‘Behold, the Lamb of God’
ide
o amnos tou theou
College Study
41st teaching
6.24.2013
“God’s Jealousy”
Introductions.
Project
Scriptura:
Announce next week’s topic (God’s Perfection), challenge each person to find ONE Bible verse
about this attribute of God to share next week, you may use any resource as
long as you find just one verse.
Review:
Last week saw the conclusion of
a three-part series on God’s Love. The three teachings served as our
introduction to God’s moral attributes, Love being arguably the chief of the
moral attributes of God. So before we move on to the other attributes, let us
review what we’ve learned about God’s Love. If we get that down, it will serve
as a vital foundation for the understanding of all the other moral attributes
God possesses. Meaning, we must look at all the following studies with God’s
Love in mind.
So we began the three-part series on Divine Love
by examining eight characteristics of God’s Love. What were some of the
characteristics we discovered, do you remember? What book in the New Testament
says that God is Love? What does that
statement mean: that God is an emotion or concept? Love is then both a moral
and a metaphysical attribute, the perfect bridge between a study of both of
those kinds of qualities God possesses.
In the second part of the series on Love, we
examined four human loves and saw what they might tell us about God’s own Love.
What were the names of the four loves? What is xenia? What is storge?
What is phileo? What is eros? Which is known as the love of the
mind? Which is known as the love of the body?
And in the third part of the series, last week
Monday, we looked at the Greek word agape.
Of the five loves, which is the ultimate “best” love that most closely defines
God’s Love? What English word does the KJV use to translate the word agape? What place does agape have in the Christian walk? Are we
commanded to love in an agape way?
Bonus question: what was the name of the sermon I had mentioned which asks
whether God is a means to an end or an end in Himself?
End Review
“Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed
monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
When William Shakespeare penned those words in the Tragedy
of Othello, English gained the phrase “green-eyed monster” in reference to
someone who is jealous. These words may also form the origin of the phrase
“green with envy”.
Tonight, our subject is “God’s Jealousy”, and interesting
topic to follow up after the subject of God’s Divine Love. See, the word Love to
our ears sounds positive and inspires all kinds of warm and fuzzy thoughts and
emotions. But the word Jealousy, while related to love, does not quite ring
with warmth like love does. In fact, Jealousy has become something of a naughty
word in our world. Very rarely is jealousy portrayed positively.
Take not only Shakespeare as an example; think of all the
sitcoms and tv shows and movies in our culture that depict jealousy as
negative. The first Toy Story comes to mind! And I love Toy Story, this only serves
an example of what our culture thinks of jealousy: the friendly and likeable
Sherriff Woody finds himself becoming increasingly jealous over the affection
given to Buzz Lightyear, Woody’s owner Andy’s new favorite toy. His jealousy,
if you remember, even leads Woody to plot revenge in an attempt to knock Buzz
out of the bedroom window. And all the danger that besets the characters for
the rest of the film are really the result of Woody’s jealousy, a kind of
poetic justice for him.
Or if neither Shakespeare nor the screenwriters at Pixar
are up your alley, how about ancient Greek myth? We all know what the word
Nemesis means, but did you know that Nemesis was the name of the Greek goddess of jealous retribution and revenge?
So Western culture has totally been prepped to think of
jealousy as a negative term. And turns out, in many human experiences, jealousy
is a bad thing. It motivated us as children to slap other kids in the face
because they had something we wanted. In fact, note that a British study of
infants in the year 2000 found that babies as young as five months showed signs
of jealousy.
But surprisingly, we shall discover that jealousy is not
only a God-word, a theological term, but it is also totally positive in that
specific context. And in fact, Jealousy plays an important role in
understanding who God is.
Turn first to Exodus
34:10-17.
And if there’s one thing that the Law repeatedly
said was that the children of God were not to have any other gods, they were to
worship the LORD alone.
Notice how God even puts the instructions into relational
and sexual terms: He likens worshiping foreign gods to playing the harlot or
acting like a prostitute.
Jealousy, we’re even told by Scripture, is one of the few
attributes that is synonymous with God’s Name, His very identity. Jealousy is
certainly one of the lesser emphasized attributes of God’s moral character, but
He even identifies Jealousy as His Name. What does that mean? It means that
just like Love, God is Jealousy. Jealousy is both a moral and a metaphysical attribute. Jealousy is an essential quality of God, that is, a quality that relates to His
very essence. Realize that few of God’s moral attributes are given this
distinction: so far we only know that Jealousy and Love are moral attributes
that are essential qualities, qualities of His essence, both Who He is and What
He is.
So, we have several points to hit tonight to better
understand this huge biblical claim that God is a jealous God:
1.
The biblical basis for God’s
Jealousy
2.
What is Jealousy?
3.
Comparative Feelings
4.
The Nature of God
5.
A Divine Possession (I do what I want… nope)
1.
The biblical basis for God’s
Jealousy
We began with a passage out of Exodus, but certainly there
are many more references to the Jealousy of God. Perhaps you found some for
Project Scriptura? Let us have those verses presently.
Now notice that the Scriptural data points out three characteristics
of God’s Jealousy. This will help us to define the nature of God’s Jealousy.
Three characteristics of His Jealousy are Anger, Intensity and Wrath.
God’s Jealousy involves anger: speaking of a man who turns
his heart away from God to pursue foreign gods, Deuteronomy 29:20 says, “The
LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall
smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall
lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.”
(KJV)
God’s Jealousy also involves intensity: Zechariah 8:2 says, “Thus says the LORD of hosts; I was jealous
for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury”
(KJV). The New KJV says “I am burning
with jealousy for her”. That speaks of an intense emotion, a furious
jealousy.
God’s Jealousy thirdly involves wrath: Isaiah 42:13 says, “The LORD
shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He
shall cry, yes, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies.”
The Jealousy of God is powerful and incredibly intense
quality, just as powerful as His Love. I mean listen to these statements:
Zephaniah 1:18,
“Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole
land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy…”
Ezekiel 38:19, “For in My jealousy and in the fire of My
wrath I have spoken: Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in
the land of Israel…”
Jealousy is a clear attribute of God in Scripture, and it’s
one that proves that you don’t want to mess with God or His people. You don’t
want to invite God’s jealousy by pursuing anything above Him, story of Jewish
history right there. I mean the Babylonian exile, Israel getting kicked out of
their land for 70 years was a judgment brought on by God because He was jealous
of the hearts of His people, hearts that had turned away to the gods of the
pagans.
2.
What is Jealousy?
So we see now that God is indeed, by His own admission, a
jealous God. He says of Himself that His Name is Jealous.
But as is the case with any piece of information, there
must be clarity. What exactly is Jealousy? In our next point, point three,
we’ll compare words like jealousy and envy. But for now, let’s just try to
define jealousy.
I pulled this scientific definition from Wikipedia: “Jealousy
is defined as a protective reaction to a perceived threat to a valued
relationship, arising from a situation in which the partner's involvement with
an activity and/or another person is contrary to the jealous person's
definition of their relationship”. While there are many other scientific
definitions, I thought this was the clearest: Jealousy as a reaction to a
perceived threat to a valued relationship.
Jealousy then requires three things: a jealous individual,
a partner and a rival. In the romantic context, you have the love-triangle: two
lovers and a rival. That’s where jealousy begins.
You can see easily how this applies to spiritual life: God
is the jealous individual that was the original lover of your soul, you
yourself are the partner, then, and the rival can be anything that takes
precedence over God in your life, your thoughts or your heart.
Something I thought was particularly enlightening was the
origin of the word jealous and its
relation to the word zealous. Ever
consider how similar in spelling the words jealous
and zealous are? What does zealous mean?
My Thesaurus compares zealous to words like enthusiastic,
ardent, fervent, passionate, fiery, resolute, steadfast and energetic.
In fact, in the Greek language, the word we translate as jealous comes from the Greek word zelos. The Greek word zelos provided a basis from which both English words
zealous and jealous came.
What does this relationship between jealousness and
zealousness tell us about Jealousy? That it is an intense and passionate and
enthusiastic feeling, yes. And we certainly got that picture from the biblical
references. But it also points out that there is a positive kind of jealousy
(zeal) and a negative kind of jealousy (jealous).
There is then both a right kind of jealousy, an emotion
that is passionate about and protective of what is your own, and a wrong kind
of jealousy, a selfish, bitter emotion that is passionate about self.
Take this as an example, the Old Testament story of Jacob’s
two wives: Rachel and Leah. Turn to Genesis
30:1-24.
This whole scenario plays itself out because of two jealous
sisters and Jacob suddenly ends up with an army of babies.
On that note, let’s consider two more different words in
relation to jealousy:
3.
Comparative Feelings
I’d like to touch on the words envy and covetousness
here.
Envy is defined as “a feeling of discontent and resentment
aroused by desire for the possessions or qualities of someone else.” If you are
envious of someone, then that means that you are discontent with what you have
and resent someone else for what they have. You can be envious, then, of
someone’s car, their house, their wealth, their style, their personality or
their family or their looks.
A comparison between envy and jealousy shows that envy is
an emotion related to wanting what someone else has, while jealousy is the
emotion related to fear the something you already have will be taken away by
someone else.
Remembering the story of Jacob’s wives, you can tell that
Rachel and Leah were caught up in a feud of envy. Envy would be a better term
to describe the situation, since Rachel was envious of the children that Leah
possessed and Leah was envious of the affection that Jacob gave Rachel.
Also, you can see right away that jealousy is the better
term to describe how God feels about you. He is not envious of anything that
you have, because you got everything from Him. He doesn’t want your car or your
phone or your house or your looks. But He is certainly jealous for you and your
heart, things which definitely belong to Him by creative right and by
redemptive right. You are His and if you turn from Him, you can be sure that He
will be jealous for you.
What about covetousness?
To covet means to have an extreme desire to acquire or possess. Covetousness
has to do with desiring possessions. This is a very basic definition and again
the difference is that covetousness is a desire to possess, but jealousy is a
desire to not lose what is already possessed.
Therefore, Jealousy (especially in the context of zeal) is
really still the best word to describe God’s feelings. He doesn’t envy you or
covet you. You are already His own. But He is certainly passionate and zealous
about you and jealous for the attention of your heart.
But in many minds, Jealousy still brings up an objection.
Some atheists have suggested that God is immoral because He is jealous. Others
have said that God is a hypocrite to command us not to be jealous, yet He
himself says that He is jealous.
After all, Galatians
5 lists the works of the flesh, actions and habits which will keep you from
inheriting the kingdom of God, and among things like fornication and adultery,
hatred, murders and drunkenness, little old jealousy is listed. Imagine!
Comparing jealousy to murder and fornication!
So the objection is: how can God be jealous and yet be
morally perfect? How can jealousy be right for God and wrong for us? How can
jealousy be an attribute of God yet be a crime that will send you to Hell?
4.
The Nature of God
Nearly all of God’s moral attributes we are instructed to
copy. God loves, we’re told to love. God has mercy and grace, we should show
mercy and grace. God is perfect, we should aim for perfection. God is holy, we
should live in holiness. But while God is jealous, should we also be jealous?
The answer to the question of why jealousy is right for God
and wrong for us lies in what we just covered: there is a right kind of
jealousy and a wrong kind of jealousy. Remember, envy is wanting what others
have. Jealousy is not wanting to lose what is actually yours.
The bible teacher Norman Geisler says this: “Wrong jealousy
for us is about being jealous for what does not belong to us. God cannot ever
be jealous of what does not belong to Him, since He owns everything. Psalm 24:1 declares: ‘The earth is the
LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.’ Deuteronomy 32:21 adds, ‘They made me
jealous by what is not God and angered me with their worthless idols…’
“Everything belongs to God, even the things He has
entrusted to the care of others, hence, it is not right for us to be jealous
about what is not ours. Jealousy as such, is not evil; what is evil is being
jealous about what is not ours. Therefore, there is no inconsistency in it
being right for God to be jealous for our affection (which belongs to Him) and
it being wrong for us.”
Note that he suggests that jealousy is not evil in itself.
Jealousy is not always a bad thing when it comes to human experiences of it. I
can think of a very important situation in which I should definitely be jealous.
Let’s say I decide to visit my wife at work and I walk in
to her office to find this guy leaning over her desk, giving her ‘the
smoldering eyes’ and flirting with her. Now if my immediate reaction was to
divide and conquer, you could not say that was totally immoral. Truth is, I
should be jealous for my wife. When? All the time. She is my wife and any man who puts the moves on what’s mine is going to
find himself up against a human flesh wall, the Hawaiian tsunami!
So because I am a husband, I can be jealous for my wife.
Not for any other girl’s affection. Nobody else is mine except my wife. And there is nothing immoral about my
jealousy for my wife. What kind of husband would I be if I didn’t care about
men fawning all over her?
And in pretty much exactly the same way: God Himself is
Jealous for you. He doesn’t want anything or anyone else ‘putting the moves’ on
you or stealing your heart away from Him. He would feel at least as much
indignation as I would if I saw someone stealing away the heart of my girl.
So turns out God can be justified in His jealousy. You are
His own and He can totally be purely jealous for you. It is not divine
hypocrisy for Him to claim jealousy and yet deny its impure forms to humanity.
He owns it all anyway. Therefore, by nature of being the Maker of all things,
He is Jealous for what is His own.
Spurgeon said “Let it be remembered then, that jealousy,
like anger, is not evil in itself, or it could never be ascribed to God; his
jealousy is ever a pure and holy flame”.
So far we have touched upon God being jealous for people,
and preserving our relationship with Him by being fiercely protective as a
husband for his wife. But there is another way in which God is jealous: He is
jealous for Himself.
Sounds strange, but Ezekiel
39:25 says “Now I will bring back the
captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be
jealous for My holy name…”
What does this mean? How can you be jealous for yourself?
This statement of Scripture identifies that God is protective, jealous for His
own uniqueness and holiness. Hopefully, this slide can help make sense of it.
Here is a theological basis for God’s jealousy, a reason for God being jealous
based on His other attributes:
1. God is unique and supreme
(represented by His metaphysical attributes)
2. God is holy, loving and morally
perfect (represented by His moral attributes)
3. Hence, God is both uniquely and
supremely holy, loving and morally perfect (He is the best there is)
4. Whatever is supremely holy,
loving and perfect is to be preserved with the utmost zeal
5. God’s jealousy is His zeal to preserve His own holy
surpremacy
6. Therefore, He is justified in
His jealousy. It is essential to His nature. His name is Jealous.
So you see that based on the other attributes, the metaphysical
and the moral, that God is perfect so He must be jealous to preserve His own
perfection and holiness. Therefore, because God is holy and perfect, He is also
jealous to protect that holiness and perfection.
This is why you hear pastors say “a perfect God cannot
dwell with a sinful man”. Holiness and sinfulness are mutually exclusive and it
is God’s jealousy which protects and keeps His holiness from being tainted.
Clearly, Jealousy is a vital description of the intensity
of God’s love for you. And also, Jealousy is a passionate zeal to preserve
God’s holiness. Because He is holy, He is jealous for His holiness.
Point five and I’m done.
5.
A Divine Possession
We’ve talked about God possessing all things. Do you
realize that includes you, that He possesses you? He made you, so you’re His by
creative right. He died and paid for you with His own blood, so you’re His by
redemptive right. He is the most perfect Being and totally deserving of all
admiration and worship, so you’re His by supreme right.
Deuteronomy 7:6,
“For you are a holy people to the LORD
your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a
special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
If you belong to God as a wife belongs to a husband, why
then do you act like a floozy?
Imagine if my wife, who has every right to be jealous for
me, saw me flirting it up with some chick. Imagine how that would hurt her,
since I am hers have marital right. She should be infuriated if I were to give
my affection to some other girl, just as I would be impassioned and enraged if
she were giving the ‘googely eyes’ to some other guy.
But the creed of our generation is: “I do what I want!”
And so with total disregard and disgust of the God who
suffered excruciated torture to pull you from an eternal destiny in the flames
of Hell, we live our lives almost always ignorant of God and His will, pursuing
the goals we set up, the passions we want, the success we desire, the things we want to have.
And really, the godless and selfish pursuits of life in the
world are no more different than the central teachings of the Church of Satan
itself. The Satanic Bible is really a re-working of Aleister Crowley’s ‘Do What
Thou Wilt’ philosophy. And so the tenet of Satanism is to do as the Devil did,
whatever you want to do.
So while you won’t find too many people carrying around a
Satanic Bible, you will certainly find millions going through life in such a
way that they are following the central teaching of Satanism to a T:
essentially doing whatever they want to.
Now clearly, this absolutely cannot be the method of the
Christian life. This cannot be the creed we live under. And yet how often we
do. How often we compartmentalize our faith, so that we act like a Christian in
the ‘correct’ environment and around the ‘correct’ people but when it comes to
others areas of the world: going out to have fun, having ungodly friendships,
making inappropriate social media posts, saying things where no one who
actually cares will hear… then we act however we want to.
This cannot be. You cannot mix “Thy will be done” and “Do
what thou wilt”. You cannot mix the teachings of the Church of God and the
followers of the Devil. You can’t just act like a Christian at church and then
act like a self-seeking unbeliever anywhere else. You’re either a Christian all
the time or you aren’t one at all.
Is that too strong of a statement? Well, remember the
strength of His jealousy!
Because you are God’s, because you belong to the jealous
God, you must realize that submitting to His will is not a casual suggestion.
Remember how God’s jealousy involves anger and wrath and intensity? That’s how
He feels, and rightfully how He should
feel, about actions you take that turn your heart from Him and pursuing
whatever it is you want to pursue.
You have absolutely no right to turn yourself into a whore
in putting love for other things above your relationship with the jealous God.
We cannot live like this: praying for God’s will to be done and yet at every
opportunity turning to self-seeking and self-gratification.
Remember the warning of Deuteronomy 29. Turn there. Your flesh may say to you, ‘well after
all, that’s Old Testament stuff. The New Testament is much more loving.’
Loving, maybe. Accepting...? How much more should God
tolerate our selfishness after going
through the tremendous pain of Calvary? If anything, you are more God’s
possession now after He died for you than the people were in the Old Testament.
And make no mistake. God is immutable. His characteristics do not change. He
was jealous, He remains jealous for His people.
Deuteronomy 29:14-20.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you shall have peace in
following your own heart despite of the jealousy of God. But the choice is
yours, to choose either the words of Christ “Thy will be done” or the words of
Satan “Do what you want”.
Only be forewarned: God is jealous for the people of His
possession.
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