|
Texts: Ex 20:1-17, 1
Cor A Jealous God In the name
of our very jealous God, dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Jealous. A lot of people really wonder that the Lord
describes himself with that particular word.
We don’t normally think of jealousy as much of a virtue. In fact, usually, we think of it as a
sin. That’s because when we use the word
“jealous”, most often we mean “envious” or even “covetous” – which are indeed
sinful concepts. We say someone is
jealous, for example, when they feel badly toward someone else because that
person got the promotion at work they’d hoped for, or when they feel resentful
because the neighbors have a nicer house or a newer car. We use “jealous” to describe the hard
feelings that lie behind a lot of sibling rivalry. If one child gets from a parent what seems to
be preferential treatment, or apparently greater affection, or even what is
perceived to be less severe punishment (than is so richly deserved), and
it causes the other children to be spiteful, we say that they are jealous
of their brother or sister. In these
examples, the forms of jealousy described are wrong. And what makes them wrong is the wicked
self-interest of the ones said to be jealous.
They’re looking out for number one, and they want what someone else got. But some
forms of jealousy are entirely appropriate.
For example, an author who defends himself from plagiarism, or a musical
artist who fights to prevent her songs from being copied by internet pirates
are said to be jealous of their work.
There the word “jealous” means that they are possessively watchful
of what properly belongs to them. They
don’t want what they worked so hard to achieve to be stolen by someone
else. And there’s nothing wrong with
that. Likewise, we use the word
“jealous” to describe certain feelings that husbands and wives have with
respect to each other. Gentlemen, if you
feel like punching the guy who is making a pass at your wife; or ladies, if you
feel like tearing the hair out of some woman who is trying to seduce your
husband, you are experiencing feelings of jealousy. And while I’m not recommending that you act
on your violent impulses, the feelings of jealousy themselves should
be there. It’s right for you to be
protective of what has been promised to you alone and that cannot properly be
shared with anyone else. And it’s
correct to be intolerant of infidelity in your spouse. This is proper jealousy. And yes, it can be wrong if carried to
unreasonable excesses; but within the right parameters, you are supposed to be
jealous of some things. Now, with
this in mind, we can begin to better appreciate what the Lord means when he
says that he is a jealous God. But I
want to be careful not to draw a direct correlation between God’s jealousy and
even the right kinds of human jealousy I’ve been talking about, because there’s
still a very big difference. You see, if
we were to look at what’s behind even the noblest form of human jealousy, we’d
still detect a certain amount of self-centeredness. The writer and musical artist I mentioned
were jealous of their work to protect their own interests. And I’m not saying that it’s evil or anything,
but it is self-shielding. They are
ultimately thinking of themselves – looking out for number one. Even a spouse who is properly jealous is
displaying a certain element of trying to protect himself or herself from
getting hurt by alienation of affection or worse. That person is thinking, “I’m jealous of you
for my own sake.” It’s right there that God’s
jealousy is different. That’s because
our God is love. And love
gives. It sacrifices. It always thinks of others – places them
first – and never, ever, operates in its own selfish interest. Love is the driving force behind God’s
jealousy. Therefore it is clear that
when God says that he is jealous, it is not for his benefit, but for the
benefit of others – namely, us. Yes, God
is jealous: he is possessively watchful
of what properly belongs to him, and he is protective of it, and he is
intolerant of infidelity or disloyalty, and he will not allow himself to be
supplanted in our hearts for our trust or affection. But he operates those ways, jealously,
for the benefit of you and me. And it
happens that today’s three Scripture readings go a long way to show us
precisely how the Lord’s jealousy manifests itself and how it he uses it to
serve us, his people. So I thought it
would be good for us to take the opportunity to spend a few moments this
morning reflecting on this often overlooked attribute of God. It’s there in the Old Testament
reading, the one from Exodus, that the Lord first describes himself as a
jealous God. It’s where he’s saying that
he will tolerate no competitors for his Godhead. He’s the only God there is, and he will not
put up with any imposters or pretenders—and certainly not in the form any silly
idols shaped by the hands of men of lifeless materials to look like various
creatures that he himself created. And
you can almost feel his frustration with those who do that sort of thing – I
mean, how dumb is that? To worship as your
god an object you made instead of the One who made you and the
object you’re worshipping? Hello! But of course, we have our own idols, don’t
we? Luther used to say your god is
whatever it is you look to for help in times of trouble, or what you think will
bring you ultimate happiness and fulfillment.
So we make our gods of money and possessions, of science, technology,
and medicine, and of various forms of pleasure and entertainment – of created
things rather than the Creator. And it’s
just plain dumb to worship these things like we do. God wants us to worship him alone. … But maybe you’re thinking, “Well, see: the Lord is operating in his own
self-interest after all. He wants all
the worship and glory for himself.
Surely that’s a selfish motive behind his jealousy.” But is it? Look again at what precedes the part where he
describes himself as jealous. By way of
introduction he says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery.” And then
he says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” First he says, “I’m the God who saves and
delivers you”; then he says, “You are to recognize that fact.” Or to say it another way, “If you choose to
recognize as your god anything other than Me, you are directing your worship to
something that cannot save you or bring you lasting fulfillment.” God is jealous of his Godhead not because
he’s worried about being supplanted as God (after all, he is always going to be
the only qualified applicant); but he’s jealous of it for our sake,
because when we allow him to be supplanted in our hearts by anything else, we
lose our close connection to him and the salvation he gives. God wants to be recognized as God not because
he needs our worship and praise, and because he feels bad when he doesn’t get
it; but rather because we need to worship him in order to keep us
focused on the true source of our lives and everything about them. God is jealous of his position for or
benefit. Then, if we
just follow down the commandments, we see that the Lord is jealous of his
name: he doesn’t want it to be used
vainly. Again, he’s interested in
protecting his name for our good. And
here the issue is largely one of truthfulness and integrity. It’s not that he’s worried about having a bad
name for his own sake, but rather that he knows we need a God who is absolutely
trustworthy – whose name is the equivalent of truth. When someone takes an oath in the Lord’s name
frivolously or dishonestly, he creates the impression that the Lord can’t be
trusted. The worst form of taking God’s
name in vain is to teach false doctrine:
to say, “God says thus and so”, when God says no such thing; or
conversely, to say, “God never said that”, when indeed he has. By such misuses of God’s name people are
thrown into confusion and souls are lost to hell. So you see, it’s for our good that God is
jealous of his name. In the third commandment we see
that God is jealous of his Sabbath day.
And I think this is perhaps the least understood of all God’s
commands. A lot of people think that the
Lord sits on high keeping score of who goes to church on Sunday (or Saturday),
and that he gets all offended when finds a Sabbath violator. “Oh, Bob, that’s two Sundays in a row you’ve
missed. Now you’re really making me
angry.” But that’s exactly the wrong way
to look at it. God is jealous of his
Sabbath for our benefit, and you can see it by just looking at the
command. God says, “I want you to take a
day off and rest. Take a break from all
your work. Relax.” How anyone can read that God wants to give us
a one-day vacation every week and think that he intends it as a terrible burden
is beyond me. But here the Lord explains, “I
created everything in six days, and then I took a day off.” And so we see that the pattern of “work six -
rest one” is meant to be a constant reminder and reinforcement to us that the
Lord is our Creator, and that everything we are and have is only because of his
work and his goodness to us. We are the
result of his work. So you
rest and remember that.
Elsewhere in Scripture, God explains to his people, “When you were
slaves, you never got a day of rest. So
rest on the Sabbath to remember how I saved you – how with my mighty
outstretched arm I brought you up out of slavery.” The Sabbath was to be a reminder of God’s
work of deliverance. And so it is for
us. We come here to rest on the Sabbath
by remembering and hearing again that our salvation is not something we do by
our work; but rather it’s something that has been done for us by God – our God
who with outstretched arms worked so hard to save us from sin and death. So yes, he’s jealous of the Sabbath – but
it’s for our good that he is. Now, those of you who are also
jealous about guarding your precious Sabbath day time and who are thinking to
yourselves, “Good grief, we’ve been listening for quite some time and we’ve
still got seven commandments to go”, will be happy to know that even though I
could, I don’t plan to show how God’s jealousy for our benefit is revealed in
each one of his laws. Instead, I’d like
to skip over to the Gospel reading for today where the Lord shows that he is
jealous of other things; namely, the way his house is used. We hear how Jesus comes into the
holy temple in Jerusalem to find that it’s become a market of trade and
merchandise – and how that infuriates him.
We are rather surprised to see that the normally gentle and mild
mannered Jesus virtually explodes in righteous anger. He makes a whip and drives businessmen and
buyers out of the sacred precincts with stinging blows, and then he backtracks
to upset their tables. This is sacred
space with a sacred purpose, and Jesus jealously defends it from encroachment
by those who would misappropriate it for other uses. Specifically, we know that the marketing took
place on what was designated the “court of the Gentiles”: the place where any person could come to hear
God’s Word and offer him their prayers, praise, and worship. But such people (and that would include
Gentiles like you and me) had been crowded out.
So, again, I want you to see that Jesus is jealous of the temple grounds
not so much because he’s worried about his Father being offended by its misuse;
but because it had become an obstacle to reaching people with the Lord’s saving
truth. It was interfering with their
communion with him. And the same is true today: Jesus is jealous of the way his church is used. There are those who would love to make it a business, or a country club, or a platform for addressing social issues, politics, and who knows what else. There’s nothing wrong with any of those activities – but they don’t belong in the church because they crowd out and obscure its divinely intended purpose, which is proclamation of God’s Word by which the Lord reaches people with the gifts of his salvation and makes them his own children. It’s for us that Jesus is jealous of his church. And finally, in today’s Epistle
reading, we hear how the Lord is jealous of the message of his
church. Paul writes, “Jews want
miraculous signs, Greeks want wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified – a
scandal to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks.”
Look: no one can performs signs
and wonders like the Lord, and no one can outdo him in the wisdom department;
but no one ever came to saving faith in the Gospel by seeing a miracle or by
being dazzled with wisdom. They came to
faith by being convicted in their hearts of their sin by the Holy Spirit and
then by hearing the proclaimed truth that Jesus died for the sins of the world
and rose from the dead. And Paul makes
it clear: it’s not what people
want. But it is what people need. So the Lord is jealous of his church’s
message because he wants to give us what he knows we need. And what we will always need in
this life is to hear how our jealous God gave up for us what we would have
expected him to jealousy guard most of all:
his one and only Son. That truth
is the final proof of God’s great love, and the indisputable guarantee that the
Lord’s jealousy always serves us rather than himself. So, in all these things, we’ve seen how the
Lord is jealous for our good – and the reason he is jealous for us
is that he is jealous of us.
So jealous, in fact, that he has promised to keep us in this saving
faith, possessively guarding us, so that no one will ever snatch us out of his
mighty hands. Of this we can be
absolutely certain. May we then
jealously guard this truth so that the jealous God will always be our God; and
that to him we may give all thanks, honor, and praise now and forever, in
Jesus’ name. Amen. Soli Deo
Gloria! |
