MY NAME IS "IMPASSIONED"
Is God jealous? The Bible says yes!
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt…You must have no other gods besides me. You must not make a carved image for yourself…You must not bow down to them in worship; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” (Exodus 20:2-5, REB)
But Exodus 34:14 puts it even more bluntly. “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
Isn’t that an astonishing name he gives himself? Bless me, he doesn’t even seem to be embarrassed by it and in fact the tone of the text makes it clear that he wants Israel to keep it in mind. In other places he speaks of himself as someone who delights in love and kindness and compassion but here he just as plainly says, "Call me 'Jealous'."
So does that mean that God’s like the pouters who sulk, who disappear in a shroud of sullen silence, who make everyone in the house miserable so that they speak in whispers and mothers say to children, “Shush, be quiet, your father’s in a bad mood.” Is that the sort of thing he's talking about? If it is, he does it more than occasionally—he says, “That’s my name! That’s the word that describes me.”
Take as an example, Sydney Crittenden, the great pouter, who's nearly always in a bad mood. What is it that distresses the poor thing? Well, he feels he isn’t appreciated. And what is it that makes him feel that way? Um…he heard someone being praised and he felt that that made less of him. His name didn’t come up in numerous conversations and there were several occasions throughout the week when no one asked for his opinion and, in fact, there was one occasion when he gave his opinion and someone else’s was thought better. Then there was the time when his wife simply went on and on about how John Jones made her laugh and how nice he was to be around. That’s the kind of thing that made his bottom lip swell to the size of a watermelon and go all trembly. He was the jealous type!
That’s what God’s like?
Yes, I can understand non-believers and pathetic little celebrity gurus taking offense at biblical texts like the above and I do understand that there are preachers who are all thunder and no light, who go around screaming and foaming at the mouth about a God who is so obsessed with his own reputation that you’d think Philippians 2:6-8 wasn’t in the Bible.
The words often rendered “jealousy” have a wide range of meaning but central to all of them are the notions of heightened passion, an intense state of mind that lead to action—notions that are the opposite of ideas like “laid back” or “unruffled” or “calm” and therefore feeling no need to do anything. The words are often rendered zeal (compare Isaiah 9:7). The Jewish Publication Society translation renders Exodus 34:14, “The Lord whose name is Impassioned is an impassioned God.”
Context alone determines the precise meaning of words in their given texts and to have God himself telling us, “I am peevish, envious and obsessed with my own praise” is sheer silliness.
The word “jealousy” is used now, almost exclusively, of a mean-spirited attitude, something that wouldn’t exist in a really fine person. That being the case it’s now a misleading rendering of passages like Exodus 20:5.
God's jealousy is an intense feeling on behalf of someone else.
Eric Fairbairn adored Jeanie Duncan, Frank Boreham tells us, so he is furious when Jeanie becomes infatuated with Rex Crawford, a user and a villain who played with her and robbed her of what she couldn’t afford to lose. Eric's rage was not only that his own love was now being sidelined—though true love does seek love in return even if it doesn’t get it—his rage was that Jeanie was missing his love and the benefits that his love would mean to her.
God rages against all that robs his people in particular and the human family in general. God isn’t jealous of our friends, our gardens, our jobs, our children and families, our lovers or our health (bless me, they're his gifts to us) but he cannot bear with indifference, as if it didn’t matter, when we set our hearts on things that undermine our commitment to him or so set our hearts on his gifts that they rob us of Him.
To ask God to love us and not care that we’re losing what we can’t afford to lose is not to know God—his name is Impassioned!
To prefer a God who will simply leave us alone and make no demands of us empties the life of Jesus and his suffering, resurrection and glorification of all significance and turns it into a long shrug. God cannot not care intensely what happens to us. If we don't understand that we've lost the right to speak about real love and certainly we don't understand the love of God.
To make the word “God” mean anything or nothing depending on what we want to experience signals the changeless doom of the oppressed and the millions that have been oppressed into the grave.
Isaiah 9:1-7 speaks of Jesus, the Son of God, in whom light would come to the world and the oppressed will find deliverance. The prophet insisted that the zeal (jealousy) of the Lord of Hosts would see to it. We mustn't rob God of his passion!
Here’s the real question: The relationship you have now committed yourself to, the person or child who has now entered your life, the enterprise you are now engaged in—does it destroy your commitment to God, his agenda and method? If so, you should be glad God is zealous (jealous) and is opposed to it. Does it enrich your relationship with God and call you upward in gallantry and honor; does it bind you more closely to him, to his agenda and method? If so, this too is the work of God’s zeal. God gives us marvelous gifts and wants us to fully enjoy them and when we do it pleases him for he means us to enjoy them!
Can you imagine a parent making a great breakfast for the kids being offended when they devour it with pleasure? The parental pleasure is the pleasure of seeing the child's pleasure. A spouse, parent, child or friend that we so love that we'd throw ourselves in front or a train for them is a gift of God. He gives us these and is then upset because we love them with all our hearts? Nonsense!
God is “jealous” of nothing but what would use and abuse you, what would rob and corrupt you. Don’t ask him, now or in the end, to leave you alone—he won’t do it!
He’s a jealous God and loves you too much to do that!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
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