Purpose: To explain how and why God is jealous God.
Aim: I want the listener to have a holy reverence for God and a fear of offending Him.
INTRODUCTION: Today we are going to look at another name for God found in verse 14 of our text. Before we look at what it means for God to be jealous, let's look at why God brought up the subject of jealousy.
God led the Jews to Mt. Sinai. Moses and Joshua climbed the mountain and God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. They were on the mountain for forty days. During that time the people became impatient and said to Aaron: Exodus 32:1 ..."Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." (NAU)
Aaron helped them make a golden calf and said, Exodus 32:4--5 "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." (NAU)
This caused God to burn with anger against them. When Moses came down the mountain he saw the wild parties going on and the golden idol so he smashed the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, burned the golden calf, ground it to powder, poured it into their water supply and made the people drink it. Three thousand Jews were also put to death with the sword.
God had just finished making a covenant with His people, but they broke it even before they heard what it was.
As we come to Chapter 34 God is now making a second covenant with the Jewish nation. God wrote out the Ten Commandments a second time and then said to Moses: Exodus 34:6--7 ... "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished..." (NAU)
►Matthew Henry: "The traitors are not only pardoned, but preferred and made favorites again." [1]
Then Moses made this request before God: Exodus 34:9 "If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession." (NAU)
As we come to our text today God responds by making another promise to Israel.
►Vs.10-11 I. God Makes Promises to His People
► Vs.10 A. God will work powerfully through His people "I am going to
perform with you"
One of life's greatest blessings is to know that God is using you for His glory. Whatever God asks us to do He will enable us to do. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (NAU)
What a joy to "see the working of the LORD" and to be a partner with God as He works.
As God told Paul: 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (NAU)
► Vs.11 B. God will work powerfully for His people "I am going to drive out..."
God gives us the joy of serving Him, but He is the one who gives us the desire and the ability to do it. Isaiah 43:3--4 "For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. "Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you.... (NAU)
We work for God, but really He is the One doing the work. 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (NAU)
►Vs.12-13, 17 II. God Gives Commands to His People
After laying out His promises, God now describes the conditions. It is not accurate to say that God loves us unconditionally. God's love is totally undeserved, but He has only promised to love those who turn their hearts to Him. Faith and repentance are required before we can experience God's grace.
► Vs.12 A. Separate from false gods "make no covenant"
God was making a promise with them if they would promise not to partner with the wicked.
The greatest danger comes when we try to worship God AND the world. 2 Kings 17:33 They feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile. (NAU) 2 Kings 17:38--41 "The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the LORD your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies." However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day. (NAU)
One of the main characteristics of pagan worship is sexual sin. It was like that three thousand years ago and it is still true today. Sexual sin is what took place in their "high places." Psalm 78:58--59 For they provoked Him with their high places and aroused His jealousy with their graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath and greatly abhorred Israel; (NAU)
God viewed His chosen people as being married to Him. Hosea 2:19 "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, (NAU)
This is why God warned His people: Ezekiel 16:38--40 "Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare. They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. (NAU)
God deserves and demands complete loyalty to Him. Deuteronomy 11:13 "It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, (NAU)
►Half-hearted love for God is no love at all.
► Vs.13 B. Destroy false gods "tear down...smash"
"Pillars (Ex. 23:24) and wooden images were sexually centered images; the latter were representations of Asherah, the fertility goddess of the Canaanites." [2]
We must view sin, especially sexual sin, as dangerous and hateful to God. That is why we must do whatever it takes to get rid of it.
As Jesus said, Matthew 5:29 "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (NAU)
Deuteronomy 7:5 "But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. (NAU)
► Vs.17 C. Don't make false gods "no molten gods"
Exodus 20:4--5 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,... (NAU)
It's bad enough to adopt the sinful lifestyle around you, it is also wrong to make up your own false gods. How many times have you heard someone say, "I believe in taking the best out of all the religions and worshiping that" ?
Spurgeon: "...as sin boasts, 'I will not keep God's law,' self-righteousness exclaims, 'I will not be saved in God's way; I will make a new road to heaven; I will not bow before God's grace; I will not accept the atonement which God has wrought out in the person of Jesus; I will be my own redeemer; I will enter heaven by my own strength, and glorify my own merits.'" [3]
►Vs.14-16 III. God Gives Reasons for Obeying Him
► Vs.14 A. God is a jealous God "the LORD...is a jealous God"
Jealousy is an ugly word. "It is the green-eyed monster," said Shakespeare in Othello. It smacks of selfishness, suspicion, and distrust.
"The root idea in the Old Testament word jealous is to become intensely red. It seems to refer to the changing color of the face or the rising heat of the emotions which are associated with intense zeal or fervor over something dear to us. In fact, both the Old and New Testament words for jealousy are also translated "zeal." Being jealous and being zealous are essentially the same thing in the Bible. God is zealous--eager about protecting what is precious to Him." [4]
► "God's jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor." [5]
God's jealousy does not come from fear or weakness, but from resentment when His honor, glory, and grace are treated scornfully by His own creatures.
Spurgeon said, "Suppose that you had made the heavens and the earth, and all the creatures that inhabit this round globe; how would you feel if those creatures should set up an image of wood, or brass, or gold, and cry, 'These are the gods that made us; these things give us life.' What--a dead piece of earth set up in rivalry with real Deity!" [6]
Isaiah 48:11 ... My glory I will not give to another. (NAU)
It is right for God to be jealous because He deserves our complete loyalty. Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." (NAU)
Spurgeon notes that: "He that made heaven and earth has a right to rule his creatures as he wills. The potter hath power over the clay to fashion it according to his own good pleasure... Every time we sin, we do as much as say, 'I do not acknowledge God to be my sovereign; I will do as I please.'" [7]
► Vs.15 B. The temptation to be accepted by others "someone might invite you"
1 Corinthians 10:21--22 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? (NAU)
This is exactly what the Jews did many years later. Numbers 25:1--2 While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. (NAU)
► Vs.16 C. The effect disobedience has on the next generation "cause your sons
also to play the harlot with their gods"
Everything we do has an influence on others.
►"What parents allow in moderation the children will excuse to excess."
2 Corinthians 6:14--18 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial [a wicked person], or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. (NAU)
CONCLUSION: God's jealousy is not like ours. Instead God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a poor broken girl from the slums, forgives her, marries her, and gives her the privileges of a queen.
John Piper: "The ten commandments are not a job description for God's employees. They are the wedding vows that the peasant girl takes to forsake all others and to cleave to the king alone and to live in a way that brings no dishonor to his great name." [8]
►How Should God's Jealousy Affect us?
► #1 God's jealousy should control us
Nahum 1:2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. .... (NAU)
"Whatever lures your affections away from God with deceptive attraction will come back to strip you bare and cut you in pieces. It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty." John Piper [9]
Any time we do what another person expect of us when we know it is wrong then we have made that person a god over us.
►"Sin is a deliberate treason against the majesty of God, an assault upon his crown, an insult offered to his throne." [10]
Sin should scare us because it provokes the jealousy of God.
Proverbs 5:3--11 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold of Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, she does not know it. Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house, or you will give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one; and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien; and you groan at your final end, when your flesh and your body are consumed (NAU)
Spurgeon: "Let a Christian begin to boast, 'I can do all things,' without adding 'through Christ which strengtheneth me,' and before long he will have to groan, 'I can do nothing,' and bemoan himself in the dust.... The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High.... Ah, thieves! ah, thieves! will ye dare to steal the crown-jewels of the universe!"
If you belong to God then He is demanding that you take down the pictures of your boyfriend or girlfriend. Don't claim to love God and then give you affection to anyone or anything else.
► #2 God's jealousy should comfort us
Spurgeon: "But for those of you who have been truly united to Christ and who keep your vows to forsake all others and cleave only to him and live for his honor--for you the jealousy of God is a great comfort and a great hope. Since God is infinitely jealous for the honor of his name, anything and anybody who threatens the good of his faithful wife will be opposed with divine omnipotence." [11]
"I am not afraid for the Church of God! I tremble not for the cause of God! Our jealous Husband will never let his Church be in danger, and if any smite her he will give them double for every blow. The gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church, but she shall prevail against the gates of hell. Her jealous Husband shall roll away her shame; her reproach shall be forgotten; her glory shall be fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners, for he that is jealous of himself is jealous for her fair fame. ... if any say 'Why are you so precise?' let this be our answer--'I serve a jealous God.'" [12]
"Let us crown him every day! Let our holy obedience, let our devout lives, let our hearty acquiescence [submission] in all his will, let our reverent adoration before the greatness of his majesty, all prove that we acknowledge him to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, lest we provoke a jealous God to anger." [13]
"Did he not choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he not buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own, or that you belong to this world. ... he stripped himself to nakedness that he might clothe you with beauty; he bowed his face to shame and spitting that he might lift you up to honor and glory, and he cannot endure that you should love the world, and the things of the world. His love is strong as death towards you, and therefore will be cruel as the grave." [14]
►Our forgiveness marries us to Christ and He is a jealous husband.
If you know of a way that you have provoked God to jealously, then confess that quickly and promise to honor and serve Him will all of your heart.
[1]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, Ex 34:10–17 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996).
[2]Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, Ex 34:13 (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999).
[3]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[4]A Jealous God Study By: Richard L. Strauss http://bible.org/seriespage/jealous-god
[5]Systematic Theology By Wayne Grudem Page 205
[6]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[7]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[8]www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-lord-whose-name-is-jealous
[9]www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-lord-whose-name-is-jealous
[10]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[11]www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-lord-whose-name-is-jealous
[12]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[13]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
[14]A Jealous God A Sermon (No. 502) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
