Word of Encouragement (01/26/2023)
"The LORD saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. 20 And he said, 'I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Deut. 32:19-22)
We have been reflecting on what provoked God to jealousy and anger. Today, we want to reflect on the sheer absurdity that God should get jealous of Israel and what that means.
How was it that God was provoked to jealousy? We talked about what it meant through the doctrine of God’s impassibility. Even so, was it right for God to feel “jealous”? We view jealousy as a negative emotion. We can understand why. Feeling jealous is not pleasant. And jealousy, if not checked, can drive a person to commit unthinkable acts of cruelty. How many people are murdered every year by a crime of passion motivated by jealousy?
But jealousy is not evil in itself. There are legitimate forms of jealousy. It is right for a husband to be jealous of his wife if her heart drifts from him. What he does because of his jealousy can be wrong but we cannot say that his jealousy is wrong. We would have to question his love for his wife if he doesn’t feel jealous at all!
What does that tell us about God’s jealousy of Israel? It was legitimate because Israel belonged to Him as His possession. Even though Israel was nothing, God delivered her from her bondage inEgypt and sustained her through the wilderness journey. God extended His covenant to her, and she accepted it with an oath (Ex. 24:3) through the blood of the covenant (Ex. 24:8). God had all the right to be jealous when she turned away from Him and chased after pagan idols, which were not gods and had not done anything for her.
God’s jealousy of Israel was also a sign of His intense love for her. If He did not love her, He would not have felt any jealousy. He would have said, “Good riddance!” and moved on. But because He loved her so much, her betrayal “hurt” Him so much (another anthropopathic expression). Isn’t this amazing? Who was Israel that God should feel so jealous of her? Who are we that God should be jealous of us if we go astray?
Thank God that He is a jealous God! Because He is jealous of His people, He does not let us go at the first sign of our unfaithfulness. He does not wait for us to make a false move so He can drop us right away and move on. Our unfaithfulness deeply grieves Him because He loves us so much. It grieves Him also because He knows how our unfaithfulness deprives us of the richness of His love and blessing toward us. But He does not wallow in self-pity because we are unfaithful. He fights for our love. He does everything necessary to restore us to Himself. He extends His kindness and patience to us so that we might repent out of gratitude and love for His great love for us. But when we persist in rebellion, He is willing to resort to the only thing that will melt our hardened hearts—the crucible of His discipline. That was what God was declaring to Israel in this passage.
Do we expect anything less from God? For our salvation, for our deep communion with Him (which is our life), He was willing to sacrifice even His Son. Would He stop at anything to accomplish that goal, to preserve us in His love? Let this relentless love strike godly fear into our souls and have us turn from our sinful ways in glad surrender to Him and His love for us!