This study looks at two Names of God – El Kanna, and Esk Oklah. They mean the Jealous God and Consuming fire. God wants 100% of us and is jealous when we turn our attention elsewhere.
Ex 34:14 For thou shall not worship no other God: for the Lord, whose name is jealous is a jealous God
This month we are going to study two names that are so closely related: El Kanna and Esh Oklah. El Kannar is the appropriate name to study to go with our heart trading cards. We are focusing on Love, and we know that God is love. His name El Kanna means I am a Jealous God. I know you are probably wondering why this name fits in with our theme of Love this month; El Kanna is a perfect fit.
I have to admit I had always thought of jealousy as being a negative trait and that if God was sinless how could be known as jealous? This never made any sense to me, so I just went “oh well” and skipped over this conundrum. Then several years ago, our home group did The Truth Project and Dr. Del Tackett also stated he had a disconnect on this issue as well, but after study and prayer, it occurred to him that He is jealous for us. He wants nothing more than to spend time with us. He wants no distractions between Him and us. God loves us completely and demands the same response back from us.
A friend of mine saw this on the side of a building here in St. Louis and posted it to our Facebook group. She was pondering who put it there and who is the I in the quote. It occurred to me that El Kanna is saying this to us every day if we will just spend a little time with Him. He is jealous for our time and attention.
Deuteronomy 4:23-24
Be careful that you don’t forget the promise that Yahweh your Elohim made to you. Don’t make your own carved idols or statues that represent anything Yahweh your Elohim has forbidden. Yahweh your Elohim is Esh Oklah, El Kanna.
Esh Oklah is another name closely associated with El Kanna. Esh Oklah literally means consuming fire. There are several verses where we see Esh Oklah associated with God’s anger. We find these verses in the Old Testament when the Israelites have turned against God. He loves them so much He is angered by their idolatry and attention away from Him. God’s consuming fire is like the process of refining precious metals. The fire draws out the impurities and leaves the pure metal. So too when He consumes us he draws the toxins from our heart and leaves pure joy and that peace that passes understanding. Ann Spangler writes, ” The Lord is a Consuming Fire” who will ultimately destroy whatever is opposed to His holiness.”.
El Kanna in song
Sometimes music helps us better understand concepts. The first line of David Crowder’s He Loves Us starts out with “He is jealous for me”. He goes on to explain that God loves like a hurricane, and we are a small tree that bends in the weight of his wind and mercy.
DC Talk in one of my very favorite songs, Consume me, talks more to Esh Oklah when Michael Tait writes You consume me, like a burning flame running through my veins. I have always wanted the Lord to consume me with His love in every moment.
So when we pray this week. Pray to El Kanna and ask Him to reveal the things in your life that are keeping you from a deeper relationship with Him.
The Challenge:
When we pray this week, let’s pray from a deeper understanding of His holiness and to understand the depth of love He has for us.
The Challenge: Illustrate El Kanna, Esh Oklah or both. Do a spread in your bible Study notebook or in your bible. I provided this template for your sketchbook and I also did a strip for bible journaling at the top of the template.
Bible Study Sketchbook
Template -optional – available on the Members Only Page. You can access this by signing up for the news letter.
Permanent pen
ruler, pencil, eraser
The process: (if you want to use my layout)
The top stip is for Bible Journaling and the bottom portion is for a full page or sketchbook layout. If you have graphite paper you can trace the letters and the placement of the boxes.
- Draw inch boxes and spaced them 1/4″ apart. I drew it all out in pencil first. I drew 6 boxes across in my book and 6 boxes down. My journal is 8″ x 8″.
- Leave lines 3 and 4 open to write in the Names El Kanna and Esh Oklah. I decided to block the letter El Kanna and write Esh Oklah in the script.
- Ink in the hearts using several ideas from your trading cards or you can use my hearts. You can get some inspiration from my page of you can go to my Instagram page or my pinterest heart page.
- Use color pencil, colored pens or watercolor to color in your heart boxes.
This is a simple yet stunning effect for such a power name. Hopefully, this study has helped you understand His love you and His holiness. Use his names El Kanna, and Esh Oklah this week when you pray.
Disclaimer: My creative process for these hearts is to start with a google search and start doodling. After a bit, I get inspired to try a different variation or reverse things or modify elements to come up with a different design for a heart card. By no means are all my heart cards original, although the more cards I do the less I need to look for ideas because my brain becomes an idea machine.
The whole point of doodling these trading cards is to put a verse on the back and give them away. People will be touched you spent time doing an original doodle and we’re praying that the verse on the back touches the recipient; because God’s Word never comes back empty.
OTHER POSTS YOU MAY LIKE
References:
Bentham, M (n.d. )Esh Oklah – Our God Is A Consuming Fire Inspired. mbentham.wordpress.com Retrieved from: https://mbentham.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/esh-oklah-our-god-is-a-consuming-fire/
Crowder, D, (n.d.) He Loves Me. Genius.Com Retrieved from: https://genius.com/Jesus-culture-how-he-loves-lyrics
Llyod, S, (2011). ESH OKLAH, EL KANNA “Consuming Fire, Jealous God” Who IS the I Am? Retrieved from: https://whoistheiam.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/esh-oklah-el-kanna-consuming-fire-jealous-god/
Matthews, D, (2019). Names of God Esh Oklah. Diane Leagh Matthews. Retrieved from: https://dianaleaghmatthews.com/esh-oklah/
Spangler,A. (2004). Praying the Names of God; A daily Guide. Zondervan, Grand Rapids MI
Tait, M (n.d.) Consume Me, lyrics Genius.com Retrieved from: https://genius.com/Dc-talk-consume-me-lyrics
Leave a Reply