Even though this teaching does not use the true names, it was in our view vital enough to add to our website and be brought to your attention. This idol is so prevalent that Scripture sees it as a sin that may stop many from inheriting the kingdom thatYahushua will soon establish on the earth. It is also the idol that is holding Yisrael back from obeying YHWH in biblical styled marriages, as women truly believe that they own their husbands and vice a versa, rather than both being there to serve and obey YHWH together for His purposes even if sharing is required.
The RAMYK
The [Good Clean] Spirit of Polygamy'© 1999 Jeffrey Brian White
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.« (Mt 22:36-39, KJV)
One of the sect of the Sadducees (those who claimed to be descended from Zadok) asked Jesus this question and received this response. And so today we believe that to love God and our neighbor is to fulfill the intent of the law. What he was really saying, though, is that the law and the prophets, the Torah and the Neviim, depend on the these two commandments. Fulfilling these two commandments is a challenge, requiring the work of the Holy Spirit to change us within, so that we can love God and our neighbor from the Christ nature within us. And we encounter many problems in moving to do these commandments. We can see this in John's first epistle:
»For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.« (1J 3:11-24, KJV)
John mentions several problems to fulfilling the Great Commandment: evil works, hate, abiding in death, shutting up bowels of compassion, loving in word rather than loving in deed and truth. However, if we love as John describes loving here, we become assured of a couple of things: that we have passed from death unto life and that we are of the truth. And this is connected with experientially knowing that he abides in us.
One problem not often well addressed is that of JEALOUSY. Although is very easy that jealousy is a very destructive disposition, it is not very well understood. What makes matters worse is that jealousy, to many people, is indicative or evidential of love. How many lives and souls have been destroyed or injured by jealousy, both those having it within their hearts and those afflicted by jealous men and women? I am certain that only Yahweh really knows the exact toll, but we've all seen its damage. Although Yahweh's jealousy is just and righteous, because he is just and righteous, jealousy within men mostly takes a turn for the worse, and in women it is always destructive, both to the woman and those around her. People, moved by jealousy, have murdered and abused others. While Yahweh hates divorce, many have divorced their spouses because jealousy existed in their hearts.
One of the reasons why jealousy is not normally dealt with and repented of, is that most of the Body of Christ has for many centuries embraced the pagan concept of monogamy. I am not saying that monogamy, according to its most sense as a descriptive term, is wrong, but rather the pagan definition of it. The pagan concept is not merely a term describing the marital structure of a household, but rather a whole belief system which originally descended from religions in which a husband god and a wife god were worshipped, which do not appear to have supported any kind of polygyny of the kind we find recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. (Maybe some did.) Pagan Rome set their concept of a strict egalitarian monogamy in law. When the Israelites moved away from the Yahwist worship they received from the Patriarchs and Moses, they adopted a religion in which the chief male deity, Baal, had only one consort, his sister Anath. Eventually this was converted into a religion, attested in inscriptions from the time, which revolved around the notion of 'Yahweh and his Asherah'. (Incidentally, in the Epic of Baal, Asherah is his mother.) This kind of strict egalitarian monogamy, although clothed in Christian garments, actually functions to protect jealousy, especially in women, from ever being properly addressed in that it inclines toward an egalitarian family order as a substitute for the patriarchal family order displayed in the Scriptures. It also ignores the fundamental differences (apart from the sexual) which exist between men and women, differences which are intrinsic within each sex as a direct result of Yahweh's designs for them.
But as I said, the biggest contributing factor in preserving jealousy is in its incorporation in man's definitions of what love is. The Scriptures never teach that jealousy is a component of love at all, but rather that it is, like fear, just the opposite of love. In the Song of Songs, the Shulamite, after making her way through her betrothal period with Solomon, comes to this realization:
»Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; JEALOUSY is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.« (SS 8:6, KJV)
The word translated as »jealousy« in this verse is qin'âh and means "from 7065; jealousy or envy", translated as »envy, envied, jealousy, sake, zeal« [#7068H]. (Note the phonological resemblance of qin'âh to English queen and Greek gunê which means 'woman, wife'.) qin'âh in turn comes from qânâ' which means "to be (caus. to make) zealous, i.e. (in a bad sense) jealous or envious" [#7065H].
Paul specifically taught that »love is not jealous« (1C 13:4, JNT). In the Simple English Bible, this phrase is rendered »A loving person... is not jealous« and in the King James Version, »charity envieth not«. So it is not Scriptural at all, or spiritual, to believe that jealousy is any part of love at all, or that love would ever be the cause of jealousy, as some do. And when we operate out of jealousy in speech or in deed, we are missing God, not obeying the commandments given to us by Jesus and elaborated by John.
some words related to qin'âh and qânâ'
(from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance)
qenâ' = "to purchase" [#7066H]
qannâ' = "jealous; comp. 7072" [#7067H]
qânâh = "to be erect, i.e. create; by extens. to procure, espec. by purchase (caus. sell); by impl. to own", translated as »provoke to jealousy« [#7069H]
qannôw = "jealous or angry" [#7072H]
Note that the concepts of buying (qenâ'), selling (qânâh) and ownership (qânâh) are also inherent in jealousy. (This points toward prostitution, that is fornication, being related to jealousy when it exists in a sexual relationship.) We need recognize these things if we are to have a truly Scriptural perception of what jealousy is, and we need to define jealousy or envy from the Scriptures, if we are to understand it in truth.
examples of qin'âh and qânâ'
That jealousy is a very serious matter is attested by the fact Moses gave commandment concerning it, providing both a »law of jealousies« and an »offering of jealousy«:
»And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 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; And the spirit of jealousy (qin'âh) come upon him, and he be jealous (qânâ') of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy (qin'âh) come upon him, and he be jealous (qânâ') of his wife, and she be not defiled: 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 (qin'âh), an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD: 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: 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 (qin'âh) offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 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: 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: 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; 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. And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: And he 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. Then the priest shall take the jealousy (qin'âh) offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar: 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. 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. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. This is the law of jealousies (qin'âh), when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; Or when the spirit of jealousy (qin'âh) cometh upon him, and he be jealous (qânâ') over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.« (Nu 5:11-31, KJV)
This passage reveals several important things about jealousy. It was not anointed and most definitely provided no sweet savour in Yahweh's nostrils, for no oil was poured on the Offering of Jealousy, nor was frankincense put upon it (Nu 5:15). This offering was meant to »bring iniquity to remembrance« and reveal whether a man's wife had had sexual intercourse with another man. Thus, the offering itself, like the spirit which motivated the man to accuse his wife to the priests, functioned as an accuser. From this we can see that accusation in one of the components of jealousy. The application of the Law of Jealousies could either bring destruction upon the woman, or make her fertile, depending on whether or not she was defiled. And then there is a spiritual component to jealousy. This passage shows quite clearly that an evil spirit, called the SPIRIT OF JEALOUSY exists and can come upon a person in a fashion similar to that of the Spirit of God coming upon a person. Therefore, the spirit of jealousy is an aspect of the spirit of antichrist. (antikhristos means both 'in place of Christ' and 'against Christ', also 'in place of the Anointing' and 'against the Anointing'.) That this spirit was evil is borne by the fact that the Law of Jealousies required that a test or trial be performed to either verify or nullify the husband's accusation. In other words, the spirit of jealousy could not be trusted to speak truth. Therefore, this spirit is not the Spirit of Yahweh, whom Jesus called the Spirit of Truth. Note also that the Law of Jealousies provided no revenge for the husband, but only for determining the guilt or innocence of the wife, and a judgment against her is the accusation of her proved to be true.
This Law of Jealousies then is helpful in understanding the many references to jealousy or envy which occur in other parts of the Scripture.
»Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and Yahweh blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possessions of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied (qânâ') him. For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.« (Gn 26:12-17, KJV-OTR)
Here we see that envying is something which uncircumcised Philistines do. In type, it points to an uncircumcised heart and its jealous disposition. Paul wrote, »For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God« (Ro 2:28-29, KJV). The Philistines worshipped a god called »Dagon« (who is the father of Baal in one version of his epic). They represent to old nature, the image of the »earthy« (1C 15:45-49). Isaac represents the »heavenly«, the image of Christ. Isaac's name means "laughter" or "mockery" [#3327H] and speaks of the old nature mocking the new on the one hand and the joy of Yahweh on the other. The fact that Isaac received »an hundredfold« points to hundredfold fruitbearing (Mt 13:8), the realm of the Most Holy Place. The old nature envies the new, even as the Philistines envied Isaac. And notice their deeds: they stopped Isaac's wells and filled them with earth. Beloved, we are supposed to have the Spirit of the Living God in us springing up unto everlasting Life (Jn 4:10-14; 7:37-39). You need to understand that the old nature, out of jealousy, will attempt to fill the Lord's well in you with earthy things and prevent that living water within you from flowing. It will move to prevent the moving of the Holy Spirit in your life. And this precisely what happens when we are envious or jealousy. This jealousy ultimately caused division between Isaac and Abimelech, who had previously been at peace with him. Note that Abimelech finally said, »Go from us...«, Abimelech's party was the jealous one, the one which was wrong, and Abimelech is telling Isaac, who had not done any evil to Abimelech, to leave!