“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you . . . Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.” (Deut. 12:8-9; 28)
God is rightfully jealous. From the beginning and throughout redemptive history, God’s pleasures have ultimately been in his delight in being God. If God were not jealous to make himself known and be glorified in all things, he would be an idolater. John Piper says that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (good stuff). It’s important that we “be careful to obey all these words” that he commands us, because he alone is the Lord and above him, there is no other. And more, when we do what is good and right in his sight, it may go well for us and our children.
Though I’m too often unfaithful, bending God’s righteous laws to suit my deceitful heart, “hanging ropes will never keep you and your love of a jealous kind.” Christ, subject me to grace and swift discipline so that I may mature and live out the gospel . . .
Jealous Kind by Jars of Clay (Who We Are Instead, 2003)
I built another temple to a stranger.
I gave away my heart to the rushing wind.
I set my course to run right into danger;
Sought the company of fools instead of friends.You know I’ve been unfaithful,
Lovers in line,
While you’re turning over tables,
With the rage of a jealous kind.
I chose the gallows to the aisle,
Thought that love would never find,
Hanging ropes will never keep you,
And your love of a jealous kind.
Love of a jealous kind.Tryin’ to jump away from rock that keeps on spreading,
For solace in the shift of the sinking sand.
I’d rather feel the pain all too familiar,
Then be broken by a lover I don’t understand,
‘Cause I don’t understand.One hundred other lovers, more, one hundred other altars,
If I should slow my pace and finally subject me to grace;
And love that shames the wise, betrays the heart’s deceit and lies,
And breaks the back of foolish pride.
Good stuff, Kevin. One of the greatest truths I learned during my seminary career is that the greatest tragedy of life is not that sinful creatures are going to hell, although such is indeed tragic in some sense. Rather, what is truly tragic is that God does not receive glory from His creation as He so ought. Sinners deserve the punishment of hell, but God does not deserve to be shortened of His glory. May we all give much personal reflection to how we truly might live life to His glory above all else. Soli Deo Gloria.
think many struggle with the idea that God is a jealous God, mostly because I think people (including myself) often fail to recognize the weight of God’s glory. There is none like God and no one deserves glory and praise like God. Jealousy is an ugly thing when someone is jealous for something they don’t deserve. Like a teenager with a corvette being jealous of his friend who has a hummer. God deserves every bit of the glory that He is jealous for and its only fitting, in fact I can’t think of a good analogy!