September 1, 2024 • 28 mins
The Life of Moses- Episode #26 💚Why would a loving God be jealous? Join us on this episode of Whispers of Grace as we unpack the often misunderstood concept of divine jealousy. Through the lens of Exodus 32:7-14, we scrutinize God's intense anger and profound jealousy when the Israelites worship the golden calf at Mount Sinai. Is God's demand for exclusive worship tyrannical, or is it a rightful claim rooted in His love and sovereignty? As we reflect on Matthew 22:37, we delve into the implications of loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Continuing our exploration, we draw compelling parallels to marriage in examining God's righteous zeal, using the poignant story of Hosea and Gomer. JC Ryle's insights guide our understanding of divine jealousy as an extension of God's covenant love and sovereign purpose. Discover how God's unwavering commitment to His people reflects His desire for our ultimate joy and fulfillment. This episode encourages us to align our hearts with God's purpose, reminding us that His jealous love and devotion are the keys to our lasting happiness and spiritual well-being. Tune in and let this profound truth sink into your soul, inspiring gratitude and worship.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:19):
Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sHoly Word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to Whispers of Grace.
(00:40):
I am so happy to be with youguys today and we have such an
interesting topic that the Lordhas provided through his word.
Today we are going to study andtalk about jealousy, the
green-eyed monster which makesmany of us think of being
possessive or controlling ordemanding or domineering.
(01:01):
Google tells me that Gen Zwould call it jelly or salty,
which I love.
That's so funny.
But jealousy most often wethink of it as such a negative
thing.
But today we're going to lookat how our perfect God says that
he is jealous, that his name isactually jealous.
(01:23):
This is a little bit confusing,right, but it's intriguing.
It draws you in, so I'm excitedto think through it with you
and to search the scriptures andsee what they say.
So, just for a little bit of arecap, our last episode we
looked deeply at Israel'sidolatry.
They are still at the base ofMount Sinai, which it feels like
(01:46):
we've been there forever, butthere's so much history that
takes place at the base of MountSinai.
But they're here.
Moses is up on the mountainwith God.
He's receiving the TenCommandments.
Everyone has just seen God showhimself in amazing, incredible
ways.
But they start getting antsyand anxious because Moses has
been gone for a long time over amonth up on the mountain.
(02:08):
So they choose to make thisgolden calf and to worship it
and to say that this is the Godthat brought us out of Egypt.
That's a lot of what we talkedabout last time this false
comfort that they chose inidolatry instead of having faith
and patience.
So the last episode we focuseda lot on our own hearts and we
(02:31):
drew a lot of parallels betweenIsrael and ourselves, and
hopefully you were able to seesome weak areas in your own life
, areas that we can bring to Godfor sanctification.
But today we are going to focuson God, on God's reaction to
this idolatry, and look intowhat divine jealousy really is.
(02:51):
One of the important thingswhen we come to the word is to
ask what can we learn about God?
So in this section we're goingto say what can we learn about
God through his response toIsrael's idolatry?
So we are back in Exodus,chapter 32, and I'm going to
read to you verses 7 to 14.
And the Lord said to Moses Go,get down, for your people, whom
(03:16):
you brought out of the land ofEgypt, have corrupted themselves
.
They have turned aside quicklyout of the way which I commanded
them.
They have made themselves amolded calf and worshipped it
and sacrificed to it and saidthis is your God, o Israel, that
brought you out of the land ofEgypt.
And the Lord said to Moses Ihave seen this people and indeed
(03:38):
it is a stiff-necked people.
Now, therefore, let me alonethat my wrath may burn hot
against them and I may consumethem and I will make of you a
great nation.
And then Moses pleaded with theLord, his God, and said Lord,
why does your wrath burn hotagainst your people, whom you've
brought out of the land ofEgypt with great power and with
(04:00):
a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians speakand say he brought them out to
harm them, to kill them in themountains and to consume them
from the face of the earth?
Turn from your fierce wrath andrelent from this harm to your
people.
Remember Abraham, isaac andIsrael, your servants, to whom
you swore by your own self andsaid to them I will multiply
(04:23):
your descendants as the stars inthe heavens and all this land
that I have spoken of I willgive to your descendants and
they shall inherit it forever.
So the Lord relented from theharm which he said that he would
do to his people.
So this is a really interestingsection to look at to see the
interaction between God andMoses, which we won't have time
(04:45):
to get into today.
That's going to be next time.
But today we're going to focuson this holy, righteous rage
that God is feeling towardsIsrael.
And it's interesting becausethe section starts out with God
saying to Moses get down off themountain, for your people, who
you have brought out of the land, have corrupted themselves.
So it's almost like God isdisowning them because they have
(05:09):
fallen away.
And Moses is quick to give themright back to God.
When he responds he says yourpeople whom you brought out of
Egypt.
So it's interesting, this backand forth play between the two
of them, which we will get intomore next week.
But for today we are going tofocus on that jealous wrath.
In verse eight we read exactlywhat the sin is that these
(05:34):
people fell into.
It says they turned aside, theymade an idol, they worshiped it
, they sacrificed to it and theygave the idol the praise and
the credit for their freedom.
So if you've been listening tothe podcast, you're very
familiar with this, because thisis what we spoke about last
week.
But this is what God isresponding to.
(05:56):
God is enraged and thinkingabout God's jealousy and his
right to exclusive worship andexclusive love.
At first glance to some peoplecan seem immature or selfish or
wrong or twisted, or like he'ssome self-serving God or almost
(06:18):
like an insecure tyrant that isdemanding attention.
I think it's easy for peoplethat don't know God, don't
understand him, and even forChristians, to see his jealousy
and his demands and notunderstand really the heart of
why they're there.
Because God does demand all ofus.
(06:38):
He demands all of ouraffections and all of our
obedience and all of ourattention and the focus of our
greatest love and devotion.
This is what it is to love andfollow Jesus.
Matthew 22, 37 says this andJesus replied you must love the
Lord, your God, with all yourheart, with all your soul and
(07:01):
with all of your mind.
So there's no room there foranything else.
The word says all over and overagain in that scripture.
Matthew 10, 37 to 39 says thisIf you love your father or your
mother more than you love me,you are not worthy of being mine
.
If you refuse to take up yourcross and follow me, you are not
(07:32):
worthy of being mine.
If you Again this stronglanguage that talks about a love
for a father or a mother, oreven yourself, that you are not
worthy of following Christ ifyou love these things above
loving our good God.
Now, in Deuteronomy, chapter 4,23 and 24, it says this so be
(07:55):
careful not to break thecovenant that the Lord, your God
, has made with you.
Do not make idols of any shapeor form, for the Lord, your God,
has forbidden this.
The Lord, your God, is adevouring fire.
He is a jealous God.
So here we see that connectionwith God being jealous and other
(08:16):
things being worshiped or putabove his name.
Exodus 34, 14 says this youmust worship no other gods, for
the Lord, whose very name isjealous, is a God who is jealous
about his relationship with you.
So in Exodus 34, it actuallysays that his name is jealous.
(08:41):
And again, for many people whenthey hear these demands, when
you put all of these scripturesnext to one another, these
requirements for total love andworship very often that sin of
Eden that is in all of us.
It rears her head and it saysdon't tell me what to do.
Right, we grasp for what weperceive to be our freedom,
(09:04):
leaking away in this God that isasking for all of our attention
and time and focus and ourrestless and rebellious nature.
It tries to buck off anythingthat we perceive as restriction
or command Our flesh just.
It struggles, and once againSatan would have us swallow the
lie of Eden that God isuntrustworthy, that he is
(09:28):
keeping from us what is best ormost fun or most fulfilling, and
we can get sucked into the liethat we know better than God
does.
That lie goes all the way backto the beginning of the garden
and sometimes, when we readthese verses, it can rear its
head and you can not understandit and want to shrug it off,
(09:50):
because how is it possible thatjealousy, that's usually seen as
a vice in humans, can be holyand virtuous in God?
So, as we kind of unpack thisand think about it, one of the
first things I want to explainto you is a very big word, but
don't worry, we'll talk about it.
It's called anthropomorphism.
(10:10):
Now, this big word,anthropomorphism means
characteristics or attributes ofhumans that are applied to the
behavior of God.
So it's taking human qualitiesand applying them to God, for
example, when it talks about thefinger of God or God breathing,
or the ear of God listening,applying these anthropomorphisms
(10:35):
to God.
They help us to grasp a frameof reference for the Almighty
God.
It helps us to picture thingsabout of reference for the
Almighty God.
It helps us to picture thingsabout him and begin to
understand him.
But the problem is it's animperfect system because God is
spirit, so he's not limited to abody.
He doesn't really have ears orbreathe or have fingers.
(10:56):
He's not limited in that sense.
But the problem is that humanlanguage, it just can't
adequately represent the depthsof God's personality or his
traits, something that JI Packer, who is a great theologian and
author, says man is not themeasure of his maker.
So we were certainly made inthe image of God and there is
(11:19):
reflection of him in us, but weare not the measure of him,
because he has none of ourlimitations, absolutely none,
not one.
And God is not corrupted by sin.
So when we apply theseanthropomorphisms, it helps us
to grasp God, who is so infiniteand vast but at the same sense
(11:41):
it can almost limit him in ourminds because we can't get a
full picture.
So back to our definition ofjealousy.
Most of us, when we think ofjealousy, we think of being
possessive or controlling ordemanding.
But if you look at the Greekand Latin definition of jealousy
(12:01):
it actually means full of zealor to be zealous, and I think
that definition kind of unlockssomething new, at least in my
heart and brain, to help meunderstand a little bit more
about God that he is zealous.
Ji Packer said this about God'sjealousy God's jealousy is not
(12:26):
a compound of frustration andenvy and spite, as human
jealousy so often is, but itappears instead as a literally
praiseworthy zeal to preservesomething that is supremely
precious.
I'm going to read that one moretime because there's a lot of
good stuff in there.
(12:47):
God's jealousy is not a compoundof frustration, envy and spite,
as human jealousy so often is,but it appears instead as a
literally praiseworthy zeal topreserve something that is
supremely precious.
So God, in his jealousy, islooking to preserve his name, to
(13:14):
preserve the absolute truth ofthe universe, that God is the
underpinning of everything thatis supremely precious, and he
has zeal and jealousy over thatthe word also says God is
jealous for the spirit that heput within us, for that peace of
God that for all of us thatcall ourselves believers that we
(13:36):
walk around with.
He is jealous for that peace ofhis spirit that he left with us
.
And this praiseworthy zeal topreserve something supremely
precious can be seen andmirrored, and a little bit
better understood by our minds,in the covenant of marriage,
(13:57):
because we know that marriage isan imperfect picture of the
commitment and the union of Godand his people.
So the earthly union of one manand one woman, promising
fidelity and love and loyaltyand trust and respect and honor,
regardless of the difficulttimes or circumstances, this
(14:19):
deep relationship that we findin one another.
This is a metaphor for thecovenant love of God and it
helps us to start to understanda bit about the holy, zealous
jealousy of God.
This is something that can beunderstood really well through
the book of Hosea.
(14:39):
The entire book of Hosea isdevoted to God expressing his
anger and rightful jealousytowards Israel through the
metaphor of marriage.
So there was a prophet and hisname was Hosea, and God told
Hosea to go and take a wife of awoman that was a prostitute.
So he marries a woman namedGomer who is a prostitute, and
(15:00):
they are married, they havechildren together, they have a
life together.
But Gomer keeps running awayfrom home back into her own life
, back into prostitution, andthere is a continued
unfaithfulness.
That is pictured in this man'slife and it was a literal
picture of what Israel was doingwith God being betrothed to him
(15:23):
in love and union and thenconstantly running back to other
lovers.
If you've never read this bookthrough, I would encourage you.
It's a short read but it helpsto understand God's heart for
Israel.
In Hosea, chapter 2, verse 19and 20, it says this this is God
speaking.
I will betroth you to meforever.
(15:45):
Yes, I will betroth you to mein righteousness and justice, in
loving, kindness and mercy.
I will betroth you to me infaithfulness and you shall know
the Lord.
This was God binding himself tohis beloved people, to himself,
(16:05):
and we see the picture of aspouse that is unfaithful.
When a spouse cheats, it ispainful and there is a rightful
jealousy because there's brokentrust and there's a righteous
anger that's associated with it.
If we can take this picture andapply it to what's happening
with God and Israel back at thebase of Mount Sinai in the
(16:28):
golden calf.
It helps us to understand God'sjealousy, for Israel's
affection is an aspect of hiscovenant love for them, because
the covenant is a promise, apromise of loyalty.
So when Israel made this goldencalf and bowed down to it and
worshipped it and gave it thanksfor freeing them from slavery
(16:49):
in Egypt, they were actuallycommitting spiritual adultery.
They were breaking theircovenant vows, which they had
taken only a few weeks before,and they walked away from God.
They threw themselveswholeheartedly into the arms of
a lover.
And while this was allhappening, god and Moses are
(17:10):
planning the future of Israel upon Mount Sinai.
He's writing laws to governthem and keep them safe and holy
.
He's telling Moses how to buildthe tabernacle which is going
to be this special meeting placefor intimacy and purity.
And while all of that'shappening, they're committing
spiritual adultery down in thevalley.
And this provokes a holy andjealous vengeance from God,
(17:33):
because he is passionately inlove with Israel and they are
bound to him.
I have a really great quote fromanother awesome theologian
called JC Ryle.
He says this God's jealousyover his people, as we have seen
, presupposes his covenant love.
(17:54):
And this love is no transitoryaffection, accidental and
aimless, but it is theexpression of a sovereign
purpose.
The goal of the covenant loveof God is that he should have a
people on earth as long ashistory lasts and after that
should have all of his faithfulones of every age with him in
(18:15):
glory.
Covenant love is the heart ofGod's plan for his world.
God seeks what we should seekhis glory in and through men,
and it is for the securing ofthis end, ultimately, that he is
jealous.
His jealousy in all itsmanifestations is precisely the
zeal of the Lord Almighty, as itsays in Isaiah 9, 7, for the
(18:39):
fulfilling of his own purposesof justice and mercy.
I am the Lord, that is my name.
I will not give my glory toanother or my praise to idols.
For my own sake.
For my own sake, I will do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory toanother.
(19:02):
So here JC Ryle is puttingtogether these scriptures that
help us to understand that God'sjealousy is kind of linked to
the fabric of nature, becauseGod must be glorified and he
seeks his glory in and throughman.
In Isaiah 48, 11 it tells usthat God will not share his
(19:27):
glory with another.
He can't.
He's God.
Hebrews 1, 3 tells us that Godupholds all things by the word
of his power.
Now, I've been thinking aboutthis one all week and it has
been blowing my mind.
It says that God holds allthings together by the word of
(19:47):
his power.
So again, that truth of theglory of God holding together
the fabric of the world isamazing.
It's a crazy thought and itmade me think of in Luke,
chapter 19,.
When Jesus enters into Jerusalemon a donkey, it's called the
triumphal entry.
Probably studied this as a kidif you went to church and
(20:09):
everybody said Hosanna, hosanna,and they laid down palm
branches in their coats andJesus entered into Jerusalem.
So all of these people werepraising God and worshiping.
And it says that if the peopledidn't praise and worship and
acknowledge Christ in thismoment, that the stones of the
(20:29):
earth would literally cry out.
It says that the stones wouldcry out because the God-man had
finally come to redeem the worldand because the world is held
together by the word of hispower.
Even nature was saying yes andamen to the things that were
(20:49):
happening.
And nature understands, becauseit is his handiwork, that he
must be worshiped as God, hemust be exalted and God is
jealous for that truth and we,being created in his image, are
here to love him, to bring himglory and to enjoy him always.
(21:12):
And when we don't, when wecheat on God, it goes against
the created order and itunleashes vengeance and chaos.
This spiritual adultery is theexact opposite of God's plan.
It is sin and Satan at work todestroy things.
So I'm going to geek out forjust a second, because I was
(21:34):
born in the 80s and one of myfavorite movies growing up was
the NeverEnding Story.
If you haven't seen it, it's astory about a boy named Bastion
who's kind of bullied and heends up reading this epic story
and kind of takes part in what'shappening.
So it's this world of Fantasiathat's incredible and has all
(21:55):
these creatures and there's aluck dragon named Falcor that he
rides on, and it's just.
My tiny brain was just blown bythis incredible movie when I
was a kid, but thinking aboutwhat we're talking about here,
the greatness of God and howit's woven into nature, it made
me think of this movie.
Because in the movie, fantasia,which is this fantasy world, is
(22:18):
actually falling apart becausethere is something called the
nothing that is slowlydisintegrating the world.
It's just this dark, stormynothing.
And it manifests itself in thiswolf that's constantly chasing
after Atreyu, who's one of themain characters in the story.
But this wolf called Gmork ischasing him and he's just a
(22:40):
representation of the nothingthat is trying to just destroy
the world, that's.
Its only goal is to take all ofthe beauty and light out of the
world and just turn it intonothing.
And at the end of this story,the thing that saves the world
is that the empress, she needs anew name.
(23:01):
So the nothing is coming todestroy.
But the thing that saves thisworld is shouting out the name
of the empress.
And I just thought how perfectof a picture that is of God and
the power that is in his name,that it holds all things
together.
And at the end of the movie,the nothing has almost overtaken
(23:24):
the entire world.
And finally Bastion, the littleboy that's reading the story,
cries out the name of theEmpress, except all of Fantasia
had been destroyed, except for asingle grain of sand.
So the nothing had destroyedeverything, except for a single
grain of sand.
So the nothing had destroyedeverything.
But then the childlike empressis sitting there at the end with
Bastion and she's holding thissingle grain of sand, but she's
(23:47):
telling him that it is powerfulenough to completely recreate
the world.
It's the single grain of sandand after that the whole world
is remade and everything'sbright and beautiful again,
because the Empress now has hername and her name was strong
enough to like remake thefoundations of the world.
(24:10):
Now, I don't think that's whatthey were going for, is the
analogy that I'm making here,but my mind it just.
It captured this idea and I gotway too excited about it.
But God is a lot like this, hisgreatness.
It is woven into the fabric ofnature, his glory and the fact
that he must be exalted, he mustbe worshiped against all others
(24:33):
.
It holds the world together.
Like Jesus said that the stoneswould cry out if the people
didn't worship.
It's like that with thisidolatry, the people.
They were created to worship.
God brought them into thisrelationship to exalt and
glorify and they were notfulfilling their purpose with
the spiritual adultery.
(24:54):
So God is jealous for theirattention.
But God is also jealous for hisname to be exalted and seen as
what it is the foundation of thevery world, the fabric of
nature.
But the crazy thing is we aretotally and utterly dependent on
(25:15):
God for our greatest and ourmost lasting happiness and our
all-satisfying pleasure.
It can only be found in God.
So to deny the greatness and todeny the all-sufficiency of God
, to ignore or to mock thistruth, to commit spiritual
adultery and to worshipsomething other than God is to
(25:38):
embrace the nothing.
Instead of calling out his name, it invokes the rightful
jealousy of God and the worldcrumbles and we are miserable
because of it, because we canfind no greater satisfaction
than in our God.
So instead of pushing away thejealousy of God because it seems
(26:01):
too threatening or somethingthat we don't understand, we as
believers, we can rejoice in it.
We can revel in that passionand the zeal that God has for us
.
We can embrace his deepcommitment and know that he will
never leave us and neverforsake us.
He cares for us so, so deeply,and he is jealous of our
(26:25):
attention and our affections.
That is beautiful.
All of us desire so deeply to bewanted, to be desired, and God
is so passionate for us.
So we can rest in that passion.
We can rest in the power thathis name is in the truth, that
(26:46):
God is our greatest joy.
Nothing can supplant him, noidol can replace him or even
come close, because God is ouronly hope of salvation.
He is the balm for our soulthat we need to heal.
He's the cure for heartache andfor loneliness.
He is the God that sticks closerthan a brother.
(27:08):
He's the all-sustaining one.
He holds all things together bythe word of his power, and this
God, this big, amazing God, isjealous for our fellowship and
for our attention.
This should drive us to be morealigned with his heart and his
purpose and cause us to worshipand rejoice and sing of his
(27:32):
praise, because we have beenchosen to love this big God, to
be committed to him, to takepart in that covenant love, and
nothing in all of this world canreplace that.
So, as we kind of go about therest of our day, I hope and I
pray that you can think aboutthis and feel so seen and feel
(27:55):
so precious, incredibly desired,because all of these things are
true.
He desires you, he loves you,he is so devoted to every piece
of your life.
It's just incredible.
So why don't we take today toworship and praise him for it?
You.
Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sHoly Word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to Whispers of Grace.
(00:40):
I am so happy to be with youguys today and we have such an
interesting topic that the Lordhas provided through his word.
Today we are going to study andtalk about jealousy, the
green-eyed monster which makesmany of us think of being
possessive or controlling ordemanding or domineering.
(01:01):
Google tells me that Gen Zwould call it jelly or salty,
which I love.
That's so funny.
But jealousy most often wethink of it as such a negative
thing.
But today we're going to lookat how our perfect God says that
he is jealous, that his name isactually jealous.
(01:23):
This is a little bit confusing,right, but it's intriguing.
It draws you in, so I'm excitedto think through it with you
and to search the scriptures andsee what they say.
So, just for a little bit of arecap, our last episode we
looked deeply at Israel'sidolatry.
They are still at the base ofMount Sinai, which it feels like
(01:46):
we've been there forever, butthere's so much history that
takes place at the base of MountSinai.
But they're here.
Moses is up on the mountainwith God.
He's receiving the TenCommandments.
Everyone has just seen God showhimself in amazing, incredible
ways.
But they start getting antsyand anxious because Moses has
been gone for a long time over amonth up on the mountain.
(02:08):
So they choose to make thisgolden calf and to worship it
and to say that this is the Godthat brought us out of Egypt.
That's a lot of what we talkedabout last time this false
comfort that they chose inidolatry instead of having faith
and patience.
So the last episode we focuseda lot on our own hearts and we
(02:31):
drew a lot of parallels betweenIsrael and ourselves, and
hopefully you were able to seesome weak areas in your own life
, areas that we can bring to Godfor sanctification.
But today we are going to focuson God, on God's reaction to
this idolatry, and look intowhat divine jealousy really is.
(02:51):
One of the important thingswhen we come to the word is to
ask what can we learn about God?
So in this section we're goingto say what can we learn about
God through his response toIsrael's idolatry?
So we are back in Exodus,chapter 32, and I'm going to
read to you verses 7 to 14.
And the Lord said to Moses Go,get down, for your people, whom
(03:16):
you brought out of the land ofEgypt, have corrupted themselves
.
They have turned aside quicklyout of the way which I commanded
them.
They have made themselves amolded calf and worshipped it
and sacrificed to it and saidthis is your God, o Israel, that
brought you out of the land ofEgypt.
And the Lord said to Moses Ihave seen this people and indeed
(03:38):
it is a stiff-necked people.
Now, therefore, let me alonethat my wrath may burn hot
against them and I may consumethem and I will make of you a
great nation.
And then Moses pleaded with theLord, his God, and said Lord,
why does your wrath burn hotagainst your people, whom you've
brought out of the land ofEgypt with great power and with
(04:00):
a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians speakand say he brought them out to
harm them, to kill them in themountains and to consume them
from the face of the earth?
Turn from your fierce wrath andrelent from this harm to your
people.
Remember Abraham, isaac andIsrael, your servants, to whom
you swore by your own self andsaid to them I will multiply
(04:23):
your descendants as the stars inthe heavens and all this land
that I have spoken of I willgive to your descendants and
they shall inherit it forever.
So the Lord relented from theharm which he said that he would
do to his people.
So this is a really interestingsection to look at to see the
interaction between God andMoses, which we won't have time
(04:45):
to get into today.
That's going to be next time.
But today we're going to focuson this holy, righteous rage
that God is feeling towardsIsrael.
And it's interesting becausethe section starts out with God
saying to Moses get down off themountain, for your people, who
you have brought out of the land, have corrupted themselves.
So it's almost like God isdisowning them because they have
(05:09):
fallen away.
And Moses is quick to give themright back to God.
When he responds he says yourpeople whom you brought out of
Egypt.
So it's interesting, this backand forth play between the two
of them, which we will get intomore next week.
But for today we are going tofocus on that jealous wrath.
In verse eight we read exactlywhat the sin is that these
(05:34):
people fell into.
It says they turned aside, theymade an idol, they worshiped it
, they sacrificed to it and theygave the idol the praise and
the credit for their freedom.
So if you've been listening tothe podcast, you're very
familiar with this, because thisis what we spoke about last
week.
But this is what God isresponding to.
(05:56):
God is enraged and thinkingabout God's jealousy and his
right to exclusive worship andexclusive love.
At first glance to some peoplecan seem immature or selfish or
wrong or twisted, or like he'ssome self-serving God or almost
(06:18):
like an insecure tyrant that isdemanding attention.
I think it's easy for peoplethat don't know God, don't
understand him, and even forChristians, to see his jealousy
and his demands and notunderstand really the heart of
why they're there.
Because God does demand all ofus.
(06:38):
He demands all of ouraffections and all of our
obedience and all of ourattention and the focus of our
greatest love and devotion.
This is what it is to love andfollow Jesus.
Matthew 22, 37 says this andJesus replied you must love the
Lord, your God, with all yourheart, with all your soul and
(07:01):
with all of your mind.
So there's no room there foranything else.
The word says all over and overagain in that scripture.
Matthew 10, 37 to 39 says thisIf you love your father or your
mother more than you love me,you are not worthy of being mine
.
If you refuse to take up yourcross and follow me, you are not
(07:32):
worthy of being mine.
If you Again this stronglanguage that talks about a love
for a father or a mother, oreven yourself, that you are not
worthy of following Christ ifyou love these things above
loving our good God.
Now, in Deuteronomy, chapter 4,23 and 24, it says this so be
(07:55):
careful not to break thecovenant that the Lord, your God
, has made with you.
Do not make idols of any shapeor form, for the Lord, your God,
has forbidden this.
The Lord, your God, is adevouring fire.
He is a jealous God.
So here we see that connectionwith God being jealous and other
(08:16):
things being worshiped or putabove his name.
Exodus 34, 14 says this youmust worship no other gods, for
the Lord, whose very name isjealous, is a God who is jealous
about his relationship with you.
So in Exodus 34, it actuallysays that his name is jealous.
(08:41):
And again, for many people whenthey hear these demands, when
you put all of these scripturesnext to one another, these
requirements for total love andworship very often that sin of
Eden that is in all of us.
It rears her head and it saysdon't tell me what to do.
Right, we grasp for what weperceive to be our freedom,
(09:04):
leaking away in this God that isasking for all of our attention
and time and focus and ourrestless and rebellious nature.
It tries to buck off anythingthat we perceive as restriction
or command Our flesh just.
It struggles, and once againSatan would have us swallow the
lie of Eden that God isuntrustworthy, that he is
(09:28):
keeping from us what is best ormost fun or most fulfilling, and
we can get sucked into the liethat we know better than God
does.
That lie goes all the way backto the beginning of the garden
and sometimes, when we readthese verses, it can rear its
head and you can not understandit and want to shrug it off,
(09:50):
because how is it possible thatjealousy, that's usually seen as
a vice in humans, can be holyand virtuous in God?
So, as we kind of unpack thisand think about it, one of the
first things I want to explainto you is a very big word, but
don't worry, we'll talk about it.
It's called anthropomorphism.
(10:10):
Now, this big word,anthropomorphism means
characteristics or attributes ofhumans that are applied to the
behavior of God.
So it's taking human qualitiesand applying them to God, for
example, when it talks about thefinger of God or God breathing,
or the ear of God listening,applying these anthropomorphisms
(10:35):
to God.
They help us to grasp a frameof reference for the Almighty
God.
It helps us to picture thingsabout of reference for the
Almighty God.
It helps us to picture thingsabout him and begin to
understand him.
But the problem is it's animperfect system because God is
spirit, so he's not limited to abody.
He doesn't really have ears orbreathe or have fingers.
(10:56):
He's not limited in that sense.
But the problem is that humanlanguage, it just can't
adequately represent the depthsof God's personality or his
traits, something that JI Packer, who is a great theologian and
author, says man is not themeasure of his maker.
So we were certainly made inthe image of God and there is
(11:19):
reflection of him in us, but weare not the measure of him,
because he has none of ourlimitations, absolutely none,
not one.
And God is not corrupted by sin.
So when we apply theseanthropomorphisms, it helps us
to grasp God, who is so infiniteand vast but at the same sense
(11:41):
it can almost limit him in ourminds because we can't get a
full picture.
So back to our definition ofjealousy.
Most of us, when we think ofjealousy, we think of being
possessive or controlling ordemanding.
But if you look at the Greekand Latin definition of jealousy
(12:01):
it actually means full of zealor to be zealous, and I think
that definition kind of unlockssomething new, at least in my
heart and brain, to help meunderstand a little bit more
about God that he is zealous.
Ji Packer said this about God'sjealousy God's jealousy is not
(12:26):
a compound of frustration andenvy and spite, as human
jealousy so often is, but itappears instead as a literally
praiseworthy zeal to preservesomething that is supremely
precious.
I'm going to read that one moretime because there's a lot of
good stuff in there.
(12:47):
God's jealousy is not a compoundof frustration, envy and spite,
as human jealousy so often is,but it appears instead as a
literally praiseworthy zeal topreserve something that is
supremely precious.
So God, in his jealousy, islooking to preserve his name, to
(13:14):
preserve the absolute truth ofthe universe, that God is the
underpinning of everything thatis supremely precious, and he
has zeal and jealousy over thatthe word also says God is
jealous for the spirit that heput within us, for that peace of
God that for all of us thatcall ourselves believers that we
(13:36):
walk around with.
He is jealous for that peace ofhis spirit that he left with us
.
And this praiseworthy zeal topreserve something supremely
precious can be seen andmirrored, and a little bit
better understood by our minds,in the covenant of marriage,
(13:57):
because we know that marriage isan imperfect picture of the
commitment and the union of Godand his people.
So the earthly union of one manand one woman, promising
fidelity and love and loyaltyand trust and respect and honor,
regardless of the difficulttimes or circumstances, this
(14:19):
deep relationship that we findin one another.
This is a metaphor for thecovenant love of God and it
helps us to start to understanda bit about the holy, zealous
jealousy of God.
This is something that can beunderstood really well through
the book of Hosea.
(14:39):
The entire book of Hosea isdevoted to God expressing his
anger and rightful jealousytowards Israel through the
metaphor of marriage.
So there was a prophet and hisname was Hosea, and God told
Hosea to go and take a wife of awoman that was a prostitute.
So he marries a woman namedGomer who is a prostitute, and
(15:00):
they are married, they havechildren together, they have a
life together.
But Gomer keeps running awayfrom home back into her own life
, back into prostitution, andthere is a continued
unfaithfulness.
That is pictured in this man'slife and it was a literal
picture of what Israel was doingwith God being betrothed to him
(15:23):
in love and union and thenconstantly running back to other
lovers.
If you've never read this bookthrough, I would encourage you.
It's a short read but it helpsto understand God's heart for
Israel.
In Hosea, chapter 2, verse 19and 20, it says this this is God
speaking.
I will betroth you to meforever.
(15:45):
Yes, I will betroth you to mein righteousness and justice, in
loving, kindness and mercy.
I will betroth you to me infaithfulness and you shall know
the Lord.
This was God binding himself tohis beloved people, to himself,
(16:05):
and we see the picture of aspouse that is unfaithful.
When a spouse cheats, it ispainful and there is a rightful
jealousy because there's brokentrust and there's a righteous
anger that's associated with it.
If we can take this picture andapply it to what's happening
with God and Israel back at thebase of Mount Sinai in the
(16:28):
golden calf.
It helps us to understand God'sjealousy, for Israel's
affection is an aspect of hiscovenant love for them, because
the covenant is a promise, apromise of loyalty.
So when Israel made this goldencalf and bowed down to it and
worshipped it and gave it thanksfor freeing them from slavery
(16:49):
in Egypt, they were actuallycommitting spiritual adultery.
They were breaking theircovenant vows, which they had
taken only a few weeks before,and they walked away from God.
They threw themselveswholeheartedly into the arms of
a lover.
And while this was allhappening, god and Moses are
(17:10):
planning the future of Israel upon Mount Sinai.
He's writing laws to governthem and keep them safe and holy
.
He's telling Moses how to buildthe tabernacle which is going
to be this special meeting placefor intimacy and purity.
And while all of that'shappening, they're committing
spiritual adultery down in thevalley.
And this provokes a holy andjealous vengeance from God,
(17:33):
because he is passionately inlove with Israel and they are
bound to him.
I have a really great quote fromanother awesome theologian
called JC Ryle.
He says this God's jealousyover his people, as we have seen
, presupposes his covenant love.
(17:54):
And this love is no transitoryaffection, accidental and
aimless, but it is theexpression of a sovereign
purpose.
The goal of the covenant loveof God is that he should have a
people on earth as long ashistory lasts and after that
should have all of his faithfulones of every age with him in
(18:15):
glory.
Covenant love is the heart ofGod's plan for his world.
God seeks what we should seekhis glory in and through men,
and it is for the securing ofthis end, ultimately, that he is
jealous.
His jealousy in all itsmanifestations is precisely the
zeal of the Lord Almighty, as itsays in Isaiah 9, 7, for the
(18:39):
fulfilling of his own purposesof justice and mercy.
I am the Lord, that is my name.
I will not give my glory toanother or my praise to idols.
For my own sake.
For my own sake, I will do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory toanother.
(19:02):
So here JC Ryle is puttingtogether these scriptures that
help us to understand that God'sjealousy is kind of linked to
the fabric of nature, becauseGod must be glorified and he
seeks his glory in and throughman.
In Isaiah 48, 11 it tells usthat God will not share his
(19:27):
glory with another.
He can't.
He's God.
Hebrews 1, 3 tells us that Godupholds all things by the word
of his power.
Now, I've been thinking aboutthis one all week and it has
been blowing my mind.
It says that God holds allthings together by the word of
(19:47):
his power.
So again, that truth of theglory of God holding together
the fabric of the world isamazing.
It's a crazy thought and itmade me think of in Luke,
chapter 19,.
When Jesus enters into Jerusalemon a donkey, it's called the
triumphal entry.
Probably studied this as a kidif you went to church and
(20:09):
everybody said Hosanna, hosanna,and they laid down palm
branches in their coats andJesus entered into Jerusalem.
So all of these people werepraising God and worshiping.
And it says that if the peopledidn't praise and worship and
acknowledge Christ in thismoment, that the stones of the
(20:29):
earth would literally cry out.
It says that the stones wouldcry out because the God-man had
finally come to redeem the worldand because the world is held
together by the word of hispower.
Even nature was saying yes andamen to the things that were
(20:49):
happening.
And nature understands, becauseit is his handiwork, that he
must be worshiped as God, hemust be exalted and God is
jealous for that truth and we,being created in his image, are
here to love him, to bring himglory and to enjoy him always.
(21:12):
And when we don't, when wecheat on God, it goes against
the created order and itunleashes vengeance and chaos.
This spiritual adultery is theexact opposite of God's plan.
It is sin and Satan at work todestroy things.
So I'm going to geek out forjust a second, because I was
(21:34):
born in the 80s and one of myfavorite movies growing up was
the NeverEnding Story.
If you haven't seen it, it's astory about a boy named Bastion
who's kind of bullied and heends up reading this epic story
and kind of takes part in what'shappening.
So it's this world of Fantasiathat's incredible and has all
(21:55):
these creatures and there's aluck dragon named Falcor that he
rides on, and it's just.
My tiny brain was just blown bythis incredible movie when I
was a kid, but thinking aboutwhat we're talking about here,
the greatness of God and howit's woven into nature, it made
me think of this movie.
Because in the movie, fantasia,which is this fantasy world, is
(22:18):
actually falling apart becausethere is something called the
nothing that is slowlydisintegrating the world.
It's just this dark, stormynothing.
And it manifests itself in thiswolf that's constantly chasing
after Atreyu, who's one of themain characters in the story.
But this wolf called Gmork ischasing him and he's just a
(22:40):
representation of the nothingthat is trying to just destroy
the world, that's.
Its only goal is to take all ofthe beauty and light out of the
world and just turn it intonothing.
And at the end of this story,the thing that saves the world
is that the empress, she needs anew name.
(23:01):
So the nothing is coming todestroy.
But the thing that saves thisworld is shouting out the name
of the empress.
And I just thought how perfectof a picture that is of God and
the power that is in his name,that it holds all things
together.
And at the end of the movie,the nothing has almost overtaken
(23:24):
the entire world.
And finally Bastion, the littleboy that's reading the story,
cries out the name of theEmpress, except all of Fantasia
had been destroyed, except for asingle grain of sand.
So the nothing had destroyedeverything, except for a single
grain of sand.
So the nothing had destroyedeverything.
But then the childlike empressis sitting there at the end with
Bastion and she's holding thissingle grain of sand, but she's
(23:47):
telling him that it is powerfulenough to completely recreate
the world.
It's the single grain of sandand after that the whole world
is remade and everything'sbright and beautiful again,
because the Empress now has hername and her name was strong
enough to like remake thefoundations of the world.
(24:10):
Now, I don't think that's whatthey were going for, is the
analogy that I'm making here,but my mind it just.
It captured this idea and I gotway too excited about it.
But God is a lot like this, hisgreatness.
It is woven into the fabric ofnature, his glory and the fact
that he must be exalted, he mustbe worshiped against all others
(24:33):
.
It holds the world together.
Like Jesus said that the stoneswould cry out if the people
didn't worship.
It's like that with thisidolatry, the people.
They were created to worship.
God brought them into thisrelationship to exalt and
glorify and they were notfulfilling their purpose with
the spiritual adultery.
(24:54):
So God is jealous for theirattention.
But God is also jealous for hisname to be exalted and seen as
what it is the foundation of thevery world, the fabric of
nature.
But the crazy thing is we aretotally and utterly dependent on
(25:15):
God for our greatest and ourmost lasting happiness and our
all-satisfying pleasure.
It can only be found in God.
So to deny the greatness and todeny the all-sufficiency of God
, to ignore or to mock thistruth, to commit spiritual
adultery and to worshipsomething other than God is to
(25:38):
embrace the nothing.
Instead of calling out his name, it invokes the rightful
jealousy of God and the worldcrumbles and we are miserable
because of it, because we canfind no greater satisfaction
than in our God.
So instead of pushing away thejealousy of God because it seems
(26:01):
too threatening or somethingthat we don't understand, we as
believers, we can rejoice in it.
We can revel in that passionand the zeal that God has for us
.
We can embrace his deepcommitment and know that he will
never leave us and neverforsake us.
He cares for us so, so deeply,and he is jealous of our
(26:25):
attention and our affections.
That is beautiful.
All of us desire so deeply to bewanted, to be desired, and God
is so passionate for us.
So we can rest in that passion.
We can rest in the power thathis name is in the truth, that
(26:46):
God is our greatest joy.
Nothing can supplant him, noidol can replace him or even
come close, because God is ouronly hope of salvation.
He is the balm for our soulthat we need to heal.
He's the cure for heartache andfor loneliness.
He is the God that sticks closerthan a brother.
(27:08):
He's the all-sustaining one.
He holds all things together bythe word of his power, and this
God, this big, amazing God, isjealous for our fellowship and
for our attention.
This should drive us to be morealigned with his heart and his
purpose and cause us to worshipand rejoice and sing of his
(27:32):
praise, because we have beenchosen to love this big God, to
be committed to him, to takepart in that covenant love, and
nothing in all of this world canreplace that.
So, as we kind of go about therest of our day, I hope and I
pray that you can think aboutthis and feel so seen and feel
(27:55):
so precious, incredibly desired,because all of these things are
true.
He desires you, he loves you,he is so devoted to every piece
of your life.
It's just incredible.
So why don't we take today toworship and praise him for it?
You.
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