As I think about this time of year, I can’t help but think of children and Christmas morning. There’s nothing like witnessing the look of pure joy on a kid’s face as they un-wrap gifts on Christmas morning. You know how it goes: We parents stand by and watch, cameras rolling, as the screams and giggles and signs of awe begin; and before you can hardly blink twice, there’s a mountain of beautiful wrapping paper in the middle of the floor, shredded paper and debris littering the carpet….
BUT let’s face it folks, in our society Christmas has largely come to focus on the gifts. And though gift-giving traditions are fun to celebrate, every year as the gifts pile up under the tree … I’m convicted anew of the selfishness of the human heart. It’s not that we’re more selfish or greedy this time of the year; it’s just that Christmastime seems to magnify those characteristics. Lists are made and money is spent. We start wishing and hoping and dreaming of getting that perfect gift we’ve always wanted, and we dream about how excited our children will be when we give them that brand new gadget they’ve been begging for all year…
The whole gift-giving process can absolutely consume us, if we’re not careful and we end up simply giving lip service to the one thing we’re really supposed to be celebrating—the birth of Jesus. And that makes me wonder … does all of this make God jealous?
Since God wants desperately to love us and be loved in return—to be in a serious, committed relationship with us, it’s no wonder God is jealous, when we think about some of our actions in life! BUT, many times, jealous isn’t how we think of our holy God, because we tend to use that term to communicate some form of pettiness or envy. You know, we’re jealous because our colleague got the promotion; we’re jealous because our neighbors got a new car, and so forth. Yet on several occasions ‘jealous’ is exactly how scripture describes God. So, what’s the deal here? Why would God be known as ‘jealous’? Could it mean more than what we think it means? Well, let me begin here today and this is at least one reason for God’s jealousy: Folks…
WE ARE ALL PRONE TO WANDER. Did you know that? And here are some examples from the Old Testament of a jealous God…
- Exodus 34:14 (NIV) – “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
- Deuteronomy 4:24 (NIV) – “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
- Deuteronomy 6:13-15 (NIV) – “Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.”
That sound pretty intense, doesn’t it? So, what’s the OT trying to tell us by using the word jealous as a description or even a name for God? Consider this…
The Hebrew word for jealousy is qin’ah, which means ‘warmth’ or ‘heat’—used to describe intense emotion or passion. When scripture uses this word for God, it’s describing how God is intensely passionate about his people—about his desire for an intimate relationship with us. You might say that God’s ‘on fire’ for us … and how God’s love for us causes him to be jealous of anything that stands between us and him—namely, our idols (anything we place above God in our lives)…
As the Old Testament continually points out, God’s people often get their priorities out of order and are easily distracted by their desires. In Exodus 32, for instance, we read about how God has rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt and is now leading them into the Promised Land. Moses, their leader, leaves the group and goes up a mountain in order to receive further instructions from God. He’s gone a little longer than the people expect, so they begin to panic. They start to wonder if they’ve been abandoned—if God is still looking out for them. Well, they decide to take matters into their own hands (and we’re always in trouble when that happens) … and they create a physical idol to worship in place of the Lord. And you might say that this made God a little hot under the collar. Listen to our scripture for today (Ex. 32:7-14, NIV)…
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. – Exodus 32:7-14 (NIV)
So, God rescued his people from slavery and set them on a path to freedom … because he loved them and desired a relationship with them. God’s passion for their freedom caused him to be jealous of anything that stood in the way of that freedom! And that’s how God feels about us! God’s passionate about us, and when God’s passion for us cannot be fully expressed because of idolatrous choices we’ve made—putting anything first in our lives ahead of him, he gets—in a word—jealous…
Does that make God some kind of vengeful, wronged lover who is out to get us when our eyes wander? No! The reason God wants us to keep our eyes on him is that he desires his very best for us, knowing that what we too often settle for … will kill us in the end. Remember Jesus’ words from John 10:10 (NIV), “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” There is one who doesn’t want us to have God’s very best! But, God’s jealous to have a relationship with us that will result in our having his very best in life—in every area of our lives! SO, even though we’re prone to wander…
THE SOLUTION COMES IN PUTTING GOD FIRST. God makes no apologies for wanting to have first place in our lives … and his jealousy for our hearts is shown in his sending Jesus to us. I think this verse is worth repeating from last week, but here we see how jealous God is for a relationship with us (John 3:16, NIV):
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God didn’t send just another messenger—not another Moses, or another prophet—to show us his love for us; instead, he sent his one and only Son to come and live with us so that we could intimately know him and live in community with him! Through Jesus, we see just how jealous of our hearts God can be; we see how much God wants to know us and be known by us! When God sent Jesus, he was basically saying: “This is me! I want you to know me!” And when we come to know Jesus and the love he has for us, it changes our lives and, through us, it changes the world. And the Season of Advent serves as a reminder of how much God loves us and how he moved heaven & earth on that first Christmas in order to be with us…
So, practically speaking, what does it mean to put God first in our lives? What would that look like … so we know how to measure where we’re at in this relationship with God? Here are some ideas…
- We’d always be attached to God’s Word—spending time in our Bibles daily and asking God to speak to us through it…
- We’d be a people of prayer—in an ongoing conversation with God about our needs and desires, always listening for God to speak to our hearts so that our desires are in line with his…
- We’d be a people committed to generosity—so grateful for the freedom we now know, because of Jesus’ love for us, that we’d be always giving to others in Jesus’ name in order to share his life-giving love with them…
- We’d be a people always asking ourselves this question: Am I available for Jesus to work in me and through me? We need to be available for God to use us…
Folks, Jesus always taught that placing God first in our lives is an essential component of following him. And the descriptions I just shared with you are a good picture of what that life should look like. So, how are we doing? Are we putting God first in our lives? Or, are we sensing God’s jealousy because of choices we’re currently making in our lives—putting other things ahead of him? Here’s the bottom line:
WHAT GOD WANTS FROM US IS TO SEE HIS LOVE IN ACTION! As we begin to open ourselves up to the plans God has for us, God never hesitates to do really great things through our willingness…
Andy (a pastor) tells a story about his family’s tradition on the opening night of football season at their house. As they gather around the T.V. to watch that first game, they always make sure they pick up some buffalo wings from their favorite haunt to eat during the game. One year, he went to pick up the wings and saw there was an unusually long line at the counter…
As he tells it, it’s a small place, and the guy behind the counter was the only employee. Now, every time he’d been there before this guy had been absolutely amazing at customer service. He was polite and thorough, always asking how your day was going. He was that kind of a guy. He always gets your order right and does it with a smile on his face … but on this visit, it was obvious that this guy was stressed! He was flinging bowls and slamming doors. He was under pressure, and it showed. Finally … he snapped! He just stopped what he was doing, looked at all who were standing in line waiting, and said, “I make fifty-four dollars a day after taxes. Fifty-four dollars a day. Which one of you wants to come back here and do this job for that?”
Silence from the crowd. It was awkward—very awkward. Andy did a quick glance out the front window at the vehicles parked there. It was a pretty sure bet that all who were in line that day made more than fifty-four dollars a day…
“Which one of you is Andy?” the guy asked. Oh no, not good, the pastor thought. Reluctantly, he stepped up. “You ordered online,” the counter guy said. “You’ve paid, and your wings are in the bag on the counter. You can take them and go.” Whew! Andy was relieved and did just that…
But folks, Jesus began to work on Andy’s heart as he left the wing place. “What are you going to do about that whole situation?” he sensed God asking. “Me? Nothing. I’m off duty,” Andy told Jesus (praying, of course). And he sensed Jesus asking him again, “How many times have you thought of complimenting him or telling his supervisor how well he does on his job?” And, truthfully, Andy’d thought about doing that a dozen times … but just never got around to it. “If you really loved him, you’d do more, Andy” was what he sensed Jesus saying to him … and Jesus was right!
The next day Andy called the wing place and found out when this young man was scheduled to work next … and he made a plan. He went on Facebook and told his story and asked all of his friends “Would you love on this guy?” He posted the date, time, and location, asking his friends to put a love flash mob into action. “Go by and tell him ‘I’m praying for you’ or just say ‘hi’—whatever comes to mind,” he suggested. And they did…
ON THAT DAY, many people stopped by to say ‘hi’ to this young wing man. Someone brought him cupcakes. One person took balloons and, another, a grocery store gift card. At the end of the night, a church member went in with his son to eat wings. “How was your day?” he asked the worker. “It was amazing,” he said. “Business is good, and I got cupcakes and balloons—all because a pastor told his story. It was unbelievable! I’d love to thank him.” The church member said, “‘You want his number?”
He called Pastor Andy. They talked. He asked him to pray for him, his wife, and his kids. And the next time they went in for wings, Andy introduced himself … and the guy came out from behind the counter and gave Andy a big hug…
Folks, the Holy Spirit speaks to each and every one of us, and how we choose to respond is so important. God is a jealous God—jealous for us to put him first in our lives. God was jealous for Andy to stop what he was doing and put his love into action. To show God’s love even in a small way … can make a huge difference in the lives of others. When we put God’s plans ahead of our own—when we say ‘yes’ to God—God will move, and amazing things will happen…
This season of Advent … and all of its reminders should help us draw near to God. When we put the Christ of Christmas—Jesus is his name—first in our lives, when we give him the priority and time he deserves, only then can we truly know him and his heart for us—his very best for us…
Have you ever felt disconnected from someone you love? Even in the best of relationships, the best of marriages too, you can come to a point where you feel disconnected. It’s happened to Jane and I over the years; it’s a reality of life. But when we get to a point where we feel more disconnected than we know we should, we generally do something about it. We’ll get away for a weekend—uninterrupted—in order to reconnect. Instead of eating dinner in front of the T.V. all the time, we’ll actually use the dining room table for a meal and conversation—whatever it takes to get reconnected…
Folks, our God is a jealous God. And what that means is this: God loves us so much that he doesn’t want us to get disconnected from him—from his very best for us. He wants the very best relationship with us. Do we need to get reconnected today? The only way to turn that around is to do something about it. So let’s allow this season, and all that it’s about, to turn us toward God. God is jealous, especially when we get disconnected. Let’s let this season help reconnect us, shall we? Let us draw near to God together. Let us put the Christ of Christmas first in our lives … and just see what happens…