God Is A God Of Jealousy - Attributes Of God - (2 Of 10)

God is a jealous God. The attribute of jealousy is very closely related to the attribute of love.

Illus: A lady went to her pastor for some counseling. She had some serious problems in her marriage. When the pastor asked her what was the problem, she said that her husband did not love her. The pastor asked her to explain?

She said I know he does not love me because a man can walk up to me embrace me and kiss me on the lips and my hushand would not react to that kind of a greeting whatsoever.

She was making a good point that he did not love her. And many who loves his wife would not allow a man to greet his wife in that way!

The attribute of jealousy is very closely related to the attribute of love.

Before we can fully understand and appreciate today's text, we need to consider its context. As you can see, it is part of the first of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:3-5, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

In these verses we find the attribute - JEALOUSY. Look at these words, “...for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God...”

What we have in these three verses is God condemning POLYTHEISM, which is the belief in more than one god. God is saying, "I do not want you to put any of these false gods ahead of Me."

The age in which these commandments were given was much different than our age.

• In that age, people worshipped many gods that they literally BOWED DOWN TO.

• Today it is difficult to get people to worship one God.

The fact that people then worshipped many gods, probably accounts for the fact that nowhere in the Ten Commandments do we find a place where God forbids ATHEISM, while we do find a commandment where He forbids POLYTHEISM.

WHY DID THEY WORSHIP MANY GODS?

WHY WASN'T ATHEISM A PROBLEM THEN?

Because, it was too soon after the time of creation. Creation was so fresh on the minds of the people of that age when the ten commandments were given, that you would have been considered as a fool by the rest of mankind if you said there was no God. During that time, they not only believed there was ONE GOD, they believed in MANY GODS.

Illus: God's Word says in Psalm 55:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God..."

Why does God say that man is a "fool"?

For anyone to make such a statement, he would have to say, "I know everything; there is nothing that I do not know!" Unless a person can truthfully say that, how could he say there was no God. He cannot be an atheist, he is only a FOOL.

He is trying to FOOL HIMSELF and EVERYONE ELSE, and doing a very poor job of it.

The Bible reveals that God is a jealous God. God declared that He was a jealous God during a time of polytheism, where men believed in many gods. Sad to say, polytheism is still very much a problem. That is, people still worship (though they may not recognize it as worship,) a variety of false gods today.

Today’s gods may not be fashioned of wood, or stone, or be a star or a volcano, but our gods take on another fashion, such as sports, money, actors and actresses, power, popularity, sex, food, clothes, job, family and friends. The things we place ahead of God, that we worship and serve, are AS MUCH gods as the gods the people of Bible days served when God told them that He forbid such things. Also, God is AS DISPLEASED WITH OUR GODS as He was with their gods.

Illus: Someone pointed out that we have "In God we trust," printed on our coins, but that we should hold them up and say, "THIS GOD we trust."

What God told them, He tells us, in no uncertain terms - He forbids idol worship. He tells us why He forbids it - "...for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God." One of the attributes of God is that He is a jealous God. The reason we do not generally want to associate jealousy with God is because of...