2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
It is never fun to dwell on the subject of jealousy. Certainly that’s true of unrighteous jealousy. However, there is another kind of jealousy, righteous jealousy, the kind Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, has. It can be very spiritually constructive to examine that kind of jealousy. That is what He leads me to do with you today. I found it very interesting that Irving Jensen, who is a very competent theologian and the author of series of Bible studies published by Moody Bible Institite’s Moody Press, commented that Jehovah Shammah was there in EZK 1-32 and not there in EZK 33-48. He was referring to the fact that God remained actually present at the Temple in Jerusalem until He could no longer find a reason to stay there due to the disobedience and sinfulness that was going on at the time. It was then [as described in EZK 10: 4] that God departed the Temple and went up to heaven. Despite this fact, the question mankind should ponder is while God physically left the Temple, did He ever really abandon His children? I would like to suggest that He never has. Think about that and see how you feel.
2 K 24: 10-16 describes events which could surely be misunderstood as God not being there for the people when viewed from limited human perspective. “It was during his reign [Jehoiachin of Judah’s] that the Babylonian army, commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar’s officers, marched against Jerusalem and besieged it. During the siege Nebuchadnezzar himself came to Jerusalem, and King Jehoiachin, along with his mother, his sons, his officers, and the palace officials, surrendered to the Babylonians. In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign he took Jehoiachin prisoner and carried off to Babylon all the treasures in the Temple and the palace. As the Lord had foretold, Nebuchadnezzar broke up all the gold utensils which King Solomon had made for use in the Temple. Nebuchadnezzar carried away as prisoners the people of Jerusalem, all the royal princes, all the leading men, ten thousand in all. He also deported all the skilled workmen, including the blacksmiths, leaving only the poorest of the people behind in Judah. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylon as a prisoner, together with Jehoiachins’ mother, his wives, his officials and the leading men of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar deported all the important men to Babyloina, seven thousand in all, including the blacksmiths, all of them able-bodied men fit for military duty.” It takes stretching toward God’s perspective for us to understand why Jehovah Shammah allows mankind to be punished or to face spiritual warfare, and that He does this without ever abandoning us. It takes being able to see the big picture.
The answer for us rests in another name for God, Jehovah Qanna, God Who Is Jealous. Qanna is the Hebrew for jealous. Remember that God is always righteous, and see what is meant by His righteous jealousy as it is expressed in EX 20: 1-6. “God spoke, and these were His words: ‘I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god but Me. Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate Me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show My love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and obey My laws.’” God reiterates His refusal to tolerate rivals in EX 34: 14.
A limited human perspective would say, “Wow, this is tough talk? It sure doesn’t look like God loves me and wants to grant me freedom.” But in stretching toward God’s perspective, we would look at the question: Why is it so important that I worship only Jehovah? The answer rests in the fact that He is the only God Who is totally able and sufficient to supply what we really need [PS 73: 25-28]. What we really need is salvation from the devastation, destruction, and death that sin brings [RO 6: 23; RO 3: 23-25]. If we are rationalizing mixing idolatry in one form or another with worshipping God, we are demonstrating disobedience, poorly grounded faith, or even no faith at all. It is only when we obey God that we have the tools to wage successful spiritual warfare, fend off the adversary’s temptations for us to sin, and endure pain. It is only when we repent and have faith in Jesus Christ that we can be saved. Righteous jealousy on God’s part provides the only way that we can be victorious over death. It takes a believer straight to the truth, God’s truth which is the only truth. JN 8: 31-32, “So Jesus said to those who believed in Him, ‘If you obey My teaching, you are really My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” I hope you never get tired of the way that God leads me to the inescapable conclusion in so many ways that everything He does and says to us is a demonstration of His great love for us-even His righteous jealousy!
PRAYER: O Lord, when we stretch toward understanding of Your perspective, we can actually celebrate the fact that You are a righteously jealous God. From the time You created us, You have been our Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. Even at the times when You had to punish mankind by withdrawing Your active communication with them temporarily, You were still there. You always knew that the only way we could ever be saved from the devastation that comes from spiritual death was for us to make You the one and only Lord of our lives. That means that You have to tolerate no rivals-no other gods in our lives and no form of idolatry. We accept Your command to get idolatry, in whatever form it is in, out of our lives. We acknowledge that You are the only Source of truth, and that the truth will set us free. In addition, we humbly offer our gratitude that You sent Your Son to die on the cross so that we could be saved. In humility, we offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, the Lord leads me to examine some citations that deal with wrongful alliances, making covenants, and other aspects of Jehovah Shammah’s righteous jealousy. When we understand God’s motive behind His jealous refusal to tolerate rivals, we will also see another manifestation of His love for us. What an awesome God we are blessed enough to have in our lives! What human do we know who is ready to stand by us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week? Our loving Abba is not only able to do this, but doing this is the desire of His heart! Peter and I send you our love too.
race Be With You Always,
Lynn