The positive application of jealousy

Today we will discuss how jealousy can be and is used by the waster to destroy marriages, but first we must recognize that the scriptures reveal clearly that jealousy, like every emotion, is a good thing to have when it is “godly jealousy”, which does not just willingly allow the waster to come into and defile our marriages. Paul ” [had] the mind of Christ”, and this is how Christ feels toward us:

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

As the church of Christ, we are His wife, and we are told that Christ is jealous of our love and that He will have no one else coming between us as His wife. Women who spend much time with a married man who is not their husband are begging for trouble, and it will certainly come. Men who spend time with married women who are not their wives are begging for misery, and it will certainly find them. Any married person who spends more time with a person of the opposite sex than they spend with their spouse is cheating on that spouse. Do not tell Christ that your relationship with a person other than your legal husband or your legal wife is ‘an innocent platonic relationship’. God does not play platonic mental games, and we cannot fool our Maker who knows our thoughts.

The scriptures do not prohibit Christ from talking to the woman at the well. Godly jealousy does not prohibit Peter from talking with Tabitha when he raised her from the dead. But the scriptures do prohibit married men and women from doing anything that so much as appears to be foolish and evil. It behooves us all to pay very close attention to these inspired words which we are given for our own good:

1Th 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

Christ does not share His wife’s affections, mentally, physically or spiritually, with anyone. This is what we are told about our relationship with our spiritual husband:

Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Deu 6:15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth

Christ’s wife does not want a hyphenated name. She identifies with and wants to please and glorify Him and Him alone! Christ’s wife is as jealous of Him as He is of her.

1Ki 19:14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

There is much more to be said about how a godly spouse is to comport himself or herself, and how we are to expend our energies and spend our time, but that is for another study.

With the understanding that jealousy has a positive application, and that “godly jealousy” strengthens a marriage, we will now consider how a jealous spirit which is not “godly jealousy” can and does place great, potentially destructive stress upon a marriage. There is a chapter in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 15, which gives us the spiritual type of how we are to deal with “the spirit of jealousy”.

The destructive, negative spirit of jealousy

Unjustified jealousy will destroy a marriage. Where there is no trust, there can be no unity. It is our trust in our spiritual Husband which keeps us united as one with Him and in Him. When we are given the trial of losing that trust, we must follow our Lord’s instructions for how that trust is to be restored as it must be. Here is how we are instructed to determine whether our spouse is worthy of our trust, or whether the suspicions or accusations against our spouse are true:

Num 5:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 5:12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,
Num 5:13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;

The words “with the manner” are not in the Hebrew. What we are being told is that she was not “taken in adultery, in the very act”.

Joh 8:4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

The law we are reading about is for determining what is the truth when there are no witnesses, and when a woman is suspected by her husband of being adulterous.

Num 5:14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:

A jealous man is a dangerous man as we are told in the book of Proverbs:

Pro 6:32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
Pro 6:33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
Pro 6:34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
Pro 6:35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

In the scriptures the man, even the first Adam, is a type of Christ, and the woman, even Eve, is a type of the church.

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure [Greek, tupos, type] of him that was to come.

Rev 12:5 And she [the woman] brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

We all, as the old man, the first Adam, are the wife of Christ, and as such we are all guilty of spiritual adultery.

Here are these words from Proverbs six in their New Testament form:

Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The popular false doctrine of greasy grace and the doctrine that we need not fear God have no basis in the scriptures. God has provided means that this egregious sin be dealt with in a manner that keeps his people clean and clear of the defiling effects of adultery, and yet it provides safety for a woman who is being falsely accused by her jealous husband.

“The law of jealousies”

Num 5:29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;

This law begins in verse 15 of Numbers 5:

Num 5:15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

While barley represents Christ in the wave-sheaf offering made fifty days before the wheat harvest, it also represents the least valued of the grain harvests, and is used here as a token of how little God values both adultery and ungodly jealousy.

Whether there is any real basis for the husband’s jealousy is yet to be determined, but there is certainly no joy or acceptance as yet in this situation. Therefore the oil which represents acceptance by the spirit of God and His Christ and the frankincense which represents the joy of that acceptance are not to be a part of this offering, which instead “bring[s] iniquity to remembrance”.This man and “the priest” are both types of Christ, but it is Christ as His body, in “an earthen vessel”, and this woman being us as His bride, who is also very much of “the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle”.

Num 5:16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:
Num 5:17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:

Now we have dust in the holy water of the laver. Moses was commanded to “sanctify the laver”, and it was only the fact that the laver was sanctified that this water is “holy water” and is now capable of judging this accused woman.

Exo 40:11 And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.

Here is this ‘laver’ and this ‘holy water’ which judge us in New Testament terms:

Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

These “rivers of living water” are the words of our Lord, and it is those words which will judge us all:

Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

This ‘holy water’ which is capable of making such judgments is in “an earthen vessel”, made of dust, and that “holy water” is combined with “the dust of the tabernacle” which symbolizes the same thing as the “earthen vessel” itself. In Adam we are all “the dust of the ground”. It was “the dust of the earth” that was given to the serpent for his nourishment, and yet the same dust, also called an “earthen vessel” later becomes the “flesh and… bones” of Christ.

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

1Sa 2:8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them.

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

What this tells us is that Christ Himself is using ‘earthen vessel[s]’ to execute His judgments within His bride while she is on this earth. The physical water in and of itself had no power to determine the guilt of this accused woman. Christ, through His own anointed and sanctified “holy water” into which is placed “dust from the floor of the tabernacle”, both being in “an earthen vessel” is supernaturally, through this law of jealousy, discerning the spirits within His bride. It cannot be determined any other way but the proscribed way. It must be done His way as revealed in His Word.

Num 5:18 And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

Placing the offering in her hand symbolizes her willingness to be judged here and now, and to be purified by the holy water that is judging her.

Uncovering her head is a symbol of shame, because it is a shame for a woman’s head to be uncovered:

1Co 11:5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
1Co 11:6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

It is the priest who “executes” the judgment of this woman.

Num 5:19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:

This water which symbolizes the Word of God causes a curse to come upon us when we are serving our belly. It is the Word of God which judges us, and it is “bitter in [our] belly” because our ‘belly’ is the symbol for the desires of our carnal-minded flesh which is “enmity against God” and is not at all interested in being subject to His laws, His words. The Word of God is a deadly disease upon our carnal-minded old man who serves only the desires of his belly.

Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Rev 10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

When we “serve… [our] own belly [we] cause division and offenses”, and we care not for the fact that we are acting “contrary to the doctrine which we have learned”. We may well have received God’s words with joy, and at first we loved its sweetness. But when we are made to face the trials that come with being faithful to those words, then the words that were sweet in our mouths become bitter in our belly, and we wilt in the heat that those fiery words produce within our lives:

Mat 13:5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
Mat 13:6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

Mat 13:20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

And what happens when we are turn away from Christ and are offended by the rigors of being faithful?

Num 5:20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:
Num 5:21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;

A “rotten… thigh” is a corrupt life style, and this ‘swelling of the belly’ has nothing to do with becoming fruitful and bringing forth children to God’s glory. Rather this ‘swelled belly’ is a deadly inflammation which results from having a thigh that is rotting and is robbing us of our ability to walk the strait and narrow way that leads to life. We know this is so, because the conception of a child is what a woman who is justified by the bitter waters produces:

Num 5:22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
Num 5:23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

The bitter waters are fatal to our unfaithfulness, and at the same time the same waters “blot out… these curses”. Here is this same message in the New Testament:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

And again:

1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Once again we are told that it is the priest who “causes the woman to drink the bitter waters of judgment:

Num 5:24 And he [the priest] shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.
Num 5:25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar:

It is also “the priest” who receives this offering from the woman and waves it before the Lord, and it is also the priest who burns the offering upon the altar and who “cause[s] the woman to drink the water”.

Num 5:26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

Only after all these proscribed commandments have been “diligently” adhered to can a proper judgment be made whether this woman has been unfaithful. Only then will she, and we know the salvation that comes with this judgment being diligently executed upon her.

Num 5:27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

What is the ultimate outcome of this judgment? It is always one and the same. Either she has already been judged and purified and will not now be hurt of this judgment, or else she will now be judged for her sins. Either way, and at either time, judgment is for just one purpose. This is the only purpose for the judgment of those who are in the “blessed and holy first resurrection” or the later “great white throne” judgment at the time of the lake of fire. This is the purpose for all of God’s judgments:

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

All judgment is the “chasten[ing] of the Lord”. The “condemnation with the world” is to simply be condemned to the “great white throne judgment”. But this, too, is just another chastening judgment of God upon the kingdom of our old man. Both judgments have this affect upon those upon whom they are predestined:

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

The woman who is in the last judgment does not bring forth children, but the woman who is already judged “shall conceive seed”.

Num 5:28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

There is no one who has not been defiled by sin:

Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We have all “gone out of the way”, and this is what must be done if we are to be delivered from the curse of a promiscuous and adulteress spirit. The priest must “execute upon her “all this law”, and “keep all of His statutes”:

Num 5:29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;
Num 5:30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

We must “diligently listen to… keep all His statutes… and… execute… all this law… upon her”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

This entire law of jealousy is all about Christ and His wife, because all scriptures “testify of [Christ]” and are all part of “the testimony of Jesus”.

We have seen how prominent “the priest” is in “execut[ing]… all this law”. So who does “the priest” symbolize? In other words “execute… all this law” faithfully, and there will be no corrupting leaven within the body of Christ.

We are both the wife and body of Christ, and as such we are “the called out ones… the church”. It is we who are this priest who must faithfully “execute all this law.

Rev 1:6 and made us kings and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

How do we as “the priest… execute upon her all this law”? Here is “the priest” and this is how he “executes… all this law” in New Testament anti-type:

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

As the wife of Christ, we approach anyone who we consider to have offended us. We do not go to others first. We go to the offending brother or sister first, and we “tell him his fault between you and him alone”. We must “diligently… execute all this law”. If he hears us, we have won our brother. “But if he will not hear [us] then [we are to] take with [us] one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.”

The “one or two more” are “the priest” who will now “execute… all this law”. These are “one or two more” of the faithful body of Christ. These “one or two more” did not ask to be dragged into this priesthood position, but God places us all where He pleases, and when we are placed in that position we must “execute… this law upon her”, upon the wife of our Lord. We as the body of Christ, are the priest who is brought into this trial and must now “diligently… execute… all this law”.

When we do “execute… all this law… the man… shall be guiltless from iniquity and this woman shall bear her iniquity.”

Num 5:31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

The wonderful Truth is that God is in the process of saving all men through judgment, and while our flesh recoils at the very thought of its destruction, that is not the thoughts or the ways of God who tells us plainly:

Isa 22:14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Christ tells us the same thing:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

What “bring forth much fruit” tells us is that even the woman who was “not defiled” in this law, was cleared of corruption by a previous judgment, and she is now “free and shall conceive seed”.

Num 5:28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

This is the anti-type of the woman who is free and shall conceive seed:

Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death [typified by the rotten thigh and swollen belly] hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

And The Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon Him, and He Be Jealous of His Wife – Part 3

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