I just saw a post about God’s jealousy. It’s not a term that we see much any more. It is in the Bible. It is found, for instance in Exodus 20, the chapter where we find the Ten Commandments. “You shall not worship them or serve them [other gods]; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,” (Exodus 20:5, NASB95).
We often use the word “jealous” in a negative way. Jealous husbands murder competing suiters. Jealousy in a girlfriend is not typically seen as an attractive trait. God’s jealousy, however, is a passion for the basic fact of the universe. “In the beginning God.” Period, nothing else, everything else exists because of the will and activity of that one-and-only God.
Some students and I just walked through one of my favorite Old-Testament stories that illustrates God’s jealousy. 1 Kings 20 tells about an invasion of Israel by the Syrian Army. At first Israeli King Ahab was willing to agree to Ben-hadad’s harsh demands. The Syrian ruler, though, was determined to pick a fight, so he raised the ante to an intolerable level. When Ben-hadad heard that Ahab refused to surrender, some of the greatest trash-talk of all time ensued. The invading King bragged about the overwhelming size of his army in macho-poetic fashion, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.” (10) Though Ahab had many faults, an inability to come up with a good come-back was not one of them. “Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.” (11)
Meanwhile, in heaven, more was going on than two kings puffing up their already over-inflated egos. God was going to give Israel a victory so that they “would know that I am the Lord.” (13) So Ben-hadad marched his vast army, including the thirty-two kings who had allied with him, onto the field of battle and promptly began to drink himself into a stupor. When it was reported to him that a small force had come out from the capital of Israel to engage the enemy, the drunken ruler gave orders as if he were dealing with few dogs that needed to be captured. “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.” (18) To his utter surprise the small force of Israelis carried the day. Ben-hadad fled back to Damascus with his tail between his legs.
In step the religious advisors. They analyze the data and come to, not only the wrong conclusion, but one that is highly offensive to the jealous God. “Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.” I can almost see the God of Heaven calling one of His angels over and asking, “Did you hear what those guys said?” I’m not going to let them get by with that.
“At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. The sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the country. Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” So they camped one over against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.” (1 Kings 20:26–30, NASB95)
It’s STTA. |
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