God is a jealous God, yet that jealousy is only manifested when men provoke the Lord because of their unfaithfulness. Men can provoke the Lord through various means, but ultimately, they all unite in the fact that they place something or someone else ahead of the Lord. The Lord does not want the leftovers of man’s time, love, money, and strength (Malachi 1:7-9). Instead, He wants the first and greatest of man’s possessions. Anything less is idolatrous and offensive to the God who gave man everything he has. Each man must make a daily evaluation of his life to insure that he is doing nothing to provoke the Lord to jealousy.
God knows everything about everything, yet Christians sometimes act as though He has some debilitating limitations. Once again, the Bible shines the light of truth upon the matter. It reveals that He is great, “and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5). In fact, His eyes “are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). In other words, there is nothing that escapes the knowledge and attention of God. This includes the good and the bad! The Son of God proclaimed to the church at Thyatira that He knew their works, charity, service, faith, and patience. He too knows about the level of a man’s faith! He knows the content, strength, and reality of that faith. A man can and will fool others and frequently even deceives himself (Jeremiah 17:9), but he has no capacity to mislead God. The Lord knows those who believe and accept His word as the perfect word of God and He is not unrighteous to forget (Hebrews 6:10).
