“I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children on to the third and fourth the generation of those who hate Me ....” (Exodus 20:5). We will be considering this passage and its continuation over the next few days, looking this morning at the concept of "a jealous God." We find this concept in both here in the Old, and also in the New Testaments. In James 4:4,5 example, after warning that friendship with the world is enmity with God, James says “Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.” The picture both here and in Exodus, is of God as the spouse to His people. God’s jealousy is pure, and reflects His life giving love and passion for each one of us. He created us, knows what's best, and is jealous, zealous both to protect and to provide.
The Bible equates idolatry (trusting in anything but God) and disobedience with hate (verse 5). Idolatry takes us out from under the umbrella of His protection, and is always destructive. God loves us unconditionally, but He is not an enabler, and we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). This verse tells us that reality is designed, so that bad choices produce bad fruit. But when we walk in love, trust and obedience, then we abide under the shelter (protection) of His wings (Psalm 91), and we reap positively what we sow (provision). We learn a lot about God by being parents. When a child is ill, most of us would gladly change places with them. If we love them that much, imagine how much more He loves us. He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 30:3), He dances over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). His steadfast love and faithfulness even in the face of multiple backslidings, is pictured in the book of Hosea. Hosea is told to marry a prostitute, who is unfaithful multiple times. Yet Hosea welcomes her back and pays the price for her deliverance.
This is a picture of God’s love, of our redemption, and of how passionate and jealous He is for us. Now His love is far more passionate than our love for our children, and there is something deeper here that He wants us lean from the Exodus passage. In order to see this, we need to come out of denial and start to see that our iniquities deeply negatively impact our children (we will explore what "visiting" means later). What I think, is that there is no stronger motivation to change, than when we start to see and understand the effect of our unclaimed baggage on our children. Perhaps it is only then, that we will we become willing to do the hard work of the recovery.
Father, Your jealousy is pure. It is not like human jealousy, given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour. Your strong emotions and desires have our very best interests at heart. You are not some Scrooge in the sky wanting to spoil our fun. You want relationship, and like all healthy relationships, they need boundaries. I have come to understand Lord, that Your commandments, like boundaries, are there to keep us safe, and to help us to move towards a life of satisfaction and fulfillment. You are jealous for our safety, for our protection and for us to secure all that You have for us (provision). It is a godly jealousy, and I welcome it Lord in Jesus Name Amen
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