Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Jealousy can be a serious problem in a person and a relationship, isn’t that true? Perhaps you’ve encountered the rage of a jealous person. But here’s my big question for today: Can Almighty, Holy God be jealous? Yesterday I left you with the prophet Isaiah about 690bc as he is writing a powerful message of hope and encouragement for God’s people recorded for us in Isaiah 42:5.6.
The very next line Isaiah wrote is this: “I am the LORD, that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.” While the word “jealous” is not used in this verse, is God describing jealousy?
In recent days we’ve been reminded in Isaiah’s writings about many wonderful attributes of God. He is the Creator of the universe, our world and humanity! (Is. 40:25,26; 42:5) He is Everlasting with no beginning and no end! (Is. 40:28) He is All powerful and all wise. (Is. 40:12-14) He is Sovereign over all at all times. (Is. 40:10) And today we need to consider that God is a JEALOUS God. Really? Listen to these three powerful statements which God Himself made about Himself! The first is from the 10 Commandments:
* “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…” (Ex. 20:5)
You’ll recall God spoke these words audibly with perhaps 1 million Hebrew slaves gathered at the base of Mount Sinai after God had rescued them from Egyptian slavery. All they knew was Egyptian worship of man-made idols, but now they were encountering the LIVING, All powerful God!
The second time God used these words in describing Himself was with Moses, in the last of his 8 Mount Sinai encounters with God.
Near the end of his third time of 40 days and nights with God on Sinai, Moses heard God say this:
* “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Ex. 34:14)
Do you see this time God actually gave Himself the name “Jealous”? You may recall when Moses came down from the mountain his face was radiant because this prolonged encounter with God was so powerfully impacting. Moses had grown up in the Egyptian palace and was trained in Egyptian worship. But that had been many years before.
In his last 40 years Moses had been a shepherd with a father-in-law who evidently had some understanding of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Ex. 2:16; 3:1) At Mount Sinai Moses had many powerful, personal encounters with God in the Cloud of God’s Presence! Yet Moses was leading a people who did not know Almighty God, and this grumbling people easily found themselves often wishing they could return to the life they once had in Egypt. (Numbers 14:4)
And about 40 years later, as Moses was giving his farewell speeches to the next generation of Israelites who had been wandering with their parents for 40 years in the desert, Moses challenged them with these words: “Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.“ (Deut. 4:23,24)
Do you notice the significant crescendo of intensity with each of these three statements from God? This time God describes Himself as a ‘consuming fire, a jealous God.” Moses and the people understood the destructive power and the pain of fire, just as you and I do. Ok my friends, so what do you conclude God wants us to understand about God’s jealousy? We understand the pain of jealousy in a relationship, don’t we?
Then it should be easy for us to understand God’s pain and God’s response when anyone claiming a relationship with God allows their heart to be drawn to something or someone else so powerfully that it replaces God in priority in that person’s life!?
You see my friends, the prophet Isaiah was receiving and writing these messages from God in the terrible years immediately following the death of king Hezekiah, when his son king Manasseh had totally turned his heart away from God and was leading the people of Jerusalem in pursuing idol worship. Manasseh was even welcoming various occult practices in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 21:1-6)
Do you think God experiences what we call ‘a broken heart’ as He watches His people turn away from Him and pursue wickedness? Oh YES, I do! But it’s more than God experiencing disappointment or even heartbreak. God proclaimed repeatedly that He experiences JEALOUSY as His people turn away from Him and pursue idols with the passion God has placed inside us for pursuit of God alone! In fact, as we will see later in Isaiah, God sometimes called it ‘spiritual adultery’! That’s why here in his 42nd chapter, after Isaiah has written such wonderful things about God in vs. 1-7, he sadly had to write verse 8 as God spoke these words to Isaiah: “I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols!”
It means God, as the supreme, eternal, holy Creator of all, will never stoop to give credibility or His praise or His worship to anything created by the hands or minds of mankind. Now pause and ponder that statement for a moment or two. Why? Because every person alive has been guilty of allowing someone or something to become more important in their life than God, and that’s idolatry! And when we do that, we awaken the jealousy of God and we run the risk of God responding to our idolatry with His discipline or His judgement, either of which can be horrific!
For Isaiah and the people of Jerusalem and Judah about 690bc, all they had to do was look north a few miles to what was left of the former kingdom of Israel. It had been decimated by God allowing the invading Assyrian army to conquer Israel because of their idolatry and their abandonment of God. (2 Kings 17)
You’ll remember God had come to Jerusalem’s defense as that same great army, 20 years later, came to destroy Jerusalem! (Is. 37:36-38) Isaiah understood, perhaps with some fear and trembling, that HE was now the passionate human, prophetic voice God was using to warn the people of Jerusalem and Judah that a similar fate would be theirs if they continued turning away from God, manufacturing idols and inviting occult practices into their city and their lives.
This is so very powerful, I think we need to pause right here and look deeply into our own hearts, minds, attitudes and even our lifestyles. Here are two questions to help you discern if you have some idolatry in your life:
1. What will you do almost anything to make time for in your life? Your favorite sports team or music artist? Your favorite entertainment program or technology? Do you have the same or greater passion for time with God? Is it possible you will actually forgo Sunday worship or your personal time with God daily to prioritize one of these other favorite things in your life?
2. What brings you the greatest joy and fulfillment in your life? How far down your list of ‘favorite things to do’ must you go before you find things like “time in God’s Word” or “worship” or “talking with God in prayer”?
Invite the Holy Spirit to help you consider these penetrating questions, my friends, and their implications for your life, and here’s a powerful worship song to help us realign our priorities with God!
Today’s Scripture: Isa.42:8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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