Our God, Jealous

     Yesterday, a dear friend posted a video on her facebook wall that has broken and convicted my heart.  I laid awake thinking on it last night, and felt compelled to share it.  I know nothing about the book they are endorsing, and I cannot affirm the facts they claim of the religion she is following.  I am most deeply moved by her actual words in the video.  Please take a few minutes to watch.  My thoughts follow. 

   

     Oprah’s answer is that her doubts about the character of God began when she heard that God was a “jealous God”, because, as she said, “God is love.”  Never a truer statement has ever been made than Oprah’s claim to 1 John 4:8, which plainly states “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”  Yet, Exodus 34:14 is just as true to state “For thou shalt worship no other god:  for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”.  How often have you heard someone praise their God, Jealous?  And, yet, here is a verse telling us that Jealous is one of the names of the God of Heaven.  It can seem contradictory to us until we explore what jealousy is, and more importantly, determine its motive in these verses.  But, first, let’s sidebar for a minute: 

     Scripture is riddled with examples like the above…phrases that seem like oxymorons or oddities.  Example:  2 Corinthians 7:10 mentions “godly sorrow”, while James 1:17 says “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights”.  Does this same God who gives good and perfect gifts also give sorrow?  Yes, because, if you read all of 2 Corinthians 7:10, you’ll see that the sorrow leads to “repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”  God, in His mercy, makes us sorrowful for our sin to deliver us from eternal death.  There are countless examples in Scripture, but we won’t review them all now. 

     Also, consider this before we explore the motives of our jealous God.  “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Romans 11:33 Why?  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8 To claim we could fully understand God’s motives or search out His wisdom would be a great pretense indeed!  Though we have been created in His image and feel many of the same things He felt in His bodily form here on earth, we must always remember that those same feelings and emotions have been tainted by sin, while He remained completely sinless.  Our anxiety is different from the anxiety He felt.  We are usually anxious over ourselves or our possessions, while the well-being of others and, ultimately, the salvation of our souls caused His grief.  Our anger is usually self-motivated, while His was a “zeal” over the reproach of His Father’s Name and His Word.  (Psalm 69:9)  Our joy is usually self-centered, while His was completely selfless.  “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…”  Hebrews 12:2  My heart is overflowing right now!  Oh, the sorrows He endured for me!  Could it be anything other than wondrous love? 

     With that being said, I would like to offer two possible motives of our God, Jealous.  (Shew!  I almost gave it away!)  

1.        His love for us is His jealousy’s cause. 

     Imagine, as a parent, watching one of your children love and adore someone else.  Now, because I love my children, there is an automatic twinge of jealousy that sweeps through my heart at the sight, but that’s squelched by the fact that I know my children love me and they are loyal to me.  At the end of the day, they’ll want me to tuck them in, and it’s my hand they’ll want holding theirs in the scary times.  But, what if one of them decided to choose a new mom?  What if they simply chose to discredit the care and love they had been shown and go live with someone else?  Naturally, I would be jealous.  Not because I believe the other mom is better or more adequate, but because I am the one who has loved my child since before her birth.  I am the one who has tried to meet her every need and give her the desires of her heart.  Isn’t it only reasonable to expect her love in return?  My love for her would make me jealous.  

     It is just as reasonable for a God who was gracious enough to create us in His image, give us a free will, then send His Son to redeem us from turning from Him to expect our love and be jealous when we choose to worship another god…or simply refuse to worship Him.  Jealousy is a result of love, whether it is our love of self or God’s love of us.

2.       His Omniscience is His jealousy’s cause.

     Omniscient means “having universal knowledge or knowledge of all things; infinitely knowing; all-seeing; as the omniscient God.”  Imagine, again, that in the above story, I was omniscient. (That’s a big stretch, since I don’t even know what I’m fixing for supper this evening.)  Imagine that before my daughter left to live with her new mother, I told her all the terrible things that would transpire through her life… that the other mother, though she pretended to have her best interest at heart, ultimately aimed to destroy her and separate us forever.  Her new mother would see that she married, had children, was successful, and surrounded with any material thing she desired.  She would even be allowed to visit me occasionally through the years, but nothing personal.  The visits would eventually be refused, but a reference to me would be allowed here or there, but only references to my existence…never to what I had done for her.  Then, “for her own good”, she would be encouraged to simply stop believing I had ever existed.  After all, I only held rules that would inhibit her.  The rules would be emphasized and the love would be denied and forgotten.  My daughter would live out her life, seemingly peaceably, then die with her new mother holding her hand and secretly, deviously enjoying watching her slip into eternity…without me. 

     That story makes me boil with jealousy.  Does anything make you more upset than to see someone you love make a wrong choice because they simply will not hear the truth?  Even from someone whom they know loves them?  I think one more thing makes God, in His omniscience, a little more angry. 

     See, in my story, my daughter lived a seemingly peaceful life, but such would not be the case for her children and grandchildren.  Exodus 20:5 commands us to not bow to other gods “…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”.  One thing I have learned and seen down through the years is that sin visits.  So many times, children reap the consequences of their parents’ sin.  It is heartbreaking to watch! 

     There are countless untruths that Oprah is believing...by choosing not to "believe" and basing her life on feelings.  The greatest is that a God who is love cannot be a God who is jealous, when the reality is that He is jealous because He loves.  And He loves her as much as He loves me.  My prayer is that Oprah will see the truth of God’s Word and His love for her.  I wish her no ill whatsoever.  I am, however, very disappointed that she is using her world influence to spread heresy, and I believe Christians need to speak out against this false religion.  I am most heartbroken that she has been so deceived and turned against Jesus and His work on the cross on her behalf.  I pray God sends a messenger of Truth to her, that she will repent, and use the forum God has allowed her for the Gospel’s sake. 

“Retirement may be lovely in its season, and to hide one’s self is doubtless modest, but the hiding of Christ in us can never be justified, and the keeping back of truth which is precious to ourselves is a sin against others and an offence against God.” ~ Spurgeon