Introduction:
A. If you like to listen to contemporary Christian music, then when you see the title of today’s sermon, “He is Jealous for Me,” you probably think of the David Crowder Band’s song “How He Loves,” because the song begins with that sentence.
1. The beginning of the song goes like this:
He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree bending beneath
The weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me
2. Those are indeed beautiful words with a lot of deep meaning to them.
3. God’s love for us is like a hurricane, and we are indeed “blown over” when we realize how great are God’s affections for each of us.
B. But the first line, “He is jealous for me,” leaves us a little unsettled, doesn’t it?
1. Is it okay for God to be “jealous?”
2. How is it right for God to be jealous, but not for me to be jealous?
3. In today’s sermon, I want us to explore how and why God is jealous for us, and why is it right and good that God is this way.
C. Today’s sermon is the second in our new sermon series Counterfeit Gods – Defeating the Idols that Battle for Our Hearts.
1. Last week we discovered that idolatry isn’t just a problem of the past, but that it continues to be a problem in our time and in our lives.
2. We learned that anything can become an idol, when it takes a place in our lives and hearts that belongs only to God.
3. We learned that God has commanded that we have no other gods before Him or beside Him.
4. The one true God must be our only God.
5. And because the one true God must be our only God, He is jealous for us.
6. Let’s explore what that means by answering some important questions.
I. First of all, Is it true that God is a Jealous God?
A. Let’s investigate the Bible and see whether it says that God is a jealous God.
1. Exodus 20:4-5a: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God …” (Repeated also in Deuteronomy 5:8-9)
2. Exodus 34:12-14: “Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).”
3. Deuteronomy 4:23-24: “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
5. Deuteronomy 6:13-15: “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”
6. Ezekiel 39:25: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.”
7. Zechariah 1:14 says: “So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.’ ”
B. When we think of the characteristics of God, jealousy is not one that immediately comes to our minds, and yet in the Old Testament in these numerous passages, the Hebrew word qanna^' translated “jealous” is used to describe God.
1. And to make the matter even more intriguing is that God not only employs jealousy as a trait, as we saw, God even takes it on as one of His names - “…whose name is Jealous” (Ex. 34:14).
2. So, the Bible makes it clear that God is a jealous God, but what does it mean?
II. Second, What is does it mean that God is a Jealous God?
A. When the Bible says that God is jealous, is it simply a way for God to use human characteristics to describe Himself?
1. Is God saying this to make us feel good about ourselves, when in fact He is not jealous?
2. Or did the translators just get this word wrong when it should have been translated merciful or something else?
3. No, the Hebrew word translated “jealous” literally means “to become intensely red.”
a. It seems to refer to the changing color of the face or the rising heat of emotions which are associated with passion over something dear to us.
B. When we hear the Bible say that God is characterized by jealousy and that His name is Jealous, we experience an internal protest, we say to ourselves: “Hey, wait a minute, isn’t jealousy a sin?”
1. Yes, normally the word jealousy carries a negative connation.
2. Throughout the New Testament in places like Romans 13:13, and Galatians 5:20 it is listed as a vice not a virtue.
3. In I Corinthians 13:4, when the Apostle Paul lists the characteristics of true love, he says, ‘Love is not jealous.’
4. So how can God be jealous? That’s a great question.
5. Not understanding the answer to that question was Oprah Winfrey’s point of departure from orthodox Christianity.
a. Oprah states that “I was in my 20s, and I remember sitting in a church…the minister was preaching about…about how “the Lord thy God was a jealous God and the Lord thy God would condemn us for whatever,” and I remember I had a spiritual aha! And I was in my late 20s, and I suddenly thought, ‘How can this God who is all loving and all powerful, why would God be jealous of me?’ ” [Finding Your Spiritual Path Webcast Transcript January 14, 2009 www.oprah.com/spirit/Finding-Your-Spiritual-Path-Webcast-Transcript/6]
6. Oprah states that this was as an “aha” moment for her.
a. This was a moment that caused Oprah to turn from her childhood Christian faith to a New Age faith in a God of her own making because she could not believe that a God of love could be a jealous God.
C. When we typically think of jealousy, we tend to think of it as something negative and certain types of jealousy come to mind, like...
1. We think of a high school boyfriend who becomes upset if his girlfriend makes eye contact with another guy.
2. We think of a basketball player who avoids passing the ball to the teammate who keeps getting the high score – in college a soccer player on my team had to miss several games and told other players on the team not to pass me the ball so I wouldn’t be able to score more goals than him.
3. We think of the husband who will not trust his wife regardless of her years of faithfulness.
4. Another image that comes to mind is that of a neighbor, friend, family member or coworker who fumes over the successes of others and barely contains their joy at the failures of others because he or she is jealous.
5. In all these types of jealousy, the true object of the jealous person’s concerns is themselves – they find themselves lacking in comparison to others or cannot tolerate the thought of someone having something they don’t – and they become jealous.
6. Such jealousy is rooted in envy – a self-serving hatred or malice of someone because you want what they have.
E. Perhaps this would be a good point to make the distinction between jealousy and envy.
1. Jealousy can be good or bad dependent on the object of the jealousy and the reason for the jealousy.
2. Envy which is a completely different word and emotion, and it is always bad and wrong.
3. Envy is a feeling of displeasure over the blessings someone else is enjoying.
4. Jealousy makes us want what others are enjoying, but envy makes us want to deprive them of that enjoyment.
5. Godly jealousy is zeal to protect another, or to protect and preserve something that is precious.
6. Godly jealousy is motivated by love – by single-minded devotion.
F. Oprah seemed to think that God was envious of her.
1. But that is not what the Bible means when it says, “God is a jealous God”
2. There’s a big difference between being jealous OF someone and being jealous FOR someone.
3. True love is never jealous OF someone you love, but it is always jealous FOR the person you love.
4. That’s what the Bible means when it says that God is a jealous God, He is jealous for us.”
G. The Hebrew words translated jealous and zealous come from the same root word.
1. In its most positive sense, the word qanna means “to be filled with righteous zeal or jealousy.”
2. God is not tainted with the negative connotation of the word jealousy.
3. In no single passage of the Bible is God described as envious.
H. So if God is not jealous in the negative senses we have described, then how is He jealous?
1. A good illustration of the holy jealousy of God has to do with parenting.
a. Let’s imagine that you answer the door one day, and there stands a man who appears to be about 40 years old.
b. He informs you that he and your 14 year-old daughter met in an online chat room and that he and your fourteen year-old daughter have determined that they are madly in love.
c. He says that he and your daughter have decided to elope to somewhere that permits girls her age to marry without the consent of parents and that he is there to pick her up.
2. Now assuming that you would be able to restrain yourself long enough to figure out what you are feeling, what you would find is that you are suddenly feeling very jealous and zealous for your daughter.
a. You are not jealous of the man, but you are jealous for your daughter’s safety and jealous for her future happiness.
b. With God’s restraining hand guiding you, you would act swiftly and legally, to remove this stranger from your daughter’s life and to recalibrate her sense of proper relationships and affections.
c. Why would you act this way? Because you love her. Because of what you know is best for her.
d. You would not be acting in a way that is all about benefitting you in a selfish way, rather you would be doing what is best for her.
I. Another good illustration of the holy jealousy of God has to do with marriage.
1. The prophet Ezekiel used a powerful analogy to describe what idolatry feels like to God.
2. In Ezekiel 23:37, God says: “For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery…”
3. The pain of having an unfaithful partner is surely one of the most agonizing human experiences – it is the ultimate betrayal.
4. Yet this is how we are described when we reject the love of God for cheap substitutes.
5. In a marriage, a wife has the right to expect faithfulness by her husband.
a. So she would be would be well within her rights to be jealous for her husband, if her husband was unfaithful with another woman, because their marriage vows made their relationship exclusive of all others.
b. But how would she feel if she found out the other woman, was not a real, living woman at all, but was a department store manikin?
6. This gives us an insight into why God was angry with Israel.
a. They gave the worship that belonged to Him to an idol that wasn’t even real!
J. So, what can we conclude about the jealousy of God?
1. First, the jealousy of God is a reflection of God’s love.
a. God’s jealousy—unlike ours—is not mixed up with weakness or sin.
b. What we call “jealousy” is mostly something else: insecurity, selfishness, and suspicion.
c. The Lord’s jealousy, however, has none of these impurities.
d. Yes, God is possessive; yes, He wants us for Himself; yes, He wants us all and always.
e. But here is where Divine jealousy differs from human: First, God’s love and desire for us is holy, and second, we will never be happy until we give ourselves completely to Him.
f. When we give our lives to Him, we don’t lose them, we find them.
g. To say The Lord is a jealous God, therefore, is another way of saying God is love.
h. How can He not want us for Himself when our highest happiness is found in Him?
i. God only wants what is best for us.
2. Secondly, we can conclude that the jealousy of God is a protection for us.
a. God’s jealously based on His love for us will cause Him to protect us from other suitors.
b. God knows that other suitors for our hearts are only thieves and murderers – Satan comes only to kill and destroy.
c. Other suitors do not have our best interests at heart.
d. God won’t just let us run off with other lovers, He will relentlessly chase after us.
e. The one true God will not give up on us without a fight.
f. That’s why a poet named Francis Thompson called God “The Hound of Heaven.”
g. God will keep tracking us like a hound after a fox.
h. God’s love is more jealous and more zealous, than our stubborn resistance, and aren’t you thankful for that?
III. Third, How should we respond to God’s jealousy?
A. Answering this final question is so important.
1. How should we respond to the fact that God’s calling is exclusive and that He is jealous?
2. Because God loves us so much, and His love has a protective zealousness and jealousy, we should devote ourselves whole-heartedly to God and serve the Lord and Him only.
B. As you will recall, Joshua took over the leadership of the Israelites from Moses.
1. Joshua led them through the conquest of the Promised Land.
2. When Joshua was 110 years old and knew he didn’t have much time left on the earth, he gave the people of God a final challenge.
3. Joshua said to the people: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:14-15)
4. How did the people of God respond? The Bible says: Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” (Josh. 24:16-18)
5. We would expect that Joshua would complement them after their response, saying something like, “That’s what I’m talking about!” Or “Nice job! You have chosen well!”
a. But that’s not what Joshua did. He didn’t let them off the hook so easily.
6. Here’s what Joshua said to them: But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” (Josh. 24:19-20)
7. Nevertheless, the people promised that they would serve the Lord, that they would put away their foreign gods, and that they would obey the Lord and listen only to His voice.
C. Like Joshua, and God’s people in His time, will we take a stand for the Lord and make a commitment to serve the Lord only?
1. Will we clean out all our foreign and counterfeit gods and throw them away?
D. I want to end with an interesting story about Michael Jordan, the legendary basketball player.
1. One day, Jordan made a visit to the home of Fred Whitfield – Fred was his friend and was the president and chief operating officer of another NBA team.
2. The two of them were going to go out to dinner, and Michael Jordon said to Whitfield, “Man, it’s kind of cold. Can I borrow one of your jackets?”
3. Whitfield told him, “Sure,” and pointed Jordon toward his closet.
4. Jordon disappeared down the hallway and returned with an armful of branded athletic jackets, shirts, shoes and other gear.
5. Jordon dumped the pile on the floor and disappeared down the hallway again.
6. Whitfield looked at the heap and noted that all the items were made by Puma, a rival of Nike, which was the company that Jordon represented.
7. Jordon had noted that the Nike stuff he had given Whitfield was in the closet, but so were a lot of stuff with the Puma branding.
8. The Puma stuff had come as the result of Whitfield’s other close friend, Ralph Sampson, an ex-player who promoted the Puma brand.
9. Whitfield stood there silently while he waited to see the fate of his Puma gear.
10. Michael Jordon returned with a butcher knife from the kitchen and proceeded to cut the pile of Puma gear into a thousand pieces.
11. When Jordon was done, he said to Whitfield, “Hey, dude, call my Nike representative tomorrow and tell him to replace all this. But don’t ever let me see you again in anything other than Nike. You can’t ride the fence.”
E. Jordon’s behavior is a little uncomfortable to hear about.
1. I can’t imagine myself pulling a Michael Jordon in someone else’s closet, but perhaps we need to begin pulling Michael Jordon’s with each other!
2. I think that Jordan offers us a pretty good picture of idol smashing.
3. He was demonstrating an exclusive commitment to a single entity.
4. That’s the kind of exclusive commitment God longs for from His people.
5. God doesn’t want us to just make room in our closet for Him; He wants the closet exclusively to Himself.
6. God is rightly jealous for us.
7. I pray that all of us will give God what God rightly deserves – our whole-hearted devotion.
8. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord – I hope you will too!
9. Let’s make that commitment to the Lord and then let’s get to work cleaning out the closet of all our other gods and the things that belong to them.
Resources:
gods at war, Kyle Idleman, Zondervan, 2013
Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller, Dutton, 2009
He Is Jealous of Me, sermon by John Hamby, SermonCentral.com
